Nancyjane, I'd love to, but I'm too busy canning! I did can potato leek soup, though, does that count?

Annie

I froze some left over chili I made on a cool weekend a couple weeks ago. I'll probably make a big pot of veggie beef soup sometime in the next month or so and freeze it for work lunches over the winter. And I always make and freeze a big pot of ham and bean soup with leftover Christmas ham and bone.

I just prefer to can soups rather than freeze. Longer shelf life, faster prep time, and I don't have to worry about all the power outages we get. But we do freeze some pints of squash puree to turn into cream soup later on since it can't be canned.

Dave

Annie-yes that counts! Jack ham and bean sounds good! Dave I can understand canning over freezing with power outages. We don't get many and I love using my foodsaver and freezing soups/stews/chili in slabs. Makes it easy to stack in the freezer and saves some space,

I'm about at that stage with my zuk that I'll make some soup base. Good way to sneak extra veges in for kiddos and picky people! It has a slightly salty taste. Nancy

Just got done making a bunch of chicken stock to freeze this week. Will be making pie crusts for the freezer this weekend. If time allows, a batch of black bean and kielbasa chile.

Thanks!

Thanks for that, Dave. I looked for it and couldn't find it.

Annie

Oh wow...Thanks for posting that link Dave! I'm going to have to try a bunch of those this winter. Now all I have to do is figure out which to try first.

We've not ever canned any soup or stock, and it would be rare for us to freeze it either. If we have the makings for soup, we make it right away. Then we eat it for nearly every meal until gone. I suppose if I had a lot of meat at once for some reason, then I might can some stock/broth. I admit it would be nice to have our own broth ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we use a lot.

I finally tried the Better Than Bouillon products for those times when I only need a cup or two of broth. For turkey dinners I have started making a make ahead recipe for gravy. That gives me pre-made gravy and less fuss on the day I'm cooking everything else. I still make more gravy from the freshly roasted turkey. I might use some pan juice to thin the pre-made gravy or just put the pan juices in the fridge for making another batch of gravy for hot turkey sandwiches.

I bought an Instant Pot which has been gathering dust mostly. This week Ocean State Job Lots has Bob's Red Mill products at 30% discount so I bought things like lentils and dried beans for cold weather soups. Since I don't have a pressure canner, I don't can soups but I do like to freeze some containers of soup base. It might be just cooked tomatoes or a soup recipe made part way. When I make the soup I'll add the cream which Dave does with squash puree. Or I'll add fresh vegetables to the tomato base plus either rice or pasta. A friend freezes the water she drains from cooked vegetables (except for things like beets) and then uses when she makes soup.

My two favorite cookbooks for soup recipes are both by Moosewood. One is Low Fat Favorties and the other I think is called Daily Specials.

I have "chicken paws" (the store actually marked them as such) and some chicken to cook into bone broth in my Instant Pot. Not sure what I'm waiting for now that garden work has mostly ended.

Cooking light just put out several soup recipes for either a croc pot or an instapot recipe! My sis said that the 35 min soup is a bit off cause the instapot takes 25 min to warm up.

I'm still thinking about one!

nancyjane, there's a thread on Chowhound that's been helpful with Instant Pot recipes. I find the Facebook group both helpful and confusing since some people report failures. I agree that a lot of recipes fail to include warm up time but if the soup recipe includes sauteeing veggies or meat, the IP is great for that and then when you add liquids and switch to pressure function, it doesn't take so long to warm up since it is already warm from sauteeing. The soup recipe using dried beans look amazingly quick (no pre-soaking for some recipes).

Nancyjane, I have both an Instapot and a stove top pressure cooker. If I could only keep one, I'd keep the stove top PC. It heats up faster and, because it reaches higher pressure, cooks faster. The Instapot works well for making yogurt and as a slow cooker. I gave my old slow cooker away because it had a ceramic liner and I like being able to sauté.

Here's my favorite soup.

Red lentil soup

JX, I've always been a bit afraid of the old pressure cookers! I've seen some pictures and heard some stories of failures!

