Brrr . . . it’s cold outside. I’ve also made a new year’s resolution not to waste food. The winter weather, plus my resolution, led me to search for hundred-year-old soup recipes that used left-over vegetables. I found an old general description of how to make soup using left-over vegetables as well as a recipe for Standard Cream of Vegetable Soup. I combined the directions from the two sources to make a lovely Cream of Vegetable Soup.

Similarly to now, soup was a popular winter comfort food a hundred years ago. According to an article titled “Soups – Economical and Delicious” – in the January, 1926 issue of Farm Journal:

With plenty of good soup, good bread and butter, some fruit or a simple dessert, a good, hearty meal can be prepared in a short time. Cold weather is just the time for a hearty soup, too.

The article identifies three “classes” of soup: (1) soups made using a single vegetable; (2) soups using meat stock as the foundation; and (3) soups made using left-over vegetables.  Here’s what it says about using left-over vegetables to make soup:

Soups of the third class are perhaps the simplest and most economical.  Such soups can be made entirely of left-over vegetables or can include both left-over and new cooked vegetables. Perhaps there are some cooked potatoes (cooked any way) on hand, a little gravy, a few spoonfuls of peas or shelled beans, and a little turnip. Put in a kettle enough boiling water to make the required amount of soup for your family. Into the kettle slice one or two onions, two or three carrots and a few more raw potatoes if needed. Cook until tender the left-over vegetables, gravy, and some salt (pepper if liked) and boil up. Now use a wire potato-masher to reduce the vegetables to a smooth, delightfully blended mixture. A most pleasing variety of soups can be had by varying the ingredients. Ripe tomatoes in any form can be used, even the rinsings of the catsup bottle. Boiled beans, baked beans, squash, corn, a little cabbage, a bit of parsnip, celery, macaroni, rice, oatmeal, the left-over meat pie (crust and all) can all be utilized in this way. Celery makes a most delicious soup. The celery itself can be used or crushed dried leaves or celery salt can be used for flavoring. When a straight vegetable soup is made, add fresh or evaporated milk or a little cream to give the desired richness. Lacking these, butter or a good cooking oil can be used.

Farm Journal (January, 1926)

A recipe in a 1926 cookbook contained a “standard” recipe for this type of soup:

My research was complete. I now was ready to make the soup. I used the Standard Cream of Vegetable Soup recipe as the basis for the soup, but pulled in some of the suggestions from the Farm Journal article. I had some left-over mashed potatoes, and cooked carrots that I used. I thought that onions and celery would be a nice addition. so I chopped up about half a cup of each. These items didn’t make the 2 cups of vegetables called for in the “standard” recipe, so I added small amounts of frozen green peas, corn, and lima beans that had languished in my freezer in almost empty bags.

And, I was intrigued by the suggestion in the Farm Journal article to add the “rinsings of the catsup bottle” to the soup. It’s difficult to get the lid off many modern catsup bottles, so I just added 2 tablespoons of catsup to the vegetable mixture.

The vegetables (including the water they are cooked in) are pureed after they are cooked, and added to milk that has been thickened with butter and flour. The soup is then heated until it is hot and steamy. The resulting soup had a lovely,  delicate flavor. The seasonings should be adjusted if a bolder flavor is desired. The soup is garnished with croutons.

The old recipe said that it made enough soup to serve six. In my opinion, six servings is a stretch. This recipe makes 4-5 generous servings.

The bottom line is that this recipe is extremely flexible and cooks should adjust the recipe based on the left-overs and other vegetables they have in their kitchen. My daughter-in-law often says that she cooks “free style.” This is a recipe for free style cooks. Here’s my combined and updated recipe for Standard Cream of Vegetable Soup.