’Christmas’ Vegetable Soup

 You want to know how church musicians ever manage to have anybody - family, anybody - over during the holidays? Definitely nothing fancy! 

Large pots of soup are my general choice.

Large pots of relatively easy soup are even better.

I’ve done crock pots of my Stone Soup recipe a couple years; this year I ran into a slight difficulty with the recipe I originally wanted to make (how in the devil is everyone out of fresh spinach, for pete’s sake?!), so I’m literally just tossing one together today out of ingredients I’ve got in my kitchen/freezer/pantry. 

I’m using tomatoes - PRO TIP: Tomato soups and sauces are always better the day after! - so I’m putting it together in the stock pot on the stove today, eating a bit myself for supper tonight, and then the rest will go in the Crockpot on the ‘Warm’ setting while I’m in church tomorrow. It’s my Lessons and Carols service, so I have some extra family and friends coming to hear my choir and me. 

Starting with browsing some sausage. This is an Appleton Farms Aldi sausage that I like because it’s not too hot, works in many things, is marked ‘gluten free,’ and freezes well! (Aldi sells it refrigerated. I toss the rolls in the freezer to keep them handy.)

After the pork is browned, you’re going to want to set it aside on a couple paper towels to drain, and you’re going to need to pour the grease off somewhere, so you don’t pour it down your kitchen drain. Another PRO TIP? My favorite way to drain grease is simply cover a bowl with aluminum foil, set it in the sink, and pour your grease into it. You can then set the bowl aside while the grease hardens, ball the foil up and throw it away, grease and all, and never have to worry about cleaning grease off anything. Love. It. 

(Looks kind of disgusting, doesn’t it? Grease is kind of disgusting. This is why we drain it and don’t put it in the soup. Yep.)

All right, got that done.

Now I’m going to mash up my tomatoes, because what I have in my pantry is whole peeled San Mariano tomatoes. They’re my favorites. Just use your hands, toss the tomatoes and everything in your stock pot and just reach in and mash them up with your hands.

If you’re buying something and short on time? Diced tomatoes. The big cans! 

Potatoes? I had a five pound bag of russets. I’m dicing them and tossing them in.

Cans of potatoes work well in soup too! 

I’m going to toss in a frozen bag of peas and a frozen bag of corn too. 

Then, if you’re one of those who stocks broth in your pantry, fill it up with broth.

Me? I do bouillon. I have a small kitchen and a small pantry, and bouillon is easier to keep large quantities on hand! 

So I filled the stock pot up with water and Orrington Farms beef broth base (that’s my favorite marked-gluten-free brand), and set it on the stove to cook the potatoes. 

Voila! I’m leaving it there to simmer while I go finish practicing for tomorrow.

Musicians’ holiday entertaining: seriously, I suggest you try it. No joke!

Let me try to come up with some kind of ingredient list. 😊

‘CHRISTMAS’ VEGETABLE SOUP

Ingredients 

1lb hamburger or sausage

Α bag of potatoes, whatever you’ve got on hand

A large can or two of San Marzano tomatoes / diced tomatoes / whatever

A 12oz bag of frozen peas

A 12oz bag of frozen corn

Orrington Farms broth base / broth / bouillon (I didn’t measure this at all)

Brown your hamburger or sausage. Set it aside on paper towels to drain and cool a bit.

Dice your potatoes into bite-size pieces, or open the cans, if you have cans of potatoes. (If you’re using cans, don’t bother draining anything! Just toss it all in. Use less broth.)

Since I was using whole peeled tomatoes, I crushed up my tomatoes with my hands in my big stock pot. Then I added my raw diced potatoes, the drained sausage, and the peas and carrots. 

I added enough water to make it a good soup consistency - maybe 8 cups or so? Add broth base or bouillon to match your water; if you’re using boxed or canned broth, just add that to make a good soup consistency here.

Set it on the stove and bring it to a boil to cook the potatoes. After the potatoes are done, leave it on to simmer as long as you can! The longer it can simmer, the better it will taste.