I LOVE SOUP! It’s so creative to make soup from scratch, like building something. I love the taste so much I rarely get canned soup anymore.
The thing is: No recipes needed. Just take what miscellaneous vegetables you have in the crisper or in the freezer. Nearly any vegetables will make tasty soup: sweet potato, zucchini, squash, turnip, tomato, carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions, leeks, cabbage, kale, chard, potatoes, rutabaga, celeriac, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, green bean, you name it..
However, the secret for most soups and stews, even many sauces, is to start with what is called Aromatics. An Aromatic is any food item that enhances the flavor or aroma of a dish. Under this definition, Aromatics would include, herbs, spices, vegetables, citrus fruit, wine, and vinegar, anything that helps boost flavor.
However, the term Aromatics also has a more specific definition. When a cook says “Aromatics,” they usually mean a mix of vegetables, herbs and spices added to stock, soup or a sauce, cooked in a bit of fat or oil. These veggie, herbs, and spices gives the dish a foundation, taking it from boring to fantastic.
The Fresh have mirepoix: onion, carrot and celery. The Germans have suppengrun: carrot celeriac (a weird looking root) and leeks.
Celeriac Root
The Spanish have sofrito: onion, garlic and tomatoes. The Italian version is sofritto and might include garlic, parsley, and it might be cooked in butter instead of olive oil. Many Latin American countries often include garlic, bell peppers, tomatoes, paprika, and other ingredients. The Cajun version is onion, celery and green peppers.
I start with Start with a large stew pot. I love my stainless steel Cuisinart Chef’s Classic 12-Quart Stockpot with Cover
For my purpose of making soup or stew, I chop the onion, carrot and celery and garlic, sauté under low heat right in the stew pot, add some herbs or spices. Mainstay spices are bay leaf, thyme, basil. Then if you want some meat or poultry, chop it up and add it. Cook until almost done. Add some other vegetables and add some broth. I usually cheat and buy ready-made boxes of broth, vegetable, beef, or chicken.
Want a creamed soup? Check out this website article: How to Make Homemade Cream of Anything Soup.
How about a yummy Cabbage, Sausage and Potato soup?
I made this tonight and Gary just loved it!
You can copy and paste this to a Word doc and print it.
Start with a lb of ground sweet Italian sausage. If your meat market does not have that, then get the links of sweet Italian sausage and take off the skins
Sauté the sausage in a couple tbs. of olive oil on medium heat until it is in chunks and cooked through (no pink). You don’t want it browned, just cooked. Put on a plate and set aside.
While the meat was cooking, I slices two stalks of leeks, just the white and light green parts. Put in a bowl. Scrub and take off the ends of 3 carrots and dice. (Sometimes recipes say peel the carrots, but I think there are a lot of vitamins in the peel. Just scrub them) Put those in the bowl. Dice up two stalks of celery and add to the bowl.
After you have removed the sausage, you may have to add a little more olive oil. Dump the bowl of vegetables in the pot. Sauté medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You just want to sweat the vegetables, which means gentle heating of vegetables in a little oil or butter, with frequent stirring and turning to ensure that any emitted liquid will evaporate. Sweating usually results in tender, sometimes translucent, pieces.
While that is cooking, slice up a little over half of a head of cabbage. Then chop that up into bite sized pieces. Dice up about 3 cloves of garlic. (I love garlic, so I used 5)
Add that to the pot and sauté for another five minutes, stirring occasionally.
Now add 2 cartons of chicken broth, 32 fl. oz. each. That comes to 8 cups.
Scrub three large russet potatoes and chop with the skin into bite size pieces. (Again, I like the peels for added vitamins.) Add to the pot.
Add 1 tbs of Italian seasoning, and two bay leaves.
Add the cooked sausage.
Stir it all around and simmer with a cover until the potatoes are done. About 15 to 20 minutes.
Take out the bay leaf. Add salt and ground black pepper to taste. Depending on how seasoned your sausage is, feel free to stir in extra tbs. of Italian seasoning if you think it needs some extra flavor.
Add a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. It helps bring out the flavors.
I served this in big bowls with large hunks of a whole wheat round of rosemary and olive oil bread.
Serve warm. Or refrigerate in sealed containers for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.