Potential Soup Recipie

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I was thinking of making a soup with
Chicken Broth
Diced Cabbage
Maybe Spinnage
Diced Carrots
Green Peas
Lima Beans
Chopped Chicken Breast
And seasonings

hmm, any ideas of what to add or subtract?

Trying to come up with a soup to make one day and have last all weak to cut down on the carry out food bill each weak. Alas typical Bachelor Guy who cant just barley cook some things like eggs, grilled-cheese sandwiches, and other simple things. I can do my own laudry, dishes, and cleaning but never really learned to cook alas.

Comments

nice idea

better though forget the meat to start it will not keep. start with a vegetable base only, addd some diced potatoes, and pulses, keep enough out for 2 days at a time and freeze the rest, in portion sized containers, then defreeze as needed,
You can then get some meats to cook and add into it as you make up, add a splash of dark soya and Worchester sauce will give a nice added flvouring, I would suggest meat wise chicken breasts you can dice and beef, also sausages, would become more a good stew.

Matt

Oh and not to forget some good stock cubes for thickening if needed.

In working refrigirator...

You can keep a meat stock based soup for a week. You just need to heat up your daily portion to boiling point and then slow boil it for 5-7 minutes.

If the meat is cooked beforehand

Angharad's picture

it will keep for three days in a fridge and you can add some as necessary each day. You can make soup from virtually anything and it only takes about half an hour, less if you have a pressure cooker. I usually dice any vegetables I have to hand, including potatoes, but beans or lentils are good for thickening too. You can use pasta or noodles and you can have a clear soup by straining, or a chunky soup or a thick smooth soup by using a hand blender. Add a chunk of fresh bread to eat with it and you have a really nourishing and tasty meal.

Angharad

Pre-prepared Meals

More and more when I make soup, stew, chili, pasta, I make three day's worth at a time. It seems to taste better re-heated.

You might consider adding diced celery to your soup.

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Carbs

Throw some rice in there, or maybe noodles - whichever reminds you more of your grandmother.

The spinnach will disappear

The spinnach will disappear into nothing and really add very little to the soup.
Prolonged cooking will turn the peas into Mush.

A good soup base uses
-Onions
-Garlic
-Celery
-Carrots and other root veggies that don't turn to mush when cooked (eg Spuds)

I'd also use Vegetable Stock rather than chicken at this stage.

Armed with a good base you can add other things to make a variety of dishes.

I make Carrot and Corriander Soup and also Onion Soup on a regular basis. There are plenty of recipies online. A good starting point is http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/
There are literally thousands of recipies here for you to use. Some complex, some simple.
I may be making a variation of this at the weekend. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/smoked_haddock_fish_cake_4...

It's a stew not a soup

BarbieLee's picture

Actually you can't go wrong with a stew. It is whatever the cook feels like tossing into the pot. Beans of any kind, even different kinds in the same pot. corn, onion, garlic, pinch of salt, black pepper, touch of Worcestershire sauce, barbeque sauce, chilli in a can or powder,
The bulk for inexpensive ingredients are carrots peeled and diced, potatoes peeled diced.
add your chopped meat whatever you desire at the time, hamburger, stew meat, chicken...

Now comes the best part. Put it in a six qt crock pot, turn it on medium before bedtime. Turn it on high the next morning. Dinner will be waiting for you.

There is no wrong way to make a stew unless one adds too much of the spices and overwhelms the rest. IE diced a whole onion when a half would work. A whole bulb of garlic instead of a clove fine diced. To much chilli or black pepper or salt. The spices are to add to the flavor not take over the pot.

Just you? You'll have dinner and supper fixed for a week a bowl at a time in fridge. And no meat does NOT go bad in the stew after a couple days if it is refrigerated.

Ask me about Cowboy Beans and pan baked cornbread.

Life is meant to be lived, not worn until it is worn out

Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl

Soup from scratch

As a kid I never liked soup. But now as an adult, and completely single (no partner, no kids) I find that soup is a very economical -- and filling -- meal alternative. Also with my food intolerances/allergies, I can't really eat out or use pre-made meals. Not to mention the much higher costs of those. Also, since I am free-lancing, I love to take a portion of soup out of the freezer and have a nice filling meal ready in less than 10 minutes.

So here is my basic "Soup from scratch" recipe guide-line:

