Big Pots of Homemade Soup made Super-Easy

Raise your hand if you’re so sick of cooking you could live on dry cereal for the rest of your life.

These days my answer is soup, soup, and more soup. Sometimes they resemble stews, sometimes chili, sometimes the inside of my fridge— but always eminently edible and easy. And they usually make for three days of eating.

Here’s the secret to my anything goes recipes:

Step one: Get your most giant soup pot. Sautee onions, celery, carrots (pre-bought grated is excellent), and anything else calling out from the depths of your fridge:
I include anything from chopped (or riced) cauliflower (which melts away) to mushrooms, butternut squash, zucchini, or anything else struggling for one more gasp from your vegetable bins. Even super-sad potatoes like above!

Step two:
When the sauteeing is complete, add broth. I use chicken, mushroom, or turkey or a tomato base (I’ve used tomato soup, sauce, paste), to which I add wine (white, red, rose). Last night I combined left-over tomato soup, a jar of sauce, a half-jar of pizza sauce and a truly big glug of red wine. When it still seemed too thick, I added some hot water.

When I say I play it by ear, I mean it.

Step three:
When broth bubbles, I add one (or more) of the following: chicken, turkey sausage (browned with the veggies), ground turkey (same) canned beans, plus, I always keep the ends of parmesan cheese in the freezer to throw into tomato-based (and some mushroom-type) soup.
Step Four: Season with your favorites. Depending on the combo above, use one or more of these: salt, pepper, Italian spice, Bangkok Blend Thai, Chili —anything you like from garlic to cumin and beyond. My Bangkok Blend Thai chicken soup is a favorite.

Simmer until done—any time from 45 minutes to an hour or two, depending on your ingredients. (I’ve been known to throw a partially defrosted chicken breast or two into the pot. This is a ‘recipe’ meant for easy and easy-to-correct mistakes. (When the soup liquid is too acetic, I stir (full fat if possible) yogurt into a small cup (half a mug) of the liquid and then slowly stir it into the pot.

If you want more stick to the ribs, throw in some uncooked pasta or another form of yummy carbs. Be brave and toss in whatever sings to you. And remember, you can always just toss it, using the famed words of my Aunt Irene, who’d call to her husband when he arrived home: “Bobby, it’s a loser!”