Food Storage Soups

One of my all-time favorite things to fix from my food storage is Soup!
If you don't have food storage yet, soup is still an easy meal for you to make on a busy day.

I'm going to try to write out these recipes so they can be used either way...food storage or off the grocery store shelf.

Ham and Lentil Soup

1 pound ham, diced (about 1 & 1/2 to 2 cups)
4 cups dried lentils
1/2 an onion, diced fine (about 3/4 of a cup)
2 medium carrots diced (about a cup)
1 stalk celery, sliced in about 1/4 inch slices (about 3/4 cup)
Water
2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

Melt butter (or heat oil) in large stock pot. Add all ingredients except lentils. Saute over
medium heat until onions are translucent and ham is starting to brown.
Add lentils and enough water to cover plus about 3 inches over ingredients. Maybe 3 or so quarts of water.
Bring to a boil, cover and turn down to simmer.
After 30 minutes, check to see if lentils are soft. If not, let simmer another 15 to 20 minutes.
Serve with croutons or a loaf of crusty home made bread.

NOW, to switch this over to a food storage meal.....
A lot of *preppers* have DAK hams in their food storage. This soup is perfect to use those hams in!
Lentils, of course, are a wonderful thing to keep in your food storage and the uses for them are myriad.
Onions, carrots and celery, all easily dried for storage or easily obtainable dehydrated can be rehydrated for this soup.
Most preppers have some oil (olive or otherwise) stored. If you have some of those freeze dried butter granules in your food storage, add a teraspoon to whatever oil you are using to add some flavor.

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Almost every recipe can be twisted and tweaked a bit to be adaptable to your food storage.
My recipe for Beef and Barley soup is exactly like my recipe for Ham and Lentil soup, I just use barley instead of lentils and a pound of beef (cut up like for stir-fry and browned a bit more) instead of the ham. Sometimes I add a few mushrooms, too.
To make it from your Food Storage, make the same adaptations for dehydrated onions, carrots and celery, etc. as you do for the Ham and Lentil.
For the beef....if you do not have canned beef, use Beef Jerky!
That's right, Beef Jerky can be used to make beef stews and soups and it is quite tasty! Or use Venison Jerky.
In the Old West during cattle drives, or as pioneers moved west, jerky soups and stews were common place.
I have found that if you rehydrate the night before by soaking the jerky (cut it into small pieces first) in water and simmering it for about an hour, it makes it faster the next day when you make your soup.
Some people drain off that first batch of water before adding the beef to the soup mix, as a lot of salt leeches out, but you can leave it as is and just pour the rehydrated jerky, water and all in the soup. Just don't add any salt to your soup!
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Why are soups so important for survival?
The broth is suitable for small children, infants, the elderly and anyone who is sick and may be unable to eat a *heavy* meal. The broth is chock full of vitamins, proteins and minerals and is easily digestible.
In a SHTF situation, soup is a good antidote to a diet of MREs and other survival rations. Those rations can constipate you and a soup will taste *fresh* and add fiber and fluids to your digestive system to help alleviate that problem.
Cooking for a crowd? Soup can feed more people cheaply than just about any other meal.
Soup can be made from many items you already have in your food storage.
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 So, enjoy one of these crisp and chilly Fall evenings with a nice bowl of soup!