Comfort in a bowl: Vegetarian Chorizo Stoup

Vegetarian chorizo. Did you do a double-take? Chorizo? The Spanish pork sausage? But it's supposed to be a vegetarian dish? How can that be?

Enter the Soyorizo - the soy chorizo. Same spicy bold flavors as the real deal just sans the meat! Now, how great is that? We've been minimizing our meat intake and trying to introduce more and more vegetables into our diet so imagine my delight when I found those vege-chorizos at Trader Joe's!
I cooked a one-pot meal for dinner yesterday. Whilst Spring has arrived, the weather here in Northern California has decided that it misses Winter so it had been just a tad dreary and cold the past couple days. This soup stew stoup - I went wild and had just thrown too much stuff into the pot - was truly a comforting meal. There were leftovers and I had some again for lunch today with some pita bread and even though today feels like Spring again (hurrah, the sun's out!), the "stoup" still tasted so, so, so good!

Chorizo one-pot Stoup (recipe serves 2-4)
 Ingredients:
2 chorizo sausages (~ 5"-6" long) - you can use the regular Chorizos but give the soyorizo a try!
1 large yellow onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery hearts, diced
2 carrots, diced
3-4 large roma tomatoes, quartered
1 cup cranberry beans (you can use any beans you like; I just happen to have leftover beans we got from our neighborhood farmer's market), softened in boiling hot water for ~ 7-10 minutes.
1/2 cup diced potatoes or sweet potatoes - for more texture; optional
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
4-5 Thai bird-eye chili, minced - this is very spicy and completely optional; we love spicy food but you can totally omit this.
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
low-sodium chicken broth ~ 5-6 cups, enough to cover all ingredients once they've been placed into the pot; you may also use just water

2-3 stalks scallions, diced for garnish

Directions:
1. Heat olive oil in dutch-oven pot or any heavy-based pot
2. Add chorizo, break into bite-size pieces with a ladle and brown on all sides. Drain oil and remove from heat; set aside.
3. With remaining oil in the pot, cook onions until translucent (~ 3-5 minutes).
4. Add in tomato paste and stir for another 2 - 3 minutes until combined and onions are coated with the paste.
5. Stir in celery, carrots, jalapeno (and Thai chilies if you're using) and garlic. Cook the aromatics for another 5-7 minutes
6. Pour the chorizos back into the pot, give it a good stir then pour in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil then allow to simmer on high heat for another 5- 7 minutes
7. Add the bay leaves, potatoes, blanched beans and tomato wedges. Season with pepper, sugar and salt (which I omitted) to taste
8. Simmer for another ~20-30 minutes.
Plate, then garnish with diced scallions - you can add a dollop of sour cream if you like. Serve with toasted baguette slices or any kind of flat-bread.

Since I had stoup instead of, say, burger for lunch, I rewarded myself with a tiny glass of this - that's the only "bad" thing I ate today (I think).