Soup - it's the easiest way to warm up your kitchen on a cold day, and to feed yourself and your family in one delicious and healthy bowl. This is good for now and in hard times. Knowing how and being ready is the key!

I HAVE SEVERAL DRY SOUP MIX RECIPES, THE KIND YOU MAKE AND PUT IN A JAR.  IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THESE EMAIL ME AT fruithtspreparednessforum@comcast.net  and I will send you a copy.

Find out how to improve your soups and stews with these helpful tips and suggestions.

Here's How:

Make soup 1 to 2 days in advance to let flavors blend.

Reserve the vegetable cooking water and use in place of plain water to improve soup flavor.

Shin, marrow, neck and oxtail bones are best for stock flavoring.

1. Veal knuckles are best for making jellied stocks.

2. If soup tastes thin or weak, add bouillon cubes or powder as a strengthener.

3. Cold soups dull the tastebuds and usually need more seasonings than hot soup. Taste and adjust before serving.

4. If using beer or wine in the soup, reduce salt slightly.

5. When reducing or boiling down a soup stock, do not add salt until the end.

6. If soup is too salty, add half a peeled raw potato and simmer about 15 minutes to absorb excess salt and then remove potato.

7. 1 teaspoon of sugar or light brown sugar will mellow the acidity of tomato soup.

8. Vegetable cream soups can be thickened by pureeing some of the vegetables with a bit of the liquid.

9. Add herbs at the end to preserve the most flavor.

Tips:

1. As a general rule, 1 quart soup equals 6 first-course servings or 3 to 4 main course servings. Adjust to your family’s needs.

2. Match a light-flavored soup to a rich or spicy main dish and vice versa.

What You Need: soup or stew pot, dutch oven, meat bones for stock vegetables and herbs

Any vegetable will do- potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn peas, onions, zuchinni, turnip, leek etc. Cut them small about an inch or less to become tender quicker.

Making Vegetable Stock

A good vegetable stock is useful in a huge variety of dishes.

Vegetable stock is not only an excellent substitute for chicken stock, but is ideal used in all vegetarian fare. To make 4 cups of vegetable stock we used 2 large onions, 2 medium carrots, 3 stalks of celery, 1 whole bulb of garlic, 10 peppercorns, and a bay leaf.

  1. In order for the stock to take on all of the flavors of the vegetables in it, it will need to simmer for a full hour. Because of the long simmering time, it is in the stock's best interest the vegetables be chopped into large chunks rather than small dice. Cut a peeled and halved onion into large chunks.

2. Celery leaves, especially those on the outside of the bunch, are extremely bitter and should not be added to the stock. Remove and discard these leaves from the celery stalks.

3. Slice the celery into large pieces.

                           

4. Peel and chop the carrots into large pieces. If you would like to preserve more of the carrot's natural nutrients, do not peel it as the nutrients are in the carrot's skin. Instead, scrub the carrot under cold running water, then chop the carrot into large pieces.

5. Break up the whole bulb of garlic into individual cloves. Peel the garlic.There is no need to chop the garlic. A full bulb of garlic is used because garlic is the base flavor in vegetable stock.

6. Once all of your ingredients have been prepared, combine them in a stockpot large enough to contain all of the ingredients (including enough water to cover all of the vegetables).

7. Add aromatics to the vegetable medley. We used peppercorns and a bay leaf. Often people also add herbs or scraps leftover from other dishes. Potato scraps can be added as the starch will help thicken the stock a little. Other common additions are stems from herbs like parsley, thyme, or rosemary. If you are planning on using this stock in an Asian recipe, adding fresh, peeled ginger would be appropriate.

8. Pour water into the stockpot. The vegetables should be immersed in water.

9. Turn the stove to a high temperature, and bring the stock to a quick simmer. Once the water has begun to boil, turn the stove down to low. Allow the vegetables to simmer for an hour. Any longer than an hour and the vegetables will begin to turn mushy and begin to lose all their flavorful vibrance, lending a wilted taste to the stock.

10. Strain your stock while the stock is at its peak (about an hour after it was placed on the stove). Strain your stock through a fine mesh straining device. Cheesecloth placed in a colander would also work well.

11. The stock should be light in color, sweet, and translucent. If you want a darker colored stock, caramelize the onions and carrots before placing them in the stockpot. Alternately, roast the vegetables until caramelized, then add them to the stockpot. Another interesting trick to making a delicious and thick vegetable stock is to use potato water that was strained from mashed potatoes in addition to (or instead of) water.

Make beef or chick broth the same way by simply adding the meat.  You may even decide to serve your wonderful soup right then and there.  Can/bottle the rest for later. 

Cream Soup Base

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter

• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 2 cups milk

• 2 cubes chicken bouillon

• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

Melt butter in a saucepan. Add flour and make a paste. Add milk and bouillon cubes. Cook over low heat until thickened. Add pepper to taste. Add more milk when adding the other soup ingredients, depending on the thickness you desire.

To this base you may add steamed broccoli and American cheese; or chunks of baked potato (peel and all) with American cheese, bacon pieces, and chives; or pureed, stewed tomatoes for a bisque; or leeks that have been cleaned well, steamed, and chopped; or cooked asparagus cut in pieces (if canned asparagus is used, add some of the liquid as well), topped with grated cheese and bacon pieces.

YUMMY!!