How to Make a Pot of Soup Feed a Family for Several Meals

When money is tight, one of the simplest ways to stretch the food budget is also one of the oldest: put a big pot on the stove and make soup.

Our grandmothers didn’t need a recipe that called for twelve special ingredients. They looked at what they had, figured out what needed to be used, and made a meal out of it.

A little meat, some potatoes, a handful of beans, a few vegetables and a pan of cornbread could feed quite a few people.

That kind of cooking still works.

In fact, when grocery prices are high, learning how to make several meals from one pot of food may be more useful than ever.

Start With What You Already Have

Before buying anything, look through the refrigerator, freezer and pantry.

You may already have the beginnings of a good soup:

• A couple of potatoes
• Half an onion
• Carrots that need to be used
• A little leftover chicken or beef
• A partial bag of frozen vegetables
• Dried or canned beans
• Rice
• Pasta
• Canned tomatoes
• Broth or bouillon

None of these looks like much by itself. Put several of them together, though, and you have supper.

This is also a good way to prevent food waste. That one carrot or half cup of peas may not be enough for another meal, but it can disappear quite nicely into a pot of soup.

Use Meat for Flavor Instead of Making It the Whole Meal

Meat is often one of the most expensive things in the grocery cart.

A family of four may need several chicken breasts if chicken is the main course. But one or two chicken breasts chopped into a pot of soup can help feed the same family more than once.

The same idea works with:

• A small amount of leftover roast
• A ham bone or ham pieces
• Ground beef
• Turkey
• Sausage
• Leftover pork
• Chicken legs or thighs

You don’t necessarily need enough meat to give everyone a large serving. You need enough to add flavor and substance to everything else in the pot.

That’s an old-fashioned trick worth remembering.

Let Potatoes, Beans and Rice Do Some of the Heavy Lifting

A filling soup doesn’t have to depend on meat.

Potatoes, dried beans, lentils, rice and pasta are relatively inexpensive foods that can turn a thin soup into a hearty meal.

Beans are especially useful because they add both protein and fiber.

Dried beans usually cost less per serving than canned beans, although canned beans are certainly convenient. If using dried beans, cook a large batch and freeze some in meal-size portions. Then they’ll be almost as convenient as opening a can.

Rice can also stretch a pot of chicken or vegetable soup considerably.

Just remember that rice and pasta continue absorbing liquid while they sit. If you’re planning several meals from the same batch, you may prefer to cook them separately and add a little to each bowl.

Don’t Overlook the Broth

Good broth can make very inexpensive ingredients taste like a real meal.

And you don’t always have to buy it.

Chicken bones, vegetable trimmings and the remains of a roast can all become the beginning of homemade broth.

If you aren’t ready to make broth when you have the scraps, put them in a freezer container. When you’ve accumulated enough, make a batch.

Even the cooking liquid from vegetables can sometimes be saved and added to soup rather than poured down the drain.

The idea is simple: before throwing away something edible, ask whether it can become part of another meal.

Make the First Meal a Good One

Stretching food doesn’t mean everyone should leave the table hungry.

Make the soup hearty enough to be satisfying and serve something inexpensive alongside it.

Cornbread is hard to beat.

Biscuits, homemade bread, crackers or a simple sandwich can work too.

A large pot of soup with warm cornbread can be a perfectly good supper — and often a comforting one.

Change It a Little the Second Time

People sometimes complain about “leftovers” because they don’t want to eat exactly the same meal three days in a row.

So don’t.

Change it.

Yesterday’s chicken-and-vegetable soup might get rice added today.

A beef soup might become thicker after adding potatoes or beans.

Leftover beans can become a different soup with tomatoes, corn and seasonings.

Sometimes simply serving the same soup with grilled cheese sandwiches instead of cornbread makes the meal feel different.

You aren’t trying to fool anybody. You’re simply making good use of food you’ve already paid for.

Freeze Some Before Everyone Gets Tired of It

One of the best tricks is not serving the same soup until nobody ever wants to see it again.

After the first meal, decide how much you’ll realistically eat over the next day or two.

Freeze the rest.

A container of homemade soup in the freezer can become supper on a busy day when the alternative might have been takeout or an extra trip to the grocery store.

Label the container with what it is and the date. Otherwise, two months from now you’ll be staring at a frozen mystery.

Keep a “Soup Box” in the Freezer

Here’s an old habit worth bringing back.

Keep a freezer container specifically for small amounts of food that would otherwise be thrown away.

A spoonful of corn.

A little leftover green beans.

A few carrots.

Some peas.

A small serving of roast.

A bit of tomato sauce.

When appropriate, add these little leftovers to your freezer soup container. When you’ve accumulated enough compatible ingredients, they can become the beginning of a pot of soup.

Of course, use good food-safety judgment. Refrigerate or freeze leftovers promptly, and don’t save food that has sat out too long.

The point isn’t to save spoiled food. It’s to stop throwing away perfectly good food simply because there isn’t enough left for another full serving.

A Basic No-Recipe Soup Formula

You really don’t need a recipe.

Start with:

Broth or water + something hearty + vegetables + seasoning

For example:

Chicken + broth + potatoes + carrots + onion

or

Beans + tomatoes + corn + onion + seasonings

or

Beef + broth + potatoes + mixed vegetables

or even

Potatoes + onion + milk + a little butter for a simple potato soup.

Use what your family likes and what you can afford.

If you don’t have an ingredient, don’t automatically make a trip to the store. Ask yourself whether something you already have could take its place.

That’s where real money-saving cooking begins.

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The Grocery Store Isn’t Always the Answer

We have gotten accustomed to deciding what we want to cook and then buying everything needed to make it.

Sometimes it makes more sense to reverse the process.

Look at what you already have and decide what you can make from it.

That one change can reduce grocery spending because food gets used instead of forgotten in the back of the refrigerator.

It also teaches a valuable skill: how to make do without feeling deprived.