So, I tried to make some soup last night, and things got a little out of control. It turns out, however, that it’s pretty much impossible to screw up soup.
I stopped by the grocery store on the way home yesterday to buy some veggies, and used some chicken stock I had in the cupboard at home. I bought the stock a long, long time ago with the intention of making soup, but I never got around to it until now. The stock was a month past its best before date, but it didn’t taste off. It was a little less than two cups worth.
I thought I had a raw chicken breast frozen at home so I didn’t buy any at the store. When I got home, however, I discovered that I did not. Instead, I ended up using a pre-seasoned frozen chicken breast.While the chicken breast was boiling in the broth, I cut up a handful of baby carrots and let that all sit covered for a bit. Then I measured out a little rice and dropped that in, too. The soup smelled very “carroty” by then, and it looked like I put way too much in, so I fished some carrots out with a strainer.
I took the chicken breast out as it has mostly cooked through, and then I added some mini seashell pasta. I went to cut up the chicken breast and it basically fell apart. I guess the marinade and seasoning they used for the chicken really softened it up. I ended up cutting it into chunks and shreds, then tossed that back in a bit later.
After a few more minutes, I added onion and celery. At this point I realized I had put in way too much rice and pasta, so I added another cup of water.
After some more cooking, I added some slices of a red bell pepper and a can of sliced mushrooms. I was putting too much of every ingredient in, so I added another cup of water.
At this point, I had to transfer the soup (stew?) into a larger pot. I was just going crazy, throwing everything I had on hand into the soup.
I eventually added two more cups of water, half a small can of tomato paste, a teaspoon of salt, and a variety of seasonings. I figured I was somehow making a chicken gumbo, so I put some Cajun seasoning into it.
By this time, the carrots were nice and soft, but the celery was still a little too hard. I covered the whole thing and let it simmer for a good long while to get the celery to soften up. Two more cups of water were needed again at the end to thin the soup out.
In the end, my endeavor resulted in four times the amount of soup I originally expected, and it actually tasted really, really good. It honestly tastes like it could be one of those delicious newer Campbell’s Chunky Soup flavors.
I believe this are all the ingredients that went into my soup:
- 2 cups of chicken soup stock
- 6 cups of water (may vary)
- 1 Mediterranean seasoned chicken breast (from a 900g box of frozen breasts, can’t remember the brand)
- 1/2 to 1 cup of sliced baby carrots (not sure how much)
- 1/2 a celery stick, sliced
- 1/4 of a medium-sized red bell pepper
- 1 slice of medium-sized red onion, diced (maybe too little?)
- 1/3 cup of long grain rice
- 1/3 cup of mini pasta shells
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- two pinches of dried oregano
- two pinches of dried basil
- a small amount of Club House La Grille Spicy Pepper Medley seasoning (two or three light shakes)
- a little-more-than-a-small amount of Club House Cajun seasoning (a teaspoon? tablespoon?)
- approx 75g, or half a small tin (smallest tin I could find, slightly smaller than other small tins) of tomato paste
- a can of sliced mushrooms, drained
(Earth vs Soup??)
The Amazing World of Don Dueck 
I smiled reading your post about making soup because I too have been amazed at how easy and fun it is to make yummy soup out of seemingly nothing much. I usually start by dicing an onion, carrot and celery and softening them in a saucepan and then add whatever is savoury in the fridge. I save bones (usually chicken) after a roast and cover them with water after the meal and make stock. I strain out the bones and refridgerate the liquid over night, spoon off the fat and discard it then freeze it for soup making. Sometimes I freeze the bones and collect them up before making stock. Check this out : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup