Well thanks ya'll. I just dug up this thread when ysop was looking for senate bean soup recipe. Glad you and your family enjoyed it Judi. Smiles. I eat soup for breakfast and lunch generally until I'm done with the curernt batch that is unfrozen. I just finished my first gallon of lentil soup, so tonight I am going to brine the beans for this bean soup. I just started brining the beans in the past six months or so and can't believe the difference. The skins are so much more tender and it takes a lot less time to cook the whole soup. The outcome is that you can cook it till the beans are tender without having all the skins come off and floating around. I had just bought a ham to use mostly for soups and froze quart bags of meat and skins to use, but also have the big bone, soooo.. this time I'm making 4 lbs at a time so I can use the big bone. Ah... happy camper. Time to start some artisan bread to go with.

Here is one I found that doesn't have beans, but it doesn't have rice, either! LOL Easy enough to toss some in! Quick Taco Soup Soup Ingredients: 1/2 pound extra lean ground beef 2 medium (1 cup) onions, chopped 1 large (1 cup) green bell pepper, chopped 1 (1.25-ounce) package taco seasoning mix 1 (46-ounce) bottle vegetable tomato juice 1 (16-ounce) jar thick and chunky salsa or picante sauce Toppings Ingredients: Fat Free Sour Cream, if desired Shredded lettuce, if desired Sliced green onions, if desired Chopped tomato, if desired Reduced Fat Cheddar Cheese, shredded, if desired Cook ground beef, onions and green pepper in 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until beef is no longer pink (6 to 10 minutes). Drain off fat. Stir in seasoning mix; continue cooking 1 minute. Stir in tomato juice and salsa. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until heated through (3 to 5 minutes). To serve, ladle soup into individual bowls; dollop with sour cream, if desired. Top with shredded lettuce, sliced green onions, chopped tomato or cheese, if desired. Nutritional Facts: 1 serving Calories 110 Fat 2.5 g Cholesterol 15 mg Sodium 1000 mg Carbohydrate 15 g Dietary Fiber 3 g Protein 8 g Linda

I was just watching the Travel Channel's Thanksgiving Show and Apple Parsnip Soup was mentioned and it sounded so good. I did find a recipe that appealed to me, printed below, but I was wondering if anyone had a Tried and True Apple Parsnip Soup Recipe? "APPLE PARSNIP SOUP" Recipe from Arnold D. Kruck, Executive Chef Ingredients: Make approximately 2 qts.  ½ lb. of Butter  1 White Onion, diced  15 Parsnips, peeled and large dice  5 Apples, peeled and large diced  1 Can Apple Juice, 46 oz.  1 Pint Heavy Cream  6 oz. Honey  Chicken Stock - about 1 qt., you need enough to cover vegetables  Kosher Salt  Ground white pepper Over medium flame, melt butter in heavy sauce pan, about 4 qt pot. Sauté onions until translucent. Add apple juice and reduce until half. Add parsnips and chicken stock and cover. cook until parsnips are fully cooked and then add apples. Cook for 2 minutes and then puree soup until smooth. Reduce on low heat. Stir occasionally as not to burn soup. When finished, add heavy cream and honey. season with salt and pepper. should coat the back of a wooden spoon.

Nothing to it! Take cheapest chicken pieces ([probably legs) OR any other meat you get for good price OR turkey/chicken/pork/beef or any other meat bones which you roast till golden in the oven OR any combination of vegetable OR any combination of any above.........cook it in a big pot till meat falls off the bone OR bones come apart easily OR vegetables are soft (or all above). Add some spices OR herbs (to your taste), a bit of salt (or not), cover with the lid and put out on the balcony to cool till fat (except for vegetable soup) is getting white and firm on the top of the soup. Take it back into kitchen, remove fat and get rid of it. Take out all items which are in the broth, sort it out, clean bones of meat, chopp the meat (if you have lots of meat you can use some for chicken/meat salad). Keep chopped meat/vegetables on plate and think of how much same kind of soup you will need. If you have too much, divide it into smaller pots and divide chopped items to make different soups. Make your smaller pots boil, and add some meat and rice to one, some meat and noodles to other, add some chopped raw potato to another pot and add some vegetables too. One with potato you can mix into cream soup without cream. Except for potato soup, all other soups freeze well so you can make different kinds of home made soups at the same time. Do not make a science out of it as you do not need any special recipes for no fat/no salt soup. You can look at any cook-book web site, find soup recipes - and there must be thousands. When you follow the recipe just skip what you don't want there. DO NOT USE SOYA SAUCE as it contains too much sodium/salt. Good luck.