Soup Recipes

I had two requests for soup recipes, so I thought I'd just post them to share with everyone. First, let me tell you that I am a picky soup eater and have tried MANY recipes, but these are the best. I have taken recipes from online, cookbooks or family/friends and "tweaked" them. Second, I am an "eye-ball" cook, meaning that I eye-ball a lot of ingridients and experiment with recipes. So, here are my favorite soup recipes that will hopefully warm your hearts and tummies. =)

Beef Stew

1 1/2 to 2 lb. beef stew meat, cut into cubes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
few dashes of salt
few dashes of pepper pepper
few dashes of Paprika
dash of ground cloves
1 small bag of baby carrots
4 potatoes, quartered (I don't peel mine, extra flavor and vitamins) =)
1 small onion, chopped
1 can of peas
1 can tomato soup
approx. 3 cups of water
2 beef boullion cubes
few dashes of liquid smoke (you can find this in the BBQ sauce/marinade section of your grocery store)

In a saucepan, brown your meat. In crockpot, combine all ingridients and then add meat. Don't cook meat 100% of the way. Allow it to cook in crockpot with the rest of the ingridients to obsorb the flavors. Cook in crockpot for 4 hours on high level.

* Goes great with Jiffy Cornbread.


Bacon Baked Potato Soup

3/4 cup chopped Leek, washed and drined well
4 large garlic cloves, chopped coarse
1 Tbsp. EVOO
One 1/2 lb. russet pre-baked potato
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
3 tbsp. heavy cream
1 1/2 tbsp. minced chives, bacon chopped and sour cream
grated cheddar cheese

In heavy saucepan, cook the leek and the garlic with salt and pepper to taste in the oil over moderately low heat, stirring, until the leek just begins to soften, add the potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces, and the broth and the heavy cream, and simmer the mixture, covered, for about 10 minutes. At this point, you can also add the grated cheddar cheese into the soup. when serving, add a dollop of sour cream on top and in the center of the soup. Garnish with chopped bacon and chives.

*I think I got this from The Food Network, but not 100% sure. I did get it online though.


Chicken Vegetable Soup

One 3 lb. fryer chicken
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
3 cloves of garlic
3 bay leaves
3 chicken boullion cubes
few dashes of salt
few dashes of pepper
1 small bag of baby carrots
3 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 cup Parmesean cheese, grated
1/2 cup heavy cream

Fill large soup pot with water and fryer chicken (don't forget to clean out your chicken before you boil him). Boil until cooked completely. Take chicken out and debone, saving only the good meat. Use the same water you boiled the chicken in and add all other ingridients as well, as your chicken meat, to a crockpot. Cook on high for about 3-4 hours.

*This recipe also goes well with Jiffy Cornbread.
* I originally started this recipe from Paula Dean's Chicken Noodle Soup recipe, but tweaked it a bunch (took out the noodles and some other ingridients). I also cook it a bit differently. You can add egg noodles if you like.


One thing that's so great about soups is that you can freeze your leftovers and use them for another dinner/lunch. Happy soup-making!