Savory soups
As a youngster growing up in the Smokies, soup was an integral and important part of my family’s foodstuffs, and on a bitter winter’s day a big bowl of one of Momma’s many types was sustenance for the body and uplifting for the soul. Partnered with a pone of cornbread or perhaps store bought soda crackers, along with apple sauce made from the trees in our little orchard, soup was a mainstay at our home.
Beyond the essential fact that it was tasty, soup had a number of other features that then, as is true today, made it a real palate pleaser. On the economic front, something that meant a great deal in a budget-conscious household overseen by a frugal couple who had known the hard times of the Depression as young adults was the fact that it formed the basis of fine meals at minimal cost. Momma did a great deal of canning, and every year larger quantities of garden produce found their way into quart jars of “soup mix.” This combination of vegetables such as lima beans, corn, crowder peas, okra, and tomatoes could be partnered with barley or some type of pasta, along with beef stock and maybe a soup bone or small amount of the cheapest grade of hamburger the local butcher had to offer, for a nourishing and hearty meal.
Financial considerations were undoubtedly of significance in those meals I so fondly recall from yesteryear, but they partnered nicely with practicality. After all, what better way to utilize the carcass and what Momma styled “leavings” from a baked chicken than in a pot of soup, or who could ask for more than a tasty soup using a ham hock tracing its lineage to a hog we had raised partnered with October beans or crowder peas we had grown? There’s certainly a “waste not, want not” element to soups, but beyond that they are, as Grandpa Joe was fond of saying, “Just plain good eating.” Here are some examples, and they range widely in terms of ingredients while sharing certain things in common—the recipes are nourishing, tasty, and offer the basis of a fine meal.
Crowder Pea, Spinach, and Ham Soup
I’ve always been a great one for experimenting in the kitchen, and many of my experiments involve situations where I’ve got a surplus of some garden truck or need to clean out the freezer a bit. I don’t know that this is a recipe with deep-running roots, but I’m perfectly confident it follows the kind of pattern shrewd “use what you’ve got” cooks would have utilized in the Smokies of long ago.
Cook a big stew pot of dried crowder peas, with a ham hock or a chunk of streaked meat, until they are tender. You can cook them in water but I find using chicken broth or putting a tablespoon of chicken base in the water preferable. When the peas are just done (cooked through but still quite firm), add water as needed and dump a bunch of fresh spinach (kale, chard, or turnip greens will work just as well) in the pot and simmer until done and the flavors blend nicely. Add some red pepper flakes if you like a bit of heat in such dishes, and serve with a big chunk of cornbread. You can turn this from a soup to a stew by using less water, but the broth from the cooking peas will give it plenty of richness even if you add a considerable amount of water.
Bean, Ham, and Vegetable Soup
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup chopped, cooked ham or a ham bone with considerable meat on it
- ½ pound dried beans
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
PREPARATION:
Soak dried beans in a large kettle for several hours or overnight and then cook until they are nearly tender enough to eat.
Combine ham, carrots, potatoes, onion, and seasonings with the beans, retaining the water in which they were soaked. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer covered for one hour or until beans and vegetables are tender. Add water if needed. With a potato masher, mash the vegetables right in the kettle and then simmer uncovered about fifteen minutes for a thick, hearty soup.
Savory soups
After the Feast Soup
FOR THE STOCK:
- 1 baked hen carcass with some saved chicken scraps (or a wild turkey carcass)
- 1 large onion, peeled and quartered
- 4 ribs celery with leaves, chopped
- 1 large carrot, scrubbed and cut into chunks
- 2 whole cloves garlic
- 1 bay leaf
- Water to cover
PREPARATION:
Remove any remaining skin from the carcass. Place in a stock pot and surround with onion, celery, carrot, garlic and bay leaf. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for two hours. Refrigerate stock and fat which accumulates on the top. Remove all meat from bones and save.
