Soups

Cheese Soup

Potatoes, carrots, celery and onion cooked and mashed into chicken broth, thickened with flour and milk, finished with American cheese.

Cheesy Potato Soup (makes 1 gallon)

Potatoes, carrots and onion folded into a cream of mushroom and cream cheese base with crumbled bacon; makes a gallon.

“Call if you have questions.”

Chili

Ground beef browned with brown sugar, then slow-cooked four to eight hours with chili beans, tomato juice and tomato soup.

Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Broccoli and shredded carrot simmered in a roux base of milk, cream and stock, partly blended, then thickened with two cups of cheddar.

Creamy Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

Wild rice blend, cubed baked chicken and four dried herbs in broth, thickened with a butter-flour roux, milk and cream.

“I used the same pan I cooked the rice in to make the butter-and-flour roux.”

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

Diced tomatoes and canned tomato soup simmered with basil and paprika, enriched with melted cream cheese, tortellini cooked in at the end.

Five Onion Soup with Scallion and Gruyere Croutons

Yellow onions, red onions, shallots, leeks and scallions caramelized, deglazed with a full bottle of red wine, and simmered in beef stock.

Four Onion Soup

Yellow onion, red onion, leek and green onions sauteed in butter and simmered in canned beef broth and consomme, finished with Swiss and Parmesan toast.

French Onion Soup

Sliced onions cooked slowly in butter, simmered in canned beef broth with Worcestershire, and ladled over toasted French bread with Parmesan.

French Onion Soup - Best!

Onions cooked for hours in a covered pot, then deglazed with water again and again to build a dark crust before the broths go in.

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

A quick stock built from ground chicken and bone-in breasts, strained, thickened with cornstarch, then finished with noodles and shredded meat.

Old Fashioned Chicken Noodle Soup

Browned chicken thighs and a foil-wrapped breast cook for hours in the slow cooker; noodles and peas are stirred in at the end.

Olive Garden Minestrone Soup - Copycat

Restaurant-style vegetable soup built on three kinds of beans, canned tomatoes and shell pasta, with spinach stirred in at the end.

“1/8 of the pot (one serving) comes to about 360 calories and 6.2 grams of fat.”

Oven-Roasted Tomato and Garlic Soup

Halved plum tomatoes brushed with garlic and olive oil and dried in a 200-degree oven for eight hours.

Oyster Stew

Oysters cooked in butter just until the edges curl, then simmered in milk with celery seed, garlic salt and Worcestershire.

Potato Soup

Red potatoes and two skillets of crisp bacon in a shaken milk-and-flour gravy, melted smooth with American cheese.

“I don't really have a recipe, I just dump. I'll try to describe what I did... hope this works for you.”

Rich Minestrone Soup

White beans cooked with Italian sausage and pureed to thicken a big pot of vegetable soup finished with cabbage and Parmesan.

Taco Beef Soup

Ground beef simmered with stewed tomatoes, kidney beans and taco seasoning, then topped at the table with avocado, cheddar, corn chips and sour cream.

Taco Soup

Eight cans, two seasoning packets and a cup of broth stirred together and cooked twenty minutes on the stove or all afternoon in a crock pot.

“I doubled the recipe with one rotisserie chicken, cubed.”

Tomato Soup

Onion cooked down in white wine, then simmered with chicken stock, plum tomatoes and roasted tomatoes, pureed, and finished with thyme and honey.

Tomato Tortellini Soup

Canned tomato soup stretched with half-and-half, stock and sun-dried tomatoes, then simmered with cheese tortellini.

Tomato, Pasta Spinach Soup

Crushed tomatoes, ditalini, frozen spinach and white kidney beans in a garlic and broth-cube base, close to Olive Garden's minestrone.

White Chili

Shredded chicken simmered with white beans, green chilies, cumin and cayenne, then finished with Monterey jack and sour cream.

Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana

Bacon, potatoes, onion and garlic in chicken stock, with coconut milk standing in for the usual cream.