Since I couldn't find canned sliced potatoes, I was left to my own devices for filling my cauldron of vegetable beef soup. I had my other chosen ingredients. I did not want to leave out potatoes. But neither did I want to peel and cut up actual potatoes and cook them to the right texture for my soup. So I grabbed the next best thing: frozen hash browns.
I don't make my soup from scratch. What do you think I am, some fancy chef? Nope. I want something that's easy, yet tastes good. I'd like to say that I've perfected my soup, but I can't give you the recipe, because it's a little different every time.
It starts with a packet of dried soup mix. I use Bear Creek Vegetable Beef. The package says all you have to do is add 8 cups of water, whisk in the powdered mix, bring to a boil, and simmer 15 minutes. Huh. That would be some mighty weak soup! Full of liquid! As you know, Farmer H does not like liquid in his soup! Here's a picture of the finished product. I'll tell you below what I added to make it this hearty.
That's not the whole pot of soup. Just what I've put in a saucepan to warm for supper. My giant cauldron provides about 12-14 bowls of soup. We eat it several days until we're tired of it, then into the freezer it goes. Farmer H dips the solids into his bowl. I actually LIKE the "juice," and put crackers in mine. We have it with some garlic toast that I buy frozen. Sometimes I have a slice of cheddar cheese on the side.
Once I get the packet of soup mix simmering, I add my ingredients. This time I used two pounds of browned hamburger. Two cans of diced tomatoes with garlic. Then a can of green beans, two cans of sliced carrots, about a cup of frozen peas, two paper plates of hash browns, and half a serving spoon of minced garlic. I am not a measurer. That's just the solids.
The liquids I put in were Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, steak sauce, Heinz 57, and honey barbecue sauce. I just shook them in until it felt right. Tasted after about five minutes of simmering. Added some ground black pepper, but wish I'd added more. We pepper it as we dip it our bowls.
It is DELICIOUS!
Here are the hash browns I used. Just the generic store brand.
I still have some left over to use in another creation as I get the inspiration. Maybe in a pot pie of some sort later on. Inside the bag, the hash browns look like this:
They're just little diced potato cubes, frozen. Handy to add to other dishes. I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person to add these versatile taters to soup!
Looks yummy! I will sometimes freeze pieces of steak or roast that are left after we eat our fill. I will thaw and chop them and then start building a soup. I like to sweat my onions before adding them to the mix, I don't like crunchy onions in my soup and chili. Then I gather all the leftover veggies from the fridge and decide if they will make good soup. I use beef or vegetable broth and depending on the taste test I might add a buillion cube or two along with a can of tomatoes. Green beans, creamed corn, even leftover mac and cheese might find their way into the pot. It grows quickly, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look around and see if I can find frozen potato cubes here, they'd be mighty handy. We can get frozen chopped onions and other vegetables.
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteAS IF we would have any leftover steak around here! I also sweat my onions for chili, but I don't add them to soup. I had planned to add the leftover roasted vegetables from Thanksgiving, but Farmer H said he would eat those just as vegetables in the future. So I put them in FRIG II's freezer for later.
You lost me at CREAMED CORN! I despise it! I had a terrible experience at a pot luck when somebody told me it was a cheesy casserole of something. First bite, I knew somebody was a dirty, dirty liar! I would never have put even a kernel of creamed corn casserole on my plate!
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River,
I have a bag of frozen broccoli in the freezer that I forgot to add to my leftover Chinese food! I like the frozen peas, because they pop, and are not mushy. As for onions, I prefer to chop one myself as I need it. I think their flavor goes off once they're cut and interact with the air.