Take the chill off the bad economy with a frugal, delicious vegetable soup

Take the chill off the bad economy with a frugal, delicious vegetable soup 14

Photo: Library of Congress

In our food system, the part of the animal that delivers the most flavor—the bones—often gets thrown away. Purveyors then sell the boneless meat at a higher price. During hard times, such wasteful practices come into relief. We explore humbler, bone-in cuts of meat and underappreciated vegetables. And we begin to take leftovers seriously, putting them to use in other dishes. Amazingly, our cuisine actually benefits from this frugality.

Winter is the ideal time for trying your hand at such rustic, country-style dishes. Tough cuts of meat simmered slowly for hours transform into something so succulent you can literally eat it with a spoon. Long hours of hands-off cooking warm the house and fill it with irresistible, mouth-watering aromas.

I started exploring the more rugged cuts of meat a few years ago. At the farmers market where I shop for meat from pastured animals, the tough cuts tended to be the ones I could afford. Farmers seemed to have a hard time getting rid them, so I took on a challenge to find deals that benefited us both. I have adapted many of my favorite dishes to these economical cuts. Chicken and dumplings made with chicken backs, Gumbo Z’herbes made with pork neck bones, and oxtail country vegetable soup.

I have wanted to share the country vegetable soup of my childhood with you for a while. It is a meal that highlights the wisdom of my grandmother, who grew up during the Great Depression and was no stranger to hard times. She and many other women like her transformed underappreciated foods into delicious and nourishing meals day after day without ever consulting a recipe. It is the first dish that I long for when the weather turns bitterly cold. The only problem is that my grandmother’s vegetable soup requires thinking ahead. It is so well-loved that I make plans for it in July and August.

Summer in a Pot

In the summertime, I simmer fresh tomatoes with sweet corn, butterbeans, and okra, then put them by in the freezer as a winter “vegetable soup helper.” It’s actually a dish known as succotash, which in its purest state is a simple dish of lima beans and corn. The okra in my family’s recipe is evidence of the strong African culinary influence felt all across the Deep South.

It simply will not do to make this dish out-of-season, so don’t bother at this time. Just commit now to putting up a batch this summer to make a traditional country vegetable soup next winter. Since country vegetable soup is the ultimate improvisational meal, coming up with an alternative recipe to share was easy. Inspiration for this soup traditionally comes from surveying the contents of the refrigerator and the freezer, so that’s where I headed.

When I found leftover roasted root vegetables from dinner earlier in the week, I knew that would make a perfect, hearty winter vegetable soup. A leftover ham bone or chicken carcass, or even rich dried beans in their cooking liquid and the rind from a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano can replace the oxtails. Just let your leftovers guide you, but be sure that they are still of very high quality. If you wish to make your soup completely from scratch, you can do that, too. You will find that many underutilized but wonderful produce grows on throughout the winter. A wide array of root vegetables and greens make for a perfect for a winter vegetable soup. Whatever you do, serve your soup with some hot, crispy cornbread just like my grandmother would do. It just wouldn’t be the same without it.

Soup is good food.

Oxtail Vegetable Soup

Makes about 2 1/2 quarts or 8 servings.

4 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds oxtails (about three 3-inch segments), patted dry
Salt and pepper
10 cups water (or beef or chicken stock)
One 28-ounce can of chopped tomatoes
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 small bay leaf
Pinch of allspice

1 1/2 cups chopped onion or leeks (whites only)
3/4 cup chopped celery
3/4 cup chopped carrots
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sprigs thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 cups diced potato, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 cups chopped green cabbage
4 cups assorted vegetables (such as leftover roasted root vegetables or succotash—recipe below—or any raw vegetables)
1/2 cup chopped parsley, to serve
1 lemon cut into 12 small wedges or hot sauce, to serve

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Sprinkle oxtails with salt and pepper. Add oxtails to pot and brown on all sides, about 20 minutes. Add water, tomatoes, and herbs and spices. Bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and skim well. Cover and simmer gently until meat is tender, stirring occasionally, about 3 hours.

