Homemade Soup Versus Canned Soup
Lots of people think they just do not have time to make soup. Instead, they just open up a can and put it in a saucepan. Granted, this is convenient, but what are you really getting? Knowing that canned versions fall far short of the values you get with homemade, it is still difficult to convince some people that making homemade is worth the effort.
Fresh ingredients are important to homemade soup. You know what you are adding and where it comes from. Maybe you grew some vegetables in your garden that you are using for your soup, or got them from the local market. The choices you made may have more flavor than commercial varieties that are bred to stay fresh longer rather than deliver a lot of taste. Knowing how your food is grown helps provide your family with more nutritious choices.
Canned soup usually contains a lot of sodium. Sodium is necessary in our diets in certain quantities, but prepared foods are often ridiculously high in their sodium content. Instead of infusing your family with sodium at every meal, feeding them foods that are fresh and relatively unprocessed is much healthier.
If you have heard about the dangers of high fructose corn syrup, you may be surprised to learn that it is an ingredient in some canned soups! Read every label on everything you buy. Make it at home without corn syrup. It will taste wonderful and give you no ingredients whose names you cannot pronounce.
Take a hard look at the what is available in the grocery store. Your choices are limited. Sure, you can have chicken vegetable, tomato, cream of mushroom and clam chowder, but how many choices do you really have? At home, you can make any kind of you like. Make slumgullian, minestrone, or cream of pumpkin. At home, you are only limited by your imagination!
Lentil is a great one to make at home, as is pea soup. Both are very simple and will fill every belly in the house. Serve them up with some hot crusty bread and you have a meal fit for a king. Even though it is a humble food, it does not have to be bland and boring like most canned verities are.
Take onion soup for example. This delicious simple mixture is about as simple as they come. Delicious caramelized onions simmered in beef broth can be the highlight of your week. Granted, you can find canned onion soup, but it is not the same. The onions are mushy and it is bland. Make this at home and you will gift your taste buds with one of the most delicious meals they have ever had.
Go ahead. Take out that stockpot. Fill it with fresh ingredients and set it to simmer on the stove. You will be amazed at the variety and flavor you will be serving your family. It is a true comfort food that they will really enjoy. As they say, soup is good for what ails you.
French onion soup cannot be made quickly. Each batch must have the onions slowly caramelized to bring out the most complex flavors and sweetness in the onions. Sherry or cognac is often used at the end of this process to further enhance the flavor.
