Carol’s Winter Warmers

Now the weather is cooler I have been making big pots of soup which often last (stored in airtight containers and frozen) for several meals. Soup is so easy and uses up whatever you have left in the veggie drawer.

I either make a beef or ham soup with beef (gravy beef) and beef bones, or ham bones (with some ham left on the bone), plus a small box of Campbell’s beef stock, or chicken soup with chicken carcasses, tenderloins, and a small box of Campbell’s salt-reduced chicken stock.
To both soups, I add a couple of decent-sized onions, carrots, celery, and/or leeks (or anything else you have around) – all cut reasonably chunky.
I usually season with salt (sea salt, if you like) and pepper (whole peppercorns in chicken soup). Then, fill the pot up with water and let it simmer for a couple of hours.

The idea of the meat or tenderloins is that you then know how much protein you are getting. With the chicken soup, I add the tenderloins in about ¾ of an hour before I’m going to use the soup, but with the beef/ham soup, you can cook with the bones the whole time.