Kitchen Clean Out Soup
Soup du Jour (Soup of the Day) is often a way for restaurants to use up left over ingredients that would otherwise perish or expire.
In the restaurant business, food not sold is called waste and it cuts into your profits, so minimizing waste is a top priority for chefs. Most waste in a restaurant occurs with produce and refrigerated items as they have a much shorter shelf life than dry or frozen products. A business savvy chef takes frequent inventory of the walk-in cooler and looks for ways to use perishable items before they become waste. Soup is a great way to do this and can be made with an unlimited combination of perishable items like produce, meat, seafood, dairy, and cheese.
You can take the same approach when cleaning out your refrigerator and instead of throwing out items you paid for, make a delicious soup that can be used for lunch or dinner.
The following is a general formula for making soup out of common leftover items in your refrigerator. It is intended to be a guide and not a definitive recipe. The ingredients and amounts will largely depend on what you have on hand. I encourage you to experiment and try new things each time.
Ingredients are broken up into categories based on how they are used in the soup.
Fat, land protein, aromatic vegetables, other vegetables, flavor enhancers, bread-grains-and beans, seafood, dairy, and herbs
Fat
This is what you will use to sauté with. I generally use butter or vegetable oil, but this is a good opportunity to use up any fat you have saved like left over bacon grease or fat trimmed from beef or pork.
Land Protein
What I mean by land protein is anything that isn’t seafood: chicken, pork, beef, lamb, sausage, bacon, or turkey. These types of protein can be slow-cooked and should go into the soup near the beginning. Seafood on the other hand, cooks quickly so should be added near the end in most cases. I will use any protein that I have on hand that may expire. In addition, if I have any leftover raw protein that I do not use in a recipe, I stockpile it in the freezer in a large zip-loc bag for soup. I typically have a one-gallon sized bag for bones that I save to make stocks and another to save up unused protein for soups. You may prefer to keep your proteins separated, but I often mix them together and will make a soup that has different types of protein.
Aromatic Vegetables
Onions, carrots, and celery are in a standard mirepoix. Other vegetables that work here are leeks, parsnips, shallots, fennel, bell peppers, green onions, garlic, and ginger. Mirepoix can be diced or fine chopped. These vegetables will be sauteed first so you should avoid any vegetables that will break down like starchy potatoes or leafy greens.
Ingredients
Other Vegetables
These are the veggies that I will add in after the mirepoix and are generally more delicate. These vegetables would not hold up to the long sauté I will give the mirepoix like potatoes, spinach, chard, kale, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, cabbage, fresh beans, and mushrooms. It’s a good idea to dice potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, and squash. Slice mushrooms and rough chop greens like spinach, kale, chard, or cabbage.
Some vegetables have a strong flavor like broccoli, asparagus, and cauliflower that can overpower the rest of the soup so they are better suited as the main ingredient (think cream of asparagus or broccoli cheese soup).
Flavor Enhancers
These are things that will help flavor the soup and would go in when the liquid is added (stock or water). Items such as ham hocks, rinds from cheese, tomato paste, dried chili peppers, bones, seafood shells, herb bouquets, and spice sachets. In many cases these are items that will be removed from the soup before serving. It may be necessary to wrap them in cheese cloth to make it easier to remove.
Bread, Grains, and Beans
Soup is a great way to use up bread that has gone stale. It’s important that the bread is dried out and then can be added to soup as a thickener. You can also grind up tortillas, crumble biscuits, or crush up croutons and add them to soup. Grains like cooked rice or farro and canned beans are great ingredients as well.
Seafood
Crab, lobster, shrimp, scallops, clams, and mussels all work well in soup. They cook quickly so should be added towards the end of the cook, rather than near the beginning when you add land protein. I recommend adding seafood with 5-10 minutes left on the cook.
Dairy
Dairy is nice when added at the end of a soup to give it a richer mouthfeel and flavor. I recommend milk, cream, grated cheese, and cream cheese to be stirred into the soup before serving. Shredded cheese and sour cream can be used as a garnish when serving. Be careful with strong, pungent cheeses like gorgonzola or blue cheese, I generally don’t recommend those for soups.
Herbs
Fresh herbs are nice when added at the very end or when served. Most fresh herbs work well in soups: parsley, chive, oregano, marjoram, basil, and thyme work in most cases. Cilantro, rosemary, and dill have a more unique flavor profile so I would make sure it pairs with the other ingredients before using. Cilantro pairs with South American style soups, rosemary with heartier, fall and winter soups, and dill works with lemon and cream.
General Formula for Soup
1. Heat fat in a stock pot and sauté land protein until browned. Remove cooked and set aside.
2. Sauté aromatic vegetables 10-20 minutes until they have some browning on the edges.
3. Add other vegetables and sauté until they wilt slightly.
4. Add cooked protein and liquid: water or stock and scrape the bottom of the pan.
5. Add flavor enhancers to the liquid and bring to a boil then reduce to a low simmer.
6. Cook for 45 minutes -1 hour.
7. Remove any ingredients like rinds, bones, hocks, or sachets.
8. Optional: Add bread, cooked grains, or canned beans and simmer for 10 minutes.
9. If using seafood, add it here and cook until done (5-10 minutes).
10. Add dairy and herbs, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
Use this as a guide to turn your leftovers into a great meal to eat during the week. Let us know how it comes out by tagging us on social @lineageculinary.
