New Classic Soup Recipe

I've started making a new -- new to me -- soup recipe since it started getting cold and rainy. Just a basic chicken and vegetable soup -- but I've started adding quick cooking barley at the end to make it a more filling meal. I use the Dutch oven to make it and whatever chicken I have on hand, preferably boneless thighs. I use whole pieces of boneless chicken and shred it right in the soup after it has cooked for a while. Use two forks to sort of stab and shred the larger pieces of chicken after they cook. I prefer mine to cook whole in its own juices before getting separated, but you can always cut up the chicken before adding it. And I prefer a more shredded chicken rather than squarely cut pieces. Also, you can use orzo, egg noodles, macaroni or maybe even rice instead of the barley, or just omit it altogether. The grocery store had canned vegetables on sale before Thanksgiving so I stocked up. You can obviously use fresh veggies rather than canned, though. I would say replace 1 can of veggies with about 2 cups of fresh chopped. When I use canned vegetables I include the juice from the can and then end up using a little less broth. When I use fresh vegetables I tend to add about 2 more cups of broth.

Ingredients & Directions

• 3-4 T. butter
• 1 chopped onion (1-1.5 C.)
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1.5 pounds chicken
• 4 T. soy sauce

Heat butter in Dutch oven and saute onion, garlic, chicken, and soy sauce for 10 minutes. Add the following ingredients:

• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped (about 2 C.) or 1 can mixed vegetables
• 1 can green beans (with juice) or 1-2 C. fresh
• 1 can corn (with juice)
• 1 can peas (with juice)
• 1 can diced tomato or 1-2 C. fresh
• 6 to 8 C. of broth

Add those ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer for an hour or longer. Use forks to shred the chicken if necessary. Add:

• 8 oz. quick cooking barley

Bring to a boil after adding the barley and then simmer for 15 minutes (according to directions on barley package). 

Yields 6-8 pints.

Harvesting, Cooking, Freezing

I've done a lot of the following 3 things lately:

1. harvesting green peppers, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, basil, and oregano
2. preparing them in various meals
3. storing and freezing them in mason jars

I made a big batch of plain (no meat) tomato sauce with about 10 tomatoes, and I have at least another dozen or two tomatoes ready to go. It made over 4 pints of sauce, most of which I froze in mason jars.

4 frozen pints of tomato sauce

The other day on a whim I thought I would try to throw together a pizza on a tortilla because I had the fresh sauce I had just made plus fresh basil and green peppers and a chunk of mozzarella in the fridge. So I made 1 pizza with the sauce,  cheese, and green peppers and the other with sliced tomatoes and basil instead of sauce. I think they would have turned out a lot better on a pizza crust, but the thin wheat tortilla worked adequately :-) I froze two of those as well.

I've had frozen pierogies from the Italian store for a couple of weeks and I finally got around to makeingthem into mason jar meals to freeze. I used carrots, broccoli, green peppers and herbs from the garden. I boiled the sliced carrots in broth and fresh dill and steamed the broccoli over top of it. I sliced and stir fried a couple green peppers with onions and then added the pierogies after I boiled them. I also heated up two cans of blacks beans with a couple of chopped tomatoes from the garden with butter and Old Bay seasoning. I layered them in 32 oz. mason jars as follows: veggies on the bottom; then the beans, which filled half the jar; 4 pierogies each with the peppers and onions; and a small pat of butter on top to keep it moist when reheated. It made 6 jars, which I let cool and then put in the freezer.

pierogi, beans, and veggies mason jar meals

I've also made dozens of salads in the mason jars. You layer them appropriately, with the dressing on the bottom, then heartier veggies, lighter veggies, cheese, other stuff, and greens on top. I made my own balsamic vinaigrette (1 part olive olive, 3 parts balsamic vinegar, plus brown sugar and garlic) and used as many veggies from the garden as possible. The mason jars have amazing preservation powers! The salads can stay in the fridge for a week without the green wilting. Some of the veggies soak in the dressing and the flavor really pops.

mason jar salads stay fresh for at least a week

I thought all the cilantro going around this time of year might taste good in hummus so I've experimented a few times with that: chick peas, olive oil, lots of cilantro, garlic, lime juice & sea salt.

cilantro hummus