Soup’s On!
Margaret Weburg
Fall is on its way, and there’s nothing better than warm soup on a cool fall evening. These are some of our favorite soups that will warm you through! All of these soups taste even better warmed up another day, and work great for workday lunches. You can halve or double the recipes easily and adjust ingredients to suit your taste.
We’re also including our turkey enchilada recipe to help you use up any turkey leftovers deliciously. We buy the biggest bird we can, as the meat to bone ratio improves with the size of the bird. We bake ours in a turkey oven bag so it’s always moist and flavorful.
We hope you love these recipes as much as we do.
CHILI
A different version than your typical Texas variety, but we think you’ll love it. It’s great with fresh cornbread.
1 lb ground beef
1 C chopped onion
1 C chopped celery
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 t chili powder
1 t sugar
½ t salt
¼ t pepper
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced green chilies
Cook and stir ground beef, onion, celery and garlic in Dutch oven until the beef is brown. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling, stirring frequently; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Freezes well.
CHEESEBURGER SOUP
Delicious and hearty. It’s very flexible, so you can adjust the amounts of meat and other ingredients to suit your taste and budget. The original recipe called for ½ lb ground beef, but we like a heartier soup for a meal, and usually buy beef in 1 pound packages.
1 lb ground beef
¾ C chopped onion
¾ C shredded carrots
¾ C diced celery
1 t dried basil
1 t dried parsley
4 T butter, divided
3 C chicken broth
4 C diced, peeled potatoes
¼ C flour
2 C cubed cheese
1 ½ C milk
Salt and pepper
Brown beef. Sauté onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley in 1 T butter until tender, add beef. Add chicken broth and potatoes, boil and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Sauté flour in the rest of the butter, add milk slowly and cook, stirring, until thick. Add to the soup. Add cheese and cook until melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.
CHEESE CHOWDER
A light and delicious soup. You can add some chopped chicken to increase the protein if you like, but we love this as is. It’s not fall in our house until we’ve made cheese chowder! (Although, in full disclosure, we have been known to make it year round as we love it so much.)
½ C shredded carrots
½ C chopped celery
¾ C boiling water
¼ C onion
3 T butter
¼ C flour
2 C milk
1 ¾ C chicken broth
1 ½ C cheese
Cook carrots and celery in boiling water. In a separate pan, cook onion in butter. Add flour and then gradually add milk until thick. Add vegetables, broth and cheese and cook over low heat until the cheese melts.
TURKEY SOUP
Get the health benefits of bone broth from your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey as well as a tasty dinner that can feed a crowd. We’ll typically make the broth after we’ve deboned the turkey and freeze it. Then we can make this soup in smaller batches later in the winter as well. This soup is one reason why we buy the biggest bird we can find so we have lots of leftovers!
1 turkey carcass
4 quarts water
3 large onions, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
¼ C uncooked long grain rice
1 C butter
1 ½ C flour
2 C milk
3 C diced cooked turkey
½ t poultry seasoning
Salt and pepper
In a large kettle, cook turkey carcass with water to make 3 quarts stock. Remove bones; reserve meat for soup. Strain stock; set aside. In a saucepan, combine onions, celery, carrots, rice and 1 quart of the stock. Cook for 20 minutes; set aside. In a large soup kettle, melt butter. Blend in flour and heat until bubbly. Add milk and remaining 2 quarts stock; cook and stir until bubbly. Stir in the reserved vegetable mixture, turkey and seasonings to taste. Heat through.
TURKEY ENCHILADAS
The other reason we buy a big turkey! These freeze well and you can adjust the spice to suit your family’s tastes.
2 ½ C chopped turkey
1 ½ C grated cheese
2 C cream of chicken soup
½ C milk
¼ C chopped green chilies
12 flour tortillas
Heat soup, milk and pepper and keep warm; add about 2 T to the chopped turkey. Warm tortillas on a hot griddle and fill with 1/12 of turkey and cheese each. Place in a lightly greased 13x9x2” pan. Pour soup mixture over top and top with grated cheese. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until the cheese is hot and bubbly.