Inspired by Brown Bag Thursday and this post about cooking a good lunch starting from a can of soup, we present you with the latest of our soup hacks.
Whole Foods' 365 Everyday Value brand is economical, and we like to use it for lots of our basic cupboard staples. But this soup is not that exciting, tastewise. It's also strictly vegetarian, which is great, but sometimes we just want some meat in our lunch. Enter the soup hack...
Take 2 strips of bacon and cut them into small strips. Fry until crisp in a frying pan then remove and drain on paper towels. Drain the bacon fat out of the pan, then dump the soup and bacon pieces into the pan and warm until almost boiling.
Whisk in 1/2 cup milk or cream (if you feel like being indulgent) and add 1/8 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon red pepper. Grated fresh nutmeg is better, if you have it, and really makes the dish.
Grate a little Parmesan cheese over the top and eat happily.
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
A small correction: Whole Foods Market has two lines of 365 Everyday Value: one is organic, and the other is not (although it is all natural). The soup in the photo is not organic. (I used to work for Whole Foods Market.)
view May's profile
Soup hack -- what an awesome term!
I've got a favourite soup hack myself: Campbell's veggie soup corn niblets small pasta pieces (pre-cooked) ground beef (marinated).
view Michelle of Montreal's profile
There were plus signs between those ingredients....I guess that's just another comments system bug
view Michelle of Montreal's profile
i doctor lentil soup with a bit of diced sausage and a couple handfuls of spinach. yum!
view thinkingwoman's profile
I had a green pea soup at a Politics & Prose in DC that was spring-ified with lemon juice and lots of fresh herbs-it was light and delish!! I'm sure doctoring the canned version with said ingredients would be super-easy.
view DC Sarah's profile
My mom's Saturday soup hack was to add fried bacon and onions to Campbell's tomato soup. This soup hack reminds me a little of it.
view laura dot's profile
My soup hack--
My grandmother calls it Kelly Soup. One can of vegetable and one can of tomato. Lots of shredded cheddar cheese.
Mmm...
view Nicole R's profile
This isn't a soup hack, but rather about split pea soup. By far, the best canned version we've found is Habitant, available only in Canada, as far as we can tell. Whenever we go to Canada, we try to bring back as many cans as we can carry. Michelle in Montreal, do you know this brand?
view Terry B's profile
Terry B.,
I'm from Canada originally, and I know Habitant well. Good stuff--I miss it!
view nora's profile