Need soup recipes!

Butternut squash. It's easy.

this is my fav butter nut squash soup recipe. even my 5 year old daughter likes it. give it a try your family just might like it

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/10/butternut-squash-soup-with-sage-1-ww-pt.html

also this website has a lot of really good soup recipes. check it out. you will find a link of all her soup recipes on the right hand side of her home page.

Here are a couple of my "remakes" that are really delicious with good calorie counts & protein!

Tomato Basil Soup:

Dei Fratelli - Crushed Tomatoes-All Natural, No Salt Added, 4 container (3 3/10 cups ea.)
Domino - Granulated Sugar-1 Teaspoon, 1 tsp
Basil Leaf, Fresh - Generic, 70 leaves
the Spice Hunter - Grill Shakers - Roasted Garlic, 2 tsp
the Fresh Market - Sea Salt Spice Grinder, 0.5 tsp
Spice - Cracked Black Pepper, 0.75 tsp
Land O' Lakes - Traditional Half & Half, 8 tbsp (1/2 cup)
Kraft - Natural Shredded Parmesan Cheese, 1.5 container (1 1/2 cups ea.)

Per 2 Cup Serving: calories 318 / fat 12 / carbs 33 / protein 20 / fiber 8

I'm one of those cooks who dumps & tastes & add some more with spices, so those are a guesstimate. My suggestion is to not add salt, until after you've added the cheese & then salt to taste. Saute the onions & garlic in olive oil, then add the rest, except for the 1/2 & 1/2. I just chiffonade the basil into small strips, so you don't have to blender the soup when you're done. I usually simmer the entire pot for an hour or longer, then add the 1/2 & 1/2 right at the end. It is absolutely delicious!!!


Doc's Chicken "Tortilla-less" Soup:

1 TBSP olive oil
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups chicken broth, low sodium
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes, no added sodium
8 oz. chicken breast, shredded
1 can Goya pinto bean, light (thoroughly rinse to decrease sodium)
1-1/3 cups corn, frozen
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp red pepper
1 TBSP cumin

*I use rotisserie chicken stipped from the carcass & chopped, it adds tons of wonderful flavor & make prep really easy!

Saute onions & garlic in olive oil. Add the remainder of ingredients & simmer for 30 minutes. Once again, I often add some extra cumin or a a little chili powder, as I like some heat. May add garnishes such as avocado, tortilla strips & cheese. (Note: garnishes are NOT included in calorie count.) Serving size: 1 cup.

Nutrition Info/cup: calories 141 / fat 3 / carbs 17 / protein 12 / fiber 5

I usually serve a 2 cup serving (double the calorie info) & add a little 2% Mexican Cheese mix & some fresh avocado cubes. You really don't need the tortilla strips, as the corn gives you the same flavor. A 2 cup serving is incredibly filling! If you want to add more for your hubbie or kids, serve with chips & fresh homemade guacamole, or make them a cheese quesadilla.

**I love the taste of fire-roasted tomatoes, so I use those, instead of plain tomatoes (I believe it's Hunt's brand). My sister has changed my recipe up a bit, and replaces the tomatoes with a jar of salsa, adds a whole jalapeño (remove at the end) & the juice of one lime. Both of our families love the soup & ask for it often!

Now, if I could just find a healthy way to make my Creamy Corn Chowder--still working on that one!

http://www.johnsonville.com/recipe/corn-potato-chowder-with-hot-italian-sausage.html

is actually pretty good...

If you want to start easy on your variations, you could just take the stock and cooked chicken but omit the noodles and veggies you current use to do variations like

Egg-lemon: I like to use thin egg noodles, fresh lemon juice (one or two lemons for four servings, I think, depending on your taste), and a beaten egg that you stir in to cook at the end (I think I'd use two for soup for four). Sometimes I add fresh or dried mint. Molly Katzen did something similar in "The Enchanted Brocolli Forest" but with brown rice or barley instead of pasta, and topped with minced parsley, chives, yogurt/sour cream/heavy cream, and/or chopped hard-boiled egg.

