+ Reply to thread
Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: I do not like vegetable soup. Never have.

  1. #1
    The "cool" mom.
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Behind a fascist webfilter.
    Posts
    25

    Default I do not like vegetable soup. Never have.

    However, I have found that I make really good vegetable soup. Tasty. Which leads me to the conclusion that I grew up with a mother that can't cook.

    My mom's veggie soup: Dump a bunch of canned whatever into a pot. Add a can of tomato juice. Simmer the whole bloody day. Add some kind of pasta. Beg your daughter (me) to show up with a loaf of homemade bread to take people's minds off the awfulness.

    My veggie soup: Saute some chopped onions and garlic. Add some diced celery and sliced carrots. Dump in a couple of cartons of beef stock, some diced potatoes, bay leaf, crushed red pepper, paprika, parsley flakes, pepper. Simmer 'til the carrots are almost done. Add a bunch of frozen whatever - I like green beans, broccoli, corn, asparagus, and peas - and a can of tomato paste. Cook just 'til the frozen veggies are crisp-tender. Simple, filling, healthy, yummy, cheap, and I get leftovers.

    I have also discovered that fresh spinach is a whole different animal than the canned cow-pies my mother used to douse with vinegar and put on the table, and it is possible to do more with sweet potatoes besides bake them in butter and brown sugar and cover them with marshmallows.

    My mom can do awesome things with dessert (give her a cake mix, some instant pudding, and a carton of Cool Whip and you're in for Nirvana) but her main dishes need some work.

  2. #2
    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Location
    NYer in Atlanta
    Posts
    3,464

    Default Re: I do not like vegetable soup. Never have.

    Your soup sounds delicious. I just may try it if I feel ambitious this week.

    My mom was a kitchen magician except for her fried chicken - dark, dry and greasy. I hated it until I tried my Grandma's and realized that there are different ways to cook.

    Mine is very good - I don't have a recipe, I just season until it feels right and cook until I can hear that it's done. I use garlic powder and seasoning salt. Cayenne pepper if in the mood.

    I sometimes add a whole egg to my seasoned chicken while still in the plastic bag to make it extra crispy for my son. I add the flour to the bag, and shake until all pieces are evenly covered. I omit the egg if I'm making standard fried.
    They weren't singing....they were just honking.
    Glee 2009

  3. #3
    Elephant
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Within shouting distance of Hershey
    Posts
    528

    Default Re: I do not like vegetable soup. Never have.

    In your mom's defense, she probably learned to cook by reading magazines and cookbooks filled with what I call happy-housewife recipes. A can here, a can there, a pound of ground beef, and you've got dinner. Not especially good dinner, but it's got enough calories to get you through the night and it's cheap to make. James Lileks makes a good living making fun of those recipes.

    Here at Chez Robin, canned vegetables are verboten unless called for in a recipe where their presence is necessary, or it's something I really really like, like canned apricots or creamed corn. Thanks to modern food packaging, frozen and fresh vegetables are easy to get and easy to make, and they taste so much better than anything in a can. And I'm waiting in anticipation of farmer's-market season when I can get food that was still in the ground or on the tree that morning.

    Since this is a food thread, I'm gonna move it to The Guggenheim.

    Oh, yeah.
    There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. -- Ray Bradbury's "Coda"

  4. #4
    Stegodon
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Mississippi
    Posts
    235

    Default Re: I do not like vegetable soup. Never have.

    No offense to your mom, but that soup sounds heinous. And I am a person that does use canned vegetables.

    Especially in my very poor days, I have always used canned. I prefer fresh but it isn't an option sometimes. After that I like frozen, then canned last. BUT, there are some things that tinny taste just seems to go normal with - green beans, for example. I don't think of them as weird green beans, just a completely different animal (ha ha) than fresh or frozen that are sent from heaven just for green bean casserole.

    Your soup, however, sounds lovely.
    Something witty and just obscure enough to make you think I'm cool.

  5. #5
    The "cool" mom.
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Behind a fascist webfilter.
    Posts
    25

    Default Re: I do not like vegetable soup. Never have.

    Quote Originally posted by MsRobyn
    In your mom's defense, she probably learned to cook by reading magazines and cookbooks filled with what I call happy-housewife recipes. A can here, a can there, a pound of ground beef, and you've got dinner. (snip)
    Yes! I have some of her ancient cookbooks that I swiped when I moved out - the Annual Presbyterian Recipe Collection or whatever it is from 1970 would make you cry, the spaghetti sauce recipe is something like a couple of cans of tomato sauce, a pound of ground beef, a quarter teaspoon of garlic salt, a tablespoon of dried minced onions (optional), and a pinch of oregano. But, again, the desserts rock, which is why I swiped the cookbooks.

    She makes the best deviled eggs on the planet, and she does it without a recipe, so I try as I might I can't duplicate the darned things. I also can't duplicate her cucumbers 'n onions. But she has an uneasy relationship with meat and cooked vegetables.

  6. #6
    Member
    Registered
    Mar 2009
    Location
    Podunk Arkansas
    Posts
    8

    Default Re: I do not like vegetable soup. Never have.

    There is something evil in the liquids of canned veggies.

    I've found that if I drain and rinse them, it's not so bad.

    My Mom would turn over in her grave.

  7. #7
    Member
    Registered
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    38

    Default Re: I do not like vegetable soup. Never have.

    I made vegetable beef soup Saturday night. I don't saute anything, just throw in frozen mixed veggies, a chopped onion, chopped celery, diced potatoes, a can of tomatoes and a bunch of stew meat. And any leftover veggies I've been saving in the freezer. Salt, pepper, garlic powder, fresh parsley. Simmer for a couple of hours, then throw in a handful of elbow macaroni. Everybody loves it!

    I only like three kinds of canned veggies - green beans (VeriGreen from Kroger are yummy), sweet early peas (i grew up on them and they're good!) and canned corn. I used frozen green peas and frozen corn, too, but not as a side veggie by itself. It's all in what you're used to! And of course I use canned beans, but I rinse the goop off of them.
    -Rebo

+ Reply to thread

Posting rules

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts