Whenever I make homemade soup, I know it will never be the same as the last time I made it. Soup should contain local and seasonal vegetables, if possible. I choose ingredients from my garden whenever possible. Depending on the season, I will have different food to use.
I’m not a food blogger, so this is an informal list of ingredients I used along with approximate cooking times. It is meant to be a guide.
Garden Soup Ingredients
During Florida winters, we can grow root vegetables and herbs. These are the ingredients I ended up using for my soup. You certainly don’t need to use the same ones. Feel free to add more, or use less. I pulled / picked vegetables (beets, carrots, and herbs) from the garden to supplement store bought. My soup ended up delicious and flavorful.
You will notice that I do not include amounts. I add whatever I think appropriate.
Ingredients
- Chop celery, garlic, and onions and sauté in the bottom of a pan. I used my Staub pot on the stove. Then I moved it to a single electric burner (Amazon paid link) to slow cook. (My stove doesn’t work properly 😡.)
- Add broth. I used approximately 6 cups total of vegetable (or chicken / beef) broth. I made all the broth myself and saved it in the freezer, plus beet juice from cooking my garden beets.
- Chop and add: Carrots, beet greens, herbs (parsley, dill, basil & a rosemary sprig – pull out the stem after cooking). Sliced beets would work here, but mine were pre-boiled so I added them at the end of the cook time.
- 2 bay leaves (remove at the end), 1 -2 Tbs. tomato paste (or can of diced tomatoes). A slice of jalapeño pepper for added flavor (removed at the end).
Dried peas, lentils, and rice
Adding dried items like rice, beans, lentils or even pasta, can help absorb some of the liquid in the soup. This will help thicken up the liquid. I added a little bit of all three items to mine. One of them alone would work well. Read my post about soup basics if you are new to soup cooking. I have more advice about how to thicken soup without using flour.
- Brown rice
- Split peas
- Red Lentils
Slow Cook
Cook the vegetables, herbs and additional ingredients on a low setting for about 2 hours, or until the vegetables are soft.
Add near the end of Cooking time
Once the main vegetables are cooked, add these and cook on low for an additional hour to heat through. Personally, I rarely add salt to food while I am cooking it, but you might want to.
- Any vegetables that are pre-cooked. My beets were cooked ahead of time so I added them about an hour before the end.
- Beans – I used Cannelloni white beans
- Chopped beef brisket (or any pre-cooked meat). It’s not necessary to use any meat. I happened to have a small amount of beef to use.
- Vinegar – small amount (tsp. or so) – optional. Helps bring out the flavors.
Once my soup was completely cooked, I divided it up for freezing. The 2 cup Weck jars are the perfect size to store a healthy, future meal in the freezer. And I ate a bowl of it too!
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Hydrangeas Blue 
Not replying to this post but I found out that ants can steal seeds and
wondered if you have ants in your garden!
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Hi Justine. I think I knew that about ants. I do have ants, and I let them be, unless they are fire ants. I’ve never noticed ants carrying off my seeds, but mostly the seeds I plant directly in the ground are rather big, like beans.
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