For those new to cooking at home, soup is a great place to start. Food writer Ruth Reichl said, “If you’ve got chicken stock, you’ve got a meal.” And it doesn’t have to be chicken stock. You can make soup with water or make your own stock from what you have on hand. Some cooks even freeze their peelings and vegetable scraps until they have enough to make a vegan soup stock.

Unlike fussy preparations, soup is very forgiving. If you don’t have one ingredient, you can usually substitute another. Soup cooks over low heat, so it’s unlikely to burn or scorch. It’s also a great way to learn how to adjust any dish’s flavor.

If your soup tastes flat, ladle some into a small bowl and add a dash of vinegar to see if it helps. If you like the result, add some vinegar to the whole pot. You can do the same with herbs, spices, salt, and pepper.

Use Leftovers and

Eat Your Veggies

We often make a pot of soup by using up what’s in our refrigerator. We usually have stock or stock base; aromatic vegetables like carrots, onion, fennel, and celery; starches like rice, pasta, or noodles; and seasonings. We often cook and store the starch components separately and add them to each serving since they tend to swell and drink up all the stock.

We’ll add bits and pieces of leftover meat and whatever vegetables are in the crisper. We keep a few additions to soups, like chicken meatballs in our freezer. Not every ingredient has to be made from scratch.

We keep jars of legumes and beans ready to add hardiness to even the simplest soups. And a flavorful sausage, like Italian sausage, chorizo, or kielbasa, can take a basic vegetable soup to a new cuisine.

If you need a formula to start with, we recommend Pam Anderson’s book, How to Cook Without A Book. She begins her chapter on soup with this rhyme, “Sauté an onion, then add vegetables, starch, and meat. Cook it in a quart of broth for a meal that can’t be beat.” Then she teaches the reader to improvise around that theme.

Meat is optional. Anderson starts with a recipe for pureed vegetable soup and tells readers how to prepare variations with broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, and squash.

Soup as Medicine

Cooks often stir up a pot of healing soup when a friend or family member has a cold or the flu. Today, scientists agree that chicken soup has many properties that relieve symptoms of those viruses.

The Mayo Clinic website explains how it helps. “Researchers say that chicken soup acts as an anti-inflammatory and temporarily speeds up the movement of mucus through the nose. This relieves congestion and limits how long viruses contact the lining of your nose. Plus, soup and other liquids help loosen congestion and prevent dehydration.”

Recently, someone said to us, “I would give anything for one more bowl of my Mother’s chicken soup.” We associate homemade soup with family, tradition, and perhaps good memories. Every so often, Penny makes a batch of the clam chowder that was served at Rhode Island shore dinner halls in years past. It reminds her of fun times with her extended family.

So, for the sake of memories, to help someone feel better, or to clean out the refrigerator, reach for a big pot and brew yourself some soup.

Do you have a question or topic for Fresh & Local? Email Penny@BostonZest.com with your suggestion.