Ugly Soup

This soup is uglier than anything I've ever made before, but it's SO yummy I can't eat just one bowl. Ha, isn't this a great introduction to this recipe?! Aren't you excited to try it now? (laughing to myself here) If any of you kitchen-savvy cooks have a suggestion on how I can improve the appearance of this one, please let me know. It's definitely a keeper in my book, but I need to make it look more appetizing to the children. Erg.

It's technically called Mushroom with Tortellini soup. Here is the recipe for one batch of soup:

2 slices bacon, diced 

2 cups onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups fresh mushroom, diced (I make these really small so the kids don't know it's mushroom.)

8 cups beef broth (real broth, none of that bullion garbage. Trust me, it's worth it to use real broth here.)

2 Tablespoons fresh basil, minced

1/2 cups fresh parsley, minced (no cutting corners here- don't use dried parsley.)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 9oz. package cheese tortellini

2 cups fresh spinach, chopped 

For serving day: Fresh Parmesan cheese and garlic croutons for garnish.

In a stockpot, saute the bacon. Remove bacon and saute the onion until golden. (Don't try to cook them together. I did this the first time and the onion juices ended up boiling the bacon, so the bacon didn't get crispy  Disgusto.) Add mushroom (you could substitute cooked Italian sausage if you don't like mushrooms), beef broth, basil, parsley, garlic, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. In a separate stockpot, cook tortellini according to package directions. Drain. Add tortellini and spinach leaves to soup. Simmer until tortellini is heated through (this is what the original recipe says here, but I'm thinking, wouldn't the tortellini still be hot from the boiling water it just came from? I skipped that step, but included it since the book said it.) Remove from heat and cool. Pour soup into a labeled gallon-size freezer bag. Freeze. 

On serving day, cut the plastic off the frozen block of soup. Place soup in a crock pot and set on LOW for 8-10 hours, or until heated through. (You can also thaw the soup and reheat it on the stove if you have an aversion to crock-pots, just be sure not to boil it.) Top with generous amounts of fresh parmesan and croutons. Enjoy.

Okay, okay, I know it takes forever to make this soup. That's precisely why I make a super-huge batch all at once (Think 6 to 10 gallons.....yeah, I have a huge stock pot.) and freeze enough to last for several meals.

My sweet husband set up speakers and his MP3 player in the kitchen so I can listen to audio books or lectures while I work. I detest doing tedious work without something stimulating to occupy my mind (and in my world, chopping 20 pounds of vegies=tedious). Since I was listening to conference talks, it was a beautiful, uplifting day in the kitchen. (Isn't it so rare an occasion that we can say that we loved working in the kitchen?)