Fall and Winter Soup Recipes: Let The Games Begin!

This evening we enjoyed the second entrant in our 2nd Fall & Winter Soup Contest,

French Meatless Vegetable Soup.

Before I launch into a description of this soup-- necessary observations as it is a contest and all, and after two or three excellent soups, the particular excellencies of each fade-- I thought we might take a short stroll down soup lane. The first Fall& Winter Soup Contest began 11/8/2011 with Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup. Not every soup we had that Fall & Winter was a contestant. Soups we have every year were-- and are again-- disqualified (why can't I find the recipe for Across the Garden Soup?) as are favorite gumbos. (We make the rules up as we go along.)

Blogger's search function is being uncooperative, but based on keyword "soup," I've cobbled together this list of the nine soups that vied for winner, each with at least one link. (I've included dates because sometimes the recipes and the descriptions were in different posts. If you're interested in either, you should be able to find it if my links are messed up.)

In chronological order... [entrant #, date, name]

2011
1. 11/3: Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup (Includes recipe)
2. 11/18-19: Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners (Winner for me until #7); Recipe
3. 12/7-8: Corn and Sausage Chowder; Recipe
4. 12/31: Chili Soup (includes recipe)

2012

5. 1/9: Tomato Rice Soup with Pesto (includes recipe; also has good links if I've messed them up above))
6. 1/23: Split Pea and Smoked Turkey Soup (includes recipe; second place for me until #2 was bumped by #7)
7. 1/30-31: Sausage Sauerkraut Soup in Slow Cooker (displaces #2 as winner); Recipe
8. 2/7: Sportsman's Lodge Lentil Soup (CONTEST WINNER); Recipe
9. 3/2: Rutabaga Soup Ha. Looks like I never posted the recipe for this one. I mention it, but cannot find it.

Thanks for bearing with me while I sorted that all out. 

And now to French Meatless Vegetable Soup.

Fall/Winter Soup Contest Entrant #5: Tomato Rice Soup with Pesto in a Slow Cooker

Tomato rice soup with pesto in a slow cooker, garnished with Parmesan,  photographed the way Kat instructed me to photograph food

This was an outstanding soup. I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

I want to first characterize this soup. (I do this for me. I can't possibly remember all of these soups if I don't write about my impressions.)  I'll begin by reporting that I came across a great big chunk of German Green Tomato. Even after several months in the deep freezer, I can taste the difference. That's Big. The carrots and celery were store-bought. The peppers were homegrown. The Minute Rice (insert trademark thing here) that was tossed in after many hours of slow cooking sopped up some liquid and provided some starch. The pesto of homegrown dried basil and whatnot was a nice flavor addition. 

By happenstance, it turned out to be a truly outstanding soup for a warmish evening in January in Mississippi. Not all January evenings are warm in Mississippi.This one was, and so we enjoyed a beer with friends on the balcony of a bar in downtown not Oxford before we returned back to the Farm and Contestant #5, an outstanding soup.

~~

That said...

Soup Contest Entrant #4: Chili Soup

Not chili, chili soup!*

For me, it's a tie. Mr. Big Food is still thinkin' on it. I've got it tied with Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners (here, and here).

If you are new to this game, we're having a Fall/Winter Soup Contest. This is the 4th entrant. There have been several disqualified entrants, namely Leftover Turkey Gumbo and Across the Garden Soup. (We make up the rules to this contest as we go along.)

Mr. Big Food thought he was pulling one over on me. He explicitly said he wasn't going to tell me what was in this soup until after I'd tried it. Please. I see the menu. I shop the aisles (he shops the periphery). And I saw that he didn't begin to fix supper until about 15 minutes before supper time. I had a pretty good idea what was in this soup. Clearly, I was not biased by this knowledge. 

"Recipe" below the fold

Fall & Winter Soup Contest Entrant #5

California Minestrone Soup

Discussions of, and recipes for, previous entrants in our 2013/14 Fall and Winter Soup Contest-- as well as same for our 2012 contest-- are here. Lots of good soup recipes at the link!

