Olive Garden Toscana Soup (Zuppa)

Sister Nancy B. made this for our 2017 Progressive Dinner.

About 6 servings

1/2 lb. Italian Sausage Links
2 C. Kale
3/4 C. diced onions
2 potatoes, peeled and halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch slices
1/3 C. heavy whipping cream
1 slice bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
salt
1 1.4 tsp minced garlic
4 C. chicken broth

Place sausages on a baking sheet and bake at 300 for 15-20 min.
Halve lengthwise, then cut diagonally into 1/2 inch slices.
Place onions and bacon in a 3-4 qt saucepan and cook over medium heat until onions are almost transparent, 3-4 min.
Add garlic and cook 1 minute.
Add chicken broth and potatoes.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 15 min.
Add greens, sausage, whipping cream and salt to taste.
Simmer just 5 min longer.
*This is a light soup.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

Sister Nancy B. made this for the Progressive dinner 2017.  It was perfect for the crisp fall weather.

She got the recipe from https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/creamy-butternut-squash-soup/

Serves 8

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger freshly grated is best!
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 8 cups butternut squash cut into 1 inch cubes (about 2 lbs butternut squash)
• 2 carrots sliced
• 1-2 cups heavy cream
• croutons optional
• roasted or candied chopped pecans optional

INSTRUCTIONS

1. In a large pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add brown sugar and spices to melted better and stir for 1 minute.
2. Add chicken stock and apple cider. Bring to a boil.
3. Add squash and carrots. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until squash and carrots can easily be poked with a fork. Check liquid in the pot while simmering. Add more chicken stock if necessary.
4. Pour all the contents of the pot into a blender. Puree until mixture is smooth.
5. Blend in 1 cup of heavy cream. Gradually add more until the mixture reaches the consistency of a creamy soup.
6. Pour the contents of blender back into the pot and keep warm until ready to serve.
7. After serving soup into individual bowls, garnish with croutons and chopped pecans.

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

Hearty Chicken Noodle Soup

Mikael brought this to Souper Saturday.  It is from one of the Lion House Cookbooks with a few slight alterations.  My Mom has been making this for years and it is always a hit.

1 1/2 T. Chicken Soup Base (by the boillion)  (Macey's carries it...I will post a pic below)
3 C. Chicken soup stock (by the broth) (I will post a pic below) (I think you could use broth, but it just wouldn't be quite as strong?!?!?!?!)
2 C. chopped carrots (I used the already cut shoestring carrots to save time cutting and cooking...but you can chop them yourself if desired) (1 (10.5 oz) bag of shoestring carrots is 3 1/2 C.)
2 C. chopped celery (I used a mandolin to slice them thin...to save time cutting and cooking)
3/4 C. chopped onion (I used yellow) (It is about 1/2 of a large yellow onion)
2 Cans (10.5 oz each) cream of chicken soup
1/4 C. evaporated milk or 1/2 C. whole milk (I have used skim before)
Roux (see recipe below) (see picture below)
2 C. frozen peas (optional)
2 C. diced cooked chicken
2 1/2 oz (about 4 C.) cooked noodles (I like the homemade style from Maceys...found by the regular noodles)
Pepper to taste

Heat soup base, and stock together.  Add vegetables except peas.  Simmer until vegetables are tender.  Add cream of chicken soup and milk.  Thicken with roux as desired, then add cooked chicken and noodles.  Add pepper to taste.  Makes about 2 1/2 quarts, or 10 (1 cup) servings.  Took me about 1 3/4 hours from start to finish to make.  Not including thawing chicken, but yes including cooking chicken and cooking noodles.

Chicken base

Chicken stock

Roux
Roux is used to thicken the soup.  The amount used depends on individual taste.  I used about 3/4 of the recipe of roux.
Melt 1/2 C. butter in frying pan.  Whisk in 1 C. flour.  Whisk until blended, it will be clumpy.  Store in the refrigerator.  When ready to use, add it to your hot soup a little at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

This is what the roux looks like

Easy peasy potato soup

From Shannon A.

1 30oz. bag of frozen, shredded hash browns {I used Ore Ida}

3 14oz. cans of chicken broth

1 can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup onion, chopped

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1 pkg. cream cheese {don’t use fat free. It WON’T melt!!!}

In a crockpot, combine everything EXCEPT for the cream cheese. Cook for 6-8 hours on low heat. About 1 hour before serving, add cream cheese and keep heated until thoroughly melted. Serve with cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, green onions, or whatever else you think would be good!!
**EASY, DELICIOUS and AMAZING!