Also, it's just the 2 of us mostly. Don't need to make huge amounts of food!

The soup looks good, but I would probably add some ham or turkey sausage to it! But that's just me!

I'm about to start testing Instant Pot soup recipes. A lot of people post that they like Instant Pots during the summer to keep kitchens cool. We like leftovers so I figure a soup recipe that serves 6-8 might cover two meals for the two of us and then freeze the rest in single or two serving containers for emergency meals. I'm not sure of the energy savings of stove top vs IP but I think I've read that the keep warm function on the IP is cheaper than keeping a pot on the stove warm. Can't compare it to when we have our wood stove going for heat, then wood stove would be cheapest!

Nancyjane - the difference between an Instapot and a stove top pressure cooker is just whether they are heated with 110v or 220v/gas. Neither one really has more potential for explosion. They both have modern locking mechanisms, over-pressure valves, and gaskets (which need periodic care) as well as similar capacity. I can make risotto, for instance, faster in a stovetop PC than in an ordinary pan, but the IP takes longer than the pan! It does work well as a slower cooker, though.

For the most part, I have no problem making soup etc from scratch on the stove top since we're retired, but sometimes I just get a bug for a pot of beans or some soup NOW!

My SIL also mentioned you can roast a chicken from frozen in 50 minutes!

We do have an InstaPot, which I find "fiddly" and so I don't use it. Elery was all excited for a while, but now the thing sits on the shelf and I make soup on the stovetop. My latest is chicken noodle, with homemade noodles, home canned stock from my pantry and some of that chicken that's been waiting in my freezer.

Annie

The Instant Pot is definitely "fiddly". I have to look at the manual to make sure I have the steam release button in the correct position. It usually takes me several tries to get the digital panel set to what I want. I have to admit I was on the fence and tend to be kitchen gadget crazy when I received an unheard of 40% off coupon from Kohl's and HAD TO use it. I've found a couple of website with international recipes that look very good and I'm hoping the will cook beets more often because the IP will make it faster and easier.

I've found on most of the youtube videos on how to use them, most of them bypass the auto buttons and just use the manual timers.

Well here we are back in almost soup season!

We've had a lovely break from our heat wave after heat wave and the wildfires are almost under control! Halloween is canceled (look up McDonald Ave Halloween) due to covid.

I won't go into politics!

Anyway, with a few somewhat cool days coming up (I put on big girl pants and they still fit!) I have chosen my first soup of the season to be chicken tortilla soup!

It's soup, but it's not a heavy winter soup. Somewhere in between.

Happy soup season! Nancy

somehow at some time I ended up in California gardening but I'm in NH. We make soup here, too, so I guess it's ok. We had a wonderful partnership between a nearby farm and feed store and a seacoast fishing group so we could pre-order lobsters etc for Friday afternoon pickup. I used the Instant Pot and lobster body remnants to make some lobster stock. It's still in the freezer and I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it. Recently I finally cooked some chicken bone broth using what my local supermarket refers to as "chicken paws" plus frozen chicken and turkey bones. The flavor was wonderful and I've already used up the stock so need to make some more. One use was for a claypot chicken and rice dish. I have to decide whether to use the last of my garden green peppers in stuffed pepper soup or the unstuffed pepper casserole. All the sweet red bell peppers were roasted and put into freezer bags.

I just bought Ina G's new book (Modern Comfort Food) and zeroed in on this soup. One tweak for me will likely be using rotisserie chicken. The croutons sound nice but maybe optional. Biscuits or just good bread might be another choice.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

3 chicken breasts, skin on, bone in (2½-3 lb total)
Olive oil
4 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
1½ tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
5 cups chopped leeks, white and green parts (3)
4 cups chopped fennel, tops and cores removed (2 bulbs)
3 cups (½-inch) diced carrots (5 medium)
1 Tbsp minced garlic (3 cloves)
1 Tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
¼ cup Wondra flour
¾ cup cream sherry, divided
7 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 (2 x 3-inch) Italian Parmesan cheese rind
1 (10-oz) box frozen peas
1 cup frozen whole pearl onions
¼ cup minced fresh parsley

