Soup Season

I love this time of year when you feel that snap in the crisp air and smell the wood smoke curling from your neighbor’s fireplace, and when the rustling of leaves down a street brings goose bumps. All I can think about in the evening is getting home and curling up with the bf and cooking something simple, warming and satisfying. For me that choice has always been soup. I cannot think of a more perfect meal. You can combine a wide variety of flavors, proteins and vegetables to appease every palette.

I had put up a couple of quarts of homemade turkey stock (loaded with meat) in the freezer a couple weeks back so making turkey soup was the logical choice since I like making soup from ingredients I have on hand.

Directions I took the quart of turkey stock let it thaw in my soup pot then added to it 4cu. chicken bullion, salt and ground pepper and brought it to a very low simmer (more like steeping) for about an hour and a half. I then diced (small) 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery and 1/2 a large yellow onion and sautéed in a cast iron skillet in 1 Tlb. butter and 2 Tlb. olive oil some ground sage and salt and pepper. When the mirepoix (carrots, celery and onions) are not quite tender but the veggies have great color put them in the pot with the turkey stock and bullion and continue to let them simmer until the veggies are almost done. Then to the pot, I add a couple of medium sized handfuls of baby spinach that I have rolled up and ran a knife through once to shred and 1/4 of uncooked pepe di acini pasta. I let the spinach cook down and the pasta cook. Adjust the seasonings how you like.

In closing, I love the versatility of soup. I love the idea that you can take a stock whether vegetable, fruit or protein base and add to it all the things that you love combined with the right seasonings simmer or chill for the time needed and come away with something amazing and unique every time. My grandmothers second husband (Andy) used to do this and called it “garbage soup”. Andy would clean all the leftovers out of the fridge once a week combine everything into a soup pot add some seasoning, salt and pepper and see what happened. It was always fun and always delicious. Enjoy!