Pictured: Somebody else’s soup
What is “Quarantine Pantry Soup” you ask? Well, it’s whatever you want it to be actually. With daily outings to the store reduced, availability of items down, and prices up, it’s been a tad difficult at times to figure out what to make for dinner. So I got creative. Growing up, my mom would have a weekly “cleaning out the fridge of leftovers before trash day” dinner. So, with that in mind, I just added a goofy name and turned it into a soup. But you know what? It’s actually pretty good and works out perfectly for when you’re in a pinch.
Because my family is made up of hardcore carnivores, we always have meat with our meals but you can omit the dead animals from your soup if you choose. Assuming you are leaving the meat in, start by cooking a chunk of ground beef about the size of your hand. (this is where having big hands comes in handy!) I use ground beef because let’s face it, who can really afford chicken nowadays? After the beef headliner is fully cooked (if you have to ask if you leave the grease in then you need more training in southern cooking and I’d be glad to help but make sure you text because I don’t answer phone calls), meaning no pink is left, (you don’t want the side effects of intestinal worms) you can then start adding the supporting cast.
At this point, after adding around four cups of chicken broth, I look in my fridge for anything that is identified as a vegetable. This is usually pretty easy considering I always try to make a veggie with every meal yet it’s the meat and potatoes that solely get consumed so there are always plenty of vegetables left over. If you find yourself in the same veggie boat as me with your family only eating like cavemen, don’t sweat it. No need to make a big deal when your little ones refuse to eat the healthy stuff at dinner because you can now have total satisfaction in the fact that they will have no choice but to eat their vegetables the day before trash day when you’re turning them into a soup! (the veggies not the kids)
On a good day, I can almost always find, corn, carrots, and green beans in the fridge. If not, its time to head to the pantry. I highly recommend keeping about six cans of Veg-all on hand for this very occasion. I feel like if I have to explain what Veg-all is, we have bigger problems on our hands so I’ll just let you forward all your questions to Google. Now, since it’s summer, it also means garden veggies. Even if you yourself don’t have a garden, I’m fairly confident that someone within a one-mile radius of you does but please make sure you ask your neighbor first before helping yourself to their garden goodies. Just because their garden is either next to the road or close to your property line, doesn’t mean you have shared custody.
Since we do have a garden, I like to add (when available) okra, squash, and tomatoes. Onions and hot peppers are also a yummy staple to keep on hand and taste really good in the soup too. Finally, salt and pepper to taste and voila! Quarantine Pantry Soup! So let’s recap. Mix together ground beef fully cooked and or fridge, pantry, or garden veggies. Now, depending on what’s in your fridge/pantry, you can always add a small shape sized noodle or some rice for an extra filler but because I have yet to perfect the timing of adding these starches to the soup, they just turn into a ball of mush at the bottom of the pan and then you’re forced to listen to your family complain. And let’s face it. When being quarantined in the house with your family ALL day long seven days a week, you try to steer clear of ANYTHING that would cause any more complaints especially towards the end of the day. (You really don’t want to be the family who ends up on the evening news due to a dinner table death!) And that’s Fiddle-Fartin’ with Hecox, soup edition. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
Ground Beef- cooked
Vegetables
Chicken Broth
Salt and Pepper
