SOUP - the thread!

[Farmfresh]

My hubby and I have always been soup fans. Just love the stuff!

It seems to be the perfect dish - no matter what the weather. From a homemade beef stew on a snowy day to a spicy pot of chili. From a everything in the garden vegetable to a cool summer gazpacho. Soup makes a great full meal deal or a nice complement to a light salad or sandwich.

I decided it was about time that soup had it's own thread. A place for us to post and share all of those family soup recipes and interesting experiments. Plus it will make it easier to find our favorites again. So let's get going and post away!!

I will start us off with a new soup that I made this last week. It has some ingredients that we usually don't get used in the kitchen which makes it a valuable addition to my Self Sufficient cookbook.

Radish Top Soup (gluten free)

1 BIG mixing bowl of fresh radish leaves with course stems removed
4 potatoes cubed small
1 big fistful green onion tops chopped
1 small onion diced fine
1 big fistful fresh chives
2 cups of good chicken stock
3 cups milk (or cream would be even better!)
4 Tablespoons butter
1 t olive oil
3 T cornstarch
salt/pepper/garlic? to taste
radish thinly sliced for garnish if desired.

****
Thoroughly rinse radish tops. While still damp place them in a stock pot with a lid and turn the heat on medium. There should be enough moisture that the leaves will begin to wilt down and should resemble cooked spinach. Stir from time to time to assist the process.

Thoroughly rinse and chop green onion tops and chives keeping them separate. Chop onion and potatoes as well.

When radish tops are wilted well remove them from the stockpot and put the chicken stock and potatoes in. Bring this up to a slow simmer.

In a separate pan place 1 t olive oil and 1 Tablespoon of the butter. Bring to heat and add diced onion and green onion tops. Saute lightly and then add to soup pot.

Place the radish tops in the food processor with a small dash of the milk and pulse until it resembles a slurry. Add to soup pot.

Melt remaining butter and quickly stir in the cornstarch to make a roux. Add to soup pot. At this point I usually put my soup pot onto a good heat diffuser. This keeps the soup simmering evenly and prevents scorching.

Add milk. Toss in the finely chopped chives. If needed you can add extra broth or water. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The soup is ready when the potatoes are done.

Pretty good dinner from something I used to give to the chickens.

Now your turn to share.

 

[savingdogs]

I'm a big soup maker, but I never use recipes. I clean out the refridgerator making soups!

I make at least two a week and they are a staple of our diet here, we have soup and bread for dinner a lot.

Instead of using a recipe, I have themes. I usually brown some sort of meat for each soup, or use leftover roasts and such or a bone, or a duck leg.

Mexican theme soup would include a can or refried beans and beef stock, a can of chopped green chiles and everything else in the fridge remotely mexicany.

Asian soup would probably be chicken stock base, curry flavor, asian veggies or rice and a couple cans of coconut milk at the end.

I make a potato soup when potatos are cheap and an albondigas soup (meat balls with rice) when I have leftover rice.

I make a barbeque bean soup too and a chicken soup and italian soup.

But I never make the same soup twice as I never have the same leftovers. But the basic method is just like you described for your soup, Farmfresh, you chop and brown the meat or veggies and then add water and simmer till done.

I don't make a clam chowder and would like to learn to make a good chowder, but I'd really like to learn how to can my soups so we could store them longer.

I do buy canned soups, but usually ones that I will use as a "base" for other soups I make, such as the campbell's cheese sause soup and I use the dried onion soup mix sometimes too and add stuff to it.

I also make ramen soup more special by adding veggies, just a small change makes it a lot better. Sugar snap peas especially are good in ramen soup.

 

[Wifezilla]

I am the same way. Someone asked me for a soup recipe once and I just stared at them in confusion

The key to a good soup is starting with a good bone broth.
http://www.westonaprice.org/food-fe...2OiJicm90aHMiO2k6NTtzOjEwOiJib25lIGJyb3RoIjt9

 

[savingdogs]

that is a great link,thanks! I usually buy chicken stock but that makes me want to make my own. Mine has usually come out greasy though and bland.

The other thing I should mention is that in order to eat soup, I have to make my own because canned or restaurant soup is always WAY WAY over my sodium limit for one meal and I would be sick within an hour or so after eating plain "regular" soup, so I have had to make my own for years. Salt is an important ingredient in soup and everyone else in the family adds salt to my soup after I have it made. You cannot make a good soup without salt, it is the most important ingredient. However good soup is usually quite salty.

