A visit to Nelle’s kitchen on a cloud-covered, gray, Saturday morning in November! Thoughts of potato soup fluttered my mind. I recalled a couple slices of cooked bacon in the refrigerator, a couple of potatoes, etc. Yes, I would make soup today. If you ‘enjoy’ making soup you know ‘soup is a discovery’ every time! I started with a couple stalks of celery that required tidying up.

2 stalks of celery diced
¾ of leftover onion diced
2 Tbsp. Olive oil sautéed them in the Dutch oven – because soup is always bigger than you plan.

When the onions and celery were tender, I added:

1 cup chopped cabbage
2 tsp. garlic (the jar kind) I cook simple.
4 diced potatoes. We like ours about ½ to ¾ inch cubes.
Fresh ground pepper

Then give it a stir and add in one quart of vegetable broth. Let it simmer until the potatoes were tender. What now? A bag of Peas/carrot blend whacked on the counter a few times to loosen the contents. Added them to the pot.

Oh look! There’s some celery leaves— I washed them, chopped them and added them because my daughter says “Don’t waste them, there’s lots of flavor there.” Who knew! My Mom always threw them away!

There were some water chestnuts in the fridge. So I diced and added them. Yes! Now some corn. 1 can of whole kernel corn, drained. Then more liquid—

a second quart of vegetable broth
1 can of evaporated milk
1 can of garbanzo beans- drained and rinsed.

Let it simmer for a bit, a taste test concluded ‘it needs something’. To this point I had only added freshly ground pepper and no salt because I thought the broth would add the salt. I forgot to tell you, when I reached for the slices of bacon they had been consumed by someone. I start to wonder… what did it need? Maybe meat to
make a heartier soup for a deer hunter? I thought-what do you think about a can of corned beef! So I added:

1 can of Aldi’s corned beef – remove the 1 teaspoon of fat – you will find no other commercial corned beef with this insignificant amount of fat. It is a wonderful product. Break the meat apart and add to the soup simmer another
10 minutes!

What turned out is –Nelle’s Hunter’s Style Potato Soup! With plenty to share!

Nelle’s Motto – Never make soup for 4 when you can make soup for 14!

May Your Day Land Jelly Side UP!

~Nelle

PS: All of the products were from my favorite Aldi’s store!