Soup, Simple, Satisfying
soup, simple, satisfying
I can divide my life into three distinct soup periods. The first is the soups of my youth, the rich, long cooking soups my grandmothers and my father made. The second, the soups of bachelorhood, and my first marriage, heated, out of a can, some, such as tomato, were bearable, the others well, why bother; then, the third and present stage, a resurgence in appreciation of soup and the many possibilities that this simple yet extremely satisfying food has to offer.
Stock is key; once you are able to make a good soup stock whether it is meat, chicken, fish or vegetable you are well on your way to making a great bowl of soup. Soup can be a great first dish or a complete meal. It all depends upon what you put in the stock.
Tonight we had a lentil soup with a bit of wild rice tossed in during the last 40 minutes of cooking. This soup I made in my stainless steel soup pot rather than in the slow cooker. It was time for a change; over the past few years I have used the slow cooker for soups and stews and it is an excellent way to make these meals, especially if you are busy.
However, I have this great stainless steel cookware set now and just had to make soup in the soup pot.
One of the many beauties of soup is not only is it tasty and nourishing, you can make it from just about any real food you have on hand.
For a vegetable stock I use cabbage, onions, carrots and a clove of garlic or two; usually the vegetables are nearing the end of their edible stage and in a few days would be heading for the compost bin. By using them to make soup, not only do I get an extra meal out of them but I cans till toss what is left into the compost.
Now soup is also a great way to put broccoli stalks, the ends of celery and otehher items we usually do not eat, to use, prior to adding them to the compost.
As an aside, the compost is placed on the garden where I grow the vegetables we eat and use to make soup, round and round it goes. You just gotta like that.
Back to soup, if you have the stock, then you can follow a recipe and make a particular type of soup, beef-vegetable, chicken noodle and so much more, or you can get creative and let your imagination aid your preparation.
Ah, soup so simple, and satisfying
Making chicken soup stock
- How to Make a Vegetable Soup Stock
Humans have been heating water to cook foods, since we discovered fire.. However, the cooking technique of boiling was not commonly-used until the invention of waterproof and heatproof containers which took...