Soups I Created Much to My Own Amazement

I am not a chef. I’m not even a good cook. However, these soups have received rave reviews from the people who have eaten them. Some suggested the sweet versions could be used as a dessert and could be served with vanilla ice cream!

Hints:

1. These pumpkin or broth soups can be as think or as thick as you want them to be, simply by what amount of liquids you choose to add to the sweet ones and whether you add instant potatoes or a gravy to the savory ones.
2. These soups may be strictly vegetarian – or not – depending on your choices about whether to add broths, chicken, fish, or other meats and if you choose to add rice or other kinds of pasta.
3. When serving, instead of using typical white crackers, serve with oyster crackers, Ritz crackers, cornbread, or various flavors of croutons to make things special.

Soups With A Pumpkin Base

I’m going to share two basic recipes which can be made into a sweet, a savory, or a sweet and savory soup. It all depends on which ingredients and spices you choose to use or to omit.

First, I’ll list the ingredients for sweet, then for savory.

These soups may be made in a soup pot or in a slow cooker.

You can use fresh ingredients or canned ingredients, as well as leftovers.

You can double the ingredients to make enough soup to freeze for a cold winter or rainy day.

Sweet Pumpkin and Apple Pie Soups

Basic ingredients to be mixed together and heated

• 1 29 oz. can pumpkin or pumpkin pie filling
• 1 12 oz. can of evaporated or condensed milk
• (When I doubled the recipe, I used one can of evaporated milk and an equivalent amount of eggnog for a sweet soup.)
• 1 medium can of apple pie filling
• 1 cup of walnuts, or pecans, or those mixed nuts and dried fruit combos found in the fruit and vegetable sections of most grocery stores
• You can add 1 cup of raisins, or blueberries, or cherries, etc.
• You can add minced or thinly-sliced red onion, if you wish.
• Splash of lemon-flavored olive oil

Optional Spices To Be  Added in the Amounts You Like for Soups

• salt and pepper
• pumpkin pie spice
• ginger
• nutmeg
• cinnamon
• vanilla
• lemon

Savory Pumpkin Bean Olive Cocoanut Curry Soups

Again, add or omit any ingredient you want. Experiment! Play with it!

• 1 29 oz. can pumpkin
• 1 12 oz. can of evaporated or condensed milk
• (When I doubled the recipe, I used one can of evaporated milk and an equivalent amount of whole milk for a savory soup.)
• Chopped, sauteed minced onions, garlic, chopped mushrooms to taste
• 1 can black olives
• 1 regular can red kidney beans (or white beans, or whatever….)
• 1 cup chopped celery
• Minced or thinly sliced red onion (to taste)
• 1 cup nuts mixture
• 1 handful baby carrots
• 1 small carton blueberries (truly optional, but you could use raisins, cherries, cranberries, etc.)
• 1/3 cup Cocoanut liqueur (This would be a great additon to the sweet soup, too.)
• 1/3 cup lemon or garlic olive oil

Optional Spices To Be  Added in the Amounts You Like for Soups

• Basil, Parmesan, Tuscany, Morrocan, or other flavored salts
• Black pepper (ground)
• Curry powder
• Turmeric
• Marsala
• Dill
• Garlic powder (if you did not use real garlic, or if you want more garlic flavor)
• Minced onion

Soups With a Mixed Vegetable and Broth Base

These soups all begin with an organic broth. Most grocery and “big box” stores now carry organic broth in the soup section.

I usually choose a chicken broth, but you can use beef, fish, or purely vegetable broths. Sometimes, I add meat. For example, I may buy a freshly barbecued chicken from a deli and cut it into pieces for the soups. Other times, I make concoctions solely from vegetables. They can be thickened naturally and so easily with instant potatoes, which are condensed potato flakes in a little package. Contrary to popular belief, these are real potatoes and can be organic.

Basic Soups With a Broth Base

• 2 cartons broth
• I large package of kale (First, I cook the kale in the broth, so it will shrink greatly and make room for the other veggies.)
• potatoes (small and multi-colored just for fun and to make things prettier)
• carrots
• broccoli florets
• (You can get a package of veggies already prepared for stews and just dump them in)
• Recently, I made one with sliced leeks, and it was fantastic!)
• Minced onions
• Minced garlic
• Chopped mushrooms
• Chopped celery
• (Note: you can saute the onions, garlic, leeks, and mushrooms in a separate pan while the kale is being cooked. Saute in Virgin Olive Oil or flavored (lemon, garlic, etc. Virgin Olive Oil.)

Optional Spices To Be  Added in the Amounts You Like for Soups

• salts (Himalayan, Morrocan, Mesquite, Tuscany, Bacon-flavored, Mesquite, Teriyaki, etc.)
• black pepper
• garlic
• turmeric
• nutmeg

The kinds of spices you use make all the difference in changing the ways the soups taste and can make them VERY interesting.

What’s the Point of All These Soups?

There are several points.

1. These soups are super healthy, especially if you can use fresh ingredients.
2. The soups are easy to make, especially if you need to save time by using the canned versions of ingredients.
3. The soups let you be creative.
4. They let you use leftovers.
5. They let you hide certain veggies from your kids, who will love the soup and maybe never know what all is in there.
6. They can be made in advance and frozen for months.
7. Many can be eaten cold or warm.
8. When you don’t feel like cooking, or when you have unexpected mouths to feed, just grab them from the freezer, let them thaw, and voila! You have dinner.
9. You can use them as stand-alone meals, or add them to a menu of meats, or salads, or pasta. They are filling.
10. You can use the same base and make each batch taste entirely different by switching either the spices or some of the fruits and vegetables you include.

I hope you try some of these and let me know how they turned out!

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