I made a simple vegetable soup last night, using up some odds and ends in the frig. It tasted good–it almost always does without much effort. But as I walked out through the garage to feed the dog while it was simmering away, I saw a few leftovers 12 ounce cans of V8 juice that the kids had once had a taste for, then lost. I grabbed one on the way back in and added it to the soup and it really perked it up! Delicious! I do use soups throughout the winter as an easy way to get a variety of vegetables in our diet. I often, but not always, make them with chicken broth, keeping quart bags of homemade broth in the freezer for just this purpose. Tonight I used turkey broth, since that’s what I had on hand.

2 Tbs oil
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 rutabaga, peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 quart turkey broth
1 12 ounce can of V8 juice
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp celery seed

Heat the oil and saute the carrots and onion about 5 minutes. Sometimes I add garlic to this; tonight I didn’t. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer a half hour or longer, until the vegetables are all soft. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

The list of other things I might have added to this is nearly endless. A can of beans, spinach or chard or other greens, leftover chicken or meatballs for a heartier soup, a can of corn, turnips, potatoes or rice or barley or pasta, red pepper, leftover bits of vegetables… If I hadn’t had a lemon on hand, I might have added 1/2 cup of white wine to perk it up.

Get creative and use up those odds and ends. Sometimes I keep a container in the freezer for soup odds and ends like this and just dump it all in a quart of broth. It always comes out good and almost always comes out great!