SpokEasy

June 26, 2021

Garbage Soup?! Yes, it’s a most unappetizing name. I named it that because I’m throwing everything in; sort of like throwing a lot of stuff in the garbage can.

You may call it Leftover Soup it you prefer. Or even Mulligan Stew (see segment beginning at 5:55). Garbage Soup, however, is a great way to get odds and ends out of fridge and freezer. It’s open to infinite variety, and the results can actually be quite good.

For the version I just made, I began with a stock of sorts. I had cooking liquid left over from black beans. I had liquid from canned tomatoes; and some tomato sauce as well. There was also the “juice” that I had squeezed out of frozen spinach.

A while back I bought a can of green salsa with pork at the salvage store. I wanted to try it; and I must admit that I’m not impressed with it. It’s actually very bland; and greasy besides. I used some of this salsa as topping on something else; and froze the rest. Into the stock it went.

This stock alone let me get five containers out of the freezer. There were parts of two kinds of onion in the fridge. The yellow onion, I discovered, was too old. It had an off smell; and I didn’t quite dare use it. The red onion was OK; so I chopped it up. Garlic, too.

When the stock came to a boil, I added a cup of dry lentils; a bay leaf; and a half-teaspoon of celery seed. After the lentils were cooked, I diced a carrot and a small potato. I’m trying a little sweet potato in this soup, too.

I’ve got to do something to start using up all the canned goods that are sitting around, so I put in a can of mixed vegetables — and froze the liquid from it for the next garbage soup!