Autumn is in the air and that means it’s time to get out the soup kettle. The fragrance of homemade soup welcomes your family and friends as they enter your home. My Basic Creamy Soup is the foundation for our family favorites like Clam Chowder, Cheesy Broccoli Chowder, Kale and Sausage Soup, and more.
Stock your pantry and freezer
The key to quick and easy soup is stalking your pantry, fridge, and freezer with the ingredients. Notice none of the ingredients are canned soup! Here are the basics: 32 oz. packages of frozen hash browns, onions, celery, a variety of broths, meats (canned or frozen), and vegetables (fresh or frozen), and milk of your choice. With these ingredients, you can have soup in as little as 30 minutes.
Basic Creamy Soup Recipe
So here is the secret to quick and easy creamy soup. The frozen hashbrowns act as the thickener. Despite their bad rap as a high carb food, a serving as (2/3 cup more than the amount in one cup of soup) is only 60 calories and 13 carbs. Potatoes are a great nutrient source especially for potassium.
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups diced onions
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 32-oz. package of frozen hash brown potatoes
- Liquid (broth or water)
- 1 cup milk (of your choice)
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Place butter onions and celery in a 6-quart soup kettle. Saute until vegetables are transparent.
- Add frozen hash browns. Stir to combine with vegetable and coat with butter. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add enough liquid to just cover potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the texture is like runny mashed potatoes.
- Add one cup of milk. (If I don’t have fresh milk or cream, I often use evaporated milk because it stores indefinitely in the pantry and makes a creamy texture.)
- Continue to simmer until soup is hot.
Yummy Clam Chowder
Today as the gray skies scatter a few showers, the soup of choice is Clam Chowder. It’s really easy. The additional ingredients that you need to stock in your pantry are canned clams (I like the fancy baby clams) and clam juice. Yes, that is all.
Here are the recipe alterations:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 2 cups diced onions
- 1 cup diced celery
- 1 32-oz. package of frozen hash brown potatoes
- 2 jars clam juice (and water if additional liquid is needed)
- 2 cans clams (use juice from clams as part of the liquid)
- 1 cup half-and-half
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Place butter onions and celery in a 6-quart soup kettle. Saute until vegetables are transparent.
- Add frozen hash browns. Stir to combine with vegetable and coat with butter. Cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add clam juice, liquid from canned clams, and water to just cover potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender.
- Add clams and continue to cook until the texture is like runny mashed potatoes.
- Add half-and-half.
- Continue to simmer until soup is hot.
Soup is a meal!
Creamy soup or chowder is the easily the centerpiece of a meal. For lunch, I add Cheesy Herb Scones (recipe will be coming soon). If I am serving this for dinner, I also add a side salad.
As autumn advances and the air becomes crisp and cool, soups become the centerpiece of our menus. Here is a bonus: if you are on a budget, soups and chowders will help to stretch your protein sources into more servings.
I hope you don’t let homemade soup scare you. Try my recipe and enjoy a variety of great meals. Please share with me the delicious dishes you create from my Basic Creamy Soup recipe.
Sharing my heart for home,
