Every cook should know how to make homemade soup, especially those on a budget and those interested in eating healthy.

Two weeks ago I wrote an unusual post about how to make soup stock. It might seem like an unusual post for blog on Obstetrics, Gynecology, and healthy lifestyle, but not when you take a closer look.

One pillar of healthy lifestyle is healthy eating and another pillar is a healthy home life. Home cooked food can help with both. Soup is one of the most comforting and potentially healthy home cooked foods. It is also one of the easiest, of course once you know how. Homemade soup is also one of the thriftiest things to make since you can utilize leftovers and assorted ingredients from the refrigerator, garden, or pantry.

How to start? As always, start by cleaning up any stray dishes in the kitchen, organizing, and assembling your ingredients. Thaw any broth you have frozen. If you have not made frozen broth you can obtain good organic broth in three different flavors at any natural food store. You can also get a jarred broth concentrate, also organic, at most grocery stores and at Costco as well.

Determine the vegetables you want to include. I'm a fan of great variety, But you can also make a vegetable flavored soup and emphasize one or two flavors such as red pepper. Prepare all of the vegetables by washing trimming and cutting them to the appropriate size.

I try to ask my patients to emphasize the protein in their diet. Decide what the protein in your soup will be. Consider chicken, red meat, fish, seafood,or even eggs. Cut your choice into bite-size pieces. If you can tolerate legumes like beans and peas and can handle the carbohydrate that they bring, those can be included as well. Prepare all these ingredients so that they are ready to put in the pot.

I like to try to make my soup with only one pot. Choose your pot based on the volume that you want to make. Make sure it is extra large so that when you stir it with a long wooden spoon nothing will spill out.

Use a good cooking olive oil to sauté your first ingredients.These would include garlic, onions, or chilies if they are in your recipe. You will do them first so that they will flavor the oil. Make sure to use enough olive oil on the bottom of the pan. After this, Add your meat, chicken, or fish. Sauté until golden brown, but not fully done. I like to add fairly heavy spices to the cooking meat at this point since the flavor seems to penetrate better than adding it later. Then add your vegetables one by one and cook them until partially done, going from the hardest such as carrots to the softest such as spinach at the last.

When everything seems partially and evenly done, add liquid. I usually add a a half a cup of either red or white wine first. This adds to the depth of flavor. Then I add my broth, at least enough to cover all the hard ingredients, and usually more. I may or may not add a can of diced or stewed tomatoes, depending on the flavor I want to achieve. All you have to do at that point is bring it to a boil briefly, then simmer until the hardest vegetables are fork tender. If you intend for your meats to get very tender, they will have to simmer at least a couple hours.

This is a good general recipe for a variety of different kinds of soup. You can make it with a large variety of different vegetables and if you add beans and a little pasta it turns out like a minestrone. If you add only a few vegetables and a lot of beans, tomato paste as well as onions and chilies, you have chili. You can pick a vegetable theme such as green vegetables and limit yourself to just a few onions, leeks, spinach, and kale. If you make a broth-y chicken soup with napa cabbage, ginger and green onions, you can drop whisked eggs into it and have egg drop soup. You can do the classic pumpkin soup especially at this time of year. Or you can go with the popular roasted red pepper soup.

If you have athletes, children or adolescents in the home, you can afford to serve this soup with a good whole-grain bread. Otherwise, it should stand on its own. You can always add a side salad and cold glasses of milk, to round it out.

Have fun with your soup and add some garnish. Garnishes can be anything from grated cheese or sour cream to minced green onions, parsley, crumbled hard-boiled eggs, sliced almonds or Siracha sauce.

You will find that people tend to gather around a kitchen table with a good homemade soup. Having a sitdown family dinner with soup is good for health and good for the soul.

Our evening temperatures are beginning to dip into the 30s and yet, our outdoor activities continue unabated. This weekend I'm sure we will be out either observing the lunar eclipse or the Northern lights. This means we're going to get chilly. This means we will want soup.

Soup season is here again. While I love summer with its fruit platters and salads, I adore the soups of fall. A beautiful soup makes a great centerpiece for a meal, and if made well, soups are healthy and appeal to everyone.

What does it take to make a delicious soup? It takes a well-made soup base. Some people call this broth and some people call it stock. I think when you see how it is made you will understand why it tastes so good.

The first thing you should do is roast some chicken. I realize this sounds daunting to some, but it is actually one of the simplest things you can do in the kitchen. Moreover, whole chickens are one of the most inexpensive healthy foods you can buy. Around here, we can get them from our local farmers or you can get a good whole organic chicken at Costco. You will need a roasting pan, but it need not be fancy. It should have a roasting rack. You can usually get these at secondhand stores. You will also need a meat thermometer and these are available for just a few dollars at any grocery store. This is a small price to pay for food safety. Before you start to unpack your chicken, adjust the shelf in your oven and preheat it to 425°. Read through all the instructions first, and assemble everything you need before you start. In French, this is called “ Mise en Place”, or to put in place.

Start by reviewing food safety. Recall that raw chicken and its juices are a culture medium for bacteria. Keep everything confined to the sink or nonporous cutting boards. Open the packages in your area and do not reuse any of the utensils or surfaces for anything else without thoroughly cleaning them in hot soapy water. Once you get your chickens unpackaged, remove the giblets and rinse them. Set your hollow chickens onto the roasting rack in the roasting pan. Then, discard the packaging, wash the utensils and surfaces and finally wash your hands with hot soap and water.

Brush the surface of both chickens thoroughly with olive oil. Sprinkle them liberally with good kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Encrust them with whatever other herbs you like. Add about an inch of liquid to the bottom of the pan. This can be water or white wine. Cover the birds loosely with foil. Roast at 425°until their internal temperature is 165 degrees deep in the flesh. For the last 10 minutes or so, take off the foil and brown the tops of the chicken until they are nice and crispy but not burned. This will serve about 10 people or a small family for several days.

To make broth, take all of the chicken meat of all of the bones and serve or store it. You can use it to make sandwiches, chicken salad, main dishes, and pasta. Keep all of the drippings in the pan unless they are burned black. Compress the carcasses down in the pan and place back in the oven and either bake them at high temperature or broil them until they are golden brown and dried but not burned. Take the roasting pan out and add several ingredients which will flavor the broth. Here are some choices:

Garlic cloves, and onion with their skin
Chopped carrots, Chopped celery
Older apples that are still good
Any fresh herbs and peppercorns

Cover all the ingredients with water and bring to a boil on the stove top. Boil for 10 minutes, then simmer for at least two hours.. When finished, strain and transfer to a clean cool container or containers, preparing either to use, refrigerate, or freeze. Consider adding salt at this time.

If the weather is cold, I like to cool my broth outside. This way I don't have to put hot containers of broth into a freezer or refrigerator, compromising the temperature of other items. Either hot broth or cold broth is safe, but warm broth spoils quickly, and should be stored or used promptly.

I freeze our broth in quart containers being careful to leave about three quarters of an inch of head space at the top. Now I have a delicious base for any number of different kinds of soups or sauces. We have used this to make soups with chicken, red meat and all kinds of vegetables.

Mostly we just make soup with what is on hand. The general principle is this: Pick a soup pot of adequate size. Saute your meats, garlic, onions, and hard vegetables one by one in olive oil and spices. Once they are cooked, cover with broth and add the softer vegetables such as tomatoes and greens. Bring to a boil, then simmer until done. Season to taste. To your health !