Name your favorite soup!

[DeniseGoldberg]

I don't use canned soup either. What I do is make a big pot of soup and then freeze it in individual serving size containers. With some yogurt or cottage cheese, I usually have lunch for many days to come.

My favorite soup has a red lentil base:

• 1 onion chopped
• a little bit of oil for cooking the onion...
• 1 pound split red lentils (usually purchased at Whole Foods, also easily found at Wild Oats, never in the "regular" grocery store because I've never seen them there...)
• 7 to 8 cups water / vegetable stock
• spices to taste - I usually use some cumin, dried chili peppers, garlic
• 1 pound tofu, cut into cubes

And then I throw in whatever vegetables that interest me that day. My choice of vegetables often includes carrots, edamame, corn, celery, sometimes potatos or sweet potatos. Oh, and I use a lot of vegetables. As in, I could easily add 2 to 3 cups of the corn & edamame...

Red lentils cook really fast, so this isn't an all-day cooking kind of soup.

--- Denise

[Veronica]

I make my own quick version of Chicken and Rice using canned low sodium chicken broth, you can throw in whatever veggies you fancy, rotissierie chicken and cooked rice.

I also have a pretty quick to put together recipe for Turkey Tortilla soup that substitute Rotissierie chicken into.

V.

[Velobambina]

My mom's Turkey Noodle soup, which she made from the last pickings off the holiday turkey. Ingredients included homemade gravy, carrots, celery, onions, some spices, salt, and egg noodles.

[EBD]

My favorite canned soup is Amy's Organic cream of tomato (not actually creamy). I don't even like tomatoes that much, but I like this soup, especially with some black pepper added, and some parmesan or pecorino romano on the side. It is fresh and tomato-y and not sweet. Amy's other soups are also good, especially lentil and black bean.

My favorite homemade soup is Avgolemono - Greek lemon chicken soup. It's tricky to make (incorporating beaten eggs into hot broth without curdling them), but absolutely warming and delicious. Here's the basic recipe:

Heat 6 cups chicken broth to boil, reduce to simmer.
Add 1 cup orzo and cook in the broth. (That may be too much orzo, I can't remember the proportions).
Separate two eggs and beat the whites to very soft peaks.
Beat in the juice of one lemon and the egg yolks (into the whites).
Temper the egg mixture by adding 2 cups of the hot broth while beating fast.
Take the soup off the burner and stir in the egg/lemon mixture. If you've tempered the eggs correctly they should make the soup thick and frothy, but not become solid.
Creamy and delicious! I often add shredded cooked chicken, too.

Only once did I accidentally leave the soup on the burner, and curdled the eggs. Gross, and very sad for me, as it was a chilly gray day and I had been thinking of this soup for my entire 45-minute commute home.

[Meaux]

My mom makes an amazing baked potato soup that is to die for. Italian wedding soup is also really good. There's a Greek food restaurant here in Houston that makes a glorious chicken and rice soup that has dill and lemon in it. Yum! Now I want soup!

[alpinerabbit]

Pumpkin. My favorite type is a high-starch one that is called orange dwarf here, don't know what it would be called in the states.

I usually add garlic and ginger, sometimes I turn it into something thai-like by adding coconut milk powder.

Another variant is decorating with a dollop of creme fraiche and pumpkin seed oil.

[margo49]

We usually do everything from scratch but there was this soup in the Friday paper and I just tried it tonight

1 onion sauteed in 1 tbsp olive oil for 5 min +
Add 2 tsp cumin and sautee 1 more min
before adding
1 can of tomatoes (8 oz = 400g) or 5 freshies which I did
1 can chickpeas (same size) rinsed and drained
good grind of black pepper (+/- 1/2 tsp )
cook 10 min before adding
1/3 can Egyptian broadbeans (fava)
juice of 1/2 lemon (or lemming if you prefer)
cook 2 min
then turn off heat
Add a big handful of chopped coriander (or parsley) and zest of the aforementioned lemon
Season (salt, tsp of sugar to straighten out the tomatoes)
Served with bread or pita

The funny thing is that the only cans in the house usually are occasional treats for the cat so when she heard the can-opening process she started to go wild . So I gave her some broad beans (fava) and she liked them!

[SouthernBelle]

In the health food section of my grocer there are soups that come in rectagular cartons, like soymilk. The brands Imagine and Pacific come to mind. I like the sweet potato and butternut squash soups. Plus since they are in the little cartons that can be resealed, you can pour out any size portion you want and refrigerate the rest.

Plus they are useful for sauces.