Quick and Easy Soups

Quick and Easy “Homemade” Soups

This time of year I love to make homemade soups and stews! To me there is nothing quite like homemade soup but because this is the busiest season for me, I barely have time to eat, let alone make even the fastest soups.

All you need for some quick and easy meals is to keep your pantry well stocked with canned soup and some odds and ends in your freezer.

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Here are some examples of things to add to canned soup to make it taste homemade:

Chicken Noodle Soup

• Leftover chicken from the freezer
• Frozen vegetables
• Extra spices

Mushroom Soup

• Extra canned mushrooms, especially ones that are boiled in butter
• Extra spices

Cream of Potato Soup

• bacon bits
• Swiss or Cheddar cheese
• leftover boiled potatoes
• diluted with part chicken broth
• cooked broccoli florets
• carrots
• extra spices

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Tomato Soup

• add a little butter
• diluted with milk instead of water
• American cheese
• frozen vegetables

Bean Soup

• Cubed ham, bacon or bacon bits
• onions or French fried onion rings
• extra beans
• dash of hot sauce

Vegetable Soup

• leftover hamburger, chicken, turkey or most any meat
• add extra vegetables from the freezer
• tomato juice or V8 juice
• extra spices

More Soup Tips:

• Drop spoonfuls of stuffing mix into boiling soup for small dumpling-like additions.

• Add dumplings made with 2 cups baking mix and 2/3 cup milk to boiling chicken noodle soup or veggie soup. Cook 10 minutes uncovered and 10 minutes covered. (See Dining on a Dime for more dumpling recipes.)

• Keep cans of chunky soup and pour over mashed potatoes, noodles or rice, adding a little of your own leftover meat.

• Keep homemade or store bought croutons on hand to add extra flavor to any soup.

For lots of great recipes and tips about scratch cooking and frugal living, take a look at our Dining On A Dime Cookbook here! You’ll find almost 500 pages of very helpful information to help you learn to work all kinds of magic in the kitchen!