It's starting to cool down, finally. Here in the central valley of California we are experiencing 70 degree highs and 40 degree lows. For us, that is fall weather. My friend in Oregon said their highs are our lows so they're already in the 30's at night. Brrrrr.
The good thing about the cooling temperatures is that it's time to make soup. Too many people rely on canned soup when homemade is so easy and so much better. If you're a gardener like me, soup is a God send. You can put almost anything in soup and it will taste good, especially if you use lots of herbs and seasonings. The greatest soup failure is that it can be too bland.
Yesterday morning I woke up and decided to make soup for dinner. My husband and I were planning to work in the garden all afternoon and soup sounded so good. Time to raid the freezer. I pulled out some beef chunks that I had previously cut from a chuck roast, a bag of tomatoes, some green beans and corn, some frozen greens. In other words, some of those vegetables I had frozen through the summer.
When we came in from the garden, I brought in some potatoes and carrots. Things were beginning to thaw out and I was ready to start cooking. It turned out that the beef I thought was pre-cooked was raw, so I quickly changed my plans. Stewing beef (chuck or round steak) needs to cook for awhile to get tender and I wanted soup within an hour. If you are in a hurry for soup, use sausage or ground beef. I have used polish sausage or kielbasa in the past, but I had some good German Sausage. (See previous post about my trip with my mother.) The sausage was in casings, but I squeezed it out and made little chunks in a little olive oil in the bottom of my soup pot. After browning the sausage, I added onion and sauteed until transparent. I added a quart of frozen ham stock and then I added potatoes, freshly pulled carrots, frozen greens which included lambs quarters aka weeds, and some shredded zucchini. I salted and peppered and added some cayenne pepper. While the soup simmered, I took my shower and by the time I got out supper was done. I didn't use a recipe and it turned out to be very tasty.
So what did I do with the beef? Well that's the soup I made today. I browned the beef in a little olive oil. I added some onion and garlic and sauteed until the onion was translucent. I added about 2 T of flour and stirred it all up. Then I added about 2 cups of water and about a quart of frozen tomatoes. I threw in a half cup of barley, about 3 medium potatoes, about a cup of carrots, some frozen green beans and corn. For seasoning I put in some salt, pepper, dry mustard, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, horseradish sauce, thyme and bay leaf. In other words, whatever you have on hand that you think will taste good together. I added another 2 cups of water (enough to fill up the pot which holds about 1 gallon). Now as I'm typing this, dinner is simmering on the stove.
My point is you can make soup out of just about anything you have on hand. It doesn't require an exact recipe and will usually turn out pretty good. Just think of the things you might eat together and throw it all in a pot with some liquid. It's great for leftover vegetables or meat. I like the fact that all those vegetables from my garden are being consumed with all the vitamins and minerals intact and not being washed away down the drain. You can also create these great soups in the crockpot and come home from your busy day to a home cooked meal.
I would like to say that Thyme is an essential for soup. My mother told me how her mother always added Thyme to her soups and as I've been studying herbs I found out that Thyme enhances the properties of other herbs it is used with. It seems it works on flavors as well. You may not have room for a garden, but it's easy to grow a few herbs in a pot. Thyme doesn't take up much space and a little goes a long way. I also like to use bay leaf; especially in beef based soups. I'm lucky because I bought my mother a 4 inch bay plant years ago and now she has a TREE! All the bay leaf I can use.
Next time you can't think of something to fix, make soup.
