What's your favorite super-simple, super-cheap, super-good food item to make yourself?

[democrank]

7. My favorite is a Whatever-You-Have-On-Hand Vegetable Soup

It’s quick and easy, quite inexpensive and oh, so good. Each soup is different, depending what I have on hand. Here’s the idea:

Soup pot, melt 2-3 tablespoons of butter. Not olive oil....butter

Throw in onion and garlic and sauté 3-4 minutes over low to medium heat

Add carrots and celery, sweet peppers, dried thyme, sauté 3-4 minutes

Add whatever additional fresh or frozen vegetables you want, just keep the sizes similar. I almost always add a sweet potato cut into smallish pieces, fresh broccoli cut the same size, some zucchini if I have it, maybe kale. I then raid my freezer to see what I might have for frozen vegetables like corn, peas, green beans and add a little of each.

Cover with water....usually somewhere around 4-6 cups and simmer (with lid on pot) until tender, a matter of 20 or so minutes.

Next step is to blend the soup....little chunkier than a purée. If you want to, add a bit of orange juice- like maybe 2-4 tablespoons. The citrus gives the soup a nice uplift. I’ve also used lemon juice.

Then, salt and pepper to taste....plus add more dried thyme.

I sometimes add freshly grated Parmesan if I have it.

Any kind of squash does well in this soup. I frequently add butternut.

The beauty of this recipe is that the soup is different each time and you can add absolutely any vegetables you have on hand, even leftovers. You’ll end up with several bowls of soup for way under $10.