On Sunday I decided to try out a new soup recipe. I had no more than gotten started than I decided to make a second soup that Smokey had been asking for. And while paging through my 3-ring binder of recipes, I came upon another one for which I happened to have all the ingredients. Mmmmmm, soup...
As the butter dish looks on,
I throw three medium potatoes into the oven to bake, and cook some bacon for two of the soups.
Two others require carrots and onion. (See the new iPod clock radio? My Mini has a new purpose in life, replacing the big-ass stereo that is taking up space on the counter.)
Sauté the carrots and onion with the crumbled bacon:
Dice some potatoes. The cutting board gets…crowded:
Cook some wild rice in chicken broth:
Measure out two cups of cooked wild rice. The kitchen gets…messier:
Smokey and Matthew were outside working on cars and such. Matthew stopped by to show me his hammer.
Throw the sautéed carrots and onions and bacon into a big pot with lentils, tomato paste, the diced potatoes, and some seasonings.
Add ~10 cups variously flavored broths. Oops, need a bigger [crock]pot.
Peel and slice the baked potatoes. Grate 1/2 cup carrots. The counter becomes…problematic.
Peel and slice the baked potatoes and add to the stuff that has been simmering that I haven't shown you. Simmer some more. This is potato soup.
Later I'll stir in some sour cream and the rest of the crumbled bacon. Mmmmmm.
Dice some of the ham left over from our Thanksgiving dinner. Voila! Creamy wild rice soup:
Later I'll stir in some sherry, and some evaporated milk to thin it if necessary. Mmmmmm.
The best one, though, is the one that needs to cook the longest. Happily, this is the recipe that makes the biggest batch, too.
This is Al Quie's Lentil Soup, the recipe found in his campaign literature from the late 1970s when he ran for governor. In the second photo I have diced a package of smoky links and thrown those in with a couple tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. I chanced to meet Al Quie in the early 1990s; I introduced myself and thanked him for the soup recipe. Mmmmmm.
Recipes are here:
