Dried Soup Mixes

I just found another use for it. I threw it in some Hamburger Helper. Looks like I'm going to need to make that onion soup mix a regular in my pantry.

rodentraiser said:

I just found another use for it. I threw it in some Hamburger Helper. Looks like I'm going to need to make that onion soup mix a regular in my pantry.

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Was it edible? I don't mean that in a snarky way, but Hamburger Helper is salty enough already. Just seems kind of overkillish to me.

It was good. I don't salt too many things and my refried beans today is a good example of why I don't, but my nurse practioner and I had a talk about my salt intake on Monday. I drink a lot of water because if I don't and I get dehydrated, I get awful headaches. Now when I was in ICU after surgery for my aneurysm, the nurses finally let me have the whole jug of water instead of bringing me glasses of it. But eventually they told me I was overwatered and needed to get some more salt, so would I please order some potato chips or something to balance it out.

So yeah, I probably do get too much salt in the processed food I eat, but I think it balances out with all the water I drink. My NP and I talked about it Monday and she said as long as my kidneys were in good shape, which they are, to just keep doing what I'm doing.

There might have been too much salt in the Hamburger Helper and the onion mix, but although it might have been too salty for anyone else, I didn't add any other salt to it and it tasted fine to me. Plus, I always use about a pound and a half of hamburger anyway.

rodentraiser said:

It was good. I don't salt too many things and my refried beans today is a good example of why I don't, but my nurse practioner and I had a talk about my salt intake on Monday. I drink a lot of water because if I don't and I get dehydrated, I get awful headaches. Now when I was in ICU after surgery for my aneurysm, the nurses finally let me have the whole jug of water instead of bringing me glasses of it. But eventually they told me I was overwatered and needed to get some more salt, so would I please order some potato chips or something to balance it out.

So yeah, I probably do get too much salt in the processed food I eat, but I think it balances out with all the water I drink. My NP and I talked about it Monday and she said as long as my kidneys were in good shape, which they are, to just keep doing what I'm doing.

There might have been too much salt in the Hamburger Helper and the onion mix, but although it might have been too salty for anyone else, I didn't add any other salt to it and it tasted fine to me. Plus, I always use about a pound and a half of hamburger anyway.

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Yes, I'm sure I get too much sodium from processed foods as well. I try to make homemade meals for myself, as well as my son, but we do eat a good portion of boxed dinners. Lunch meats as well. And, of course, there's bacon

I'm the opposite, though, with how much meat I use in Hamburger Helper. I only use 1/2 pound per package. It's mostly my way of saving money. The 1/2 pound seems to work just fine. Besides, my son is the one who eats Hamburger Helper more than I do. I prefer Tuna Helper. So the 1/2 pound of ground beef per package of HH is plenty.

I rarely use them for actually making soup (They can be useful for pot roasts etc though). That being said I can recommend Alessi soup mixes. You can get them at most stores or delivered from amazon. They are 3$ and change per package.

Other than adding some spices they are good right out of the package. The instructions are fine, and there is plenty of flavor. To kick it up a notch use 1/2 water and 1/2 chicken broth but it really isn't needed. Pepper (cracked/ground fresh is best) and a bit of basil will add to the dish. It doesn't need additional salt at all. Cheese (grated parm) on top is nice as well, but again, not needed.

I tried their other dry soups and they are all good, but honestly I prefer most of those (like pasta a fageli) made fresh, only really like the tuscan white bean.

For the most part I don't use dried soups because fresh ingrediants are easy to have at home and are used for other dishes/cooking, and to me, taste better, and you have more control over what you add. It is nice to just open a package, poor it into some boiling water/broth and be done in a few minutes. I'm retired/at home and by myself so there is no need to save a few minutes, but I did use it alot more when I was working full time and taking care of 3 other people. Even then I would usually use a crock pot to make my soup all day while I was at work though, and the taste was so much better, and it made everyone so happy it was worth the little bit of extra effort

everyone has their own tastes, , ,
for us, the Lipton "Beefy Onion" dry mix is a favorite for meatloaf - and meatballs.

one 'packet' per two pounds of ground beef.
mix into beaten egg, fold mixture into beef . . .

dcSaute said:

everyone has their own tastes, , ,
for us, the Lipton "Beefy Onion" dry mix is a favorite for meatloaf - and meatballs.

one 'packet' per two pounds of ground beef.
mix into beaten egg, fold mixture into beef . . .

