Soup Recipe

Chicken broth
Cooked Chicken (I buy the perdue shortcuts... SO much easier)
Onion
Carrot
Celery
Garlic
Bay leaf
Salt and pepper

That's it!

DON'T eat the Bay leaf, take it out first before serving.

Hi- here is a good basic start to make a LOT of different kinds of soup. First, keep some broth on hand ( chicken and beef).When you make soup, you want to use the classic veggies as your base- chopped onions, carrots and celery. (if I don't have celery, I leave it out- work with what you have and don't be afraid to make little changes!!)

1) Take a spoonful of olive oil or a tablespoon of butter or margarine( any kind of fat). let it heat up and melt in the soup pot. Then add your chopped veggies on medium heat. There should be just enough fat to sort of let everything get stirred around in it. You can always add a little bit more if you think you need to. You should also give the veggies a little sprinkle of salt and pepper at this time.

2)Let the vegetables cook like that for a few minutes, stirring them. If they seem to be scorching, then turn your heat down just a little. The veggies will release the liquid that is in them- this is called 'sweating'. Once they seem to be cooked fairly soft- about 3 minutes, unless you are making a HUGE batch of soup- then pour your broth in.

3)If you're making chicken noodle soup, you can use a can of chicken or some chicken leftovers you've already cooked or pre-cooked chicken strips cut into small pieces- whatever you have at home. Have it ready to go, or slice it up while your veggies and broth are getting together! Then drop the chicken into the soup.

4)Add a little more salt (trust me, you are still adding WAY less salt this way than the sodium that is in any canned soup) and (if you have them) a little thyme, rosemary parsley- experiment a little! Just add a little at a time, give it a minute to absorb the new spice and then TASTE, TASTE, TASTE. You can't be a good cook without tasting your own food, so don't be shy! You can always add a little more of something if you think you need to.

5)Pasta- add about a cup to a cup and a half of whatever noodles or pasta you want to use. You want the soup to be at a SIMMER. This means it isn't bubbling like boiling water, but it isn't totally smooth, either. It should just be cooking very 'gently'. After you add the pasta turn the heat as low as you can while keeping the 'gentle' cooking, and put the lid on. Let it cook for 5 or 6 minutes, which is as much as it takes for most noodles to cook.

6) Check a noodle for doneness- it should be cooked, but not mushy. At this point, also taste your broth for flavor. Pasta or potatos will absorb some of the salt from your dish, so this is where you check to see if it needs a little more salt or spices.

7)Slice up some bread or pop some biscuits in the oven and make a quick salad and you have a whole dinner!!

Ok, you can do this with ANYTHING. Always cook the veggies first in a little fat, then add broth, then add the other stuff.

To make Beef Barley soup, I use leftover pot roast that I did in the Crock pot earlier in the week. I also save the cooked onions from the Crockpot and start the soup with just that and some chunks of carrot. After the veggies are all cooking happily together, I add in some beef broth, spices and a splash of red wine! Then the leftover pot roast, shredded up.

To cook rice or barley, you can pre-cook it, or use the microwave kind and just add it. OR, if you want it to cook in the soup, add it in, but turn the heat up a little higher than for the chicken and it will take longer. You might want to have some extra beef broth on hand as well, because the rice and barley are going to soak up more liquid than the noodles. This can be a GREAT hearty soup with some crusty bread in the winter.

I hope this helps!! I went to cooking school, but I really learned how to cook starting from when I was a little girl from my mom and great-grandma. Don't be intimidated! Soup is a great thing to make- if you have ANY other cooking questions or want to know about any other specific recipes, please message me and I'll be glad to help you along. I love to cook and I hope you will too!

I wouldn't use Pasta Roni (the stuff that makes its own sauce, right? You add milk and butter?) in soup.

I usually cut up a couple of carrots, a couple of pieces of celery, and an onion. Then I'll cook all of these in a little bit of butter or oil for a few minutes, until they're starting to get soft, but not until the onion starts to brown - probably just 3 minutes over low heat. I then add a big can of chicken broth (14 ounces isn't enough!), a bag of egg noodles, and diced chicken (cooked). I cook it for as long as the package of noodles says to cook - usually 10 minutes or so.

If you have raw chicken, you can cover it with water (whole) and put it in a stock pot, and boil it for, oh, about an hour with the celery, carrot, and onion. Take the chicken out, peel off the skin, cut it into bite sized chunks (meanwhile, leave the water that you boiled it in boiling on the stove - to cook it down and give it a stronger flavor, and to prevent bacteria growth. Once you've picked all the meat off of the chicken, throw away the bones and return the meat to the pot, add noodles, and cook for 10 minutes.

You're going to need to add salt if you do it that way. You can also add garlic (good for a stuffy nose).

Pasta Roni has instructions on the back of the package.

Good luck,
A. @ http://prettybabies.blogspot.com

Hi! If I have ingredients and don't know what to make, I go to www.allrecipes.com. You enter the ingredients and it comes up with recipe ideas. You can always just enter "chicken soup" also. I hope this helps.
A.
http://www.CareerAtHomeNow.net

you will find at the pata section , little letter maccaroni. Boil the broth, add salt & pepper to taste, a little nutmeg and dump about 1 table spoon of pasta per 1-1/2 cup of broth. boil till tender and then add some fresh parsly and some fresh chives. the letters will please your child. It did wonders for me :) you can do without the green stuff at the end if your child is picky.
good luck.

Clean your fresh vegtables put in pan of chicken broth add seasonings bring to a boil cover reduce heat stir occasionaly til veggies are tender.

Sounds like you're on the right track. Soup can be as easy as you want to make it.
Heat up the broth, throw in some frozen peas, throw in some cooked pasta, and you've got soup.
Add some chopped onion and some sliced turkey, whatever.

Here's one of my favorites --
Easy Tortilla soup:
Ladle hot broth into bowls, add your favorite salsa, top with shredded cheese and sour cream and crumbled tortilla chips. Mmmm.

You can add just a few items or alot to make a soup. You could add a bag of frozen mixed veggies and if you want meat, add chicken(anything from a chopped up chicken breast, a roasted chicken cut up like from jewel or Sams or Costco, or if you had fried chicken pull meat off the bone and chop and toss in the left overs), then you can add pasta(can be cooked in a separate pot for clearer soup or if you don't care cook in the broth, the starch will thicken the soup a little) or rice(needs to be cooked first), if you want more in your soups add spices, garlic, onion(can saute first), mushrooms(can saute first). Or go to websites of name brand of broth and pastas they have recipes.

don't use pasta roni, it has lots of sodium and preservatives. Use your own white rice and add natural herbs to your broth. Oregan or Cilantro are my favorites. Try basil and rosemary. YOu can also make vegetable broth by slow boiling veggies. I like broccali adn zucchini and carrots in mine. YUM. you't making me hungry. Have you ever tried brown rice?