Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Solace of Soup

I make soup a lot. To me, it's the perfect comfort food in cooler weather. Himself told me recently that soup is my "forte"; I'm not sure what that says about my cooking (although I do subject my family to "new" recipes that often fail to rise to my expectations), but I'll take any compliment I can get from him.

Last week, I roasted a chicken in my Romertopf clay baker, which is the best way to roast a chicken, in my opinion. We ate all we wanted for supper one night, and I saved the rest and the juices in a Tupperware container. On Sunday, I dumped the contents in a Dutch oven with enough water to cover and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Then I picked the meat from the bones, discarded said bones, and put the meat back in the pot. I removed some of the broth to freeze for later use. I had some leftover Mexican rice, so I mixed that in the soup pot, along with some medium chunky salsa. I seasoned it a bit with onion, garlic, and sea salt. I let it simmer longer. At suppertime, I served the soup with sliced black olives, chunks of avocado, and shredded Cheddar cheese. Himself added some Tabasco to his bowl for extra kick. It was really scrumptious.

Soup is best homemade with what you have on hand. This means, of course, it's hard to duplicate the results on other occasions, but that's fine by me. But I'm always on the lookout for recipe ideas, so if yuo have any, send them along!

6 comments:

  1. That sounds great. I am the only person at my house who really loves soup. DH thinks more than two times a month is is too often. I really hate that in winter.

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  2. Well, the girls are not huge fans, either! And nothing I make comes close to Grandmother's vegetable soup. Hers was the best. Ever.

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  3. We do soup a lot at our house. In fact the boys love it so much they learned to make some of their own....one loves Chipotle Tabasco at the end. Homemade soup always means homemade bread..

    I enjoyed reading your entry today.

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  4. Absolutely about Grandmother's soup. Nothing can even compare. I have finally managed to make a chicken noodle that my boys will eat. I use orzo pasta and browned hamburger in chicken broth, along with lots of herbs and onion. If I use boullion cubes to make the chicken broth, I add butter. This is the ONLY homemade chicken noodle they will even taste. I know it sounds weird, but I got the idea from a canned soup - Italian Wedding Meatball Soup.

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  5. That is exactly the right way to do soup, Ellen. If you start with a good stock, it's hard to go wrong.

    My MIL calls soup with odds and ends from the fridge "Mustgo" Soup. We've made some doozies together.

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  6. Ellen, I have a weekly ritual of making chicken broth. Thank you for sharing what you put in yours. It will add a little variety to our soup.

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