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And rolled oats for the meatloaf

funny story behind the meat loaf . . .

(years later...) DW pronounced my mother's meat loaf the best she ever had.
kabillions of ideas, and attempts, and adds, and schmears later . . .

I managed to reproduce it. well, if not exact, I reproduced something of a meat loaf my DW 'remembers' keep in mind . . . having 'grown up' with it I never paid much attention to the meat loaf details . . .

superfine minced onion, 1/4 inch diced stale bread - and the beefy onion in beaten egg "seasoning"

otoh, her mother made wowser fired chicken - paid a _lot_ more attention to how she did that . . . because , , , my mother's fried chicken I grew up with was . . . uhm, errr,,,, not so wowser....

dragnlaw said:

OK - so what part don't you understand? Bring water to a boil, add package mixture, return to boil, simmer for specified amount of time, or if not clear taste test until done .... eat.

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'........drain, rinse and use as per your favourite soup' - this part. I rarely cook soup from scratch, so I'm not sure how I can use dried soup mixes to my advantage.

Thanks

Gillian

dcSaute said:

funny story behind the meat loaf . . .

(years later...) DW pronounced my mother's meat loaf the best she ever had.
kabillions of ideas, and attempts, and adds, and schmears later . . .

I managed to reproduce it. well, if not exact, I reproduced something of a meat loaf my DW 'remembers' keep in mind . . . having 'grown up' with it I never paid much attention to the meat loaf details . . .

superfine minced onion, 1/4 inch diced stale bread - and the beefy onion in beaten egg "seasoning"

otoh, her mother made wowser fired chicken - paid a _lot_ more attention to how she did that . . . because , , , my mother's fried chicken I grew up with was . . . uhm, errr,,,, not so wowser....

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Speaking of "mom's meatloaf", my mom was an excellent cook and made the best meatloaf in the world. She never used a recipe, so there was nothing written down. I've tried duplicating it and, although my meatloaf is pretty darn good, it's nowhere close to my mom's. But oh well. When she passed away, lots of things went with her, including her 'secrets' for her meatloaf and her Thanksgiving stuffing. Holy moly, that was divine. My Uncle Gene came for Thanksgiving every year and he used to tease my mom, saying "I'm just here for the stuffing."

My mom could work magic in the kitchen. I often wish I had paid more attention to the things she did.

GilliAnne, I've never seen a soup mix that you need to rinse? Now I'm lost, what are you rinsing?
Only things I know that need rinsing are beans/lentils etc. But you don't usually see those in soup mixes. At least not here in North America.
Maybe with some special artisanal mixes. I think most people here are referring to mixes like chicken noodle soup, onion soup, etc. These would have the seasoning packs, perhaps noodles, dried but chopped very small vegetables (not beans like kidney, navy, pinto, etc.)
Perhaps what you are seeing are Dried beans (etc) for soup. Do these packages come with little flavour pouches?

GilliAnne said:

'........drain, rinse and use as per your favourite soup' - this part. I rarely cook soup from scratch, so I'm not sure how I can use dried soup mixes to my advantage.

Thanks

Gillian

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I make soups from scratch, but use BTB paste for my broth flavoring. I would think that the dry supe mixes would work in place of BTB -- just used to flavor your broth.

If the soup mix has dried onions, garlic and other dried veggies in it, you might want to sift the flavor packet to remove those, and replace with fresh veggies, using the flavor packet as I use BTB.

If the soup "kit" includes pasta, use it.

This would be a "hybrid" soup. Pre-packaged flavors, with fresh ingredients replacing freeze-dried ingredients.

CD