The Ad-Libbers Guide to Soup

Soup has many admirable qualities – it’s nutritious, inexpensive, unpretentious, comforting, and very flexible. That last one – flexibility — is what I want to talk about today.  Some of you have heard me say this before: Soup is a busy cook’s friend. If you don’t have something the recipe calls for, use something else instead, something reasonably similar if possible. If the recipe calls for something you don’t like, for heaven’s sake just leave it out. Soup is also a marvelous way to create something delicious out of bits and pieces of leftovers combined with a few strategic items from your pantry.