I have always been the soup guy in the family, but my nephew's girlfriend is showing me up. I challenged her to a contest.... we each bring a soup contribution to family Thanksgiving, the family blind taste-tests, and judges the winner.
It's on.
Soup recipes.... and GO!
Ooh. Here's the Suddard family's kale soup--Fall River, heart of Portuguese cuisine in the NE, is right next to where Tim grew up, so pretty sure this is authentic:
1 pound linguica or chorizo (the former if you can get it, but chorizo is fine)
1 pound pork chops with bones
1 large onion
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced (I like Yukon Golds because they're waxier and hold shape better)
4 carrots, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bunches kale, stemmed and chopped
1-2 cans red kidney beans
6 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade
1 T vinegar
1 T worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the sausage first, remove, then brown pork chops, remove and add onion to soften, garlic at the end. Add kale, stirring as it shrinks into the pot. Add meats back to pot (dice pork but keep the bones and add them, too), add chicken broth, potatoes, carrots, vinegar, worcestershire and salt and pepper, simmer covered for an hour or so. Add beans and cook uncovered for 15 minutes to heat up. Remove pork bones, and serve.
This recipe is great for any leftover meat so if you don't have pork chops, feel free to sub cooked chicken or beef--no need to brown them first--but the pork bones make it nicer. EDIT: And you may need more broth. It's more of a cover the stuff/eyeball thing for me.
Margie
Just in time for winter! 
Really, no others? I've been watching this thread hoping y'all would start spilling the beans on your chili secrets. (Actually the no-beans, because they don't belong in chili.)
Margie
I don't know if this is going to win any epic soup-offs, but my go to is lentil soup. It's so savory and comforting and satisfying. Also amazingly simple to make as long as you have an immersion blender. My default is the Alton Brown recipe here: (note: just skip the grains of paradise. I've never missed it and am convinced it's put in there to make the recipe seem fancy.)
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/lentil-soup-recipe-1947017.amp
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 pound lentils, picked and rinsed
1 cup peeled and chopped tomatoes
2 quarts chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground toasted cumin
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground grains of paradise
Directions
Side note, today we are going to the annual Stone Soup event the kids school puts on where everyone brings an ingredient and we all put it in a giant cauldron and make a huge batch of soup. It usually turns out really really good.
In reply to dculberson :
As long as one genius brings cabbage, you're GTG.
Ham hock and cabbage soup. My dad got the recipe from an Emeril Lagasse cookbook, and was great for a cold, lazy day. I've made it successfully myself, and have won office soup contests with it.
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the oil in a large deep pot over high heat. Add the bacon and fry until it is slightly crisp, 4 to 6 minutes. Add the ham hock, onions, and carrots. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the onions are slightly wilted.
Add the cabbage, garlic, bay leaves, black pepper, salt, and cayenne. Cook for about 4 minutes, or until the cabbage is slightly wilted. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for about 30 minutes. Add the potatoes. Cover and cook for 1 hour, or until the cabbage and potatoes are soft and tender.
Remove the ham hock from the soup. Pick off the meat and add to the pot. If desired, skim off any fat that has risen to the surface and remove the bay leaves.
Marjorie Suddard said:Really, no others? I've been watching this thread hoping y'all would start spilling the beans on your chili secrets. (Actually the no-beans, because they don't belong in chili.)
Margie
Family secret
Its got clove in it, though. Gives it a different taste profile.
that is not my beef stock recipe, use your own home made stock, but the rest of the recipe is legit.
this is an excellent choice but probably not Thanksgiving appropriate. Instead of vegetable stock I save my shrimp and crab shells throughout the year and make stock with them instead.
Sorry Margie, my chili doesn't really have a recipe and it's different every time. But it starts with actual peppers and onions, and uses zero pre prepared/jarred/bagged spices at all. No beans, and whatever meats are left over from smoking sessions throughout the year.
In reply to Mr_Asa :
I bet clove would be good. I do a dash of cinnamon in homage to my roots, since I grew up not too far from Cincinnati. Plus it's tasty.
Margie
Marjorie Suddard said:Ooh. Here's the Suddard family's kale soup--Fall River, heart of Portuguese cuisine in the NE, is right next to where Tim grew up, so pretty sure this is authentic:
1 pound linguica or chorizo (the former if you can get it, but chorizo is fine)
1 pound pork chops with bones
1 large onion
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and diced (I like Yukon Golds because they're waxier and hold shape better)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 bunches kale, stemmed and chopped
4 carrots, peeled and diced
1-2 cans red kidney beans
6 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade
1 T vinegar
1 T worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the sausage first, remove, then brown pork chops, remove and add onion to soften, garlic at the end. Add kale, stirring as it shrinks into the pot. Add meats back to pot (dice pork but keep the bones and add them, too), add chicken broth, potatoes, carrots, vinegar, worcestershire and salt and pepper, simmer covered for an hour or so. Add beans and cook uncovered for 15 minutes to heat up. Remove pork bones, and serve.
This recipe is great for any leftover meat so if you don't have pork chops, feel free to sub cooked chicken or beef--no need to brown them first--but the pork bones make it nicer. EDIT: And you may need more broth. It's more of a cover the stuff/eyeball thing for me.
Margie
I'm going to mix this recipe with one of my faves. I always smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving, and then boil the carcass to make smoked turkey broth. I usually turn it into something like turkey noodle, or turkey corn, but I think I'll do this with the beans and kale.
