When it's cold out gotta have that comfort soup

Beef Barley Stew

1 1/2-2 lb. stew meat ( or roast cut into pieces )
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 qt. water
1 can tomato sauce ( 15 oz )
1 can diced tomatoes with their juice
5 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 rib celery, diced
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 bag frozen mixed vegies
1 c. barley ( I used pearl barley )

Brown beef and onion in 2 Tbsp. vegie oil, drain and add remaining ingredients except barley to the kettle. Lid and let simmer for 3-4 hours or longer. Until meat and vegies are tender. Add barley and allow to cook for an additional 1/2 hour.


TACO BEAN SOUP

3 FROZEN chicken breasts
1 envelope ranch dressing mix
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
1 medium onion, diced
1 can rotel tomatoes
1 can black beans
1 can cannelli (or any white) beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can vegetarian baked beans
1 can kernel corn

Put everything in crockpot in order listed.
Do NOT rinse or drain beans.
DO NOT STIR.
Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours.
Take chicken out and shred with two forks.
Put chicken back in, stir, and eat.

Beanless Taco Soup

Sauté 2 lb Hamburger)
With 1 chopped onion
Can of creamed corn
Can of whole kernel corn
2 15 oz cans diced tomatoes and green chilies
1 8oz container sour cream
1 envelope au jus mix
1 envelope original ranch dressing mix.
1 envelope taco seasoning.
1 can vegetable juice (V8 or generic)
2 cups water
heat all to boiling
Reduce heat and let simmer a couple hours to blend flavors
Add one box Macaroni (uncooked) (or precook macaroni and use 3 cups more or less depending on how thick you like your soup. I prefer very thick soup. Cook long enough to soften macaroni then serve.
Shredded Cheddar Cheese on top of servings.

Reuben Chowder

butter softened
3 slices rye bread
1 can condensed nacho cheese soup
1 can condensed mushroom soup
3 cups milk
1 14oz can sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
12 oz deli corned beef, diced
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Butter bread on both sides; cut into cubes. Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes or till browned. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine soups, milk, sauerkraut, and corned beef. Cook and stir over medium heat until heated through. Add cheese; stir until melted. Top with croutons. Makes 8 servings.

I changed it a little by using cheddar cheese soup instead of the nacho cheese due to availability.
I also made toasted Swiss cheese on rye sandwiches to dip into the chowder instead of the rye bread croutons.


Stuffed Cabbage Soup

2 lbs ground beef
2 large onions chopped

(brown together and drain)

in a LARGE pan add

I medium sized head of chopped cabbage
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 14oz size can of beef broth
2 28 oz size cans of tomato sauce (or 1 14 oz size can Tomato paste with 2 28 oz cans of water)
1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
2 28 oz cans of water
Heat to boiling
then add 1 cup of white rice
Salt and Pepper to taste
Cover and simmer about half an hour

I make a lot of different soups in the winter.

Those all sound so good - and so warming. I'm freezing Thanks!

I've made all of the soups above, and the recipe's I posted are my own variations on the original recipes that were given to me. I rarely follow a recipe exactly as written.

I'm pretty much a pinch of this, handful of that kinda cook. I also look at what I'm making with a :[IMG]/confused if it's good this way, it'll be even better if I add this kinda attitude. Usually "my experiments" as Bruce loves to call them turn out quite good. Occasionally they don't. I don't put the not so good ones in my recipe file.

I love rubens so that's why I tried that soup. I usually don't make soups with canned of soup, but this one really is good and it's easy to make, and I'm all for easy.

They all sound good-- but I had to give up meat a couple of years ago. I did find an easy and delicious vegetarian split pea soup recipe though. It's quite hardy-- very filling.
If you were interested, I could pass it along to you. :D

Please do! Thanks!

Cool.
There's a community group on LiveJournal that I belong to called 's0ups_on' A lot of folks from many different places sharing soup recipes-- that is where I found this one:

Ingredients.
a small bag of dried split peas (about two cups)
2 cloves garlic; minced
1 whole onion, diced
2 carrots shredded
2 potatoes diced
8 cups of water
3 vegetable cubes
A tea spoon cumin
a tea spoon sage
a tea spoon thyme
a couple of bay leaves
Instructions:
Just put everything in a large pot and let it shimmer for about two hours, stirring every so often until its the consistency is how you like it.



I've been doing some variations on the recipe myself-- carrot chips, extra potato, adjusting the spice. Often, one fairly normal sized bowl is more than enough for a meal.

Next experiment is to try the Curried sweet potato soup. :D

Here is a recipe that my husband loves, it has no meat, and I suppose if you are really picky the beef broth could be exchanged for vegetable broth. Enjoy.

Hearty Bean Stew

1-1/2 cups chopped onions
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
3 large carrots, chopped
3 celery ribs, chopped
1-1/4 cups beef broth
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 can (16 oz) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans (chickpeas) rinsed and drained
1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. Pepper
In a large saucepan, saute onions and garlic in oil until tender. Add the tomatoes, carrots, celery, broth and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the beans, tomato paste, chili powder and pepper. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Yield: 6 servings

Nutritional analysis: 1-1/3 cups (calculated with reduced sodium broth) equals 314 calories, 4 g fat (trace saturated), 1 mg cholesterol, 708 mg sodium, 57 g carbohydrate, 16 g fiber, 15 g protein.

That looks good, Wolfmom! I'll have to try it!

Denny, if a person is a vegetarian, can they use meat flavor boullion? I have a container of ham soup base that I sometimes use for ham gravey. Or do you not like the flavor of meat? Do you use Tofu or the fake meats ever?

Esther wrote:Denny, if a person is a vegetarian, can they use meat flavor boullion? I have a container of ham soup base that I sometimes use for ham gravey. Or do you not like the flavor of meat? Do you use Tofu or the fake meats ever?

Depends-- I'm not so careful as to reject everything that has chicken broth in it, because I cut meat out for health reasons. I do have friends who are vegetarian for moral reasons, and they wouldn't touch it.
I love meat, particularly a nice medium rare steak-- however it doesn't like me, nor does chicken. Trace amounts of chicken fat (ie broth) don't seem to bother my digestive system too much.

I've used tofu-- it's not bad when cooked right. Fake meat products are getting better all the time-- some of them could (and have) fooled a few meat-eaters. They're usually pretty high in sodium, so I have to watch that as well. :)

I guess what I was thinking was if you wanted the flavor of ham in your split pea soup without the meat, use a boullion type thing but like you said, most of them are terribly high in sodium. So I have learned that when I use them, not to salt first.

Looking at the store brand bullions yesterday, I found that a few actually have no meat byproducts in them, and would work for a vegetarian version-- so I could do Wolfmom's soup with a beef flavor, without actually having beef. Unfortunately, I saw no ham flavorings... but maybe adding a little smoked sea salt next time would give it a similar flavor. I will have to remember to try that. :)