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It’s Winter – Time for Soup

It’s a tradition in the Thompson family to cook, and eat, buckets of gut-cleansing soup after Thanksgiving. Hot, spicy vegetable soup does wonders for a stomach recovering from days of feasting.

Warming up with a steaming bowl of soup also helps get through this chilly, dark beginning of winter when you’re still getting used to the cold Door County air. Heat up a bowl of this soup after a hike on a snowy trail in one of the peninsula’s parks – you’ll be glad you did.

Since I’m no longer in the Mitten with my folks, it’s up to me to put soup on the table. I loaded up on veggies at Pick ‘n Save in Sturgeon Bay, and got to chopping.

There’s no official name for this Thompson veggie soup. I think my aunt found it in an Atkin’s Diet cookbook, but the original recipe’s long been out of play. We’ll just call it Soup.

Soup Recipe:

Ingredients
• 2 jugs of Spicy V8 juice
• 1 big can of diced tomatoes
• 1 head of cabbage
• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 1 onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 carton of mushrooms
• 2 green, yellow or red peppers
• 1 bag of spinach, kale or other tough green
• Rice, or noodles, optional

Instructions

Making Soup is, like, the easiest thing in the world. Sauté onions, garlic, peppers and other tough vegetables in some vegetable oil, then add V8 and the other vegetables. Pick and choose your favorite veggies, but definitely keep the cabbage – it’s the best part. Boil, then simmer the soup for a half hour or so. Add cooked brown rice, or noodles, if you care to.

Serve the soup with sour cream, cheddar cheese, crackers, egg rolls, pomegranate martinis or filet mignon, depending on your fancy. Serve it hot, and enjoy!