Another soup I love to make I call Stuffing Soup. You basically take the leftover mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and turkey, and make it into a big goopy chowder.
I'm trying to find my Pepperplate recipe, but I can't seem to find it. I called it East/West soup, but it's basically a vegetable soup with bacon and curry. It was born out of the start of some MusGo soup and I kept adding seasonings.
The amount of curry paste is certainly adjustable. I use acorn or ?Kuri? squash. Riper and fresher the better.
Freezes very well.
In reply to Marjorie Suddard :
My beer brewing friend is threatening to have a brew day soon, I'll be making your recipe to bring it along to share. It sounds great!
In reply to 11GTCS :
Sounds like an occasion for beer cheese soup.
I don't have a specific recipe, but kind of mix-and-matched a few as the basis and just kind of wing it from there each time. So it never comes out quite the same twice, but is always seems to go over rather well. Here's some very loose guidelines, but play with it to get the consistency and flavor to your liking.
Ingredients:
Chopped veggies: I use 1 large onion, a similar size pile of carrots, and couple leeks. Most recipes call for celery. Some also use (seeded) jalapeno, but I haven't bothered with that yet.
Minced garlic: At least a handful of cloves. It's hard to over do.
4-6 tbsp butter
1/4-1/3 cup flour
12-16 oz Vegetable or chicken stock or broth.
12-16 oz half-and-half. Can use whole milk or heavy cream as desired.
8-12 oz beer. I've successfully used pilsners, lagers, and even into mild amber ales. Nothing hoppy or bitter. Sometimes need to drink off a few oz to get to the 'right' amount.
A squeeze of dijon and/or sprinkle of mustard powder
A dash of hot sauce and/or sprinkle of cayenne pepper
A splash of Worcestershire
12-16 oz (freshly) shredded cheese: Typically cheddar but have some fun. I'll often do halfish medium or sharp cheddar and halfish smoked cheddar.
Chopped bacon for topping
1) Open beer.
2) Cook bacon in soup pot. Remove bacon and set aside.
3) Add butter, veggies, and garlic to soup pot. Cook veggies until softened.
4) Add flour. Continue to cook and stir mixture until it starts to become a veggie filled roux.
5) Slowly add in beer, stirring into the roux a little at a time. It will be thick.
6) Slowly add half-and-half and stock, stirring into the beer mixture a little at a time tpp. Bring just to boil, reduce heat, and simmer. 10-15 min.
7) Add remaining seasonings and flavor enhancers and mix thoroughly.
8) Turn heat to low, and stir in cheese 1/2 cup or so at a time until melted in. Too hot will ruin the cheese, and the soup.
9) Serve topped with bacon.
In reply to Driven5 :
Thanks for the suggestion, we're getting into peak home brewing season so I'll absolutely have some more chances to bring something along and will give this one a try too.
We typically start heating up the water around 10 on a Saturday, that gets the grains in for the mash around an hour later. It's roughly 6 hours from start to finish with the new beer in the fermenters and all the gear cleaned up and stowed so having something to eat (that goes with beer of course) is a good thing. Usual yield is 11-12 gallons per batch depending on the recipe. To be clear this is my friends passion and he's really good at it, I'm just the help. I'm hearing that a Baltic lager is on the wish list for the next batch. He has an amazing Winter Warmer recipe that will go sometime in November as well.
https://www.seriouseats.com/polish-potato-kielbasa-cabbage-soup-kapusniak-recipe
Great on day one. Killer on day two. I now wait until day two.
This week, I think I'm gonna make:
Potato bacon soup
-or-
White Chicken Chili
Anyone have any suggestions which, or a favorite recipe?
Marjorie Suddard said:Really, no others? I've been watching this thread hoping y'all would start spilling the beans on your chili secrets. (Actually the no-beans, because they don't belong in chili.)
Margie
I use chickpeas and oatmeal in my chili.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
My wife makes a very similar soup without a few of those ingredients. (No curry for example.) but it's incredible! The coconut milk gives an awesome rich flavor.
We do this one for a chicken noodle style soup. It calls for gnocchi but we usually just do whatever pasta we have around with it. It's fantastic and we have picky family members asking us for it when they come over.
https://www.thereciperebel.com/chicken-gnocchi-soup/
Next one isn't a soup exactly but equally fantastic the one time we made it.
creamy Sausage gnocchi Buttenrut squash. Sounds weird, tasted great.
Doubled the recipe and didn't quite get proportions right , but close.
https://juliasalbum.com/creamy-butternut-squash-gnocchi-with-sausage/
After 30 years, I finally informed Mrs Heretic that I didn't really like kidney beans in chili (big mistake). My daughter in law concurred stating that kidney beans were the garbage bean of the bean family. Mrs Heretic has NEVER made chili ever since for like 6 years. What's a good substitute?
Edit: I hope chili is close enough to a soup.
I love soup. Michele makes a darn-good chili. The recipe isn’t written down, though, and seems to change depending on what we have on hand.
If bringing in soup, hot and sour for me, please. :)
VolvoHeretic said:After 30 years, I finally informed Mrs Heretic that I didn't really like kidney beans in chili (big mistake). My daughter in law concurred stating that kidney beans were the garbage bean of the bean family. Mrs Heretic has NEVER made chili ever since for like 6 years. What's a good substitute?
Edit: I hope chili is close enough to a soup.
I would say any beans. Pinto beans or Great Northern beans would be my choice.
https://insanelygoodrecipes.com/what-type-of-beans-are-best-for-chili/
And yeah, I don't consider chili to be soup, but prolly close enough. 
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