Yummy soup recipes?

I make my own butternut squash soup
butternut squash [roasted]
onions [roasted/sweated]
veg stock
curry powder
boil
blitz
easy

I make my own stock to use as a base for homemade soups - I prefer having control over the sodium and fat. Plus, I can make huge batches of it and freeze it.

If you don't want to make your own stock, you can at least buy low sodium stock or broth. I highly recommend homemade soup over canned/packaged soup. It's just a healthier (and better tasting) option.

Have you been on SkinnyTaste.com? Best soup recipes ever!

I've been on a greens kick, especially kale. Here's my newest favorite recipe: (it calls for turkey sausage, but I prefer hot chicken sausage - brand: Murray's) - (also when I want to be even healthier, I just use water, no broth)

Kale and Potato Soup with Turkey Sausage
Servings: 6 • Size: 1 2/3 cups • Old Points: 4 pts • Points+: 6
Calories: 232 • Fat: 4 g • Carb: 31 g • Fiber: 5.5 g • Protein: 19 g • Sugar: 3 g
Sodium: 647 mg (will vary by brand of broth you use)

Ingredients:

14 oz reduced fat Italian chicken or turkey sausage
8 cups (1/2 batch) kale, stems removed, leaves shredded
1 tsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
8 cups fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
3 medium red potatoes, peeled diced into 1/4 inch pieces
1 pinch dried red pepper flakes
salt to taste
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

^^ bump for future reference

I am not sure of the caloric intake for it, but I make a chicken soup that is super healthy that everyone I know raves about. Packaged and canned soups can pack a lottttt of sodium and not much nutrition, so making from scratch is such a great idea. I don't have a recipe per se, but it is very easy to make. Start by cooking about a pound of chicken, cut into small one inch pieces, in a stock pot/large boiler until it's no longer pink. Breast meat is best as it's lower in fat, but thighs or a whole chicken broken down may give you more flavor. You may need a little oil, no more than a drizzle, to get you started. This is when I add salt and black pepper, not much, just a dash or two of each, to season the chicken. I add in diced onion and celery when it is cooked through and let them sweat. After about five minutes when they've reached that translucent stage, add about six cups of water, bring it to a boil, and add carrots, sliced or baby carrots, and potatoes. You'll probably want to add a little more salt at this stage to help bring the water to a boil, but a teaspoon should suffice, and you can leave it out if you prefer. I usually add it to taste in the end. I usually go with white potatoes or red potatoes, with the skin on. I think the red give it a little more flavor, but you can use whatever you have on hand. Then, just reduce the heat to let it simmer on low until the potatoes and carrots are cooked, about twenty to thirty minutes. For flavor though, rather than amping up the salt, use curry powder (one to two teaspoons), ground mustard (one to two teaspoons), cayenne (just a dash unless you like it really spicy), and rosemary (about a tablespoon unless you prefer to use fresh herbs). You'll get that good homemade flavor of chicken soup without a ton of salt. Plus, the health benefits of the curry and cayenne. After about twenty minutes, test the potatoes with a fork, and if they're soft but still a little stiff, it's done. Then, you can taste the broth to see if you need any additional seasoning. This is usually when I add more curry, cayenne, mustard, or salt if it seems a little lacking. The seasoning gives it enough flavor though that you don't need a lot of salt. Also, you can add other vegetables to this as you like. I sometimes add fresh sweet corn. One pot can last for at least two meals, or you can halve the portion. It usually tastes better to me the next day, and it is amazing when you're sick.

Love that stuff taste great with out all the salt.

Here's my instructions with pictures for beef stock. You can start either with raw bones you buy specially or with leftovers from some beef meals. http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/main-course/beef/lazy-oven-beef-stock.html

Chicken stock, turkey stock, ham stock, fish stock, whatever -- all work the same way. I tend to make stock in the oven so I can ignore it. With modern stoves, the oven doesn't take much more energy than the stovetop or a slow cooker and I take advantage of the oven being on by roasting other stuff at the same time like butternut squash, beets, etc. for later use.

Making homemade broth is not only easy but cheap. And, you can get a lot of flavor without all that salt. Even the so-called "low sodium" soups and broths are pretty high and the expensive salt-free soups you can buy online are pretty flavorless.

To have broth/stock makings, start now by saving bones and scraps of beef, chicken, etc. Since it's been summer and not soup season, my freezer has a ham bone, some beef bones, and a couple of bags of cooked and raw chicken bones/necks/gizzards, etc., waiting to turn into stock.

I have a bunch of soup recipes on my hobby cooking blog at http://heidicookssupper.com/blog/category/soup/

yum

Turkey Noodle Soup

So, when turkey's go on sale (thanksgiving), I buy 3 or 4 of them to cook during the year. When I cook a turkey, I save all of the dark meat for soups and boil the carcuss to make broth. So that being said, here is the recipie, knowing that I already did this stuff:

8 cups of homemade Turkey stock (no salt added)

Put broth in a large pot on high heat. Add, 3 cups of carrots (diced), 1 cup of chopped onions, 2 cups of diced celery and 5 cups of diced broccoli. Cook until all veggies are tender. Add 2 cups of turkey dark meat (diced). When I made this the last time, I didn't look soupy enough, so I added 4 cups of water and 4 tsp of Broth Base and seasoning, chicken flavored. Let soup warm up to a boil again. Once boiling, add two bags of Ronzoni Healthy Harvest whole grain noodles. Boil for 10 minutes.

This made 20 servings.

Per serving:
Calories: 150
Fat: 1
Sodium:66

Ok - this one takes a bit of work, but I loved my grandmothers old fasioned Bean with Ham soup, so this one is always in my freezer! I love it!

Take 2 bags of Great Norther Beans and soak them overnight in water at room temperature. In the morning I drain those, rinse them and then boil them for 45 minutes to an hour (until they are soft and you can crush one with a fork easily). It's important to get them soft enough now, because once you start adding other ingredients, the will not get any softer.

Once they are soft enough, I drain them and rinse them again. I put them into a crock pot (on low) and add the following:

32 oz of Jennie-O Lean turkey Ham
2 cups of raw celery (diced)
1 cup o diced onion
1 cup of shredded carrots
3 cans of Low osdium cream of mushroom soup
1 can of Tomato Sauce
3 cups of water

Let cook all day (6 to 8 hours). About 1 hour before serving, add 1 cup of vinegar. If it is too thick, add more water, to your liking

Makes 16 servings

Per serving:
Calories: 252
Fat: 5
Sodium: 951

I bit higher in sodium, but sometimes, it is just worth it for the memories.