One Pot, Three Meals: Easy Fall Soups
Cool weather is soup weather. One pot on Sunday can feed you well all week, and then some.
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When the leaves start to turn, my kitchen starts to smell like soup. There’s a reason soup has fed families for centuries: it’s cheap, forgiving, warm, and it stretches. For anyone cooking for one or two, it may be the most useful thing you can make.
Make one pot on a Sunday and you have lunch for a couple of days, plus a few servings tucked in the freezer for a night when cooking is the last thing you want to do.
1. Start with a base
Nearly every good soup starts the same way. Chop an onion, a carrot and a stalk of celery. Warm a spoonful of oil in a large pot and let them soften over medium heat for about eight minutes, stirring now and then. Add a clove of garlic if you like it.
That’s it. That simple base gives almost any soup a good, homemade flavor.
2. Add what you have
Now pour in broth (about four cups to start) and add whatever is in the kitchen:
- A can of beans or lentils, rinsed
- A can of diced tomatoes
- A bag of frozen vegetables, like peas, corn, green beans or spinach
- Leftover chicken, turkey or ham
- A handful of small pasta or rice
- Fresh greens stirred in at the end
Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, until everything is tender. Taste it, then season with pepper, herbs, or a squeeze of lemon. Lemon brightens a soup more than you’d think.
Watching your salt? Start with low-sodium broth and add herbs and lemon instead of extra salt. You can always add a pinch later, but you can’t take it out.
3. Freeze single portions
This is the step that turns one pot into three meals.
- Let the soup cool, then get it into the fridge within two hours.
- Ladle single servings into small containers or freezer bags. Leave a little room at the top.
- Label each one with the soup and the date. "Mystery soup" is only fun once.
- Most soups keep their best quality in the freezer for two to three months.
If your soup has pasta or rice, consider cooking that separately and adding it when you reheat. It stays nicer that way.
To reheat, thaw a portion overnight in the fridge, then warm it on the stove or in the microwave until it’s steaming hot all the way through. Add a splash of water or broth if it has thickened up.
Try this today
- Check what’s in the pantry and freezer this week.
- Make one pot of "what we have" soup.
- Freeze at least two single portions with labels and dates.
A few favorite combinations
- Chicken and vegetable: leftover chicken, frozen mixed vegetables, a handful of egg noodles.
- Hearty bean: white beans, diced tomatoes, spinach, a pinch of dried rosemary.
- Lentil: red lentils, a can of tomatoes, a little cumin. They cook down soft in about 20 minutes.
Make it social
Soup is made for sharing. Trade a few frozen portions with a friend or neighbor so you both get variety, or host a simple soup supper with bread and a salad. Nobody expects fancy, and everyone goes home warm.
Our free large-print Meal Planner and Grocery List makes it easy to plan a soup week.
What’s your favorite soup when the weather turns? Tell me in the comments. Chicken noodle fans, make some noise.