Weekly Soup Night

One way that we save money on groceries is by having weekly soup night.  We've found that a big pot of homemade soup is a pretty frugal way to feed a lot of people.  I like to make a big pot, then we can invite someone over to join us, have the leftovers for lunch later in the week, or even freeze enough for supper another day.  We tend to let it slide in the warm summer months, but during the rest of the year we have soup on a pretty regular basis.  For us, weekly soup night entails homemade soup, usually accompanied by buns, bread, or biscuits.  

These past two or three years, we have been joined every Tuesday night by our friends Megan and Mairi for soup night.  For a few months we invited our entire small group to join us each Tuesday and bring something to contribute to dinner, followed by our Bible study time.  The soup potlucks were a great a low-key dinner enjoyed by friends.  Because I always made a big pot of soup, people could bring something simple to share, such as salad, buns, an appetizer, or a dessert.  Folks could easily stop at the store after work and buy something to bring, without having to really cook or plan ahead much.  It worked well for most people, solving the problem of what/when/how to grab supper between work and small group on a busy weeknight.  If everyone showed up, there was no soup leftover.  If only a couple people came, we were happy to have lots left.

Over the years my soup repertoire has really grown.  Part of the reason we can enjoy soup on a weekly basis is that we rotate through many different kinds of soup.  Here is a list of the different soups that I make:

-beef barley

-beef minestrone

-beef stew

-black bean

-borscht

-broccoli cheese

-chicken corn chowder

-chicken noodle

-chicken stew with butternut squash and quinoa

-chili

-clam chowder

-curried butternut squash

-ham and bean

-harvest pork stew

-lasagna soup

-loaded baked potato soup

-middle eastern red lentil

-potato leek with ham

-quinoa chicken chili

-salmon chowder

-split pea and ham

-tex-mex tortilla

-tortellini

-turkey rice

-ground turkey, kale, and brown rice

You can find some of these recipes, and many more that I haven't yet tried, on my Pinterest Soups page.  If you want a recipe not listed there, let me know and I can probably get it for you, or at find one similar (since I don't always use a recipe).

A great thing about making soup from scratch is that most recipes can be adapted, even at the last minute, to feed extra guests.  Simply add more water/milk/broth as applicable, throw in a few more cooked veggies and you can accommodate a few extra people around your dinner table.

What is your favourite kind of soup?  Are there other soups you make that aren't listed here? I'd love to hear about them!