That's soup made from leftovers that might otherwise be thrown away. Today's soup was made from about a cup leftover boiled squash in butter, 4 leftover tomato slices from breakfast, and half of a grilled chicken breast left from dinner. A trip to the garden supplied a handful of royal burgundy beans (purple when raw, green when cooked), a couple stalks of celery, one onion and one big leaf of cabbage from a plant that had been beheaded already. From the cellar I grabbed a handful of potatoes.
All the veggies were cleaned, chopped and put into the pot together. I added a bouquet garni that contained a piece of chive, some winter savory, some parsley and some thyme. I added about 3 cups of water and a chicken bouillion cube and set the soup to cooking. About 20 minutes later it was done and filling the kitchen with lovely smells. I added some salt and pepper and lunch was ready.
It was delicious. A glass of the white grape juice I made yesterday and a thick slice of homemade bread spread with butter and pear conserve finished off the meal.
And to think, most of the ingredients would have ended up in the compost bucket.
I found some good things during my garden visit:
Today I worked on grapes again. I put up white grape juice yesterday (that's actually a lot darker than the store kind)
and today Larry brought in all of the red grapes and the remainder of the Concords.
I should be a winemaker with all this bounty!
I ended up with 20 quarts of delicious juice and 20 pints of grape jelly (some from the red and purple grapes, and some from the white grapes). We've eaten grapes daily for the past two weeks, too. The grapes don't do so well every year so I am enjoying it.
I'm afraid I'm guilty of throwing away perfectly good soup ingredients. You've inspired me to be more creative, and thrifty.
ReplyDeleteYour grapes look lovely.
Don't we all, Pat? I remember so well how my mother would make a roast last most of a week but using the Sunday leftovers to make casseroles, soups and stews.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm going to make grape juice tomorrow. Do you sterilize your jars and then process 10 minutes in boiling water bath? I've frozen juice before but never canned it.
ReplyDeleteThe soup looked so delicious. Made me hungry just looking at it. :)
ReplyDeleteI do sterilize the jars, Janet, and do the processing. I add about 1/2 cup of sugar to each batch of 6-7 quarts, which is not much sugar at all per jar (maybe a tablespoon or two?) but the juice is a nice combination of sweet and tart. I added even less to the white grapes because they are so sweet.
ReplyDeleteI could have had more juice if he had been more patient and squeezed every bit from each batch, but that can make the juice cloudier and I had so much to do I just let it drip through and then discarded the plummies for the chickens. They were happy!
Angel, I'd offer you some, but it's all gone :)