Soup's On!

The launching of the soup blog. (sigh)

Long ago, I collected soup recipes from my friends--the Friday Friends, a group, MY group, of friends, whom I had an e-mail club (for lack of a better word) long before people knew about "blogs"
We were blogging before blogging was cool.

As I said, I've been collecting soup recipes from them for years. I have a lot. It was for my soup restaurant. The one I plan on having some day.
Homemade Soup, homemade cookies/desserts and books, used and new.
That's my dream!! Well, that and a million bucks.
I used to want to use the name "Stone-Soup" (after the children's book and Stone is my last name) but my cousin informed me that there are a couple of "Stone-Soups" in Southern Washington. So, I've decided on Ahhh...SomeSoups.

Now....to find the perfect place.....

But until then, I thought I'd make the soup recipes my friends have so kindly given to me for my "core" recipes for the restaurant.
I'm going to make a soup a week. I'll probably blog more than that, but a soup a week.
I'll showcase a Friday Friend. ~grins~

I plan on starting at the beginning and going to the end--EXCEPT for today. Today, I thought I'd begin with my favorite soup of all time.

Meghan's Minestrone

Sent in by my sister in law, Meghan.
I love this soup. Love this soup. Did I say that I love this soup?
It has tons of fresh veggies and a spicy Italian sausage...and it's so DARN GOOD!!!
At the end we grate a tad bit of parmiganio on top and serve with a good crusty bread.
mmmmm.......

Meghan's Minestrone
1 lb Italian Sausage (I prefer spicy)
1 large onion
2-3 carrots, sliced
2-3 celery ribs, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
8-10 cups beef stock
1 leek, chopped
2-3 zucchini, sliced
2 cups green beans
2 cups shredded cabbage
1 28oz chopped tomatoes w/juice
1 cup pasta (elbow or shells)
basil, oregano, cumin, salt and pepper

Sauté sausage (remove from casing and crumble) in large pot. Add onion, carrots, celery and garlic--sauté about 5 minutes. Add beef stock, leeks, zucchini, green beans, cabbage and tomatoes. Simmer, covered for one hour. Add pasta and spices, simmer additional 30 minutes.

here is what we do...
get your soup pot and the Italian Sausages





put a bit of EVOO in the bottom of the soup pot, just to discourage sticking

squeeze the sausage out of the casings (not an attractive picture)

this is how the sausages look in the casing and then there is the casing with no sausage. LOL

get your first set of veggies
carrots, celery, onion and garlic

chop them up

add them to the soup pot

Sometimes I have to take the sausages out and chop them a bit, as they don't crumble as well as I would like them too.

add your beef broth and tomatoes. I KNOW that some purists will say ONLY broth or stock made from scratch will do, but come on, most of us are "home" cooks with little time on our hands. Not to say that I won't do a stock from scratch sometimes, but most of the time, a store bought broth will do.

get your 2nd set of veggies
zucchini, cabbage, green beans and a leek

the leeks hold a lot of dirt.

this is how I clean them.....slice and put in a bowl of water. the dirt sinks to the bottom of the bowl and the leek floats.

they are all chopped

add to the soup pot

stir and let simmer for one hour. Looks good.

After an hour, add the pasta. I put in sea-shells and cook for 30 minutes more.

Wah-La!!!!