November 7, 2010 - Perfect Soup Weather

Yesterday while driving around running errands, I was listening to one of NPR's food programs.  They were talking about the first cold snap being the best time to make soup, and a suggestion was made that when making your soup, you should brown your vegetables first, to extract the most flavor from them.  I took that advice.

WHTBITF Vegetable Soup
Ingredients on hand:
1 fresh onion and about 1/4 cup dried onions
1 cup frozen chopped broccoli
3/4 cup frozen green beans (that's all I had left)
1 cup green onions
1/4 cup minced garlic
4 whole carrots, chopped
about 2 cups frozen cabbage stock
2 cups stewed cabbage
12-oz pack of white (navy) beans
7 small red potatoes peeled
1.5 cups cooked brown rice
1 pound smoked turkey sausage
2 frozen chicken breast fillets
Salt, dried parsley cumin and sage

First, I put the frozen stock and cabbage in the pot to get it boiling, then threw in the white beans.  While that was going on, I made sure all the veggies were chopped and put them in a large pan to brown in olive oil.  Once they were all nicely browned, they went into the pot.  I added the potatoes and brown rice after that, and had to add about a quart of water because it was getting very thick at that point.  I sliced up the sausage and threw it in.  I thawed and then seasoned and browned the chicken breasts in the large pan.  When they were cooked, I chopped them up and put them in the pot.  Once everything was in the pot, I just had to stir every now and then and wait for the beans to be thoroughly cooked.  While it was all at a rolling boil, I added salt (I didn't measure, just took the salt canister and waved it 3 or 4 times), cumin (again, about 4 or 5 shakes right into the pot), sage (the equivalent of maybe 3 pinches), and a handful of dried parsley flakes.  The big pot was full up to the rim.

The smell was heavenly once it was all boiling, and once the beans were tender, it was ready to eat.  It was WAY better than I expected it to be, so flavorful!  Come on over and have a bowl.  There's too much for me to finish by myself.