Using tongs, transfer oxtails to a plate. Carefully pour cooking liquid into 8-cup glass measuring cup or large bowl. Refrigerate or freeze cooking liquid until fat separates from liquid (about 45 minutes in the freezer). Spoon fat from top of cooking liquid. Remove meat from oxtails; discard bones. Add meat to cooking liquid. This can be made ahead, covered, and refrigerated for several days.

Heat 2 more tablespoons oil in same pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery, carrots, garlic, potatoes, thyme, and bay leaf. Sauté until vegetables are golden, about 10-12 minutes. Add cooking liquid with meat. Add the chopped cabbage and any other raw vegetables. Bring to boil. Cover and simmer until potatoes are almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Add the pre-cooked or leftover vegetables and heat thoroughly, another 8 to 10 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Ladle into bowls. Top with parsley. Pass a bowl of lemon wedges or hot sauce at the table. Serve with plenty of hot, crispy cornbread.

Succotash.

Deep South Succotash, or Vegetable Soup Starter

File this recipe away for next summer. My grandmother always froze this recipe in quart freezer bags to avoid fooling with a pressure canner, and I now do the same. The nutrients are better preserved this way as an added benefit. If you don’t want to use plastic bags, you can freeze it in glass jars. Just be sure to leave plenty of space for the mixture to expand as it freezes. A surefire way to do this is just to allow it to freeze solid before placing the lid on the jar.

2 tablespoons bacon drippings or extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 cups fresh corn kernels, preferably white, cut from the cob
4 medium ripe red tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped (about 3 cups)
2 cups fresh baby lima beans or butterbeans
1/2 pound fresh okra pods, topped, tailed, and cut into 1/2-inch rounds (about 2 cups)
1 cup water
Salt and ground black pepper

Heat the fat in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onions with the salt and cook, stirring often, until they soften, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Stir in the corn, tomatoes, beans, and okra. Add 1 cup water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until the vegetables are just tender, about 20 minutes, stirring from time to time. Season generously with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Serve immediately or let cool to room temperature and put up in quart freezer bags for a delicious vegetable soup helper.

Comments

April McGreger is the proprietor of Farmer’s Daughter, a farm-driven artisan food business in Carrboro, N.C. She is a leader in her local Slow Food convivium, where she is known to curate field pea tastings and write for the Slow Food Triangle blog. When not in the kitchen, she can usually be found at her local community garden or singing and playing the tenor banjo with her husband Phil.

gwood Posted 7:36 am
29 Jan 2009
What kind of soup?I click over from the daily digest to get a vegetable soup recipe, and I see ox tails and bacon drippings? No thanks.
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farmersdaughter Posted 8:28 am
29 Jan 2009
substitutions are easyIt's easy to make this dish vegetarian. Start by cooking dried beans from scratch. Cook them with plenty of liquid and the same spices recommended for the oxtails. Use the bean cooking stock for your soup stock (about 8 cups)and add a scant 2 cups of the beans to your soup as well. A rind of parmesan adds extra deliciousness, just be careful that it doesn't stick to the bottom of your pot and burn. These options are noted in the body of the article. The best part about vegetable soup is its versatility.

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ecology Posted 12:47 pm
29 Jan 2009
Vegetarian optionI grew up in Jamaica, eating oxtail and soups and stews made with ham and chicken bones, but now, am a vegetarian. Thank you for providing vegetarian ways to prepare your soup.
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redambrosia99 Posted 3:12 am
30 Jan 2009
BonesI saved the carcass of my turkey this year (froze it) to make a soup. After boiling it for a while, not only was I able to get a whole lot of little bits of meat off it that I hadn't before, but it made a wonderful rich broth. It was a great soup. :)
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CyberBrook Posted 10:06 am
30 Jan 2009
oxtails and beef or chicken stock?!?That kills a good vegetable soup, not to mention the oxen, cows, and chickens. The vegetable soup would be healthier, more compassionate, and greener without the animals inside.
Why would Grist add these unnecessary and brown ingredients to what could be a very green meal?
Please visit Eco-Eating at http://www.brook.com/veg for lots of good info and loads of links.