FOR THE SOUP:
- 8 cups stock (add canned chicken broth as needed)
- 2 cups milk
- 4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
- 3 carrots, peeled and diced
- 3 ribs celery, diced
- 1 cup frozen or canned lima beans
- 2 ounces small shell pasta
- 2 cups fresh, chopped spinach
- 1 cup frozen green peas
- Meat from carcass
- ¼ cup fresh parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon fresh black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 2 tablespoons flour mixed with 4 tablespoons water (optional)
PREPARATION:
Cook stock, milk, potatoes, carrots and celery for a half hour. Add lima beans, pasta, spinach, peas, chicken meat, parsley, basil and pepper to the soup and cook an additional twenty minutes. Remove from heat, season with salt if necessary, and stir in evaporated milk. Return to low heat, stirring often. Do not let soup boil. Thicken with flour/water paste or cornstarch if desired.
Makes 12 hearty servings
Split Pea Soup
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup chopped, cooked ham
- 1 cup chopped kielbasa or other link sausage
- ½ pound dried split green peas
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 6 cups water
- Salt and pepper to taste
PREPARATION:
In a large kettle combine ham, kielbasa, peas, carrots, potatoes, onion, 6 cups water, and salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered one hour or until peas are tender. With a potato masher, mash vegetables right in kettle. Simmer uncovered about 15 minutes for a thick, hearty soup.
Tomato Dill Soup
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 stick butter
- 1 ½ large onions pureed in a food processor
- ¼ cup fresh garlic, minced
- 1½ teaspoons dried dill
- ¼ tablespoon kosher salt
- ¹/8 tablespoon black pepper
- 9 cups tomatoes (crushed or diced—that is 2 28-ounce cans plus 1 14½–ounce can)
- 3 cups water
- 2 cups heavy cream (a pint of half-and-half with some whole milk added will work)
PREPARATION:
Place butter, onions, garlic, dill, salt and black pepper in a large covered pot. Sauté on low heat until onions are translucent. Add tomatoes and water. Simmer for 1 to 2 hours. Remove from heat and blend in cream.
Potato Soup
Throughout much of Appalachia, the standard remedy when someone has the mollygrubs (feels poorly) is not chicken soup but potato soup. Rich and savory, it’s easily prepared and a welcome dish—sick or not—especially in cold weather.
INGREDIENTS:
- Peeled potatoes (figure 1 or 2 per person)
- 1 large sweet onion
- ½ stick butter
- 1 cup chicken broth or stock
- 2 cups whole milk
- Salt and pepper to taste
PREPARATION:
Cut potatoes into quarter-inch slices and boil until they break apart readily. Meanwhile, as potatoes are cooking, slice the onion and sauté in a pan with half of the butter until translucent. Drain most of the water from the potatoes then add the broth, onion, milk, remaining butter, and seasonings to a large pot. Stir while reheating. Serve piping hot. Serves 4 to 6.
TIP: If desired, you can gussy the soup up by sprinkling with fresh chives, crumbling bacon bits atop individual servings, or garnishing with grated cheddar cheese. Leftovers reheat well.
Elderberry Soup
Fruit soups are more common in other countries than here, and this one is a favorite in the central European countries of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. I’ve never encountered it in the Smokies, but I’d like to think that scattered hardy settlers of the area with central European roots prepared this unusual soup. Given increasing awareness of German influences on mountain cooking, I feel it’s entirely possible. This soup comes from a meal I enjoyed while on a chamois hunt in Austria. It was so tasty I managed, despite my somewhat indifferent abilities with the German language, to obtain the basics for a repeat try on my own. Since elderberries flourish throughout Southern Appalachia, this is a recipe from nature’s wild bounty foragers might want to try.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2½ pounds elderberries with stems removed
- 6 tablespoons cold water
- 9 cups water
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Lemon rind (zest)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons corn starch
PREPARATION:
Place washed berries in a soup kettle or deep pot. Add water and lemon zest. Cook until the berries soften. Strain through cloth into a bowl, pushing through as much of the pulp as possible. Return the liquid to the kettle, bring to a boil, and then remove the kettle from the stove.
Combine the corn starch, cold water, and lemon juice, pressing out all the lumps. Add to the soup, together with the sugar, and stir thoroughly. Place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring constantly, until thick. Adjust the sugar and lemon to suit your taste (honey can be substituted for sugar if you wish). Can be served hot or cold and as an entrée or light “afters.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jim Casada is the author or co-author of a number of cookbooks. Among the more recent are Fishing for Chickens: A Smokies Food Memoir and Celebrating Southern Appalachian Foods (with Tipper Pressley). To order these books or learn more about his other works, visit jimcasadaoutdoors.com.