May102011
Soup of the Day, literally
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image by crd!
Have you ever thought about soup as being one of the most economical meals you can prepare? Any and every soup contains two or more of these five basic categories of ingredients: a soup base, protein, produce, seasonings, and/or grains/starches. That’s all there is to it, and with that combination in mind, you can invent literally hundreds of soups yourself.
For penny-pinchers, nothing beats soup because there needn’t be any expensive ingredients.
The base
In the soup base category, try investing in a #10 can of bouillon, available at Shelf Reliance, or Shirley J’s excellent bouillon. I recommend spending some $25 or so on a large amount of bouillon because it’s much more cost effective than buying the little jars at the grocery store.
A cream base doesn’t have to start with whole cream, although it’s the only way to go if you want a rich, decadent soup. I’ve been making a really great potato and corn chowder using dried milk. I double the amount of dried milk when I reconstitute it, and you would never know that fresh milk hadn’t been used.
What's not to like?? photo by Vanessa Pike-Russell
If your soup has a tomato base, you’re in luck if you have tomato powder on hand. Acidic tomato sauce and tomato paste in cans have a shelf life of 12-18 months or so, which isn’t bad if you’ll be rotating them in with your everyday cooking, but tomato powder is the better bet when it comes to long-term storage.
Add a little protein
The addition of protein can be beans or legumes (very budget-friendly), canned/freeze-dried/fresh meat/chicken or TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein). A little protein goes a long way in a soup, and many options are suitable for long-term storage. And, if you combine some rice with beans in your soup recipe, you have a complete protein combination right there. Just by switching out chicken for a cup or so of black beans will change the flavor and texture of your soup, and voila! You have a new soup recipe!
Produce adds nutrients and fiber
There are so many different ways to have veggies on hand. If you have certain favorite veggies or ones that you use most often, store them in layers. In other words, if you use corn in a lot of recipes, for example, keep frozen corn, freeze-dried corn and canned corn on hand. Heck, grow your own corn if you have the space and a green-ish thumb!
If you’re adding several different veggies to your soup, you’ll probably need less than a cup of each variety. Soups are where dehydrated and freeze-dried produce really shine. Number Ten cans of mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, potatoes, onions, celery, green onions, and more are easy to store for several months in an opened can. Just make sure to keep the plastic lid on the can once it’s opened. Humidity is not a friend of dried food. It usually doesn’t take much of any one ingredient for a soup to be a success.
Seasonings for variety
image by Living in Monrovia
A black bean soup can have a Cajun flavor, a Mexican flavor or a hearty ham flavor depending on how it’s seasoned. Stock up on a healthy supply of herbs, spices, and other seasonings so you can add variety at a moment’s notice. Here’s a list to get you started.
Grains/starches add fiber, calories and nutrients
Those buckets of wheat contain a grain that adds flavor, texture, vitamins and more when they’re cooked up in a soup. Yes, cooked wheat, or wheat berries, is a very healthy addition to soups. Barley, quinoa, and white or brown rice are inexpensive additions, adding calories and bulk for filling up tummies. Farro is another grain that I have just become acquainted with.
Potatoes in just about any form are yet another inexpensive and versatile ingredient. A few scoops of leftover mashed potatoes are just right for finishing off a creamy leek soup. Dehydrated potato dices are inexpensive, and a little goes a long way.
Bottom line? You really don’t need a recipe for making soup! Add a little something from two or more of these categories, heat, and give it a taste test! You know better than anyone which ingredients your family likes best and what you have in your pantry and refrigerator. Soup is really the perfect survival food, and there’s no reason to not enjoy a different variety every day!
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© 2011, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
(14) Readers Comments
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Donna G.
I LOVE soups and couldn't agree more, that they are cost effective, nutritious, versatile, tasty, substantial, and go a LONG way in feeding our families.
Here's one of my favorites:
CABBAGE SOUP
1/2 to 1 whole cabbage sliced thin
2 ribs celery sliced thin
2 – 3 carrots sliced thin
2 chicken bouillon
2 cloves garlic minced
1 quart tomato juice
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
water
Cook in a big pot.
(I usually double most of the ingredients…except the tomato juice.)
Yummy & inexpensive!
Donna G.
