Saturday soup: a happy little habit
Saturday soup is exactly what the name implies: soup made on a Saturday. The purpose is to use up all veges remaining in my fridge from the previous Sunday. (I shop at the Sunday market.)
This week I’m living dangerously, because the leftover vegetables include three with very powerful flavour: daikon, kale, and beetroot.
Will these flavours fight to the death? If so, my money is on the daikon. It’s strong in every sense of the word. And I honestly don’t fancy the idea of daikon soup.
Never mind. Into the rice cooker they go with water and a dob of Vegemite, for the umami. I’m hoping that some old carrots, potatoes, lettuce, broccoli and kumara will help to calm the gustatory rage of the daikon. Now I add some other leftovers: chick peas, half a tin of 3-beans-and-chili, and what’s left of yesterday’s dahl. My trusty rice cooker cooks a lot more than rice — and the outside needs a scrub.
Three hours later and after a good mush-up with my stick processer, Saturday soup is just delicious. It’s always yummy, always in a different way. Today my grandson and I hoed into it. Tomorrow I’ll eat it with a bit more salt and spice. Then the rest goes into the freezer.
Saturday soup: a habit saving money, time, and decisions
This is the kind of habit that belongs in a self-help book. It’s one of dozens of short-cuts or life hacks that we accumulate naturally if we live long enough. It works. It’s the same every week and different every week. No vege is wasted and two or three meals are made by following one almost automatic process.
The Saturday soup habit is yet another reason that I feel so lucky to be alive. I have some old vegetables! I have teeth! I have a rice cooker! How lucky is that?
Thanks for sharing this great hack. I’ll definitely try it.
You probably have even better habits, like buying veges more than once a week!
Yes I do that, almost daily so that we make them fresh.
All leftovers are saved for the purpose. We can have it any day of the week
Any day! How liberating!
This sounds great. I must try it.
You never know what it will taste like. But it’s always good.
I’ve always been intrigued with rice cookers but it seemed silly to buy an appliance for one dish. This is an inspiration!
Great! If we bought every new cooking appliance, we would never find room on the bench to chop and peel and mix.
Soup is much underrated and features more in our diet now than it ever has in the past.
You’re right. It’s comforting to eat and fun to make.
We have soups on a regular basis. Here is one I am raving about, the best so far this past winter. Roasted cauliflower, rosemary and walnut soup.
Sounds great and I might try this one. I haven’t included the link (no links in comments, sorry) but people can find it on the RNZ website, under Collections: recipes.
We always had Saturday soup or as we called it cleaning out the fridge soup, each Saturday when my children lived at home. I continued to do this for several years after they left home and my husband died, but then I found I had so much soup in the freezer, there was little room for anything else. I have given up. And what a good use for your rice cooker. I always use the slow cooker.
That’s a good name, cleaning out the fridge soup. I am trying to buy slightly fewer veges each week, to avoid the filling-up-the-freezer problem!
I love all 3 veggies! and the idea of a “clear out the fridge” soup! I usually do a stir fry to clear my veg, but soup is a great addition to my rota!
Stir fry is good too. 🙂