As the weather once again turns cooler I once again start thinking about soup. Soup is one of my favorite things to eat, 2nd only to pizza.
Now I think there are probably some things that should not be made at home. Chinese food comes to mind. I’m sure that I could never make Chinese food as good as my little take-out place, so I don’t even try. But soup is another matter.
For me, canned or packaged soups always come up a little short either on ingredients or flavor – and sometimes both. Even the higher ended ones are nowhere near as good as what I can make at home with not a whole lot of effort and a lot less money.
My other beef with packaged soups is that most of them contain enough salt to pillar Lot’s wife all over again.
A can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle soup has 870 milligrams of sodium per serving, more than a third of one’s daily requirements. A can of Progresso Creamy Mushroom soup has 830 milligrams per serving. A package of Bear Creek Creamy Potato dry soup mix packs a whopping 890 milligrams of the ocean brine per serving. That’s a lot of salt.
Our Povertystew Creamy Smoked Ham & Cauliflower soup is a healing elixir for a chilly, rainy, fall day with warming notes of butter and cayenne. Like most soups and stews the leftovers (if any) will get better with age (refrigerated of course) but since it is a milk based soup it’s best to finish it off within three or four days.
Need This
4 – 12 ounce packages of microwave steam-in-bag cauliflower
3 stalks of celery – cleaned and chopped crosswise
2 cups of shredded carrots
2 – 8 ounce packages of ham steaks (preferably smoked) – cubed.
2 tablespoons of butter
Salt
2 – 14.5 ounce cans of chicken broth
2 cups of half-and-half milk
Cayenne pepper
Garlic powder
Liquid smoke (Stubbs Hickory Smoke is a good brand)
Do This
Microwave each bag of cauliflower for 5 minutes – on high setting.
While the cauliflower is cooking add the two tablespoons of butter to a non-stick frypan and put a medium heat under it.
When the butter has just melted add the celery, carrots and the cubed ham steak to the pan. Fry these three, stirring frequently, until the celery just starts to soften (about 5 minutes or so).
Throw the steamed cauliflower into a whirligig and process until smooth and creamy.
Dump the creamed cauliflower into a large pot.
Add the two cans of chicken broth; the fried ham and veg and the two cups of half-and-half to the pot.
Put a medium heat under the pot.
Bring the soup to a gentle bubbly boil, then reduce the heat to low.
Add the salt, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and liquid smoke – as much or as little as you like, then stir it all up nice.
Simmer on low heat (uncovered) for 30 minutes.
Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary. Serve hot.
Serves 4. My cost approx. $ 13.15 total – about $ 3.29 per serving.