Thick and Thrifty Winter Soups

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That's all there is to it! It's just as easy to make as canned tomato soup — and, of course, a whole lot tastier than the store-bought product!

Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Chives

Another of our favorite soups is often on late summer menus here in Minnesota, since that's when our cauliflower ripens. (You can also use frozen cauliflower, from the supermarket or from your own stockpile of preserved garden produce.)

To make this delicacy, just break a cauliflower head into bite-size chunks, and place the bits in a soup kettle with 2 to 3 stalks of sliced celery (no onions this time, they'd overpower the delicate cauliflower flavor). Add enough water to cover the ingredients and cook over medium heat until the vegetables are barely tender.

Then — using 1/2 cup of butter, 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour, 6 cups of milk, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and pepper to taste — make a white sauce exactly like that described in the potato soup recipe, and add it along with 1/4 cup of chives to the kettle. Serve the soup piping hot.

(For a truly rich dish, drop in some dollops of cream cheese and let them melt into the soup just before you serve it.)

A Touch of Your Own

All of my mom's soup recipes can be personalized. You could, for instance, make 'em thicker or thinner, with or without dumplings, and with fewer or more ingredients. I've simply told you the way three generations of my family like 'em best.

Editor's Note: Mother's recipe tester/taster, Jane McKay, whipped up all five of Kay Vaughter's winter sows, and she — as well as a passel of "volunteer" evaluators — rated the dishes satisfying and very tasty. All in all, it'd be hard to imagine any better, or less expensive, ways to "warm up" a winter's meal! 

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