Posts Tagged ‘soup’

The Best Minnestrone Soup

Friday, October 26th, 2012

minestrone-soup

My friend Carla from church came over several years ago to help me do Once-a-Month Cooking. She and I were in my kitchen for five hours, cooking and freezing enough food for a month. It was wonderful not to have to cook from day to day.

This minnestrone soup has been requested by many people and is perhaps her best recipe. She did not give me exact amounts, so years later I have attempted to list the exact proportions of each ingredient. I would take out the 1 1/2 cups of sliced carrots because unless you make it at the beginning of the day, the carrots will still be crunchy when you serve it. (I made this soup recently four hours before dinner, and it tasted delicious except for the crunchy carrots. So skip the carrots if you are not letting the soup simmer the entire day.)

  • 1 pound of ground beef
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • a teaspoon of crushed garlic
  • Italian seasoning to taste
  • 16-oz. can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 green bell pepper, chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups peeled and sliced carrots
  • 3 beef bullion cubes dissolved in 4 cups of hot water
  • 3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 16-oz. cans of kidney beans, not drained
  • 1 can of corn, drained
  • 1 can of green beans, drained

My friend threw the onion, garlic, and at least a tablespoon of Italian seasoning into some olive oil in a pan on the stove. We caramelized the onions for about two minutes before adding the ground beef. (I always cook the ground beef and onion together, so this step seemed strange to me. But she definitely knew what she was doing because her soup was so darned good.) After browning the ground beef in the onions and garlic, we dumped the contents of the pan into an enormous crock pot. (The pot has to be enormous, or the contents won’t fit. You could always simmer it on low on your stove in a large pot if your crock pot is not big enough.) Dump all the ingredients into the pot except for the green beans. Add the green beans during the last half hour. At the end of the day, your house will smell delicious. This soup is enjoyed best with freshly baked bread.

Invent a Soup

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

invent-a-soup

One of the Boredom Busters that I made up for my kids to do was to invent a soup. My son Stephen decided to take this challenge. I told him to use water and beef bullion cubes to start off, and that he could add whatever food or spices he wanted to the crock pot. He began by writing a list of ingredients on a piece of paper, to take to the grocery store. This is what he wrote:

  • 6 carrots
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ¼ teaspoon of salt
  • pepper
  • tomato sauce (16 oz can + 1 can of water)
  • ½ cup of chopped green bell pepper
  • 1 teaspoon of parsley
  • ½ cup of chopped celery
  • garlic powder
  • 3 beef bullion cubes dissolved in 3 cups of water

He threw all these things into a crock pot and let them cook for at least an hour. When he served dinner to the family, my husband and I were surprised and shocked to discover that the soup was delicious. One of my other sons said, “This is better than your soup, Mom!”

What to Eat with Tomato Soup

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

what-to-eat-with-tomato-soupIf you are wondering what to eat with tomato soup, you have come to the right place. A super easy meal that even a child can make is tomato soup. Choose your favorite soup from a can, and your child can dump the contents into the pot and stir it. To serve with the soup, Saltine crackers are an obvious choice. Freshly baked bread is another idea.

At the boarding school I attended when I was a girl, they also served cheese slices and popcorn, of all things. The popcorn tastes great in the soup, if you fish it out immediately after it shrinks in the soup. My daughter laughed the first time she saw the popcorn shrivelling in her soup!

what-to-eat-with-tomato-soup2Well, a few months ago I discovered another side dish or “accessory” for tomato soup: cheese crackers. Oh, yum!

To sum up, then, you need to get these yummy things to dunk into your soup:

  • Saltine crackers
  • freshly baked bread
  • cheese slices (try different kinds of cheese)
  • popcorn
  • cheese crackers

My kids had a ball dunking these things into their steaming tomato soup. All of it was gobbled up, which is a delight to any mother. My children had no problem wondering what to eat with tomato soup, since there were so many choices available!