But I see I've made a mistake. I included the recipes for Homemade Chicken Soup with Fluffy Dumplings-- which we had on December 16th-- in the list of entrants. I shouldn't have. Neither Daughter C nor Miss M were able to partake of that delicious soup-- which I would have ranked #1, by the way. But it doesn't seem right to include it as all but one of the others had at least one of the girls judging. And I had not included it in my written 2013/14 Fall & Winter Soup Contest "Log & Scorecard" that I used to refresh our memories this evening.

This is how I will fix the problem. Homemade Chicken Soup with Fluffy Dumplings is really, really good. You should try it. 

The Minestrone was very good. It's vegan. Mr. Big Food served it with some jazzed up French bread. (Take a loaf of French bread, slice it in half lengthwise. Slather it with melted butter/vegan butter. Sprinkle liberal amounts of garlic powder and dried homegrown oregano over. Top non-vegan version with provolone slices. Wrap in foil. Heat in a 350° oven about 20 minutes.) But no one ranked it as best. 

Here's where things stand in the rankings:

Entrant #4 Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup has 3 votes for 1st place, and 1 vote for 3rd place.

Entrant #1 Hot Potato Soup has 1 vote for 1st, 1 for 2nd, and 1 for 3rd.

Entrant #5 California Minestrone Soup has 2 votes for 2nd place, and 2 for 3rd.

Entrant #3 Cream of Bean has 1 vote for 2nd.

Entrant #2 French Meatless Vegetable Soup has 0 votes for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. 

As I said, the Minestrone is good. As with any soup that's chock full of veggies, quality is paramount. Mr. Big Food used a lot of fresh frozen veggies from last year's garden, and homegrown dried herbs. With the exception of the kidney beans and tiny peas, all the other veggies were frozen, not canned. (I can't imagine this soup would be any good at all if made with only canned veggies BUT it would surely be better than canned minestrone.)

Recipe: Tomato Rice Soup with Pesto

This was the fifth entrant our Fall/Winter Soup Contest. Photo and analysis here. (Mr. Big Food was very impressed. I liked it very much but argue it's not a Fall/Winter Soup at all.)

Posts on soup contest entrant #1, Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup here, and here

Posts on soup contest entrant #2, Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners here, and here.

Posts on soup contest entrant #3, Corn and Sausage Chowder, here and here. 

Post on soup contest entrant #4, Chili Soup, here

Recipe below the fold.

Fall & Winter Soup Contest Entrant #4: Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup

This is a sorry photograph. I apologize for the glare.

Entrant #4 in our 2013/14 Fall & Winter Soup Contest is Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup. I'm not entirely sure that's its official name, you can transpose Beer Cheese & Broccoli any way you choose.

This soup presented something of a little dilemma. It was, in fact, the first entrant in the original Fall & Winter Soup Contest. We have rules about such things. And I was over-ruled. So it stands. This Soup gets a 2nd chance.

It's a good little soup. The homemade bran bread augmented it. 

In my humble opinion, it is not a contest winner. We did this once already. It didn't win last time, either. 

But it's a good soup.

SCOREBOARD:

Daughter C: 1st place #4 (this soup); 2nd place #1
A. Leland:  1st place #4 (this soup); 2nd place #1
Mr. Big Food: 1st place #4 (this soup); 2nd place #3
Me: 1st place #1; 2nd place #4

The bread was good.

Fall & Winter Soup Contest Entrant #6: Veganized Corn & Potato Chowder

All chowders are soups, but not all soups are chowders.

Before we discuss this particular soup-- and address the rumblings of an unnamed judge-- I'll direct you to the all things soup page where you can find links to discussion of and recipes for all six entrants in this years PLUS the bonus soup that didn't make it to the soup contest because we did not have a quorum of judges. 

