Ventage Tuesday - Soup-er Supper!

When I am having a hard day, or feeling down, I love to chop things.  I find the repetitive motion and uniformity very soothing.  Because of this love of chopping, I make soup often.  Lots and lots of soup.  

I figured that writing about five soups for today's Ventage prompt would  be pretty easy.  No so my friends.  Most of my recipes are not recipes.  They are just chopping and putting things in the big pan without writing things down or even being very precise.  

Makes writing about soup recipes tough.  So here are my five favorite soups - please forgive my annoying cooks notes and remember that for me, it is about stress relief, not stress creation!  

1.  French Onion Soup.  I like this recipe, although I do use provolone cheese sometimes because it is much cheaper and easier to work with than the gruyere.  The trick?  Don't rush this soup, the onions need A LOT of time. Its work it though! (bonus - lots of chopping).  

2.  Baked Potato Soup.  I don't really use a recipe for this.  I made it just this weekend and it is a great way to use up stuff in the fridge.  Make some bacon in the oven - I prefer good and crispy.  Take a little of the bacon grease and add a couple of tbsp butter.  Saute one large chopped onion.  Then add several large potatoes, cubed.  Add chicken broth til potatoes are covered.  Cook (about an hour) til potatoes are soft.  Add one of the following:  cream, sour cream, greek yogurt or cream cheese.  Mash potatoes (I like it somewhat chunky).  If it seems too thick, add more cream.  add the chopped bacon in and corn.  Add two or three handfuls of grated cheese (cheddar, colby-jack, whatever your preference).  Serve with biscuits.  Yum.  (and lots of chopping).  



3.  Pioneer Woman Chicken and Noodles.  Yum.  This is just yum comfort food at its best.  Plus it is a huge batch so there are great leftovers.

4.  White Chicken Chili.  This is my husband's favorite soup.  Very good - I like to use the leftovers to make white chicken chili nachos (clearly a health food).  

5.  My Chicken and Dumpling Soup (with Grandma leone's dumplings).  This is my can't miss soup.  Use what you have, make the stock, cook it forever, make egg/flour/milk dumplings.  There is no recipe.  Only chopping and deliciousness.  

Well, now I am starving.  Off to check out everyone else's:

Katrina
Em
Steph
Barb