 

[Lady Henevere]

When DD was little, we used to make "Sunday soup" every week with whatever was at the farmer's market or in the garden that week, eat it for dinner that night, and then eat the leftovers throughout the week. I need to restart that tradition.

I have a great African vegetable soup recipe flavored with cinnamon and tumeric -- I'll post it later when I have time to copy it down.

 

[Farmfresh]

I have always made my own soups, but needing to be gluten free has made it even more important to make my own as well.

... and an albondigas soup (meat balls with rice) when I have leftover rice.

That one sounds really interesting. How do you make it?

 

[savingdogs]

Albondigas is really easy. Here is my best go at a recipe:

Chop up your favorite veggies, carrots, zuchinni, potatos and onions are the traditional ones but whatever works. Nopale cactus is great in it if you have it, and diced green chiles if you have them. I cook all this up in a little butter and then add chicken stock to fill a big pot. Then I take some cooked rice (small bowl) and mix it with a pound of any ground meat, with a good amount of oregano mixed in and sometimes some crunched up stale tortilla chips or a half cup of masa flour and an egg. I make little meat balls and when the soup starts to boil, you drop in the (raw) balls and cook until the meat is done and the veggies are tender but not mushy. I add more mexican spices at the end, and salt. But cumin, red pepper, cayenne, basil, and some tabasco.

Serve with grated cheese or mexican cheese (farmer goat cheese worked great) and some cilantro if you have it. Put a heaping scoop of fresh salsa over the top and serve with tortillas. I've also floated diced green onions on top, floated a dab of sour cream in the middle, or slices of fresh avocado. Whatever I have. The fancier the company the more "sides" I serve it with, and this makes a great dinner served with tamales and beans for a large group, and most all of it can be made up ahead (including the soup).

If you want it to be low fat, I skip off the fat after letting the leftover soup sit in the fridge a day, and I know someone who suggested browning the meatballs ahead of time, but frankly, that isn't the way the little mexican lady taught me so I do it the way she showed me and drop the raw meatballs in the stock water.

 

[valmom]

Ooh, my favorite since meeting my SO is Portuguese kale soup. Her grandmother and her aunt always used to have dueling kale soup recipes, but this is the one we usually use (her grandmother's I think). The "recipe" is a little loose.

Lots and lots of kale- at least a stockpot full of raw, washed, torn leaves.
Beef stock
Linguisa or Chiorizo ( Portuguese pepperoni sort of- a hard sausage sort of thing)
Stew beef
Potatoes
Navy beans (or whatever you have)
Onion
garlic

Make it sort of like any other soup- brown the stew meat and Linguisa with the onions and garlic, add stock, and potatoes and beans. Cook until almost done, then add the kale at the end to cook down. It is fantastic! I will always have a kale garden after discovering this soup.

 

[KevsFarm]

Right now asparagus and Vates blue curl kale rule in my garden. I've been butchering some older soup hens lately.That works out well with my kale.I use onion, garlic, carrots and of course chicken and kale.First i simmer my old hen with some seasoning and make chicken broth,remove cooked hen and pick meat off bones.Saute onions, garlic, carrots in soup pot with a good olive oil, add broth and season to taste.Then add abundant amount of washed, chopped kale and bite size chicken pieces..I like to use small pasta's like anici pepe, orzo or tubetti and serve with fresh grated Italian cheese...I normally would use celery in chicken soup, but use alot of kale instead when its fresh in my garden.I love chicken soup, not much of a beef eater.Even when i make chile i use ground chicken instead of beef.I always have a few hens kicking around anyway that are almost ready for the butcher block, had to butcher 2 egg eating 3 yr. olds today...I like to make a cream of asparugus soup as well.I use the tougher part, after grinding it up in a food processer, then add the tender tips a minute or two before eating.I'm a big soup eater/maker, its so versatile...Love fish and clam chowders.Seafood bisque and such.Having access to fresh caught local seafood is a tasty blessing..

 

[Farmfresh]

Wow these soups sound awesome.

I will HAVE to make that Albondigas for hubby. It sounds like all of the things he likes rolled into one soup!!