I’m not someone who spends a lot of time in the kitchen. Maybe because I worked from home for so long that I got in the habit of eating most of my meals out.  That was before I knew how much hidden fat I was getting in restaurant food.  (A popular national steakhouse chain restaurant bakes their potatoes with bacon wrapped around them!)  I have a handful of favorite dishes I cook for myself and for friends and one of my favorite things to cook is soup. Sometimes I do this in a structured manner, like deciding on split pea soup and buying just those ingredients, but most often I find myself in the store looking at a juicy stalk of fennel next to a fat leek and the ideas start to flow. If I have no direction in mind, I can just let the fresh vegetables of the day direct me.

I love all kinds of soups. I love thick, chunky stews and I love a simple, delicate broth. I like leafy kale soups and hearty root vegetable soups.

In my past incarnation (in this lifetime), I was a heavy meat eater. Sausage and ham hocks were the first ingredients into every soup! As I turned more health conscious at the turn of the new millennium, I embarked on a mission to discover food alternatives with massive flavor and minimum fat, and big hunks of meat no longer appealed to me.  I wrote about it here Taking Responsibility for my own Health

So here’s what I keep in my pantry now.

MY VEGETARIAN FRIENDS DON’T READ THIS:
Packaged fat free beef broth
Packaged fat free chicken broth
Frozen bay scallops
Frozen fish
OK TO READ NOW MY VEGGIE HEAD FRIENDS

My pantry always includes:
Canned tomatoes, large and small cans
Canned crushed tomatoes
Canned stewed tomatoes
Canned garbanzo beans for hummus

I always have on hand:
Fresh onions: white, red and Vidalia
Fresh garlic in bulbs
A few sweet potatoes
A few white potatoes, or Yukon Gold for flavor
Carrots
Celery
Scallions
Fresh basil and rosemary

Vegetables I may also include in a soup if I see them fresh are:
Parsnips
Fennel
Leeks
Kale
Peppers: red, yellow and poblano
Fresh English peas!
Asparagus
Mushrooms

Favorite dried spices include:
Sea salt finely ground
Coarse ground black pepper
Garlic powder (I go through maybe 5 oz a month)
Tarragon
Thyme
Paprika
Cayenne pepper
Oregano
Bay leaves
Turmeric
Cinnamon, powder and in sticks
Fresh seeds that I grind: coriander, fennel, cumin

Favorite dried beans I keep on hand include:
Pinto beans
Split peas
White navy beans
Red kidney beans
Garbanzos
Butter beans