Soup's on!

Wondering what's for dinner tonight? As women, we spend an inordinate amount of time thinking and/or stressing about what's for dinner. The best meals sometimes are made from convenience so check your pantry first and foremost. One common ingredient is tomato soup but it sounds SO boring. We decided to "kick it up a notch" and made tomato soup for dinner to rave reviews. Here's how to make your own homemade soup with what you have on hand....

Ingredients:

Soup base (we used tomato, broth is good too!)
Add-ons (corn, veggies, onion, cheese, sour cream, meat, rice, pasta)
Maybes (flour, milk, bread)
Seasoning (cilantro, paprika, dill, thyme, oregano, cumin, garlic, salt & pepper, creole blend, hot sauce, Worcestershire)

Note: under no circumstances are you to mix all this stuff! The key is to pick a few things you have on hand and follow a theme. Here are some examples:

Corn & Tomato Mexican Bisque

Take your tomato soup and mix in a little milk (for richness) and season with salt, pepper, Worcestershire, oregano, cumin and chili powder. Add canned (drained) or frozen (thawed) corn to soup mixture. Once mixture is hot and bubbly, add a little grated cheese (smoked cheddar is good-pepper or Colby jack or Mexican blend). Stir to incorporate and serve with a dollop of sour cream sprinkled with cilantro.

Creole Stew

Make a roux with butter/oil and flour; once it is peanut butter colored (darker roux), add any type of broth (vegetable, chicken, beef) to make your soup base. Add any leftover meat and previously cooked rice to your base, along with any cooked vegetables you may have (think onions, peppers from your lunch fajitas) and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Spicy Tomato Soup with Cornbread Croutons & Dill Sour Cream

In a little olive oil, cook minced onions until they're translucent. Add tomato soup (the boxed kind is awesome) and season with salt, pepper, thyme, Worcestershire and hot sauce to taste. Chop a fresh tomato and add it to the soup; simmer. Meanwhile cut day-old cornbread into crouton-sized cubes, sprinkle with paprika and toast in the oven or toaster oven. While the soup and croutons are cooking, mix sour cream with dried dill. Serve by ladling soup into a shallow bowl, placing a handful of croutons in the middle and a dollop of dill sour cream on top.

Pasta Fagioli Soup

In a tomato base, add pasta (tortellini works great), meat, legumes and vegetables with Italian seasonings such as oregano, garlic, basil or use a blend plus salt and pepper. Heat through and serve with shredded Parmesan cheese and warm crusty french bread.

These are just a few examples but get creative with leftovers and make your own. If you have questions about what you can mix together, email us at sharleyblog@gmail.com. Until then, enjoy the ease of dinner tonight and plan to get that presentation/sewing chore/organizing job done after the bowls are licked clean.


“Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living. For soup can do more to lift the spirits and stimulate the appetite than any other one dish.” -Louis P. De Gouy, The Soup Book (1949)