So, in case you didn’t know, I call myself the soup whisperer. I even bought the web domain so that someday when I launch my Soup Whisperer book, I’ll already own the web page. That might be what you call putting the cart before the horse. If soup’s not my specialty, then putting the cart before the horse certainly is.
But I basically take dishes, which would normally be main dishes, and make a soup of them. I’d rather make a big pot of soup than do almost anything in the world. It’s big fun. I hope you’ll try it!
I finally did chicken pot pie soup and it was a hit, so I thought I’d share. And I served it up on the chalk board placemats!
Here’s what you need:
- 3 T. butter and a few swirls of olive oil (about 2 T.)
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 15 baby carrots, diced
- 1/3 cup flour
- salt, pepper to taste
- 1 t. nutmeg
- 6 cups good chicken stock (I always use Kitchen Basics, it’s rich and hearty and tasty)
- 1/2 box mushrooms (optional, I add them when I have them on hand!)
- 1/2 bag of frozen peas (add as many as you like but I usually use half of a regular bag, thawed for about a min in the microwave)
- 3 Yukon gold potatoes, diced
- 3 cups cooked chicken (I usually cook 3-4 breasts in the crock pot all day with a little broth but you could use rotisserie chicken, too!)
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 bay leaves
- A few springs of thyme (could use dry a teaspoon of dry poultry seasoning instead)
- 1 T. honey
Here’s how I do it:
- Melt 3 T. of butter in a big soup pot, along with a few swirls of olive oil.
- Saute the onions and carrots and add salt and pepper to taste (you will adjust the salt/pepper at the end but add some now!)
- Add the flour and let it cook for about a minute, as you stir it around the pan
- Add the chicken stock and stir well, to deglaze the flour bits from the bottom of the pan
- Add the potatoes, chicken and mushrooms and cook for 10-15 on medium heat, until the potatoes start to soften
- When the potatoes are slightly soft, add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for 15 min or so and then it can sit with the lid on until you’re ready to serve.
I always make my soups in the morning and then they sit all day, which deepens the flavor. You could serve this with biscuits, rolls, or any kind of bread really. I love Rhodes frozen dough balls for this. You just spray a muffin pan with Pam, add two dough balls to each muffin tin and let them rise for 4-5 hours. It’s an easy shortcut to homemade rolls (or faux-made rolls, if you will) and my kids go crazy over them.
Let me know if you try it. And since we’re gearing up for fall, try some of my other soups!
Cheeseburger {in paradise} Soup
In geekier news, I’m working on a master schedule to make the most of my time at home. It’s a color coded spread sheet, dear friends. And I only allowed myself until 8:30 to finish this post and it’s 8:33. You may need to intervene. But from 9-12 today, I’m working on blog projects, so maybe you’ll benefit from my tendency to overdo things in the beginning.
Okay, I’m five minutes late for my date with the laundry.
For other thrifty ideas and recipes, head over to Ruth’s blog for Thrifty Thursday!
Have a great one!
xoxo,
edie
and it works just as well. I rolled it on with a six inch roller, which makes the job super fast. I painted the first side and two edges and then let that dry. Then, I painted a second coat on the same side. After that dried, I turned them over and did the same thing on the back side. It works better and dries faster if you prop one end of wood onto something small (I used a candle jars) so that air can move all around it to dry them. They dry very fast and mine were done in a few hours.
