Homemade Soups Versus Canned Soups
The world has a great big ‘easy’ button anymore that people like to
push instead of doing things the more conventional way, which often
involves more work. But, in a lot of things you get out of it what you
put into it. This goes for cooking, too, and especially for soups. While
there are a lot of good canned soups available at your local grocery
store, it’s very hard to beat a good hearty homemade soup made with a
dash of love.
Making a good homemade soup is the ‘green thumb’ of cooking. But the
question is, why would you want to spend time cooking your own soup when
you can just buy a can of soup or a package of soup mix at the store? Do
you really need an answer? It’s like the difference between eating
bologna and steak. They both have their place, but it’s really hard to
be a hearty home cooked soup.
Now, I’ll give you this much: some soups may not be worth the time to
prepare at home, like tomato soup. But a good hearty soup like homemade
potato soup or bean soup deserves a little more attention and love and
should be share with more than just a sandwich – perhaps with friends
and relatives.
And don’t even get me started on stew. Certainly, if you are in a hurry,
there are some decent (at best) canned stews available on the market,
but you can’t beat a good hearty home-cooked stew with fresh meat and
vegetables mingling all their flavors together. Oh, yeah - great for a
brisk evening after a tough day on the job.
Now, don’t think you have to spend all day making a good homemade soup.
That’s not always true, but some of the better ones will require a
number of ingredients, some slicing and dicing, and some time. But once
you get them on the stove, you get to smell that wonderful aroma all day
long and you will be hard pressed to make it through the day without
dipping into the soup. Or, you can put the ingredients together in a
crock pot and your fresh hot homemade soup will be waiting for you when
you get home from work.
The joys of soup are endless. They go great as a first course, or served
with a sandwich, or as a hearty main dish. My personal favorite is
called “Country Corn Chowder” and it was one of the recipes in a book
called ‘Fit For Life’. If you decide to make that recipe, be sure to
include the optional miso – it really makes the soup stand out.
So go ahead – have your occasional store-bought canned soup. But if you
love to cook, take the time to learn a few good home-made soup recipes
like potato soup, lentil soup, cream of asparagus or mushroom soup,
different kinds of chowders like clam and corn, various stews and
whatever other homemade soups you come across. If you do it right, I can
just about promise you it will be worth your time. |
