Deb's Frugal Soup

 As promised I will go through the process of the making of the soup. I don't use a recipe as such. A lot depends on what I have on hand.
Into my large stock pot I fried off some green capsicum that I grew in the garden and had kept in olive oil with some onion.

I then added a tub of frozen tomato passata.

I found I had some frozen zucchini slices, potato cubes, celery tops cooked in a vegie stock, leftover pasta salad.

In went a frozen chunk of chicken stock that I had made and picked the chicken meat and added to the stock. In addition to this I also put in water to cover everything before the cooking began.

From the garden, a load of carrots and pumpkin (below) This one was a bit under ripe but perfect for the soup as it needed using in a hurry as the stem had fallen off and it wouldn't have kept. Sometimes I roast pumpkin and freeze and chuck that instead of the fresh. Roast vegies of any description is excellent in the soup as it adds a caramelisation flavour. But none this time.

A tablespoon of curry paste or more depending what it smells like.

A bunch of lentils and dried beans, split peas. I simmered on a VERY low temperature for 4-5 hours so the last ingredient would not stick to the bottom of the pot. I could have done it in my slow cooker but my stock pot is bigger and I freeze the excess for my DH's lunches and dinner on nights when we can't be bothered making a big deal of things.

I always do a taste test near the end of cooking and adjust the salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper as we prefer it to be warm in flavour.  Here it us served with some home made bread rolls.  

By the way::::: WELCOME to all the new followers and visitors that have come by via Rhonda's Down to Earth Blog.