Katy
Yes, we love soup. You can use the bones from meat to make your own broth (I like ham bones). We have a 15-bean soup mix (dried bean section of grocery) we love. I've also made corn chowder with leftover corn on the cob (cut off) and evaporated milk. Katy
Courtney
In the past, I've used instant potato flakes for a thicker potato and corn chowder- works like a charm! Thanks for a great post.. I've been looking for something similar to this for years- it's great for those of us who only know how to cook via cookbooks
Jamie
Thanks for the reminder in here to store plenty of spices in addition to the basics. I recently realized that area of my preps to be lacking, so I appreciate you mentioning it and having a list besides!
countrygirl
One thing I like to have on hand for my picky eaters is bacon bits, real ones not fake, I'll sprinkle a little in with beans or on top of a chowder, also a sprinkle of cheese can get my daughter to take that first bite. After that they usually eat it well. I live in Alaska and have recently realized that the rest of the US does not regularly eat pilot bread, or sailor bread. This is a staple in Alaska and is great for relatively long term storage, I'm not sure what the shelf life is but I'm opening two year old boxes which are fine. We eat them with soup, or with peanut butter, they are sort of like a great big thick hard cracker.
D T
We make a lot of soups here, too. As long as you are able to put inexpensive things in it, it can be a great budget meal with leftovers.
If a soup is tomatoe based you don't need as many spices or boullion, which is fantastic because spices & boullion can really be an expensive portion of your soup making. Therefore, I try to make my soups with tomatoes & water instead of cream bases and boullion/stock bases.
Jan
A few years ago I attended some classes and the LDS church in my area. The man teaching the classes advised everyone to add soup to their menu twice a week and calculate the savings. The savings adds up fast. I was using left over meats from other meals and just a tiny bit goes a long way. Several soups were made from vegetable peelings and left overs after I was done canning and freezing.
Shreela
I have very painful attacks due to some food additives. I haven't figured out which additive in bouillon bothers me, but I sure miss the ease of using bouillon. I've been making my own stock again since not being able to eat bouillon, but have been putting the stock in the freezer. Next time, I'm going to concentrate it more, maybe add a sheet of gelatin, to try "portable soup" in the dehydrator (instead of on flannel). If it works, I'll probably still keep it in the freezer, to be extra safe, but if we lose power I'd feel more comfortable using it than the thawed stock. Plus it won't take up as much room as the stock.
Herdog
Howdy Shreela – Have you (and anyone else) thought of making you're own vegi. bouillon? I stumbled upon this recipe from 'Simple Scratch Cooking' a few months ago and have fallen in love with the stuff. It's a matter of adding a bunch of vegis to the food processer and blending 'em up with salt. I take it one step further and dehydrate it (After dry, I grind in my mill and store powder in Jar or vac pac). Dehydrating so cuts out most of the salt (if not all) but the combo of different vegis is truly amazing. In addition to using it as a soup base I add the powder to most of my cooking, Fish, Mashed spuds, greensbeans and even popcorn. And Yes, adding hot water for a quick tummy warmer. Dehydrating and vacpac it will make it last for some time and easy to add to my food storage. The recipe follows as it was posted but remember if you dehydrated it CUT OUT MOST OF THE SALT! Enjoy!
http://simplescratchcooking.wordpress.com/2010/12…
LAWRENCE
i THINK IT MIGHT BE THE msg ADDED?
GoneWithTheWind
If you really want to pick up the flavor of your soups use V8 juice. I prefer 12 oz V8 and 12 oz chicken broth. Best results will be if the V8 is added after it is cooked, the flavor of V8 can be lost with too much cooking.
TheSurvivalMom
That\’s a great idea! I\’ll try V8 next time around.
Susan Van nostrand
I dehydrate my veges- corn, tomatoes, peppers, celery, onions, peas, greens, green beans, parsley, herbs, green onions,leeks, potatoes and lots more. Then I make a big bowl of the 9 trays of my dehydrator of dried veges, mix them together and put them in air tight bags each with different spices- Garum Masla. cajun, provence, good pepper and salt. Since each load of the dehydrator has different combinations of veges, the soups are always different. That way I have a base of veges for my soups and then can add protein and fast cooking grains for a different tasting soup every time. It’s paid for the dehydrator and air extractor many times over. The food bags go in a mylar bag with oxygen remover and sealed in plastic buckets. YUM!
Michelle
Soup or stew is also incredibly beneficial in hard times because it doesn’t require refrigeration. In our American culture, we were raised to believe that everything must go into the fridge. When I first married my African husband, I kept throwing his rice away because he would leave it out overnight- THEN he left his stew out! I was angry at him, of all people, for wasting food! But they don’t refrigerate it unless they have to! They cook it and then eat, afterwards they leave it sitting on the stove covered, and heat it up for their next meal. It needs to be heated once a day and they always smell it to any trace of it going rancid. They also eat organ meats (which I can’t stomach very well) and chew-up bones to get to the marrow, both of which Americans used to do.There are billions of people that thrive on this planet that don’t use electricity and we should not forget to incorporate some of their ways if we really want to survive!