About Soup...

So, about soup. As you've probably heard me complain  explain we like to stay on a pretty tight food budget. Part of being held to a super tight food budget is using every damn scrap of vegetable that comes into your house. Now, granted I am not perfect, but I was shocked by a statistic I read recently about how much food we throw away.

Don't throw it away, make soup!

Besides saving money, soup is a great way to get lots of veggies in a small punch. I grew up drinking a lot of soup - especially in the heat of summer. For some reason, hot soup on a hot day just cools you down.

As a busy mom, I try to make on the "weekends" a pot of soup, a quick bread (banana bread, scones, muffins) and one reheat-able dinner (breaded chicken, sweet and sour pork, meatballs) to see us through the busy days. There is also prep for dinners during the week but it is these three things that if I know are sitting in the fridge when I get home I can pull dinner together.

Now, I know what you are thinking that why make soup when you can buy a can of it for 99 cents or less? First, those cans are usually full of crappy nastiness like mega doses of sodium and high fructose corn syrup (and many of its sibling corn products). Second, that doesn't solve the question of what to do with what is in your fridge.

If I've posted about this before in the past, I apologize for the repeat. Also - I'm still working on food photography, so bear with me. :-)

Grab whatever you've got in the fridge, today I had a leek, half an onion and a handful of carrots. I also had a celery stalk not shown.

In a pot with olive oil I defrost and cook up a sofrito cube. I've added chopped bacon here in previous versions, but I didn't have any today.

 You can see an early version of my sofrito project here. It really is helpful to have on hand, for so many types of dishes, though you don't need it.

I would love to make my own stock but in a pinch store bought will have to do. Basically any style tomato product will do here.

Once your chopped base is cooked up go ahead and add your stock and tomatoes, along with one can of water. Bring to a boil then simmer.

While that is simmering I head to the garden and pick whatever I've got. It's still early, so the only things are my bay leaf tree and sage. You can get really fancy here with the herbs. The only think is with basil I would add that in the end not here.

I've added my herbs along with whatever I'm feeling in the pantry. Today I was feeling like a posh Emily, so I added some saffron.

While that simmers I prep my veggies. Today I've only got mushrooms and broccoli, but really sky's limit here. Kale, cabbage, soybeans, zuchs (and how zuchs!) squash you name it, chop it up and throw it in.

Once the veggies are in and have had a good go, I add the final layer, which can range from potatoes cubes to rice to any can of beans in the pantry. Today I decided to finish off some spaghetti I had. At this point, on low on the back of the stove this can simmer for hours. Same goes for crock pot.

Yay! Homemade soup!