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farmersdaughter Posted 12:20 pm
30 Jan 2009
Turkey recyclingExactly! My favorite part about Thanksgiving is Turkey bone gumbo made from the carcass. The amount of meat that most people just throw away is astounding!
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emmapb Posted 12:27 pm
30 Jan 2009
Nice Cheap Soups!These soups look delicious. Another highly nutritious and incredibly cheap one pot meal are lentils and brown rice. It's really basic, but I find myself craving it a lot, plus it's great for winter!
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Ceka Posted 2:22 am
03 Feb 2009
Inexpensive, nurturing soups for vegetariansAll these soups look lovely - frugal, delicious, and nutritious.
For those of us who don't eat meat, lentil soups make a good substitute for ham-bone and vegetable type soups.
Here are three good ones - all vegan or easily made vegan.
red coconut soup
curried sweet potato ginger soup
lentil-spinach soup
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jesseclark Posted 2:35 am
03 Feb 2009
Nice titleLast weekend a group of friends and I kicked off a series of rotating hosted dinners and pot lucks we are calling 'Good Food for Hard Times'. Our goal is to get good people together and feed them well for no more than $10 a head.
I actually had just registered the domain name to create a blog that will chronicle the dinners where will post the recipes for all the dishes served.
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kmp Posted 3:12 am
03 Feb 2009
Winter's bountyI'm not an oxtail fan myself, but the succotash recipe looks wonderful. I shall have to add that to my list next summer.
Just last night I was patting myself on the back for all the work I did over the summer/fall in 'putting by' the harvest, as I pulled diced pumpkin chunks, chopped garlic and homemade chicken stock out of the freezer, threw it in a soup pot with a chopped onion, a can of chickpeas, and some homemade (and homegrown!) tomato paste for a quick & easy, yet nutrious and filling soup. Fresh parsley from the winter farmer's market added a little green, and with a slice of homemade hearth bread and a glass of local Riesling, we were stuffed.
This soup went into the pot in 5 minutes and then simmered while I did the dishes, finished up some emails, and popped a bottle of wine. Since most of the ingredients in this meal were paid for nearly a year ago in the yearly CSA payment, it was essentially "free." It would be even cheaper if I could ever plan ahead enough to use dried beans - it's one of my New Year's resolutions, but so far, it's going about as well as NY resolutions usually go....
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EcoMingler Posted 5:24 am
03 Feb 2009
Beautiful soups and ways to preserve winter veghttp://www.SustainableSuppers.com has some great

soups, plus ways to preserve winter veggies. There's a tutorial

on how to make your own sauerkraut from winter cabbage. And, for those who eat meat, there's a good basic tutorial on making your own bone broth. (The same concept applies to making inexpensive and nutritious veggie broth.)
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PermieWriter Posted 5:58 pm
03 Feb 2009
BeansI learned the hard way that the pressure cooker is the way to go with beans. It uses a lot less energy and the beans are actually edible before lunch the next day.
Do not fear the pressure cooker. It is your friend.
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farmersdaughter Posted 1:36 am
04 Feb 2009
Kraut making on Grist!See an earlier Farmer's Daughter post for real, delicious sauerkraut. It is one of my standard foods that I eat 2-3 times a week. It is incredibly economical and nutritious. I just made two batches this week with some local biodynamic carrots and another batch with rutabagas. You can add whatever spices you like as well so go where your taste buds take you!
http://www.grist.org/advice/daughter/2008/11/06/index.htm ...
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farmersdaughter Posted 1:49 am
04 Feb 2009
Take the pressure off with a pressure cookerYes, using a pressure cooker is a great idea to save time and energy cooking beans. Individual beans and pressure cookers give you different cooking times, but I always prefer to cook them slightly less time than the pressure cooker instructions call for. Then I let them finish cooking with the lid off so that some of the liquid has time to evaporate, making the flavor richer, and so that I am sure not to overcook them.
Obviously, perhaps, lentils cook in about twenty minutes and do not require the pressure cooker.
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