A Delicious and Easy to Make Soup

10:47 AM Posted by jo

Yesterday was one of those days. At about four o'clock I realized that I forgot to take something out from the freezer for dinner, again (hum, yes, it does happen quite frequently but I am good at improvising). The day just went by too quickly yesterday.

Thursdays are soup days in Sweden, and when I grew up we always ate soup on Thursdays. So I went looking around the kitchen to see what kind of things I had available to make a soup. I found a jar of tomatoes, onions, garlic, a couple of chicken breasts, a chicken carcass from previous night's dinner, some carrots, and a bag of beans in the freezer. When I make beans I always make the triple amount of beans so that I can freeze the leftovers. It is very handy since I don't buy canned beans. I make my own version of Bob's Red Mill's 13 Bean Soup Mix. It is a combination of black beans, pinto beans, lentils, kidney beans, black eyed peas, yellow split peas, and lima beans. All organic of course.

I started with the beans, and I put them in a large pot and boiled them until they were done. While the beans were cooking I added the chicken carcass, some onions, plenty of water and two carrots to the crockpot and cooked on high to make a broth.

Meanwhile I cut up plenty of garlic cloves, one large onion, and two chicken breasts. I sauteed the garlic and onion in some coconut oil to make the onion soft and sweet tasting. My daughter Paola grated a couple of carrots for me.

When the beans were done I drained them and put them back in the pot. I poured the content of the crockpot through a sieve and saved the liquid. I added the liquid to the beans along with the sauteed onion mix, cut up chicken and grated carrots. I like to add herbs to my food so I added plenty of my Herbs d' Provence mix, but I also added plenty of chili pepper. I threw in some cumin as well.

I improvise a lot and I am not a good contributor to recipe swaps. I do have some things on hand to make it easier. Like I mentioned, I keep beans in the freezer, and I have plenty of garlic and onions in the pantry. I save the chicken carcass so I can make a broth for a quick soup. Sometimes I freeze the chicken carcass whole with wings without making the broth, and on days when I need broth I put it in the crockpot on low for a few hours with some vegetables. I also often cook more meat than I need and keep it for soups, salads or for snacks.

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