Thursday, October 20, 2011

Week #16 - Swamp Soup

I saw this recipe on BudgetBytes.com, a low cost cooking blog. BudgetBytes blogger Beth (say that 3 times fast!) raved about it so much that I decided I had to try it. She billed it as tomato soup and grilled cheese all in one. Sounded good to me!


INGREDIENTS COST
2 Tbsp olive oil $0.22
3 stalks celery $0.46
4 med carrots $0.31
1 med onion $0.38
3 cloves garlic $0.21
1 Tbsp dried basil $0.15
1 Tbsp dried oregano $0.15
1 (28 oz) can tomato sauce $1.42
45 oz. diced tomatoes $2.01
1.5 tsp chicken or vegetable bouillon $0.13
1.5 cups water $0.00
1 (10 oz.) pkg frozen spinach $0.96
6 oz. swiss cheese $1.53
TOTAL
$7.93


STEP 1: Clean and chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook in a large pot with olive oil over medium heat until the vegetables have softened (about 5 minutes). Stir in the basil and oregano and cook for one more minute.

STEP 2: Pour in the cans of diced tomatoes (do not drain) and tomato sauce. For the diced tomatoes you can either use 3 (15 oz.) cans or 1 (28 oz.) can plus 1 (15 oz.) can. The latter will probably be less expensive.

STEP 3: Add 1.5 cups chicken broth or 1.5 cups water plus 1.5 tsp chicken bouillon. To make this a vegetarian dish, simply substitute the chicken broth or bouillon with a vegetable variety. Add the brick of frozen spinach. Allow the mixture to heat through, stirring occasionally to break up the spinach as it melts (about 10 minutes).

STEP 4: Once the soup is completely heated through, dice the swiss cheese. Reduce the heat to low or turn the heat off completely. Drop in the swiss cheese and stir it in. The cheese will melt and become gooey but remain in clumps. If the heat is left on high, the cheese will melt too much and dissolve in. Alternatively, you can add the cheese to each bowl of soup after serving.



This soup was great! I followed the recipe pretty much exactly. The only thing that wasn't good about it was my fault because I didn't cook the vegetables long enough and the carrots were still kind of crunchy. The globs of cheese were really good. I will definitely make this soup again.

Rating 4.5/5

No comments:

Post a Comment