The latest, greatest thing these days is all about pantry cooking in January, so today I'm sharing a Pantry Shelf Soup. I made this soup totally from things I already had in my freezer, pantry, and refrigerator. It was kind of fun! I'm not going to say I could do this for the rest of the month or anything, but it was fun to do it for just one dinner. Actually, it made such a big pot of soup, I have 2 more meals in the freezer! I love having things on hand in my pantry anyway, so it wasn't a big surprise to me that this worked out. We were part of a CSA last summer, and we received a lot of bits and pieces of vegetables that weren't enough to preserve, but they were fun to get and try. I froze a lot of them at the time, and now I was able to use up some that I had frozen. It was ridiculously delicious - if I do say so myself! This is right up Grandma's alley - both grandmas, actually, being cooks that went through the Great Depression of the 1930's - and I know they'd both approve of the "pantry cooking" thing. They both did a lot of canning of produce from their gardens and they both did some freezing of vegetables when that became available, so they always had a fully stocked pantry. It's how they cooked all the time, and it's how I learned to cook, too. Have fun with this! Get creative! Ok - go!
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Pantry Shelf Soup
These are the ingredients that came from the freezer - Homemade Chicken Stock left from Thanksgiving's Turkey Gravy making, about 1/3 of a rotisserie chicken (which I buy, pull the meat off, and freeze - saving the bones for said Homemade Chicken Stock), zucchini from either our garden or our CSA, and leeks from our CSA. I also had a package of gnocchi in my pantry that had been in there awhile and needed to be used.
These ingredients were from my refrigerator - celery (I only had 1 stalk left), 1 very large carrot, and 1 onion (pantry item).
Cook in about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil (pantry item):
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 very large carrot, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
Cook for about 10 minutes, until soft.
(For some reason, the photos I took here didn't turn out, so I'll just tell you here what I added.)
Add:
1 quart of Homemade Chicken Stock
2-3 cups frozen zucchini, cut into 1" cubes
1 1/2 cups frozen sliced leeks
1 package of gnocchi
1/3 of a frozen rotisserie chicken, shredded
It simmered for about 10 minutes, until the gnocchi was tender.
After the simmer, add:
1/2 cup of heavy cream and a little bit of milk (you could add about 1 cup of heavy cream or don't add it at all)
salt and pepper, to taste
I added 2 teaspoons of cornstarch in about 3/4 cup water and let that simmer for a few minutes until it thickened a bit, but that's not necessary.
Any vegetables that you have in your freezer would be great in this - options:
green peas
green beans
corn
garlic
tomatoes
black beans
herbs
Any meat in your freezer would probably work - options:
ham
sausage - cut up links or ground
pork
Use whatever you have in YOUR pantry or freezer!
Because I had some frozen chives from last summer's Herb Pots in the freezer, I used some of those on top, too!
Add a nice green salad and some fruit - you're all set! Yes - those were also part of my pantry! 
I love this soup. I love the idea of this soup. I love being able to pull stuff from my pantry, freezer, and refrigerator and make a great meal - in this case, soup. Try to have some of these things on hand. It's so nice to be able to pull something like this together - FAST. It's faster than fast food and it's better for you - cheaper, too! Have some fun this weekend and see if you can't pull a meal from things you have around the kitchen. Make some Pantry Shelf Soup and let me know what you come up with!
No comments:
Post a Comment