Impromptu Cooking - Soups

Well, first of all, my mother practiced impromptu cooking and she was very good. She had a knack for knowing what ingredients to put together to turn out a very tasty dish.

However, years later I found a cookbook called Impromptu Cooking by a woman named Glenn Andrews. I turned to that cookbook again and again. The suggestions in that book were clear and easy to understand. Many of the suggestions I am using in this lens.

NOTE: Several years ago I created a cookbook for my children who were all just leaving the nest. They would call me from time to time and ask, "Mom, how do you make.....?" and I'd tell them. So I decided to surprise them with a cookbook with all of their favorite recipes and other useful information.

This lens was actually in the "Soup" chapter. Except, of course, it wasn't a lens!

This is a photo of a pot of lentil soup that I prepared one day while we were Housesitting in California this past winter.

Homemade soup is about as good a meal as I can think of. Making soup warms you up; if you come home late from work, soup can be a fast meal with a sandwich or salad or a thick chunk of crusty whole-grain bread. Or just by itself.

Soups are perfect for impromptu cooking because they lend themselves beautifully to "tweaking". If you don't have one ingredient, you can most certainly substitute another. But this cookbook is filled with much more than just impromptu cooking of soups, of course.

So what I'm going to do here is give you a Soup Guide of sorts so you can do your own thing. I read somwhere that the French always keep a pot of soup simmering on the back of the stove and add vegetables and/or meat bits to it now and again. Not a bad idea, really.

Photo courtesy of Stu_Spivack

Obviously, all soups begin with a liquid base.

~a beef based broth,
~a poultry based broth or
~a vegetable based broth.

You can buy excellent broths in cans or boxes or packets that are all ready to open and use. These are especially terrific when you need a fast meal or were planning to make homemade soup but just don't feel like messing with the whole routine of making your own broth. Plus you save several hours!

If you prefer, you can make your own soup base by either starting with meat or poultry or soup bone that you simmer slowly in water for several hours until tender. Then you remove whatever it is that you've been simmering and there you have it. Soup base. If you're doing that, it might be impromptu but it won't be fast.

Unless you pre-plan the whole thing...then you can put the prepared broth/base in freezer containers, mark the amount in each container and the date, pop them in the freezer and you will definitely have an excellent beginning the next time you want to make soup "on the spur of the moment", so to speak.

Now for a lsit of Soup Vegetables. A good rule of thumb would be equal amounts and, depending on the variety you choose, from 1/2 to 1 cup each:

Potatoes
Green Beans
Corn
Carrots
Celery
Cabbage
Zucchini
Yellow Summer Squash
Okra (frozen or fresh)
Any other kind of bean
Green or red pepper
Sweet potatoes or squash
Turnips

Rutabegas
Parsnips
Fresh Spinach
Onion
Tomatoes, fresh or canned
Leeks
Scallions
Peas, fresh or frozen
Beets (don't use if you don't want a red soup)
Garlic
Corn

Non veggie additions could be:
Rice
Pasta
Barley (which is also a thickener)
Dried Beans or other legumes

Barley, Pasta of any kind, rice, tapioca, and for cream soups you can't beat instant potato flakes as an emergency thickener. Use 1/4 to 1/2 cup, depending upon the amount of soup you are making. Start with the lesser amount. You can always add but you can't very well remove!

Another way to thicken your soup is to remove a portion of it, puree it in a blender and add it back into the soup.

Impromptu Cooking also suggests oatmeal or tapioca but I've never used either of those. Or use bread cubes or a "beurre manie" which is equal amounts of butter and flour rubbed together and then stirred into the soup.

You can beat a little egg or egg yolk and stir that into a small amount of the soup then add that back into the pot.

Heavy cream or sour cream will help thicken a creamy soup.

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Depends on the kind of soup, but whatever you do, try it first by taking 1/2 cup or so of soup out of the pot, add a tiny amount of the herb or other seasoning and see if you like it. If you don't, then you haven't ruined a whole pot of soup.

Of course, even after you've seasoned the soup, it will need to simmer awhile before the flavors really meld. I always think that soup tastes so much better the next day.

Salt
Parsley
Dill
Worcestershire
Herb butter
Garlic powder
Curry powder
Pepper

Paprika
Tabasco
Chives
Basil
Thyme
Rosemary
Bay Leaf
Chili Powder
Beef or Chicken Bouillon

Croutons or oyster crackers
freshly grated cheeses
finely chopped vegetables
sour cream
chopped hard boiled egg
sliced hotdogs or pepperoni
crisp bacon
parsley or watercress
pimento

Any of these suggestions will just add a finishing touch to your newly created impromptu masterpiece!

I used this pretty antique dish to display the parsley & parmesan used as a garnish on that lentil soup I mentioned earlier.

I actually have Pantry Day, now and then. It's when you go through your pantry, refrigerator and freezer and only use items you find that you have on hand. It's a great way to use up what you have plus take inventory. Many people schedule a "Pantry Week" once a month.

I created a delicious Pantry Chili not long ago and posted it on my blog. You can get the "recipe" at this post: Raiding the Pantry - Veggie Chili

So try Impromptu Cooking from your pantry one of these days...it's fun!

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