Hearty Winter Soups/Stews?
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Hearty Winter Soups/Stews?
| Tue, 12-27-2005 - 3:31pm |
Winter is a great time for soups and stews, and these are exactly the types of meals that can be inexpensive and stretch for days and days as brownbag lunch items.

Hi! I have two great recipies and i'm always making soup and stew in the winter and freezing it in smaller portions to reheat for later.
Basic Chicken Soup
Cooking Spray
11/2 lb's skinless boneless chicken breast
1 C Chopped Onion
1 32oz container fat free low sodium chicken broth (prefer Health Valley Brand)
3 Carrots Chopped
3 Celery Stalks Cut up
2 Parsnips peeled and chopped
1 Turnip chopped & Peeled
1/2 c Barley rinsed and dried
1/4 cup of fresh dill (chopped)
1/4 C Parsley chopped
4 C or enough water to cover
Salt & Pepper to taste
Coat Dutch oven with cooking spray; place over med high heat until hot. Add onion and saute. Add all ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover. Simmer 50 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes and serve or ladle into freezer 2 gallon ziplock bags in smaller portions. After you ladle the soup in, get as much of the air out and ziplock. You can freeze this for up to 6 months and it's as delicious re-heated as it is when you make it!
Basic Beef Stew
Cooking Spray
2 lbs beef round cut in cubes for stew
2 tbs Flour
1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
11/2 C Water
1 can 101/2 oz low sodium condensed beef broth
1 cup of low sodium V8 vegetable juice
1/8 tsp Pepper
2 potatoes peeled and cut up
3 med carrots peeled & cut up
2 med celery stalks cut up
1 med onion cut into 1 inch pieces
1 t. salt
1 Bay leaf
Dredge beef in flour, saute in vegetable oil until the meat is browned on all sides. Add all ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover. Simmer for one hour or more. The longer the better. You can thicken the stew with 1/2 C water and 2 tbs all-purpose flour. Boil and stir in constantly for one min before serving. I prefer the flavor w/o thickening. Let the stew cool for 10 minutes to serve immediately or let cool completely and put in Zip lock 2 gallon bags for freezing. This will be good about 3 mo in the freezer. DO NOT thicken the stew with the flour mixture until you are ready to serve.
These recipes are basic and you can vary them with rice, noodles tomatoes chopped tomatoes in liquid ect. I have been making these two for years and the freezing really comes in handy in a pinch. I have to have these hearty soups and stews in the winter. The Family loves it! The kids love to dip big pieces of challah bread in their soup or stew. Yum!
Thanks siriele!
All my best,
Danni
I absolutely adore soups! You're right, they DO make a great take-to-work lunch, if you have access to a microwave. Too bad it's so warm for so long where I live.
My family loves this one, I don't know exactly what it's called, my kids call it the Italian potato soup. It's very similar to Olive Garden's Tuscan soup.
In skillet, brown 1/2 to 1 pound crumbled Italian-style pork sausage along with:
one small onion, diced large
one stalk sliced celery
one T crushed garlic from a jar
Cook until meat is browned and veggies are limp and drain fat.
Meanwhile, in a large stockpot, bring to a boil the following ingredients:
2 quarts chicken stock (from a can, homemade or from dry bouillon)
2 diced carrots
4-5 medium white potatoes, peeled (or not) and diced large
Simmer until veggies are cooked.
Stir in the sausage mix and 2 or more cups sliced fresh kale. Note: My local store doesn't always have kale, so I substitute spinach--fresh or frozen (1 cup if frozen). Simmer just until kale is wilted. You may want to add more stock if it seems too thick.
This is very filling with the potatoes and quite healthy with the green veggies. Very good served with garlic bread and a salad. It's kinda alot of chopping, but it really goes together pretty quickly on a busy evening. The most expensive ingredient is the sausage but less is more--I usually use only 1/2 lb.--it's mainly for the flavoring and save the rest of the package (usually buy links prepackaged by the pound) for spaghetti sauce. I have seen this soup in restaurants with white beans also--so you could add a can of beans to boost the vitamin/protein content. But I don't since my bunch is bean aversive and would mutiny!
Note: this doesn't freeze very well, the potatoes get a mealy texture I don't like, but it lasts for several days in the fridge for leftovers.
Cupcake
This is SO yummy and easy, and cheap too.
Vegetarian, Crockpot Romanian Bean Soup Recipe
(I do a half batch, and if you have a hand blender, you can just stick that right in the crock pot. Also, I use baby limas. And it doesn't take 24 hours to cook it. More like 8 or 9 for the half batch. Cut up the last-minute onions very very tiny, like how they used to have on McDonalds hamburgers. Wee little browned onion bits to stir back in at the end.)
2 cups dried lima beans
8 cups cold water
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, peeled and quartered
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 vegetable bouillon cube
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 teaspoons kosher salt (optional)
freshly-ground black pepper
8 servings
Soak lima beans in cold water overnight.
Drain the lima beans and rinse in several changes of water to float away as many loosened shells as possible.
Place beans in crockpot with 8 cups fresh water, the chopped onion, carrot, garlic and bouillon cube.
Cover tightly and cook 18 to 24 hours, until beans are very tender.
Remove from heat and let cool a little.
In the meantime, heat the butter in a skillet and saute the finely diced onion until it is very brown.
Ladle a small amount of soup at a time into blender or bowl of a food processor and puree until all soup is pureed.
Return to pot and stir in browned onions.
Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.