Aunt Olive's Soup

I brought this to Souper Saturday yesterday.  Aunt Olive was my Grandma's older sister.  So this recipe has made it through several generations of my family.  The way this recipe was handed down to me was that you make huge batches and bottle them.  A few years ago I experimented with it and made the recipe smaller so you could just make 1 dinner.  I will include both recipes.  It has basically the same ingredients as salsa...so you can grow the same items in your garden.  Sister Dabb has a really similar recipe (the larger canning version), but she does not put the noodles in before canning.  There are advantages to this...you could then use rice or noodles and the noodles don't take up space in your jars.  But the advantage to having the noodles already in the soup are that it makes it easier to open up and have a quick dinner.  I have listed spicy sausage to add...but you could alternately add ground beef or ground turkey or shredded or cubed chicken.  It is also good without meat.  We were brainstorming yesterday and saying it would be good with beans in it also...but I have never tried that.  Please note that the  bottling methods listed have not been approved by the Utah State Extension Office...they are just what my family has always done.

This is the bottling recipe...

1/2 bushel tomatoes

1/4 C. salt

1 C. sugar

1 tsp. pepper

9 C. macaroni (cooked and drained)

3 large bell peppers, diced

1 bunch celery, diced

5 medium onions, diced

1/2 lb. of real butter

Melt butter in large frying pan add vegetables.  Saute until light brown and fully cooked.

Peel tomatoes (can blanch if desired).  Cut into small pieces or blend in blender.

Fully cook macaroni (do not overcook).

Combine all ingredients except macaroni and boil hard for 15 minutes.  Add hot (and drained) macaroni).

Put in bottles.  Process in water bath.  Pints 20 minutes, Quarts 25 minutes.

Makes about 35 pints.

When serving, if desired, you can add any of the following: sausage, hamburger, chicken, cheese.  I also think it is too thick when I open a jar so I will blend a bottle of tomatoes and add that in.

Here is the 1 dinner recipe...

10 tomatoes peeled and blended in blender, OR 2 quarts of bottled tomatoes (with a possibility of 3 total).  If you do fresh tomatoes you may want to have 1 jar of bottled tomatoes on hand just in case it is too thick.

1 T. salt

3 T. sugar

quite a bit of pepper

2 1/2 C. macaroni (or other noodles), cooked and drained

1 bell pepper, any color

2 ribs celery, diced

1 medium yellow onion diced

2 T. oil or butter  (add more if vegetables start to stick while sauteing)

1 tube Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage (by the hot dogs)

1.  To peel the tomatoes you cna blanch them first to make it easier.

2.  Saute vegetables until lightly browned and cooked through.  

3.  Brown meat, drain if desired (I did not for Souper Saturday...but sometimes I do).

4.  Cook noodles through and drain

5.  Combine all ingredients

6.  Boil hard 15 minutes

7.  If not soupy enough when done, add blended up jar of bottled tomatoes.  And heat through.

Instead of the hot sausage you can do hamburger or chicken if desired.  And instead of noodles you can do cooked rice if desired.

If you double this recipe it will completely fill a large crockpot.

Creamy Potato Leek Soup

(Photocopied without permission from All Recipes.com)

I had never tried Leeks before, but I got some from a food co-op and so we tried this recipe.  I have made it 2 or 3 times now and everyone in my family loves it.  The leeks are just like a mild green onion.

8 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 cups chicken broth (or 4 cups water and 4 chicken boiullion cubes)
1 pound bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces, reserve bacon grease
3 leeks, sliced
1 C. heavy cream

In a large stockpot cook potatoes in the chicken broth until potatoes are tender.

Meanwhile cook bacon until brown (cut bacon into 1 inch squares before or after cooking...I do it after).  Drain grease but keep 3 T. bacon grease and set aside.

Wash and cut the leeks like this video.  You need to cut and wash them a certain way because they are really dirty inside.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm6XGDwjJQA

Saute the leeks in the reserved bacon grease for 8-10 minutes.

Once the potatoes are tender, stir in the fried leeks, heavy cream and bacon.

Wah-lah!

I got the recipe from here http://allrecipes.com/recipe/creamy-potato-leek-soup-ii/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=creamy%20potato%20leek%20soup%20ii&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page

Cheesy Cauliflower Soup

by Sheryl Punter in the Taste of Home magazine
August and September 2010
Prep:25 min  Cook: 5 1/2 hours
Yield: 9 servings(2-1/4QT)

1 large head cauliflower, broken into florets
2 celery ribs
2 large carrots
1 large green pepper
1 small sweet red pepper
1 medium red onion
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
2 cups(8 oz) shredded cheddar cheese
2 cups half and half cream

Place cauliflower in a 4 -qt slow cooker. Chop the celery, carrots, peppers, and onion; add to slow cooker. Stir in the broth, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours or until the vegetables are tender.
In a blender, process soup in batches until smooth. Return all to slow cooker; stir in cheese and cream. Cover and cook on high for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted.

