Hello, readers!

I have recently been using variations on a type of soup for my dinners. And sometimes lunches. Because I’ve made a very easy, inexpensive recipe that’s fairly flexible, fairly tasty, and fairly filling.

Easy Soup Recipe

I love this recipe, in large part because it’s inexpensive in both money and time. Prep time: about 5-10 minutes, tops. Cooking time: 20-45 minutes. Total: less than an hour until you get a hearty, delicious soup. 🙂

Necessary Ingredients (makes about 4-6 servings.)

1. 6 cups of water (free)
2. 2 TBSP of either chicken or beef “Better than Bouillon” (BtB) (About $1 if you get it from Amazon, so call it about $.2/serving.)
3. 1 small can of tomato paste ($.3? So, $.07/serving?)
4. 1 onion ($.50-$.60? I dunno… $.10-$.12/serving)
5. 2 carrots ($.2, so $.04/serving)
6. 2 celery sticks ($.2? $.04/serving)
7. 1/2 C rice (Negligible.)
8. Beans (Optional. I use black beans or pinto beans.) ($.95, so $.2/serving)
9. (optional) some almonds, pecans, or (I haven’t tried this one yet) walnuts. (This makes it a bit more expensive. But I use about 1/3 of a cup for the entire recipe, so it’s still not that bad.) (I am not going to include the price here.)

Optional spices

The prices here are mostly negligible.

1. Freshly ground pepper to taste
2. Cinnamon to taste
3. Prepared Mustard (I use Beaver’s Hot and Sweet when I use the beef BtB)
4. Parsley to taste
5. Basil
6. Oregano
7. Salt (not needed with normal BtB)
8. Cheese. (Either white or cheddar, or white cheddar.) ($.5 or $.6/serving.)

Total cost: about $.65/serving. (Not including the price of any bread you choose to have with it. But that’s also fairly inexpensive, and probably costs no more than about $.10/serving. So, call it about $.75/serving. Not bad!)

Directions

1. In a soup pot, bring 6 C of water to a boil
2. While water is boiling, slice onions, carrots, and celery. Add to the water at any point in time.
3. When water is boiling, add the 2 Tbsp of BtB, the spices, and the can of tomato paste. Stir until BTB is dissolved, and tomato paste is well incorporated
4. Add the 1/2 C rice, stir.
5. Reduce heat as much as possible, as though you were cooking the rice. Cover, and let sit for at least 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the rice from sticking.
6. (Optional) After about 15 minutes, heat the beans you will want in your soup.
7. (NONOPTIONAL). When soup is done, serve into bowl. (If including beans in order to get the complete protein, or whatever it is, combine the two sets now.)
8. (optional) If using cheese, now’s a good time to add it in. My personal favorite combo is a combination of the “babybell” cheese, mozzarella, Parmesan, and Romano.
9. (Optional) Heat some french bread (or other starchy bready thing) to go with.
10. (completely nonoptional) Enjoy. 🙂