Great vegetarian recipe and perfect for cold weather! I used nine cups of water with four teaspoons of Better than Bouillon vegetable base plus my go-to for making a dish just a little bit spicy (sweet chile sauce) instead of the cayenne and chili powder. My wife likes things spicier so she added Sriracha sauce on her own.

This recipe is very tasty! I cut the water back to about a quart and a cup which made for a great consistency but a VERY hot soup. And I had already cut the Cayenne pepper in half! I will reduce the amount of spice heat a lot more next time. And the garnish adds so much. Don't skip it!

Delicious recipe. I replaced water with veg broth and used 1/2 the amount. This is a soup, not a stew. It's full of wonderful and unique flavors. Will definitely make this again!

Agree with the other reviewers; 5-6 cups of liquid instead of the 12 recommended is probably the way to go. This brought about a soupy consistency with a lot of vegetables but not the stew-like consistency represented in the photograph. For that you would probably only use 3-4 cups of liquid. If you make it this way, it is a mighty tasty and flavorful soup and I will make it again!

Really wish I would've checked the online reviews before making this. I too left out some water initially and still it's super watery. I'm also a big fan of spicy foods but this recipe turned out to be a large pot of tasteless heartburn in my opinion.

DEFINITELY too much water! I just may have saved mine: I thought 3 quarts sounded like an extreme amount of water (for 6 servings too!), and wasn't even able to add the entire amount as the pot would have overflowed, but didn't think to check here until after i added it. I have removed most of the water, but that took half the seasonings/wine with it. We shall see what I can do to fix the flavor. I am generally very happy with recipes from Whole Living-this is a pretty big measuring mistake...

Dreadfully watery. I agree with the other reviewer that the recipe should call for 3 cups of water, not 3 quarts. Between a special trip to the grocery store (does anyone keep poblano peppers and fennel on hand?) and the chopping and roasting I've wasted a lot of time on a dish that can't be saved.

I wonder if the directions should be 3 cups of water rather than 3 quarts. It turned out quite soupy wher was the photo looks more like a stew. The flavor was good but seemed to have too much liquid to vegetable ratio and I did not add 3 quarts of water, more like 2. A bit disappointing.