A soup you can pretty much throw together from ingredients you already have in the pantry, refrigerator and freezer.
"*" See Kitchen Notes for more information or links to special ingredients.
Heat the fat in a large soup pot over medium low heat. When hot add the onion, garlic, and celery and slowly sauté for about 3 minutes.
Taste. Add salt and pepper and other seasoning only if needed.
For this chicken and vegetable soup I used fresh carrots, mushrooms, a cherry bomb chile pepper, and tomatoes. The cooked ingredients were potatoes, green beans and chicken. However, any of these could be uncooked. Just add them sooner.
Other vegetables that could be used – corn, broccoli, squash (both summer or winter), beans, or greens (e.g., Swiss chard, spinach, or kale). Most vegetables are subtle enough to be used together in a soup creating a taste that is the combined flavor of the ingredients. However, there are some vegetables that can dominate, overpowering the other ingredients and thus changing a mixed vegetable soup to a single flavored soup. I personally find cabbage, turnips, parsnips and some greens, like collard greens, to be such vegetables; therefore, I usually avoid using these vegetables in a mixed vegetable soup.
Additional this and that – Potatoes, rice, pasta, beans (pinto, black, red), olives, capers, roasted green chile or other peppers, raw chiles.
Seasoning – The herbs and spices used in this soup were determined primarily by the seasoning that I used in the chicken and on the potatoes. The chicken was an herb roasted chicken, while the potatoes had been roasted with smoked paprika. Therefore, think about the seasoning that you used in the soup’s ingredients, and use more of those herbs and spices, or complementary ones. Blends work well, especially curries or herb blends.
Cornbread – Because of the smoked paprika and red chile powder in the soup, I added 1 tsp. urfa chili flakes to my no fail buttermilk cornbread recipe. It made a great finishing touch to the meal.
Recipe author: MJ of MJ's Kitchen