Friday, February 22, 2008

Favorite Soup Recipes...

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I've got a lot of favorite recipes, so I am breaking them down to breads, soups, beef, chicken and fish. (Although we don't eat much beef, it tends to be expensive and I had a nasty reaction one month to eating it.)

Remember that soups are a great way to use up wilting veggies. That may sound gross, but come on, you are going to soften them anyway.

Anyway, here are a few of our favorite soups that we make often and they are frugal!

Lentil-Veggie Soup - Obtained from The Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes by BHG
This is a crock-pot recipe, which is great, saves time too. Easily doubled. Great with a homemade crusty bread and butter.

1C dry lentils
1C chopped onions
1C chopped celery
1C chopped carrots
2 cloves garlic, minced
.5 tsp dried basil
.5 tsp dried oregano
.5 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
2 14oz cans of vegetable or chicken broth (3.5 C) (I buy the bouillon, or use my homemade, the stuff in a box or a can is expensive)
1.5C water
1 14.5oz can italian-style stewed tomatoes (or just diced, stewed, crushed, whole chopped, whatever you have on hand)
.25c snipped fresh parsley (I've never used the fresh, just used dried added with the other dried herbs)

1.Place everything in a crock-pot. Stir. Cook on low for 12 hours or high for 5-6. Discard bay leaf. Stir in parsley if using fresh.

Turkey Soup- Obtained from Miserly Meals by Jonni McCoy
This is an awesome and fresh way to use up leftover turkey. I really liked this recipe. This is great with a nice green salad and biscuits.

turkey leg or part of carcass (this is nasty to me, so I skip the bones and just do the rest of the soup. This can make it greasy, IMO.)
6c water
1c chopped, cubed turkey
.5c chopped carrots
.25c chopped celery
.25c chopped onion
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 T italian seasoning
15oz can stewed tomatoes (again, diced, crushed, whole tomatoes chopped will do here)
1c uncooked rice
1tsp pepper
3tbsp chicken boulion, more or less to taste

Place the carcass with water in a large pan. Add the remaining ingredients and place over medium-low heat. let simmer uncovered for 1 hour.
When it is done, remove the carcass and pull off as much meat as you can, adding it back into the soup. Discard carcass.

Potato Soup
I have been making this recipe for eons. It is a lower fat recipe and I take it to the sick and those who need uplifting. It is a good soup that is easy to eat, easy on the stomach, but filling.

3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 large carrots, sliced
2 large celery, sliced
1 large onion
6tbsp butter/margarine
6tbsp flour
salt
pepper
3tbsp chicken boullion
1c milk
2 pieces cooked bacon, crushed (can be pork or turkey)

Place the potatoes, carrots, celery and chicken boullion in a large pot. Cover with lots of water. Bring to a boil and simmer till veggies are done. Take a large bowl and place a strainer in the bowl. Pour contents of pot in strainer/bowl combo. You need to save the boil water.

Place butter in same pot, melt and saute onion till soft, keep the heat low. Then over medium heat add flour and stir till combined. Add milk all at once, salt and pepper to taste and stir till bubbly, not long. Add veggies, stir to coat and then add as much of the reserved water till desired consistency. You will need to serve this immediately, or keep adding water. The longer it sits, the thicker it gets. Just before serving add the crushed bacon. This adds that nice little touch.

There you have it. Our fave soups. Please let me know if you try any of these. I've got so many more soups that are vegetarian that are wonderful!!

2 comments:

Chelsea Rae said...

Hey Kathryn!! Homemade pitas are probably the coolest thing ever, now I think I am going to have to make more and make hummus to go with them!

For mine I used all white flour, I am out of whole wheat at the moment. All I did was follow Tammy's recipe exactly, the reason they puffed up into balls like that I think is because my oven was set at 500F, I have never set my oven that high before! If you go to Tammy's site there is a link to a whole wheat pita recipe in the recipe for white pitas. It has 1/3c of gluten in it, maybe that is why yours come out flat? If you try them let me know, I have never bought gluten but I will if it means I can make whole wheat pitas!!

Chelsea Rae said...

...lol sorry that was so long! I didn't intend to write a book ;)