Name your favorite soup!

[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.

[winddance]

Here's my favorite soup recipe. It mostly comes out of cans, so it's very easy to make and tastes great on a cold evening!

Spinach Bean Soup
½ cup chopped onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 T olive oil
2 cups water
1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 can (14 ½) ounces reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
1 tsp Italian herbs
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
5 cups packed torn fresh spinach
1 can (16 ounces) white beans rinsed and drained
1 can (8 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1-1/2 cups cooked small tube or other small pasta
½ - 1 tsp hot pepper sauce

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, sauté onion and garlic in oil until tender. Stir in the water, tomato sauce and paste, broth, Italian herbs, sugar, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the spinach, beans, cooked pasta and hot pepper sauce; heat through.

[Pedal Wench]

My winter bean soup:

I use the tubes of seasoning and beans in the kosher section of the store, made by Maneschiewitz (sp?), usually the split pea.

First, overnight, I soak a lb of lima beans. If I don't have time, I'll use frozen, so I don't have to soak.
In a HUGE pot, I put two tubes of the powdered soup, plus a few cans of chicken broth. I add one bag of pre-washed/cut kale. Then I add the lima beans, and sometimes some more splitpeas (they don't need to be presoaked). Then come a few bags of shredded cabbage (I try to get three in the pot). A bunch of freshly ground black pepper, and an onion if I have one around. I add water or broth (I use the reduced sodium kind) as it cooks down, and once there's room in the pot, I like to add mushrooms, because it gives the soup some texture when it's the only thing I'll have for dinner. If I have spinach lying around, I'll throw that in too. It sounds complicated, but because everything is precut/wash except for the onion, it comes together in just a few minutes, although it's best when it can cook for hours. It comes out like a very thick split-pea/lima bean soup that is wonderful on cold winter nights.