This was a very good fall and winter soup. Smooth yet chunky. Seasoned very well although I noted some folks opted for a bit more salt. Miss M put it in 1st place, but bear in mind this is only the second she's voted on. 

Here are the standings so far:

• Entrant #4, Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup, has three 1st place votes. 
• Entrant #6, Veganized Corn & Potato Chowder, has one 1st place, one 2nd, two 3rd, and one 4th place votes.
• Entrant #1, Hot Potato Soup, has one 1st place and one 2nd place votes.
• Entrant #5, California Minestrone, has one 2nd and two 3rd place votes.
• Entrant #3, Cream of Bean, has one 2nd place vote. 
• Entrant #2 fell out of the running after Beer Cheese Broccoli.

 And now to the controversy regarding chowders and stews... .

Soup Contest: Cast Your Vote (or don't complain)

CORN AND SAUSAGE CHOWDER 

1 lb. of your favorite local, smoked, fully cooked, sausage-- sliced

3 C frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed

1 carrot peeled & sliced thin

1 stalk celery sliced thin (ours was fresh from the garden)

2 cans golden corn soup OR 2 cans creamed style corn

2 1/2 C chicken stock, preferably homemade

Combine sausage, hash browns, carrot, and celery in slow cooker. Combine soup, or corn, and chicken stock in a bowl; Pour over contents of slow cooker. Cover and cook 8-10 hours on low, or 4-5 hours on high.

~~

Photographs tomorrow. 

This is the third entrant in our Fall/Winter Soup Contest. We served it with some baked rolls, and ate it in front of a nice hot fire while we watched a new episode of Modern Family, and Rocky grow right before our eyes.

I liked it a lot. We had the creamed style corn version because neither the Piglet nor the Hog had golden corn soup. It wasn't as thick as I was expecting, but it did have a nice rich texture. I think it will be a soup, like Across the Garden Soup, that will age well-- that is, I think tomorrow's lunch might be better than tonight's supper. I'm not saying that supper wasn't excellent, but I cannot in good conscience cast a "best" vote for Corn and Sausage Chowder. My money's still on the potato wiener soup. 

Mr. Big Food has not yet voted. (This is a disturbing trend in Mr. Big Food's thought. Not casting a ballot means you cannot rightfully complain about the outcome of the election contest.) I expect he'll sleep on it and let me know tomorrow.

~~

Posts on soup contest entrant #1, Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup here, and here

Posts on soup contest entrant #2, Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners here, and here.

Recipe: Creative Cooking French Peasant Soup

Entrant #2 in the Spring/Summer Soup Contest

Last weekend we enjoyed a French provincial supper al fresco featuring Creative Cooking French Peasant Soup. (More photos here.) This is a hearty soup, perfect for supper after a day of farm work-- and fun to make, too. I especially like collecting items from the garden for the Bouquet Garni.

As you know from recipes I've posted previously, Mr. Big Food often includes a bit of commentary from the cookbook where he's found the particular recipe as he enters it into The Big Food Manual and Survivalist Flourishing Guide. Here's the introduction to this soup recipe:

“Main Dish Soup: French Peasant Soup is a main dish soup which is actually a hearty, healthy meal in itself. It is eaten in vast quantities by the simple peasant folks of France. They accompany it only with a little local wine, French bread and a bit of cheese or fruit.

Since this reputable French soup makes such a satisfying, hearty meal, we can hardly classify it as an appetizer, so we have included it here …”

“This hearty, delicious French Peasant Soup may be made in quantity and frozen in quart containers for convenient use. It is generously filled with pork, white beans, carrots, leels and cabbage.”—The Creative Cooking Course (1982)

Recipe below the fold. (We cut the recipe in half and still had some leftover for lunch, and some to freeze.)

