Soups and stews are the original one-pot meals, easy, comforting, healthful, and cheap! What could be better than that? The ingredients are easy to vary, the preparation is minimal, and once things get rolling, you’re free to go do something else for a moment (or a few hours).
The techniques for making both soups and stews are very similar in fact. We can make the distinction by looking at the ratio of liquid to solids. Obviously, soups are more liquid than stews. With both you want to use fresh ingredients — this isn’t an excuse to cook with rejects — but as you’re concerned only with the results of cooking all ingredients together, they need not be as pristine as if you were serving them raw or featuring them on a plate.
Soups Recipes List
- Pumpkin Soup with Philadelphia
- Vegetable Stock
- Sweet Peppers Gazpacho
- Cold Zucchini Soup
- Celery Chestnuts Soup
- Carrot Soup
- Gourmet Butternut Squash Soup
- How to Make Chicken Stock
- Chicken Soup with Ramen
- Fish Chowder Soup
- Mint Green Peas Soup
- Fish & Crab Soup
- Red Lentils Soup
- Leek Potatoes Soup
- Cabbage Soup
- Cold Zucchini Soup
You don’t have time to make you own homemade stock? Don’t sweat it: water is still a fine base for many recipes. (Stock, however, is great and valuable stuff, and of course we’ve several articles that cover the subject here.) And since you’re not obliged to take out food at some optimal point of doneness, these dishes are almost impossible to overcook!
Soup can be refrigerated and freezes perfectly, so if you really love your efforts (and you certainly will), consider cooking double batches and setting some aside. You can easily warm up soups and stews in the microwave or on top of the stove. And the leftovers often taste better than the first bowl!
With all of this going for homemade soup, there’s no reason to buy packaged or canned soup ever again! Don’t your think?
