soup for the fridge cleaning soul

Hi Friends! Want to make the most delicious soup that is perfect for substitutions and adding a little bit of whatever is left in your fridge?

This soup is not vegetarian but could easily be by not adding any meat and using vegetable stock.

What you will need:
Onions
Garlic
1-2 cups of Heavy Cream
6 cups Stock (I used beef this time because thats what I had, but have used chicken and vegetable in the past)
1-2 cups of water
Potatoes
Sausage and or Bacon
Kale
red pepper flakes

What I added because I had it:
Broccoli
Carrots
Asiago Cheese
Leftover Pulled Pork (hah)
italian seasoning

The first time I made this I used bacon and it was very tasty although I would suggest chopping it up rather small before cooking it. I found the large bacon pieces got soggy in the soup and I didn't like that texture.

If your using bacon chop it up and throw it in your pot and start it cooking.

I didn't have any :(

So I started off with olive oil and sauteed the garlic and onions until soft. pretend I added the red pepper flakes here too. just photoshop them in with your mind.

Then I added the stock and some of the water. You can add more water later if you find your vegetables are overwhelming the amount of liquid.

To this I added my cheese rind (did you know when you buy fancy cheese you can save the cheese rind and freeze it? Its perfect for soups!!)

then I added some more cheese that was forgotten in the door of the fridge. My motto is you can never have to much cheese.

let this simmer away while you prep the potatoes. I like to cut them up and put them in a bowl and pretend i'm hosting a cooking show. don't lie I know you've done it too. 

cook the potatoes for a while (i'm very accurate) in the boiling water. maybe 10 minutes? I cut mine thinly so they would cook quickly and evenly. in the meantime you can prep the rest of your veggies.

then add the vegetables based on cooking times. brocolli and very thinly sliced carrots take about the same amount of time. if I had a pepper or green onion I would add this later. 

oh hey look! its the sausage that Ian cooked up for me while I was sweating my face off at pilates thinking about this soup. 

throw it all in! its just soup! you can't hurt it! 

let that simmer away until everything is cooked. 

While that is working its magic on the stove you can get the kale ready. Have you ever eaten kale? I'm pretty new to it but I looooooove it. so hearty and green! 

prepping kale is easy peasy. just rip the leaves off the heavy stalk

until you have a bare stalk! Just rinse it like lettuce and chop it up for the soup. I would suggest chopping it rather small (maybe 1 inch pieces, otherwise its sort of tricky to look like a lady when you eat it) 

alright so now you add your cream! 18% is all the fruit market I was at had, but you can buy even heavier cream. I won't tell.

add it to your soup! I added the whole carton because 

a) no one was looking

b) the whole purpose was to use up leftovers not create them

c) no one in my house is on a diet. in fact, I am trying to fatten Ian up for winter. 

pour it in...

keep adding it....

oh yeah the whole thing!

mix that around. it was around this time that I remembered I had leftover (un-sauced) pulled pork in the fridge. I threw it in! 

side note: when you add the cream you should turn down the heat. your in the final stages now

and here is why you shouldn't feel guilty about all that cream. 

oh yes. so green. so healthy. so tasty.

about now I added a BUNCH of pepper, some Italian seasoning (I put that shit in everything) and then decided I wanted it to be spicier. out comes the hot sauceeeeeee

ladle that around. pretend your on a cooking show for a while and talk about how easy this soup was. or not. whatever. its your show. 

can ladle be a verb?

yummmmmmmm finished product. soooo good. I just ate some for lunch! you can adjust the pepper and hot sauce ratio for each bowl too. Enjoy!