Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: All Veggie Soup

Since it snowed today, and today being the 12th of March, I decided to make some soup. It's an all-veggie recipe. 

Ingredients
1 yellow onion cut in eighths
stems of "baby bella" mushrooms 
2 carrots, cut into one-inch pieces
4 whole garlic cloves
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Chopped up stems of broccoli from a couple of bunches of fresh broccoli
1/2 of a white onion, rough chop
decent bunch of green-leaf lettuce, rough chop
2 bay leaves
Healthy smudge of bouquet garni
4 carrots, peeled and cut into thin medallions
1/2 of a white onion, finely chopped
1 bunch of kale, de-stemmed and chopped
1 bunch of broccoli florets 
package of baby bella mushrooms, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Process
To make the stock, I heated vegetable oil in a skillet on medium-high. I put the cut-up yellow onion, mushroom stems, and two carrots into the oil and browned it all for roughly eight minutes. Then I placed the garlic cloves in and cooked them for about four minutes. 

Transfer all of that to a stock pot and add in the broccoli stems, rough-chop onion, green-leaf lettuce, bay leaves, and bouquet garni. Cover with water, bring to a boil, and simmer for an hour and a half till it's about reduced by a third or a half. 

Strain the broth, transfer it back to the stock pot, and add in the carrots and finely chopped onion. Simmer for ten minutes. Add the kale and broccoli florets. Simmer for fifteen minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms and simmer for five minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.