Family Foodies

One of the reasons that I love to make soup is because it’s harder to screw up than a lot of other dishes.

As long as you have a few base ingredients such as chicken or beef stock and onions, you can just sort of rummage through your cupboards, refrigerator, and freezer and see what else you can toss in. And when it’s done people will ask you for that wonderfully unique recipe. (Tell them it’s a secret, because you’re not going to bother writing down what you threw in the soup and you usually won’t be able to remember everything.)

Here’s one of the toss-it-in soups that I made on the spur of the moment and that turned out to be good enough to make again. I don’t put amounts here because, frankly, I don’t remember!

Chicken, sausage and bean soup

4 cups chicken bullion
2 cans great northern white beans, drained
Cooked, cubed chicken
Polish sausage, sliced
Chopped garlic
Chopped onion
Chopped celery
Any other veggies you want to throw in there
A touch of basil
A touch of sage

Melt some olive oil and a touch of butter in the bottom of a Dutch oven. Add the garlic, onion and celery. Sauté until the onion starts to become translucent, then pour the bullion in and add all the other ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for at least an hour, but the longer the better.

That one is my favorites. It is seriously tasty. The whole point is, though, that a lot of the time you can make soup out of what you have on hand. Look around and see what you could make soup out of. Don’t worry about whether you’ve ever seen it in a soup before; if it sounds good to you, throw it in! You really should always use the bullion or stock, though, because it’s the base upon which you build.

There’s something wonderful about smelling soup simmering on the stove. Throw a soup together, add some bread and butter, and you have a meal that would make grandma proud!