Recipe: Across the Garden Soup

Alternative title #1: Preparedness

Alternative title #2: Another non-entrant into the soup contest

This is the menu Mr. Big Food prepared on Sunday, November 27th:

Week of Nov. 27-Dec.3

It wasn't until the week had begun that Mr. Big Food decided to carry me away. Thus, some adjustments were in order, as indicated by the arrows.

As I've asserted, one reason Mr. Big Food is so productive is that he's organized. Another is that he's prepared. The whole notion of traveling and arriving back home on Monday could have made Monday supper a real dilemma, given that Mr. Big Food had to work late Monday afternoon-- he wouldn't be home in time to fix supper. Fortunately, we took stock of the freezer not to0 long ago and he updated his records. It was easy as pie for me to take the frozen Across the Garden Soup from last July, and some Turkey Gumbo from Black Friday, out to thaw and slowly heat up on the stove top.

~~

Across the Garden Soup is something I make. As its name implies, the soup changes subtly with the seasons, so go ahead and stroll across the garden to create the soup you like. This is a great soup to have simmering in the background as you go about your business doing other things. Provided it's simmering very slowly, if you forget about it and the potatoes and carrots are fully cooked before you add the cabbage, it's no big deal. In my humble opinion, it tastes better after it's been refrigerated for a day.

Recipe below the fold

Fall & Winter Soup #3: Creamy Bean

#3: A nice enough soup, but not up to Fall & Winter standards

 Served with a lovely winter salad and vegan cornbread.

Daughter C is learning how to take photos. She took this one-- which is nicely staged or whatever the photographers' word for that is-- and the one above. Somewhere between the soup pic & this, she changed camera settings.

This is a gimp-ed (photo-shop-for-free, see HOW TO GIMP link in the sidebar) version. In COLOR BALANCE, I toned down green to -45 in mid-tones only. And in AUTO I let gimp correct the white balance. I'm certainly no artist, but I like the L-R contrast of green salad vs. blue pot holders.

As I type, the temperature is hovering around 40°F, likely to drop to around freezing in just a few hours, and it's precipitating. It's nasty out there. A perfect night for soup.

The flavor of this soup is wonderful.

Briefly-- I'll post the recipe as Mr. Big Food's time allows-- it's three cans of beans. We used light red kidneys, baby and speckled butters. Drain them. The recipe calls for 1 qt. of water so we used 1 qt. of bean broth saved from last evening's green bean dish. (Sneak those vitamins and mineral in there any way you can!) Heat the beans and broth. Separately, saute some diced onions and carrots in 2T vegan butter (Earth Balance®). Add 2T flour, S&P, paprikka, and a dash of tobacco. Stir that into the simmering beans.

Mr. Big Food and A. Leland didn't arrive home until 7pm this evening. I let the soup simmer at this stage until the dogs announced their arrival. I then heated 2C almond milk and stirred that into the soup. The recipe calls for the soup to then boil, stirring constantly. I didn't let it come back to a boil. Nearly. But not quite.

Here's my analysis. We veganized the heck out of it so I can't comment on what it might have been like had we used milk. The flavor was surprisingly good. (Almond milk is a much better substitute for milk than soy milk, by the way.) But it was thin. And here I mean that, yes, it was a thin broth, and maybe some processing of the beans & roux before the milk addition would have creamed it up, but I don't think so.

For me, it's more of an early spring soup. Hearty enough for March,-- portending of lighter fare-- but not Fall & Winter. But it was delicious!

Here's the score so far, keeping in mind that Daughter C did not partake of #2 and Miss M did not vote this evening.

Hot Potato Soup is the winner and Mr. Big Food suffers from 'recency bias.'

Be sure to check out the Tab (look up) for the 2013/14 Fall & Winter Soup Contest for recipes from this and previous contests.

Recipe: Chicken & Broccoli Casserole in a Sweet Potato Squash Shell

As promised here's the recipe for Chicken & Broccoli Casserole. Instructions for the "in a Sweet Potato Squash Shell" follow the recipe.

CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI CASSEROLE

4 chicken breasts

Salted water (to cover chicken)

10 oz broccoli spears, cooked and drained

1 C celery, cut in large chunks

½ C mayonnaise (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section)

2 Tbsp onion, chopped

½ Tbsp lemon juice

10 ½ oz can condensed cream of chicken soup

½ stick butter crackers (like Ritz)

4 oz mushrooms, chopped

Cook chicken in boiling salted water with celery until done, and drain. Preheat oven to 350^o. Line cooked broccoli spears in bottom of a greased casserole. Remove skin and bones form chicken, chop into bite-sized pieces, chop celery, and combine with mayonnaise, onion, lemon juice, cream of chicken soup, and mushrooms, mixing well. Pour mixture over broccoli in casserole and bake 25 minutes. Melt butter, combine with crumbled crackers, spread evenly over top of casserole, and return to oven for 5 minutes. 

Instructions for preparing the squash below the fold.

The Best Fall/Winter Soup (in the Contest)

I believe this is Entrant #7 in our Fall/Winter Soup Contest. I think both Mr. Big Food and I enjoyed our brief discussion of a couple of others, especially the Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners soup that I'd had as the winner up until this evening. But in the short run, it was unanimous. The winner-- so far-- in the Fall/Winter Soup Contest is...

Sausage Sauerkraut Soup in a Slow Cooker!

I am going to see if I can sit here and write about this soup without mentioning The Dogs other than to say that as I was typing "without mentioning The Dogs," my little internal chitchat said, "Ah, here comes Rocky!"

The thing about the soup is its layers. 

[Rocky was so good tonight,

The Fall/Winter Soup Contest is almost finished

and we have a new possible leader.

Sportman's Lodge Lentil Soup

This soup was renamed to something more appropriate, given the soup. It's original name was "California Lentil Soup." The new name captures the essence of the soup. Plus, it's a joke.

What I need to do is describe this soup. And then, given the conversation Mr. Big Food, C, and I had while we were enjoying the soup, go back and read about the other soups. 

~~

I love lentils. If I had to eat them every day, I wouldn't love them. But since I don't, I do.

From nutrientfacts.com . Take a look at it. There's 1C of lentils in the 1/2  soup recipe. We'll get six servings from the 1/2 recipe. So divide the %'s by 6 and one serving is still packed with some good stuff.

The hot dogs were put in at the last minute. The bacon was put in at the beginning. I'll post the recipe tomorrow, but I'll tell you now that one thing that made this soup really really good was substituting veggie stock for water. 

It was rich-- in a non-fat way, filling and flavorful.

Comparisons to follow.

Recipe: French Meatless Vegetable Soup

Entrant #2 in our 2nd Annual Fall & Winter Soup Contest

For more about the Fall & Winter Soup contest, see here.

“This makes a delicious soup and quite as nourishing as if made with soup meat.” 

FRENCH MEATLESS VEGETABLE SOUP  

5-6 quarts water 
1 bunch fresh carrots (about 6), washed well but not peeled, chopped 
3 turnips, washed well but not peeled, chopped 
4 celery stalks, chopped 
Small cabbage leaf, chopped 
4-5 young onions, chopped 
2 white potatoes, washed well but not peeled, chopped 
1 heaping Tbsp flour 
1 rounded Tbsp lard 
3 sprigs parsley (and other fresh herbs, if you choose)
Spaghetti or rice, uncooked (optional)

Place all chopped vegetables except onions in a big pot with cold water, and bring to boiling over medium heat. Brown flour in lard in an iron skillet, add onions, and fry until onion edges begin to brown, Add 1 C soup broth to onion mixture, stir well until all lumps are gone, and pour back into soup pot. Add salt to taste and cook slowly for 2 ½ hours. If desired, add spaghetti or rice during the last hour of cooking time.

