Soup Time!

The weather on the East Coast has been rather - how you say? - wintery with vengeance lately, so of course it means soup time!

I make some mean (by which I mean, "really yummy") soups, and because I'm all about sharing and I can't share actual soup over the internet, I will give you recipes for 2 soups: pickle soup and a vegetable soup.

So, here we go:

Pickle Soup. 

8 cups of water
2 medium potatoes
1 average carrot
1 small onion
1-2 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup rice
7-10 kosher pickles (I prefer B&G brand) salt to taste (about 1/2 tbsp.) 

Makes enough for about 6-8 portions. 

Set water to boil. Peel potatoes and carrot. Cube potatoes, and grate the carrot. By now your water should be boiling, so add rice, then add potatoes 5 minutes later. Bring back to boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. You want it to simmer. Stir occasionally.
Cut up the onion. I like to cut it in tiny pieces, because I don’t like the texture of it in my soups, but you’re welcome to experiment. Warm a large frying pan and let butter melt in it. If it looks a bit excessive, don’t worry, the extra space will be used later. Add onion and saute it until golden (about 5 minutes on low-medium heat). While that’s happening, cut up the pickles into small squares. This is the part where I tend to add a pickle or two to the mix. Don’t skimp on them!
When your onions are golden, add the carrot (possibly adding more butter, if it needs it) and saute for 3-4 more minutes, or until the whole thing looks soft and is a golden color. Don’t let it burn, because it will turn your soup brown.
When the onions and carrots are done, add the pickles to the frying pan and cook uncovered with the onion and carrot for about 7-10 minutes. If necessary, add the liquid from soup to the pan.
Then add the whole thing to soup. Bring back to boil, then cook for 5 minutes, then add salt. This optimises salt absorbtion, because otherwise a large portion of it will be absorbed by potatoes, creating impression that the soup needs more salt. Then cook for 20 more minutes or until your potatoes are easily breakable with a spoon. 


Vegetable Soup. 

8 cups of water


2 medium potatoes
1 average carrot
1 small onion
1-2 tbsp. butter
1 pack of frozen vegetables, such as Bird’s Eye 1 pack of frozen broccoli or California Mix salt to taste (about 1/2 tbsp.) 

Makes enough for about 6-8 portions. 

Set water to boil. Peel potatoes and the carrot. Cube potatoes. By now, your water should be boiling, so add potatoes.
Bring back to boil, then reduce heat to medium-low. You want it to simmer. Stir the soup occasionally.
Cut up the onion. I like to cut it in tiny pieces, because I don’t like the texture of it in my soups, but you’re welcome to experiment. Warm a frying pan and let butter melt in it. Add onion and saute it until golden (about 5 minutes on low-medium heat). While that’s happening, grate the carrot. When your onions are golden, add the carrot (possibly adding more butter, if it needs it) and saute for 3-4 more minutes, or until the whole thing looks soft and is a golden color. Don’t let it burn, because it will turn your soup brown. When the onions and carrots are done, add them to soup and also add the frozen vegetables. Cook for 5 minutes, then add salt. This gives the time for ingredients to soften up a bit, and also, if you add salt too early, a large portion of it will be absorbed by potatoes, making the whole soup taste less salty and creating impression that it needs more salt. Then cook for 20 more minutes or until your potatoes are easily breakable with a spoon.
That’s it!
You can customize it by adding spaghetti about 10 minutes before the end or dill weed about 15 minutes before the end.