The days are still fairly warm, but the evenings are starting to get chilly. After the sun goes down, which is earlier and earlier, I can’t sit out on our back porch swing without a jacket or sweater. Fall is definitely in the air around here. The trees, which have held onto their leaves longer this year, have finally started to turn. Besides, what says fall better than a hot soup to warm our insides. So today, I’m giving you five food storage soups for fall.
Each of these soups can be cooked from food storage with some tweaks. I use freeze dried hamburger, bacon crumbles, or canned chicken in these soups so they all have meat in them. Then you can store the extras. At one point, I had enough bags of tortilla chips in my house to provide for 12 weeks of food storage meals. You can buy sour cream powder. I get mine from Thrive Life, but there are other companies that also sell it. We also purchase freeze dried cheese because………well, let’s admit it. Life without cheese may be worth living, but it wouldn’t be near so much of a happy place.
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Chili – Serves 8
This really is one of our go-to soups. We eat this at least twice a month in the winter. It’s a stick-to-your-ribs kinda soup. I love the tang and slight heat of the spices.
#10 can of tomato sauce
2 pounds dried pinto beans
1/2 C chili powder
1/2 C taco seasoning mix
Directions:
1.) Prepare the beans 24 hours prior to cooking by putting the beans in a covered pot covered with water by three inches. Turn the burner on low heat for an hour. At the end of the hour, turn the heat off and let the beans sit overnight. The next morning, drain and rinse the beans. Cover them with water by three inches again, and turn the heat on medium heat until soft.
2.) Add the tomato sauce, chili powder, and taco seasoning. Cook until serving temperature.
Ham and Bean Soup
There is something very comforting about ham and bean soup. We’ve discovered that purchasing a large ham, cooking it in a crockpot, and eating some of it for dinner one night works really well for us. We save the juice from cooking it and a few really nice size chunks of ham that we shred, throw in the beans and veggies and let it cook the day in the crockpot. It’s some of the best soup around!
Ingredients:
6 C bean soup mix
½ C bouillon mix
1 gallon water
1/2 C Bacon crumbles
1 T salt
2 T oregano
2 T basil
Directions:
- The night before put 6 C of bean soup mix in a crockpot. Cover with 1 gallon of water. Turn the crockpot on high for 1 hour.
- Turn the crockpot off and let the beans sit overnight.
- The next morning, drain and rinse the beans.
- Return the beans to the crockpot and mix in all other ingredients.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
White Chicken Chili – Serves 4
This is my oldest daughter’s favorite soup to eat – and fortunately for me – to also make. It’s simple and quick to make. We always make our soups in the crockpot because while this blog may be called A Year Without the Grocery Store, I don’t much care to cook, and having dinner done by 10 am is a wonderful thing!
Ingredients:
1 can corn
3 – 15 oz cans of northern beans
Qt chicken broth
1 can chicken
1 can Rotel
1/2 T freeze dried onions (or more if you like your soup ‘oniony’)
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
Optional Serving Suggestions:
Tortilla Chips
Mozzarella Cheese
Directions:
- Combine all ingredients in a pot on the stove (or in a slow cooker)
- Heat until warm and Serve.
Tortilla Soup – Serves 4
This is our second go-to soup. As a matter of fact, I had started working on dinner last night only to find out we only had half of the meat that I thought we had. I sent one of the kids out to the freezer, and we brought in three and a half quarts of this soup that we had frozen as leftovers after we had made it other times. It was a perfect (and oh-so-easy) item to have for dinner.
Ingredients:
15 oz cans black beans
15 oz cans pinto beans
2 – 15 oz cans chicken broth
15 oz cans kernel corn
1 can chicken
3 – 6 oz can tomato sauce
Optional Serving Suggestions
Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Directions:
- Add all ingredients to a pot (or a slow cooker).
- Heat until warm and serve.
Chicken and Rice Soup (Serves 4)
This has become a new favorite. While I don’t always make this from food storage ingredients now, I still know that I can. For those of you who may be looking for an easy meal, I start this the night before. I put a whole frozen chicken (this is around $4/frozen chicken at Costco) in a crockpot and cover it with water. I add 1-2 celery stalks, 1-2 cups of chopped carrots, an onion, 1-2 cloves of garlic, and sometimes a quartered granny smith apple. Then I let it cook all night.
The next morning, I take the chicken and veggies out of the crockpot. What’s left is amazing chicken broth for your soup. I pull the chicken from the bones and return it to the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients below (minus the broth and canned chicken) and let it cook for the rest of the day. It is so satisfying and SO easy!
Ingredients:
1 Qt. chicken broth
2 6oz cans of chicken
2 C of rice
1/2 T salt
1 T oregano
1/2 C basil
2 stalks celery (chopped thinly) or 1/2 C freeze dried celery
1 C carrots (chopped thinly) or 1/2 C freeze dried or dehydrated carrots
2 C water
Directions:
1.) Heat chicken broth, water, celery, carrots until the vegetables are tender.
2.) Once vegetables are tender, add chicken and spices.
And What About You?
Do you have any fall food storage soup recipes that you could share? Share them in the comments below. And as you’re working on your cold weather dinners, remember . . .
You’ve got this Mama
