I often forget how much I love soup until I make some again. When I was growing up, there was almost always fresh soup available at home. My mom liked making healthy soup with lots of veggies, and homemade chicken broth. On the other hand, my dad would put lots of noodles and chicken powder bouillon. He also wouldn’t put much liquid because he knew that the noodles were all I cared about. Now that I have to make my own soup, I am trying to find the right balance between both memories. But, let’s be honest, about 75% of my soup attempts didn’t turn out as perfectly as I hoped them to. I usually don’t put enough liquid or don’t season it right. My soups are usually bland or too spicy, I can’t lie about it. That said, yesterday, I actually made my best soup so far! And although I believe that soup should just be a mix of whatever you have available in your fridge and pantry, I did write down what I used in case any of you would be interested to try it out.
My chunky soup!
Ingredients:
– 5-6 cups of water (add more if you like having a lot of liquid)
– 1/2 onion, chopped
– 1 can of diced tomatoes in sauce
– 1/2 cup of carrots, chopped
– 1/2 cup of celery, chopped
– 1/2 cup of broccoli, chopped
– 1 cup of veggie shells pasta (or any sorts of small noodles)
– 1 tsp of curry powder
– 1 tbsp of chicken bouillon
– Sea salt and pepper, to taste (more salt is always better!)
– Fresh parsley, chopped
What’s next?
1. Slightly brown the onions at the bottom of the medium pot.
2. Add the water, bouillon, tomatoes, carrots, celery, broccoli and pasta, bring to a boil and stir frequently.
3. Add the curry, fresh parsley, salt and pepper. Taste and tweak the spices, if necessary.
4. Keep cooking until the pasta is done.
You might want to consider adding a protein if you want to make this a meal. Chicken, lentils or chick peas would be great in there.
Also, I am not a big fan of broth. I like soup to be mostly veggies and noodles with a little bit of liquid. This is why I mentioned that you can add more water. Just make sure to adjust the seasoning if you add a lot of liquid. You could also use real chicken broth instead of the bouillon but I didn’t have any on hand when I made the soup.
The veggie shells pasta I mentioned in the list of ingredients come from a local store. As I haven’t mentioned this wonderful place yet in a post, I need to take a moment to talk about my love for the Cheese Shop, in Stuarts Draft VA. Although I was fooled to think that it would *only* be a cheese shop, I ended up discovering the mother-load of delicious bulk food. I always come back from there with giant bags of bread flour, oatmeal, pasta, and I also always grab a few ingredients that I have never tried before, just because it’s all so cheap that I have no excuse not to give it a try. And, of course, it is the only place I have found in Virginia where I can buy cheese curds, the necessary ingredient for poutine!! So if you live in Virginia or ever visit the area, do yourself a favor and stop by the Cheese Shop.
Here’s the pasta I used:
And here’s the final result:
The Hungry Quebbie 
1 thought on “Whatever Soup”