Oh Yes, It Is Soup Weather

I have been desperately trying to write something about the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans, but every time I try it turns into a Very Angry Rant. So, until I can get myself together, here is yet another post about soup. Here are links to my previous soup-related posts if you feel like going on a soup sidequest.

• A long time ago, I wrote about making pho.
• A wicked long time ago I covered making clam chowder.
• Mr. Food It Yourself and I still tag-team dinner prep-cooking sometimes.
• Oh the memories of the time my dear sister and I made minestrone two ways!
• Leek and potato is a cold-weather classic.
• I even found a cold soup for very hot weather.

This past weekend it snowed- not just in Massachusetts, but in a huge chunk of the USA- so I made another favorite soup- chicken soup with dumplings. First, I made some stock.

I baked 4 chicken leg quarters (the drumstick plus the thigh), then took the meat off the bones. The meat went into the refrigerator and the bones went into a pot with an onion, a few garlic cloves (okay, it was more like 6 garlic cloves) a carrot, the middle of a celery bunch and some pepper corns. I covered it all with water and let it simmer. My three top tips for making stock are as follows. 1) Do not add salt until the end. Water will evaporate and make the stock more concentrated. If you add salt too early the concentrated stock may be over salted in the end. 2) Do not bother chopping things pretty. It will all get strained out. 3) Leave the peels on the onions. The skins give the stock a lovely color.

After about 7 hours, I strained the stock and let it cool overnight.

The next day the fat had risen to the top and solidified. Everyone has different ideas about how much fat to leave in homemade stock or broth. There is no wrong amount. You can leave it all or remove it all. This is your food. Make it how you like it. As you can see, I left some fat. I also wanted to show off how solid the cold stock was.

For the finished soup, you do want to cut the vegetables pretty. I also chopped some of the chicken meat to add to the soup. I know times are tough out there for many households. If you need to be extra thrifty it is perfectly acceptable to make soup with only vegetables and beans and keep the cooked chicken meat for another meal. Our foremothers would approve of this option.

While the soup was heating up, I made the dumplings. Mr. Food It Yourself and I like Alton Brown’s recipe. The recipe in the link includes an alternate method for making the broth. If you are short on time but have a pressure cooker it does make a good broth. The choux pastry method for dumplings looks a little intimidating on paper, but in practice it is straightforward. I could not take too many pictures of the dumpling production, as most steps involved a lot of movement and/or the use of both hands.

Another tip- fold the top of the zipper bag down when you load in the dough. You will get less dough on the outside of the bag.

And here is the final product. It was a delicious and comforting meal The Great Snow of 2026 fell upon the land. The leftovers helped keep me warm during the artic cold that has followed the storm. What cozy meals have you been making lately? If you live where it has been warm, what are you making to stay cool? Share in the comments section!