By MARY ANN LIENHART CROSS
County Extension Director and Educator, Purdue Extension Elkhart County

I have written about homemade soups and I hope I have motivated you to make some soup. I want to encourage you to plan some kitchen time and make some real soup. You can be like the French and start with making stock.

Stocks are the foundation of all cuisine. These rich brews develop from slow cooking meats, bones and vegetables in liquid to extract nutrients and flavor and to draw out other natural materials that add desirable body and texture to the soup.

Stocks lend themselves to a multitude of dishes. The stock provides a base of flavor on which your soup recipes can be built. In real soup, making stock is the starting point, or critical ingredient. Beef stock has the deepest, richest flavor and color, followed by chicken stock, with fish stock being the lightest.

You might have poultry meat and bones, a beef roast, or a ham bone from holiday cooking. All of these can be heated in a large pot on the stove or cut up and placed in the crock pot to simmer for stock.

Take what you have and add water, bring it to a boil and then simmer for several hours. Another way is to place the meat or bones in a crock pot with cold water and heat the mixture for an hour on high, then turn it to low and cook for several hours. Cold water will pull more of the flavor out of the bones. Cook the bones until the meat falls off them.

Strain the broth in a colander and remove any gristle. Now you have the makings for flavorful vegetable soup. You may use commercial canned broth or bouillon cubes or powder with water to make the broth. Condensed broth is also available and can be diluted as the label directs with either water or other liquids.

Soups are a great way to reduce calories, stretch your food dollars and make the most of your time. Here are some ideas that you might want to try.

Put a freezer bag or containers in the freezer and when you have left over vegetables, pasta or meat put these in the bag or container to use later in a soup. You can use all kinds of leftovers in soup.

There are many ways to thicken soup. A tasty way is with cream but you have extra calories. You can save calories by using fresh milk or non-fat powered milk. Soup can also be thickened using mashed potatoes, flour, cornstarch, potato flakes, leftover stuffing and other foods.

When cooking vegetables saute them in broth verses fat or oil, saving calories. You can save time if you are using frozen or canned vegetables. Another time-saver is to use canned soup as a base.

Here are some soup making tips you might want to try. The longer your simmer the soup, the more the flavor will be improved. Simmer is the word — not boil, so this is a great place to utilize your crock pot. You can put more fiber in your healthy eating plan through soups by adding whole grains such as lentils, wheat bulgur, brown rice, whole wheat pasta or barley.

Plan some time to make soup and enjoy.