Hot and sour soup (yes, it's supposed to be pork, but who's going to know?): add fresh or rehydrated dried mushroom (****aake if you can get), cubed tofu if your family will eat it, a little soy sauce, hot oil (you can make your own if your store doesn't have it by infusing sesame oil or a nut oil if you can't get sesame with dried chilis), and vinegar (red wine vinegar will work fine); add a beaten egg or two at the end to the hot broth. If you want and can find them, you can add dried fungus (black fungus, cloud ear -- it goes by different names), dried tofu "skin" (it's almost paper thin sheets I assume are sliced off the blocks of tofu before drying), and dried lily blossoms, but it's fine without them.

Armenian chicken and lentil soup (I got this from a newspaper years ago, and they got it from "The Chicken Soup Book" by Janet Hazen): saute onion, garlic, sesame seeds, coriander, cumin, paprika, mace, and cayenne (I think if your family doesn't care for some of those you could just leave out the ones they object to); add lentils, chicken stock, and minced dried apricots; cook until lentils are done; add cooked chicken and lemon juice.

Just add chopped greens (kale, collards, turnip -- I also like escarole) to the chicken stock and chicken, with or without cooked lentils or beans of your choice.

Add dried oats instead of noodles and leeks instead of other veggies.

Cook potatoes, carrots, leeks, herbs of your choice (e.g., thyme, parsley) and add the chicken stock. Do something else with the chicken (chicken salad? chicken burritos on another night? in a casserole?).

Departing from the chicken stock/chicken base, bean and lentil soups are another inexpensive option, and you can do all kinds of variation there. Also, if you stick bits of leftover meat (especially ham, bacon or sausages) in the freezer during the month that isn't enough for another meal, or that you're afraid might go bad before you eat it, you can pull that out at the end of the month and toss it in the soup pot with the beans. I like to use bay leaves when I'm cooking beans; it gives them a sort of wine-like flavor, to me. Leftover root veggies and roasted winter squash can be mashed up, frozen, and then defrosted and thinned with the chicken stock to desired soup consistency; add a little milk or cream if desired; and saute some onions and/or garlic in pot before you start.

Zuppa Tuscana Soup

1 lb ground italian sausage
2 large russet potatoes peeled and chopped
1 onion
bacon bits
2 cloves of garlic
2 cups kale
2 cans of chicken broth
1 quart of water
1 c heavy cream (coconut cream)

brown sausage
boil potatoes
cook all ingredients together until boiling then turn to simmer and add kale

Try Pinterest. It is full of great, budget, healthy soup recipes! We love taco soup, chicken chili, chicken corn chowder, chili made with lean ground beef, 15 bean soup, lentil soup, chicken or vegetable barley soup to name a few.

I have some soup recipes on my hobby (not selling) cooking blog at http://heidicookssupper.com/blog/category/soup/

The first one on the list is an easy "creamed soup basic formula" which you can turn into almost anything.

I second what everybody says about butternut squash soup. To easily prepare the squash, I poke a couple holes in it with a fork, wrap it in foil, set it in a dish to catch any drippings, and bake it for an hour or so at anywhere from 300F to 400F. When a fork pokes through it easily, it's done. Then cool in the foil. Refrigerated, it will keep in this state for a day or two. Cut in half lengthwise and scope out the seeds and stringy stuff. The meat will scoop out of the skin almost as easily as an avocado.

The cooked squash can then be used in a variety of ways or tossed in the freezer for later use. If you really think your family will balk at the squash but they like pumpkin pie, make a squash pie and slowly convert them to thinking butternut squash is a real treat.

Yummy Pea Soup

1 onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1-2 tbsp olive oil

heat stock pot and add oil, add onion & celery and saute over low-med flame for about 5 minutes

4-5 carrots (I like a lot of carrots), diced
thyme, dried ( not sure exactly how much I guess 1 tsp.)
add carrots and thyme and continue to saute another 2-3 minutes, stir frequently to avoid too much browning

1 bag goya or jack rabbit or whatever green split peas (I think it's 16 oz)
2 boxes veggie stock or bouliion cubes mixed with water

add peas and broth and turn flame to high to bring to a boil. Then cover and simmer for 45 minutes to 1 and a half hours. You will know its done when everything starts to break down and the peas are soft. You can add some water as you go if you think it needs some.