The secret to amazing soup

I am fortunate to have learned how to make soup from a master: My Mom!

Since I was in my 20’s, I have been blowing people away with awesome soup.  The secret?  The less shortcuts the better!

Mine starts with a live hen.  For the sake of convenience, I slaughter all the hens at one time and have them ready in the freezer all winter.  (an aside: Do you realize how many hens go to waste because North Americans don’t use them??  Many egg farmers I know have to compost them because by the time they are processed it’s not financially viable to sell.  I get mine live (free!), let them lay for another year, and then we eat them all winter in delicious soups and stews!)

The hen goes in the slow cooker covered with water for at least 12 hours, sometimes 24.  I time it so that the stock will be cooled off when I am ready to make the soup.  I add an onion, some bashed garlic cloves, veggie trimmings, bay leaf, whatever I have on hand.

In a large pot, I saute veggies- again, whatever I have on hand.  Onions, garlic, carrots, celery or celeriac until soft, then add the stock and potatoes if adding.  Then I dismantle my hen and add the meat.  For chicken soup, I wait until after I shut the soup off to add the noodles (use locally made ones if possible!), and I also added stinging nettles at the end to this one in the photo.

You can make good soup with bought stock, but always buy the best you can.  I also freeze lots of stock so I can have it ready if I want to make the process faster.  I don’t follow a recipe and so my soup turns out different every time, which keeps us happy eating it every day for lunch!

Check out some of our favourite soup recipes on our recipe page: https://brownsugarproduce.wordpress.com/recipes/