Rainy Day Soups

Nothing like a cool, rainy day and a pot of soup. I've been making soups lately not only because they're tasty and nutritious, but also because they last for a few days in a 2 person household. My only big rule for the soups that I make is no fat and no potatoes. Well, sometimes I begin by sauteing onions in olive oil, but that's it for fat content. Also, a try to add a can of black beans, pinto beans, or garbanzo beans in every recipe.

My most frequently made soup is a meatless chili recipe. I mix canned, diced tomatoes, black beans, onion, celery, peppers, chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic, cumin (up to 2 tsp), salt, & black pepper. I usually cook for an hour at least. This is especially good when served with tortilla chips. I've been getting these nice ones from Eats. They last forever, always taste fresh, and are made with real ground corn...Nana Cocina's- I just googled the name.

Today I made S's pasta e ceci recipe which includes canned tomatoes with garbanzos, onions, rosemary, red pepper flakes, onions, celery, and carrots. You make the pasta separately and spoon the soup on top of it. It is very tasty and S put together the recipe herself. I don't know why but I never thought that rosemary and tomatoes went together. Boy, was I wrong.

And finally I make my deer stew. There may be nominal fat in the deer meat. Basically I make it like a beef and potato stew, but substitute barley for the potatoes. By the way, barley is a very nice potato sub in soups. I've tried adding it to other soups, such as the chili above, and it doesn't work well. So I'm sticking to it as a white rice or potato sub.