Regular readers may recall that following a hearty New Years Eve dinner with friends, I upcycled the leftover beef bones and made a big pot of new years stock.
Beef stock.
Yum.
…which, of course, can be used for all sorts of amazing things, and in particular homemade soup.
I make soup quite frequently, but claiming that I follow any sort of recipe is quite far from reality.
I tend to make scratch soup.
Soup. From scratch. From whatever.
For example, the scratch soup I made recently from my (also recently) made beef stock looked a little something like the photo below:
Scratch soup has a little of this. And a little of that. And a little of this other thing, cooked together into a lovely, luscious meal in a bowl.
For example, this bowl of scratch soup looked a little something like this:
a (kinda) recipe
2 cups beef stock
2 cups of water
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of olive oil
handful leftover roast beef chunks
the leftover peas and carrots from dinner
a bit of leftover chopped onion
the remains of that bag of dried pasta
salt, pepper, and a squirt of hot sauce
Using up leftovers, scrounging bits of vegetables from the refrigerator, gauging spices, and adding bits that make texture and flavours and spicyness to what you and your culinary audience likes… this is what makes a good scratch soup.
Tomorrow’s soup might look a lot different. For example, I know we’ve got a half can of black beans, a partial bag of gnocchi and a leftover sausage in the fridge. Sounds good to me, but the day after that those same ingredients will be gone and I’ll be working with a new collection.
Scratch soup is whatever you make it.
Maybe you use leftovers.
Maybe you keep a few key ingredients handy or frozen nearby.
Maybe you go simple.
Maybe you love complexity.
Ultimately it’s your scratch, to itch with whatever you think would make a great soup.