Recipe: Southern Pork Chop Casserole

Lunch

SOUTHERN PORK CHOP CASSEROLE

Serves 6-8

2 Tbsp shortening or oil

6-8 pork chops

1 C uncooked long-grain rice

1 envelope (1 oz) dry onion soup mix

10 ¾ oz can mushroom soup plus water to cover chops OR homemade Cream of Mushroom soup (see recipe in Basics section, enough to cover chops

Preheat oven to 375^o. Heat shortening or oil in a large skillet and brown chops on both sides. Sprinkle uncooked rice in bottom of a large baking pan, and sprinkle dry onion soup mix over rice. Place pork chops on top. If using canned soup, cover chops with undiluted soup and add enough water to pan to cover chops. If using homemade mushroom soup, pour over shops to cover. Bake uncovered for 1 hour.

Recipe: Hot Potato Soup

Welcome to the 2013 Fall & Winter Soup Contest!

The soup can easily be veganized-- which is what Mr. Big Food did. He also sauteed up some red hot sausages to add-in, and served the soup with your choice of sour cream, vegan sour cream, milk, or almond milk. 

HOT POTATO SOUP  
Serves 8 

2 C onion, chopped 
1 C celery, chopped 
1 quart red potatoes, peeled and sliced 
1 clove garlic, minced 
½ stick butter 
2 C chicken stock, plus more, or use veggie stock for a vegetarian/vegan soup (preferably homemade—see recipes in Basics section) 
Milk, soy milk, almond milk 
Sour cream 

Sauté onions, celery, and garlic in butter until limp, add 2 C chicken stock, then add potatoes and enough additional stock to barely cover potatoes. Cook covered until potatoes are tender. “This can be pureed in a blender if you want it smooth or mashed with a potato masher. Add half milk and half sour cream, or all milk, until the right consistency for soup.”

Recipe: Blackeyed Pea Soup I

I thought it even better leftover!

Mr. Big Food notes, "I used veggies stock instead of chicken stock in the black-eyed pea soup and use ed cut up ham instead of ham hocks."

BLACK EYED PEA SOUP I

Serves 6-8

2 smoked ham hocks

5 C water

1 ½ C dried black-eyed peas

1 C onion, chopped

½ C celery, chopped

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

2/3 C evaporated milk

1 Tbsp flour

Place ham hocks in water in stock pot or Dutch oven, and simmer 45 minutes. Soak peas in warm water for 45 minutes, drain, and add peas, onion, celery, salt, and pepper to ham hocks. Boil, covered, over medium heat for 2 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Remove ham hocks and cool slightly. Remove meat from bones, discarding fat, rind, and bones. Shred meat and return to soup. Combine a small amount of the evaporated milk with flour to make a paste, and stir back into remaining milk until well blended. Add to soup, bring soup to a boil, and cook until soup thickens slightly.

Best Fall Soup Contest Winner? Contestant #2

Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners

We each get a vote. (We are making up the rules to this contest as we go along.) The vote is 2-0 in favor of this potato soup. Not that we didn't like the previous winner (having been the first contestant), Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup, but we both liked this better. (Recipe at second link.)

I'll post photo and recipe tomorrow.

I liked the potato in this soup. It provided some texture that, in retrospect, I think was missing in the previous soup. I don't mind a bit of grittiness in Fall soups. I like starches that are falling apart. The wieners are just a hoot.

This was Mr. Kant's Farewell Supper.  

I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but I like Mr. & Mrs. Kant's kids.  They are refreshing. They remind me that kids can still be kids.

~~

There aren't as many leeks coming up as I had wished. I was hoping for one really smooth potato leek soup next Spring.

Leftover Corn and Sausage Chowder

Lunch

After a good night's sleep, Mr. Big Food announced he agreed with me and cast his vote in the Fall/Winter Soup Contest for Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners. It was a difficult decision. Corn and Sausage Chowder is a very very good Fall/Winter Soup (recipe at the link).

~~

Posts on soup contest entrant #1, Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup here, and here

Posts on soup contest entrant #2, Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners here, and here.