Hot ‘n’ Spicy Sausage and Bacon Tomato Soup
A BOWL OF SOUP FOR YOU
It’s that time of year again when you start to dream about soup the minute you walk out the door and your skin starts to freeze and you can see your breathe in the air.
Here in Manitoba you know when you have arrived in Winnipeg and its rural areas when it snows from October right through until April.
There’s no getting around the cold weather so we have to make the best of it. That means I’m in the kitchen working on new recipes for my family while they are out shovelling and making snow angels.
This year has been pretty cold with temperatures reaching a cool and steady -31 with the windchill.
I think we have had a few days with it being above seasonal then it snowed again and went back to the bone chilling temperatures again.
Soup
It’s hard to forget about the cold so the only way to warm up besides turning on the fireplace or raising the indoor heating is me in the kitchen creating a hot soup for these cold winter nights.
You can add just about anything to a pot of soup when you begin with a great soup base.
An excellent stock will do wonders by adding in a few vegetables or even boiling some meat into it. Like I mentioned in my Chicken Pot Pie recipe I make a chicken stock from the bones so I always have stock on hand when I want to make a pot of soup.
Making it a hearty soup means that you get two in one meals to do over a couple of days or to even put in the freezer for those days you really don’t want to cook.
Freezer meals
Freezer meals are becoming more popular these days for busy families with kids or if you are on the go and want to defrost something already made for dinner.
Soup is an easy freezer meal because you can freeze just about any soup that you make and it’s quick and easy to prepare alongside a sandwich for a complete meal.
What some people do is pick one day a week, normally a Sunday and do batch cooking and then portion the food and freeze it. Simple enough and the time spent that day will save you much-needed time during the week when you are in a rush or simply exhausted from a long day.
Stocked pantry
I am a firm believer in using my pantry, fridge and freezer to its maximum capacity so not only do I always take inventory of my stock I make sure to rotate it and continue to replace inventory as needed.
I always have a stocked pantry with tinned goods, grains, cereals, dried herbs, oils, pasta, lentils, rice, nuts soy sauce, stock cubes, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce to name a few.
The most obvious reason for this is so at any one time I can produce an inspired concoction from my kitchen with the well stocked ingredients and make a healthy meal for the family without having to order take-out because I’m too tired.
This is another reason why the budget can get out of control is when you don’t have your pantry filled with the staples and or lack confidence in the kitchen to just experiment.
Take your time and learn the basics of cooking and you will see over time that you will start to create your own recipes from scratch.
Today I am simply using up odd and ends from the fridge so that they don’t waste because we all know how much I don’t fancy wasting any food.
I found some bacon and farmers sausage that was leftover and sitting in the refrigerator begging me to use it up and vegetables that are past their best. From the pantry some Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce which I always have and a can of tinned whole tomatoes.
I didn’t add any salt or pepper to the recipe because the bacon is already salty but add any other spices as you need to taste.
- 1 Farmers sausage or any sausage that you may have on hand
- x1 Onion minced
- x2 Carrots chopped
- x2 Celery chopped
- x5 slices of Bacon
- x1 teaspoon butter
- x2 Cups chicken stock
- x1 Can stewed whole tomatoes
- 2 Dashes of Worcestershire Sauce
- 2 Dashes of Tabasco or Hot sauce
- Chop sausage, bacon and vegetables into small pieces
- Add butter into pan
- Place sausage and bacon into pan and stir until bacon is crispy.
- Add vegetables and stir. Wait until the onions go clear in texture before adding the next ingredients.
- Before adding tomatoes, puree until smooth in the can then add to soup mixture.
- Finally pour in chicken stock, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce and stir.
- Leave to simmer for around 1hr 45mins and serve with warm crusty bread.
I always find that second day soup is the best as the flavours have had time to mingle together even more for a robust taste.
If you love soup as much as my family does you will enjoy this easy soup recipe that uses everyday kitchen staples and you can easily make in your own kitchen.
Forget about buying those cans of soup even if you think they are convenient to open, heat and serve you’ll be amazed at the simplicity involved in making a huge pot of soup and the costs involved.
Money saved creating meals is money well spent.
What is your favourite kind of soup? Don’t forget to search the free recipe index on the blog for other delicious recipes including soup!
-Nicola
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My dad makes a variation of this with similar ingredients. I’ll get him to try this next time and see how it compares. Thanks for the recipe!