A tasty bean soup with ham.

[Judith Latham]

I thought some may enjoy this

Ingredients

1 (16 ounce) package dried navy beans

7 cups water

1 ham bone

2 cups diced ham

¼ cup minced onion ½ teaspoon salt

1 pinch ground black pepper

1 bay leaf ½ cup sliced carrots ½ cup sliced celery

Directions Rinse beans; transfer to a large stockpot and add water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes; remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 1 hour.

Add ham bone, diced ham, onion, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until beans are soft, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Add carrots and celery; cook until tender, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Remove ham bone from the pot and place on a cutting board until cool enough to handle. Remove any meat from the bones and cut into bite-sized pieces; stir into soup until warmed through.

[Max Demian]

I'm not sure that cookery is on-topic here. I've never regarded soup as worth doing as there are cans available, though I do sometimes make a dhal as a main course on dieting days.

[Brian]

Tinned soup simply doesn’t compare with good, homemade, soup.

[Cindy Hamilton]

Or even mediocre, homemade, soup.

I have a pot full of vegetable soup that I made a few days ago: onions, carrots, celery, garlic sauteed in olive oil, a box of bought chicken broth, canned white beans, a can of diced tomatoes, green beans, cabbage, minced fresh parsley, bay leaves, salt, and pepper. It came together quickly and I'll feast on it for days. If I get tired of it, I can freeze it in portions.

It's not the best soup ever, but it's pretty good and was easy to make.

Not only that, but there are many more recipes for homemade soup than there are kinds of tinned soup.

[micky]

It depends. Does anyone actually make tomato soup? I find Campbell's tomato soup pretty good. Condensend made with milk.

Anc cream of mushhoom. I'm sure that could be better with bigger mushroom parts but I never see it on menus.

And corn soup, just cream corn with a can of milk. Is that homemade or canned/tinned? Regardless, I never see it on menus except for chicken corn soup, which is different.

[micky]

I think this shows the inherent weakness of "doesn't compare with".

[Colin Bignell]

A friend of mine does, using tomatoes she has grown.

I find Campbell's

[Tim+]

Nearly every pre-made soup I see on the shelves these days seem to list sugar in one form or another on the ingredients list. I find them mostly inedible.

Tim

[Bruce]

Everything has sugar in it these days or, even worse, high fructose corn syrup.

[The Natural Philosopher]

On dieting days I have no main course at all. The secret to dieting is

*not to eat*. Anything.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I knew someone once who took 'cream of mushroom' soup and added a panful of butter fried mushrooms to it.

[The Natural Philosopher]

If I want to make a proper tomato soup I used canned tomatoes to make minestrone style soups

[The Natural Philosopher]

Only in the USA.

[Bruce]

Americans will eat anything and let their food industry get away with murder.

[Cindy Hamilton]

Yes, I make tomato soup. Campbell's is way too sweet for my taste.

Better with real cream and fresh mushrooms.

Here's an ingredients list for "Cream of Anything" soup:

1 large onion — coarsely chopped 2 rib celery coarsely chopped 6 ounces butter (1 1/2 sticks) 6 ounces flour (about 1 1/2 cups) 1 gallon chicken stock 1 pounds”anything” (see below) 1 Pint(s)heavy cream

It goes together about as you'd expect. Saute, roux, add stock, simmer for 30 minutes. Add "anything", then simmer for 20-30 minutes more (depending on how hardy the "anything" is). Add cream, correct seasonings. Puree if you wish.

“Anything” can be sliced mushrooms, diced chicken or turkey, asparagus, green beans, broccoli, tomato pulp, cauliflower, artichoke hearts, shrimp, carrots, lobster, or whatever… Also can add rice or pasta to extend. Cheeses.

Jesus, that sounds bland. Canned creamed corn is water, corn, modified food starch (for thickening), sugar, and salt. A decent corn soup will have butter, some sort of onion, celery, corn, bay leaf, chicken broth, salt, milk or cream, pepper, and perhaps optional ingredients like potatoes (which makes it a chowder) red bell pepper, bacon, garlic, or herbs such as thyme.

I'd call it semi-homemade, or "quick" or "a cheat". Nothing wrong with cheating in the kitchen; we do it all the time. It's good to know when you're taking a shortcut, though.

Seeing it on menus is not the whole story.

[gareth evans]

Waiter!!! What's this???

... It's bean soup, sir.

I don't care what it's been, what is it now?

[gareth evans]

AAAH! A fast worker :-)

[Brian]

I have done but I’m not a fan of tomato soup. I made some when we had a glut of homegrown tomatoes to see if homemade would convert me.

I do like Gazpacho.

I tend to make Turkey soup / Chicken soup using the carcass and ‘odd’ bits of meat. Potato and Leek, Pea and Ham. Sometimes vegetable. Senior Management likes pumpkin soup so I sometimes make that.

I make it in (fairly) large quantities in my Instant Pot them freeze it.

[Max Demian]

I think Brian meant "doesn't compare *to*". Anything can be compared

*with* anything else, even apples and oranges, but there isn't much point.

[Max Demian]

I find restricting my intake to 600 kcal on alternate days effective, and bearable long term.