Puff Pastry Croutons: (See *Note following recipe.)
½ (17.3-oz) pkg frozen puff pastry (such as Pepperidge Farm), thawed
Flour, for dusting
1 extra-large egg, beaten
1 Tbsp heavy cream
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place chicken, skin side up, on a sheet pan. Rub with oil; season generously with salt and pepper. Roast 35 minutes or until a meat thermometer registers 130°–140°F. Set aside until cool enough to handle.Remove and discard skin and bones. Cut chicken into a 1-inch dice; set aside.
Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium. Add leeks, fennel and carrots; saute over medium-high 10 minutes or until leeks are tender but not browned. Stir in garlic and tarragon; saute 1 minute. Sprinkle with flour; cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Add ½ cup sherry, stock, 4 tsp salt, 1½ tsp pepper and Parmesan rind. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, 20 minutes.
Add chicken, peas and onions. Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Off the heat, remove Parmesan rind; add remaining ¼ cup sherry and parsley. Serve hot in large shallow bowls topped with 2 Puff Pastry Croutons.

Puff Pastry Croutons:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Lightly dust a board and rolling pin with all-purpose flour. Unfold puff pastry. Lightly dust with flour and lightly roll to smooth out folds.
Use star-shaped or fluted round cookie cutters to cut out 12 stars or rounds; place on prepared pan. Combine egg and cream; brush over tops of stars or rounds. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake 8–10 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

*Note: You can prepare and bake the croutons while the soup simmers, or prepare the croutons ahead of time, refrigerate and bake just before serving the soup.

Mmmmmm!

Ya want soup , here you go:

The Canning of Vegetable Soup

HU-939938193August 18, 2020

kinda like the cook on a pirate's ship

18 quarts plus one quart of soup stock for the finisher.

List of ingredients : potatoes , tomatoes , onions , carrots , okra , green beans , dried beans , dried southern peas , summer squash and some water.

In whatever proportions I happen to have this year.

I carry the pot into the kitchen to jar up and carry the jars back out to pressure can.

Pressure canned at 10 psi (my locale) for 70 minute for quarts ( according to my Ma's canning book)

It's a very versatile mixture . Don't recommend including corn in the mix , that will increase the process time for longer. Just add some canned corn to it later. Can also add in some meatballs or chicken , whatever you want.

Makes a killer winter stew for those cold snowy nights to come.

HU from oklahoma

I like the looks of your propane set up. I have a glass top electric stove so that isn't very good for a pressure canner. In the meantime I just freeze soup bases. What vegetables do you can?

The propane setup solves the problem of canning on a glasstop with a heavy pressure canner, but its a little inconvenient carrying the pot in and the jars out of the kitchen.

The vegetables I can separately : tomatoes .corn, beans( both green snap and shelled) , peas (both shelled green English and Southern cowpeas) , pickled okra , pickled peppers , pickled cucumbers , pickled beets , carrots , any greens ( spinach,chard,collards...).

I try to have a well rounded pantry every year.

HU from oklahoma

I'm impressed! But I don't carry ANY boiling liquid ANYWHERE after clanking a pot of boiling water against a counter and getting 3rd degree burns! 3 months of treatment!

I put a lid on the pot , put on a pair of welding gloves and heave hoe.

HU from oklahoma

We don't have strict building codes here so our attached garage is a straight shot into the kitchen with only a threshold, not steps. I used to have a business with a small warehouse so I bought some small shopping carts for picking orders. The carts have two levels with each designed to hold the common hand held plastic shopping baskets that stores provide for people who only get a few things. It might need adapting to carry a canning pot but should work great to carry full and empty jars back and forth to the kitchen. They are called double hand basket shopping carts. Keep your eyes open for something on Craigslist for a store going out of business. Some of the stores in my area have carts like this as well as traditional size shopping carts.