  1. I start with a 10 liter soup pot, and start by making a meat broth with soup bones (the leg bones cut in pieces about 4-5cm thick). I usually take about 1.5-1.7kg of beef and 0.6-0.8kg of pork. (I have also replaced pork with chicken. And chicken wings are very cheap.)
  2. I cut the meat into smaller pieces and layer it with herbs in the pot. For seasoning I use: salt, pepper corns, dill, basil, leek, parsley, rosemary, oregano, laurel, peppers (no choping, just as big twigs or pieces). Though you might also like to add onions, garlic and other herbs. (As others have stated, add herbs and spices to your liking. But don't exagerate.)
  3. I cover the meat with about 8-9 liters of water. After bringing it to a boil, I let the pot simmer over low heat for about 4-6 hours. The meat has to let go of the bones.
  4. After the broth has cooled to room temperature, I put the whole pot overnight in the fridge. The next day the fat will have solidified on top and can be scooped off. Then I strain the broth into a separate container in order to get all the herbs and spices out, and separate the meat and bones.
  5. The clear broth goes back into the pot. Personally I don't like bones nor fat in my soup, nor large chunks of meat. So I then separate the meat from the bones, fat and ligaments. And after tearing it up, it goes back into the broth. Then the broth and meat goes back over medium heat until it starts to boil, when I turn the heat down to low.
  6. While the broth heats up, I peel about 2kg potatoes and cut them into cubes of no more than 1cm (they need to be bite sized) to be added to the broth. Then I also add about 1kg of corn, peas and chopped carrots (frozzen) to the broth. Sometimes I also add glass noodles (from rice or beans) to the broth.
  7. After simmering for about 3-4 hours, I add about 250g lentils that have been cooked in a separate pot. (I change the cooking water of the lentils at least once or twice. But don't overcook!) After simmering another hour, I turn off the heat and let the soup cool to room temperature overnight.
  8. The next day, I reheat the soup again for about 1-2 hours for an even richer flavor. For the last 15 minutes I add finelly choped green herbs (dill, leek, parsely) for that extra herby flavor.
  9. Now I usually have 2-3 bowls of hot soup with a good dab of [sour] cream, while the whole pot with almost 10 liters of soup cools off to room temperature.
  10. After the soup has cooled of, I laddle it into square tupperware containers for freezing. One pot will render between 20 and 25 portions, depending on how full I make the containers and how many bowls of fresh soup I ate.

So when I am hungry, I will just dump one portion of soup into a bowl and reheat it in the microwave, stirring occasionally to break up the frozen soup and get it to heat up evenly. Once hot, I add a good blob of [sour] cream (this adds some more liquid), stir and nuke for another minute. And ... Bon Appetite!

So yes, it takes me between 48 and 36 hours from start to finish for one pot of soup. But then I have a good cuantity of nice, filling meals for the next 2-3 months (in the winter less, in the summer more).

Since there is very little difference of time and effort between cooking 1 portion and cooking 10 portions, I usually cook larger cuantities of food and freeze the "left overs" in portions for quick reheating in the microwave.

Isn't it a bit complicated?

I think I can follow your recipe... If someone will pay me 50$ per hour...
But on the other hand, look up recipes for Armenian khash soup... It is extremely labor intensive, you need to consume copious amounts of chacha or vodka to wash it down... I failed it when I tried to eat it :-)

Not really complicated

It is not actually complicated. The most labor intensive part is the picking apart of the cooked meat. For me it is more a labor of love, since I love myself. And this is the way I like my soup. ;-)

If you don't mind having bigger chunks or fatty tissue in your meat, just pick out the bones and go to then next step. The same for the diced potatoes. Even though it takes up to 36 hours from start to finish, the actuall work time involved is about an hour and a half, not including the ocasional stirring of the pot and sampling for quality control.

For my taste, reheating at least 2-3 times just gives a more full-bodied flavor. YMMV. Feel free to vary and experiment! That is the most fun in the whole cooking experience. Just remember, for a really good soup, you need a good stock broth to start with.

I am sorry, but it sounds as poison...

Look up recipes for "Russian soup". Russia is famous for the variety of soups you can cook from nothing. Like very basic potatos, carrots, cabbage and any kind of meat will give you dozen recipes. Add beetroot and there are doxen more recipes. Add capers, marinated cucumber, sausage, hot dog pieces, olives, any other coocked meats - you have my favorite "sbornaya solyanka".
On the other hand... My favorite self cooked "bachelor/ette" meal is: nuke 2 frozen sliced hot dogs for 2 minutes, add 1 can of Heinz beans in tomato sauce, nuke for 1.5 minutes, add a dash of Tabasco. Stir.
Serve with rare filet mignion steak.
Just kidding :-) If I have filet mignion steak I don't bother with hot dogs and beans :-)

If we are doing 'Soup Master chef' ...

persephone's picture

or in the US "Top chef"

  • add lentils, chick peas and a clove of crushed garlic,
  • lose the spinach,
  • reconsider the cabbage,
  • serve with large cheesy croutons.

:)

Persephone

Non sum qualis eram

Start personalising

You got it! Take a "basic" recipe and start personalising it. Add stuff you like, and delete stuff you don't care about.

Get a Crockpot(TM)

They are great, brown the meat, and toss everything into the crockpot and let it cook all day. For the soup add potatoes, onions, celery, (whatever veggies you like.)

Then you can use it to make things like Chili (brown 1 lb of ground beef (chicken, turkey, whatever), add cans of crushed tomatoes, and diced tomatoes (1 big can or two medium cans of each) some chili powder, onions, garlic powder.

Switch for spaghetti, swap out the chili powder for oregano, and basil. Add noodles for the last bit until they are cooked.

Then experiment. Recipes can be found online.