Scrap Soup: Turning Odds & Ends Into Dinner!

At Eureka Factory, we Make All the Things as we need them, and food is no exception. When dinnertime rolls around and we've been really busy, we sometimes find ourselves with a lot of odds and ends from previous meals that, individually, aren't quite enough, but sometimes coalesce serendipitously into their own magical dish of culinary wonder.

That was the case recently when we peered into the fridge and found half a roast chicken, half an onion,a plastic container of cooked bacon from a recent breakfast, and some half filled (we're optimists) bags of split peas, lentils, and frozen limas and corn. A glance in the pantry revealed a box of vegetable broth. Most of that said "soup" to us, and since we didn't want to leave the bacon behind (and because everything tastes better with bacon!), we threw that in the pot, too.

The resulting Scrap Soup was absolutely delicious and eminently worthy, we felt, of an Instructable!

Step 1: Ingredients

Mileage may vary, according to your fridge scraps, but we'd say the following make for an exceptionally good soup:

One carton vegetable broth

1/2 roast chicken - pulled/shredded or chopped

1/4 cup chopped bacon

1/2 white onion, diced

1 glove garlic, minced

1 cup frozen southern hash brown potatoes (or diced potato)

1/8 cup dried lentils

1/8 cup dried split peas

1/2 cup frozen baby lima beans

1/2 cup frozen corn

1 tsp Italian Seasoning

Salt & Pepper to taste

3 tbsp olive oil

Step 2: Dice and Sautee Onion and Garlic

Add about 3 tablespoons olive oil to dutch oven and saute onions and garlic till tender and translucent.

Step 3: Chop Chicken

Pretty straightforward. You can shred or chop the chicken as desired, then add to sauteed onion and garlic.

Step 4: Add Bacon

We never really would have thought to add bacon to chicken soup, but there it was - so we nuked our pre-cooked bacon a bit, then chopped it up and dumped it in!

Step 5: Add Broth

Pour in your broth, stir and bring the whole thing to a light roil.

Step 6: Prepare Peas and Lentils

While your broth base is heating up, wash your lentils and peas, and then add those to the pot.

Step 7: Add Potatoes and Limas

Add in your potatoes and limas, season as desired, and stir. We like to leave the corn till the end, so it doesn't overcook, and has that nice sweet firmer texture to it.

Step 8: Cover and Simmer

Set the pot over a back burner on low, and cover. Let the whole thing simmer 45 min. to an hour, or until lentils and split peas are tender.

Step 9: Add Corn

Add the corn during the last 10 to 15 min. of cooking, stir and add a little more water if desired.

Step 10: Enjoy!

Enjoy your Scrap Soup as is or over some rice, and celebrate the tasty fruits of your refrigerator emptying labor! It's a delicious soup and the bacon really makes it! Add a little hot sauce for an extra kick.