I have a tiny fridge so I need something I can put in my chest freezer and microwave portions of it to put in a thermos. I’m hoping for minimal prep work, though I have a Vitamix if that helps. I already eat the same thing every day, that I buy from work for 6 dollars. Not ideal. I’m thinking I can bring the soup and some crackers or something.
anything with beans/lentils really. i like Pasulj, Turkish lentil soup, and ful medame. these are all easy to prepare, cheap, and filling. you can also deviate from standard recipes by throwing other veggies into the mix (within reason). they also work very well with some soft boiled eggs and hot sauce.
absolutely! these all work very nice with naga chillis, either dried or with a homemade “sauce”. i usually make a sofrito (i.e. no vinegar, no sugar, little salt, just sauteed veggies with maybe an apple) with lots of chillis. it really brings out the fruitiness. but it spoils fast so either can it or keep it in the freezer/fridge.
Bean & vegetable soup. Easy to change up the beans used, and to vary the vegetables over the seasons, as well as whatever herbs & spices you like. Useful if the supermarket discounts things at the end of the day, or if they don’t always have everything in stock, as you can adapt it on the fly.
Scotch broth - mix of lentils & soup barley, usually with a small amount of carrot & cabbage, but you could use any vegetable. Useful if you forgot to start soaking your beans or pulses on time, as it barely requires soaking.
Alternatively you could make an extremely strong vegetable stock, freeze that as icecube-sized amounts, then pop a couple in a pan, add water to dilute to the strength of regular stock & simmer the rest of your ingredients in that. Making the stock would take a fair bit of time as you’d have to reduce it so much, but then you’d be set up for much shorter weekly soup-making sessions. Issue here is, if you’re not totally happy with a batch of stock, you’re stuck with it for a lot longer than a batch of soup.
Could make pasta sauces, like bolognese, and freeze them, then make some pasta when you want it, like 9-8 minutes. Could also pre cook the pasta although I’ve never be a fan of reheated pasta. Hell, maybe could make a pasta dish and freeze the whole thing. Not exactly a soup, but i suspect pasta and pasta sauce evolved from soup.
Onion & carrots, anywhere from 1:2 to 1:1 by weight, boil in just enough water to cover, grate in some fresh ginger, salt, puree. Add more water if it’s too thick. Throw in some chicken bouillon if you like.
I’m a fan of taco soup. Plenty of recipes out there to find one that works for you. The gist is some stock, beans, tomatoes, green peppers, ground beef, and taco seasoning mix. You can add some onions, or cheese, or sour cream, or crushed taco chips (stale works great), or some extra spice from peppers… basically anything goes.