This soup was really good and easy to make. My family enjoyed. A few things I did different were, substituting red onion for yellow onion, using almost half the amount of cheese, and using whole milk instead of half and half. I probably would have used the right ingredients if I had them all. Enjoy:)

Jana's Taco Soup

Recipe from Jana A.

She brought this to our family a few months ago and we all loved it.

This is one of those super easy recipes that I almost always have all the ingredients on hand for. Here it is.

1 lb hamburger

1 (15 oz) can EACH of corn, black beans, kidney beans, tomato sauce

1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes

1 small can diced chiles

1/3 to 1/2 pkg taco seasoning packet (I use 1/2)

1 (15 oz) can water

Brown hamburger. Add other ingredients and simmer till heated through. Top with tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, and/or salsa if desired.

Onion Soup

p. 29 in my new crockpot cookbook.

3 cups thinly sliced onions (I did 1 1/2 white onions) (Next time I will do yellow...I think the white ones made it too sweet. Or I will do white, but omit the sugar)

half a stick butter

3 T. sugar

2 T. flour

1 qt beef broth (I did 4 cups water and 4 beef boillion cubes)

Cook onions in butter in frying pan. Cover and saute 15 minutes stirring frequently. Add sugar and flour mixing well.

While onions are cooking, put broth in crockpot on high. Add onion mixture to broth.

Cover and cook on LOW 6-8 hours.

Serve topped with toasted bread and grated parmesan cheese (we broke untoasted french bread and grated swiss cheese into ours).

I doubled the recipe for my family of 5 eaters and had a lot left over, I probably shouldn't have doubled.

I gave it 4/5 stars.

Clam Chowder

This is my Aunt Sharon's recipe. I haven't made it before, but I have had the clam chowder before...She emailed it to me and I wanted to post it before it gets lost in my 2,000 emails. I am going to try and make it next week. (*** Note...I did make this, see the attached comments for my opinions)

Clam Chowder

2 cans clams (undrained)
1 onion, diced ) simmer together in clam juice till barely tender
1 c. potatos, raw, diced )
1/2 c. celery, diced )

3/4 c. butter ) blend
3/4 c. flour )

1 qt. half and half, add to butter, cook to thicken, when sauce is nice and thick, add veggies with juice (do not drain) and add
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
pepper to taste

Broccoli Cheese Soup

This is one of my favorite soup recipes:

Boil in unsalted water (about 15 min, or until tender)

4 carrots finely chopped or 1/2 bag of shredded carrots (from Maceys)

4 green onions, chopped (all but roots)

4 stalks of broccoli (chopped, heads only)

SAVE THE WATER YOU BOIL THEM IN!!! (Put colander over a bowl to catch water)

Melt in separate saucepan:

1/4 C. butter (I used real, but you can use margarine)

Stir in 1/3 C. flour with a whisk

Using a whisk stir in:

2 1/2 C. half and half (purchase 2 pints or 1 quart---then measure at home)

1 1/2 C. of your vegetable water (saved from above)

5 chicken boullion cubes

Stir sauce until smooth and thick. Add cooked veggies. When serving, you can top with cheese, but it is good without it also. One recipe (as listed above) will fit in a small crockpot (is that 5 qt?) if you double it, it will fit in a large crockpot (8 qt?).

Tortilla Soup

Okay I LOVE this soup! It is snowing out my window at the moment so soup sounds good to me! It is also a great way to use zucchini and banana squash which around here is quite handy! If you cook and cube your chicken in advance then this is an easy dump, dump recipe which I also love! ALSO, this would work for meatless Monday, just drop out the chicken, the black beans are full of protein!

3 C. chicken broth (from the can or from cooking your chicken)

2 chicken breasts, cubed

2 cloves garlic, diced (I usually just use 1 tsp garlic powder cause I don't always have garlic on hand)

Salt (to taste- I am pretty sure I have never salted it)

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1 14 oz can whole corn, drained

1 can black beans (optional but makes it more hardy)

1 TBL chili powder

zucchini and squash if you have it

Serve with *Avocado sliced

*grated cheese

*lime juice

*tortilla chips

*sour cream

*when I first had this soup it had none of these toppers with it and I LOVED it!

(If you are using fresh garlic then saute in oil for 30 seconds. Add chicken and cook until completely done.)

Put in large pot with chicken broth. Add all ingredients except toppers. Simmer for 20-30 minutes. If you have added the vegetables cook until they are soft.

Totally optional, to serve in individual bowl, place a layer of broken tortilla chips and top with sliced avocado, squeeze lime juice over avocados and sprinkle with grated cheese. Spoon the hot chicken soup into each bowl and garnish with anything else you want. (sour cream, salsa, cheese).

SOUPER Yummy! Would go great with Loretta's biscuits! :) (obviously not necessary though. :))

Becca :)