Sunday Soup: My Favorite Way to Clean out the Fridge

 

I don’t care how hot it is outside. I love soup. I’ll cook it, and eat it, and enjoy it day after day even if it’s 100° outside. It’s one of my favorite things to cook at the end of the week. Soup is a great way to get rid of extra produce that’s building up in the refrigerator. Soup-making is more of a process than a hard and fast recipe for me. Here’s just one example of how I like to use up the odds and ends of produce and make a delicious soup.

Ingredients

Rotisserie chicken, breast, tenders, dark meat removed

Two roasted garlic, smoked sausage, links, sliced

1 Onion, chopped

3 carrots, sliced

1/2 head of cabbage shredded

1/2 cup split red lentils

Two ribs of celery, finely chopped

Three potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

1 cup Tomato sauce

1 3 0z package Sun-dried tomatoes

1 cup Spinach, frozen

4 ounces Mushrooms, sliced

2 quarts chicken stock

Onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste

For chicken stock

Remaining portion of your rotisserie chicken

Two Carrots

Two stalks of celery

One bunch of green onions 

Procedures 

Start by making the chicken stock. Take the rotisserie chicken and pull off all of the dark meat, including the legs and thighs. Remove the skin in the bones, put those in the pot for your stock. Next remove the breast and the tenders and oysters from the backside of the chicken and leave the wings in as much skin and cartilage is possible that’ll really help add body and flavor to the stock. Next, I add in a whole bunch of green onions roots and all. There's no need to trim carrots or celery stocks. However, I do make sure all the produce is well washed. I add enough water to cover the solids by at least an inch and a half. Bring the stock up to a boil. Lower the heat in allowed to simmer for about an hour. If scum, the protein bubbles accumulate on the surface, then skim them off and discard. Once completed turn off the stock.

In a large pot over medium heat, add a tablespoon of olive oil to that add your chopped onion and your carrots. I like my carrots cut on the larger side so that way they don’t get mushy while you are cooking them. However, I do like to finally chop my celery. You'll add the next. The celery is more about the background flavor. I don’t really want to able to tell that it's there in the final dish. This is your mirepoix. This combination of vegetables is the common base to many soups, stews, and sauces in French cooking. In Italian cooking, this combination is referred to as sofrito.

Next I’ll take the smoked sausages and a slice those up, and put them in the pan and allow them to start browning a little bit. Add the mushrooms once you like the color on the sausage. The mushrooms have a lot of water and will stop any browning. Peel and dice the potatoes, making sure to stir the vegetables and sausage so they don’t get burned at all then add in the potatoes as well as the lentils, Sun dried tomatoes. Add a couple of cups of stock to the pot and start scraping to release the fan from the bottom of the pan. It’s gonna give you enough time for you to shred your cabbage. When’s the cabbage is shredded added to the pot. 

Add in your chicken stock to cover next you’re gonna add in the spinach, cabbage, and tomato sauce. I like about anywhere from half cup to a cup of tomato sauce. It depends on the volume of the soup. I don’t really want to tomato to overpower the broth, but I do like the body that the tomato sauce adds. If you had diced or crushed tomatoes that would also work well in the soup. Next add in your garlic powder and onion powder, and then your first round of salt. We can always add more salt later, but we do you want to start getting some salt into the vegetables. There is salt in the smoked sausage, but the potatoes can take quite a bit of salt.

 Lastly, add your half cup of rice. This is going to cook down. It’s gonna get a bit overcooked, but I like that I like the starchiness that the rice adds to the soup just adds more body to it. If you can't stand the texture of overcooked rice, but would still like it in the dish, then cook up the rice on the side and ladle the finished soup over the rice instead. I don't usually like mushy rice, but it cooks long enough to break down and add a nice thickness to the soup.

 I cook the soup at a simmer for about 30-45 minutes. I want the cabbage completely softened. Adjust your seasonings to your taste, and that's it! Turn the heat off, and add in your shredded chicken. This dish is hearty and nourishing, but not too heavy. Heck! You've just snuck about ten vegetables into one dish! 

I love that this soup is better the next day. I will portion the soup once completely cooled into 1 quart prep containers and freeze them. They have saved me from a lot of stress in the past when I didn't feel like cooking. The leftovers keep for up to five days in the fridge. 

 

What do you think? Would your try it? Would you eat soup even if it's hot outside? What's your favorite type of soup?