EZ Soups

[Nyboy]

I love soup in the winter !! If I go to a restaurant and they have a unusual soup, I have to try it. At home my making soup is opening a can and microwaving. What soups do you make at home that are easy, tasty, and filling?

 

[Carol Dee]

A vegetable beef soup. I use some stew meat, brown it , then toss in all the vegetables from the garden. Let simmer until everything is tender. I make a large pot and have family over or eat for many meals. The usual vegetables I add are Tomato, carrot, potato, green beans and corn. It is more of a stew, thick, with a tomato base.

 

[Nyboy]

Carol that sounds so good

 

[Smart Red]

I, too, love soups -- more so in the winter. I tend to make the easiest soups with whatever I have available. Hamburger soup -- usually with veggies is often made as is chicken soup -- sometimes with noodles, sometimes with rice, and most often with veggies. Leftovers I don't have in the winter. They all become 'planned' ingredients for soup.

One of the easiest and one we like a lot is corn chowder. One potato cut into 1/4 inch (or so) cubes covered with chicken broth and cooked until soft; one can whole corn; one can cream-style corn; with one cup milk and 1/4 stick butter added and warmed just before serving. That's something Nyboy could easily do.

 

[catjac1975]

Roasted vegetable soup last night. I started pureeing soups when my kids were little. My children loved things where they did not recognize all of those yuckie vegetables that they would not eat. Same is true for the husband. He loved the eggplant, onion, sweat potato, celery, chicken stock soup we had last night. I would never tell him he ate a lot of eggplant. I added chicken breast for the meat lover in him. Delicious.

Red I call that hamburger soup that you make, kitchen sink soup. Start with sauteed hamburger add water when browned for broth. Then go to the garden a pick everything that is ripe. Chop and add everything but the kitchen sink. NYB you could probably even do this.

 

[Ridgerunner]

My soup making process is a bit more complicated, but it does result in a very easy Saturday night supper. I’ll try to go step-by-step.

First plant a garden, veggies and herbs. Harvest and store produce as appropriate if you will not be using it fresh.

Hatch chickens eggs and raise them to butchering age. Butcher them, reserving certain parts for the table and certain parts for broth.

Make chicken broth, using reserved chicken parts and appropriate veggies and herbs. Pressure can chicken broth after separating out the parts of chicken meat you find floating in there. This meat is suitable for use in soup but I have other uses for it.

Make seven quarts of soup since that is what my pressure canner will hold. Use the canned chicken broth and appropriate herbs and veggies. There are different recipes available. Pressure can seven quarts of soup.

On Thursday cook one of those chickens that you reserved for the table. Have that for supper, reserving any leftover meat.

Saturday evening debone the reserved leftover meat and open a quart of soup. Heat that up with the deboned meat. Add cheese and crackers and you have a very simple very satisfying Saturday evening meal.

 

[Nyboy]

Cat I never heard of using eggplant in soup !!

 

[catjac1975]

Cat I never heard of using eggplant in soup !!

I chop it up and put it in everything. The soup is called Aubergine. This is the recipe I started with. But I never really follow a recipe. Just read it to get the idea. Oh yea. a lot of tomatoes were in it too.
http://www.food.com/recipe/roasted-eggplant-aubergine-soup-4897

 

[aftermidnight]

If we are having roast chicken or turkey I always make soup starting with the bones but my favorite is making split pea soup when we have a cottage roll. I simmer it covered in water in a large saucepan. Don't throw that water out, let it cool and then soak 1 cup of split peas (I use the green ones) overnight in the fridge. In the morning skim the fat off, add 1/2 a chopped onion. Then grate both 1 large carrot, and the same amount or a bit less of rutabaga (we call it turnip up my way and a stick or two of finely diced celery. Bring to a boil and then down to a simmer until the peas have turned to mush. At this point I usually grate a potato into the pot to help thicken it. In the last 10 minutes I add some fresh thyme leaves (the sprigs I cut are about 3" long), strip the leaves off the stem and add to the soup. When ladled into soup bowls sprinkle a few fresh thyme leaves on the top for garnish. The amounts above can be altered to your own taste but we think the above is really tasty. I usually make tea biscuits to go with it. This is enough for two large bowls and the same amount to freeze for a later date.
I forgot to add just before serving I also add a little diced cottage roll to the soup.
Annette

 

[ninnymary]

Does anyone know how to make an easy broccoli cheddar soup? A friend made it years ago and it was delicious.

Butternut soup is easy to make. Boil butternut that has been cut into cubes. Pureed and use a little water as needed so that the blades of blender turn. Saute onions in dutch oven pot, add butternut, cream, and season with salt and pepper.

Mary