Soup base
Recently on a forum I belong to, we got into a short discussion about soup base, because someone was asking about making homemade chicken soup. A few months back, here, I posted a recipe for homemade turkey soup, using the leftover turkey carcass. But the truth is, for many of my recipes–and for any recipe calling for chicken broth–I use a soup base. In fact, on my chili recipe you’ll see that one of the ingredients is beef base.
Soup bases are a concentrated paste of flavor that, when mixed with water, create a broth or a stock. They come in a variety of flavors. The main three are probably chicken, beef and vegetable. But you can also get ham, turkey, seafood, and pork. There may be others out there I’m not aware of as well.
Once it’s opened, soup base usually needs to be refrigerated, but it’s well worth the space in your fridge to store a small jar of soup base. For every recipe that calls for broth, you can mix hot water and base to create the right amount of broth–much, much cheaper than buying it by can, and much tastier than the bullion cubes.
Not only that, but using the base allows you to control both the sodium level in your dish (which you can’t do with pre-made broth) and the intensity of flavor. With base on hand, you’ll always have the beginnings of soup stock/broth. Just add pasta and veggies and serve!
All recipes at a glance:
- A Midwestern Holiday Drink: How to Make Tom & Jerry Batter
- Apricot-glazed Pork Loin
- Awesome slow cooker roast
- Black Orchid Martini: Get Your Drink On
- BLT Burritos: Dinner Made Easy
- Boilermaker Chili
- Boston pork butt/shoulder (How do you use one?)
- Brandy Slush
- Capellini Pomodoro
- Caramel Apples: Ever wondered what it means to be too stupid to live?
- Chicken and Dumplings: Dinner
- Chicken bog: Dinner
- Cooking the Books: @BookEndsJessica’s Pink Vodka Sauce
- Cooking the Books: Lemonade Pie from Editor Mallory Braus
- Cooking the Books: Perfect Fried Rice from Heather Osborn
- Cranberry lemon white chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
- Cream Cheese Squares
- Dangerous cake in a mug
- Dinner Made Easy: BLT Burritos
- Easy Christmas “Cookie”–Cracker Candy (w/gluten free option!)
- Fire roasted tomato soup
- Football food! Pizza pinwheels.
- For your holiday cooking: An awesome dinner roll recipe
- Gingerbread Chocolate Cookies
- Goat cheese with sundried tomatoes
- Ground Beef Curly Noodles: Kid Friendly
- Ham and potato soup
- Hamburger recipes?
- Hash Brown Quiche
- Holiday baking: Bubble bread sticky rolls
- Holiday baking: Chocolate Puddle Cookies
- Holiday baking: Chunky Chocolates
- Holiday Baking: Cinnamon Caramel Corn
- Homemade chai
- Homemade pizza sauce
- Homemade potato chips
- Homemade Turkey Soup
- Hot Buttered Rum
- Ice cream in a bag
- In search of some recipes
- Josh’s General Tso’s Chicken
- Knockoff Baked Beans
- Lemon Drop Martini
- Meatball recipe…
- Mexican casserole: Dinner
- Mexican Goulash (recipe)
- Orzo with Parmesan and Basil
- Parmesan Basil Chicken Salad
- Party food!
- Peanut Butter Bars: Summer Dessert
- Pizza Burgers
- Pizza Casserole
- Recipe for busy moms: Ground Beef Curly Noodle
- Recipe request!
- Recipe: A Little on the Side
- Recipe: Butter Chicken
- Recipe: Katie's Pulled Pork
- Red Bean & Barley Soup
- Roast Sticky chicken Rotisserie Style
- S’mores brownies
- Salad recipes from the brunch today!
- Salsa Chicken and Spanish Rice
- Sasha’s Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Sausage and Lentil Soup
- Scotcharoos
- Seafood Lasagna
- Shrimp Scampi
- Slow cooker jambalaya
- Snappy Smothered Chicken
- Soup base
- Spicy Basil Chicken
- Spicy Sweet Potato Latkes
- Spinach and Strawberry Salad
- Spinach-Ham Roll-up
- Summer Cooking: Chicken Breast ideas #dinnertip
- Summer cooking: Deviled Eggs
- Summer Cooking: Grilled fish with cherry tomatoes & tapenade, Rice-Orzo side dish
- Summer cooking: Spicy Fish Tacos with Corn Salsa
- Summer dinner: Key West Chicken and Cilantro Lime Rice
- Sunday cooking: Gumbo
- Sunday Dinner: Crockpot “roast” chicken, gravy and my favorite homemade salad dressing
- SunnyD adult drink
- Sweet Potato Fluff
- Texas Salsa from Author Gail Dayton
- Thanksgiving menu
- Tuscan White Bean Soup Adjusted for Slow Cooker
- Weekly menu: 1/9/11-1/15/11
- White bean and ham soup
- White chicken chili