Soup making isn’t complicated, and it is a
great simple, frugal, and filling meal, especially if you combine it with
homemade bread (yes, I’ve included an easy homemade bread recipe as well)!
There are some basics to soup making. The most important thing to remember
is to relax and experiment!
Soup is basically a liquid base and
fillers.
Bases:
-Store-bought cans of stock—beef, chicken, vegetable
-Bouillon cubes (make them low salt if you can!)
-Tomato juice/vegetable juice
-The saved juices from that crock-pot chicken that you could put into a
recycled container and shove into the freezer just for this special moment!
-Milk and/or canned evaporated milk—makes great bases to chowders and potato
soups
-Desperate? How about ketchup mixed with water or a bit of leftover pasta
sauce mixed with water?!
Basically, if it’s a savory (although there
are some wonderful summer soups with sweet bases, which is an entirely
different article!), flavorful, liquid, I can and will consider it for a
soup base!
Fillers:
-Almost anything from your fridge! I keep a container in the freezer just
for soup making. I put everything in that can be used for future soup: a few
teaspoons of leftover vegetables from dinner, half a slice of leftover
meatloaf, leftover meat of any kind, the last bit of leftover spaghetti
sauce that I get out of the jar with some water will be poured over the
whole thing as well (it adds to the base flavor), the last ten ziti in the
pasta strainer that no one has room to eat; it all goes into my soup
container in the freezer! Oh, and how about those sad, over-frozen peas
sitting way back in your freezer (don’t ask how I know they work so well!)?
-A mix of canned or frozen vegetables works well too! Just grab a bit out of
each freezer bag or a can of corn, peas, and green beans with some pasta of
some type (even spaghetti, broken into little pieces) added to your base,
and you have quick soup!
-Instant potato flakes help to thicken soups, add flavor, and make them
appear more hearty.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve
cleaned out the fridge and looked at the amassed pile and either decided on
a leftover night (restaurant night in our home, laid out as a buffet!), or
I’ll put it all together into a pot with some type of stock or base and add
a few additional herbs and spices and voila! SOUP!
The only problem with soup making like this
is when it’s a big hit and they want you to make it again! My dad loves my
refrigerator soups and asks for more of it, but I can rarely, if ever,
recreate it. No batch is ever the same twice!
Now, if you add a great loaf of homemade
bread to your dinner, it becomes even more satisfying! I’ll give you a quick
and easy bread recipe!
Beer Bread
Disclaimer here: Do NOT use your
significant other’s most expensive beer for this! Go for the cheapest stuff
you can find! If YOU are the beer connoisseur, let me repeat: do NOT use
some expensive beer for this! GO CHEAP!
3 cups of SELF-RISING flour
3-5 TBS of sugar or molasses
1 12-oz can of beer
Mix together and put into greased, floured
bread pan. Allow to rise for 5-10 minutes. Bake at 325°F for 1 hour. Remove
from pan and wrap in towel (to soften crust) and serve warm! Makes GREAT
toast!
Tammy Paquin is a busy mom of 3 boys, a
dental hygienist and the owner and publisher of
Frugal-Families.com, a website devoted to frugality, budgeting and
helping families stretch every dollar. Visit us for more
money saving recipes.
