Well HELLO there! I often start by saying ”welcome back”, but this time I feel like I am the one being welcomed back. It has been a LONG while! Despite my best intentions, life happened and this winter was nothing I had hoped it would be. But – as it often happens – out of something bad came something good. Specifically – this soup! 🙂 I named it Super Soup (or, ”Souper”, if you will) for its fantastic combination of some of the best parts of other soups. It has a base similar to Borscht, it has sausage and shrimp like gumbo and it’s got chicken stock which is just the greatest thing ever for those ”under the weather” days. And it has potatoes, which is probably the best part of any soup or dish. Very Russian thing to say.

I got into the habit of making this soup in simply huge quantities and freezing it. It keeps well, freezes well, thaws well. It’s a super soup in every way! Generally speaking, I enjoy cooking too much to cook ahead. However, if I learned anything from how unpredictable this season has been, is that I can use some back up. And not just back up – delicious, homemade back up. A homemade meal is a remedy in itself to so many of life’s grievances.

Granted, it’s not a last minute dish. But you can easily spread the prep-work over a day or two. The recipe card below assumes you have the chicken, sausage, and shrimp cooked beforehand. But if you need more information, I list the way I do it in the Recipe Notes below.

Bowl of soup on blue and white gingham towel and sliced bread

Super Soup

Yana, babushkacooking.com

Comfort in a bowl.

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 1

Total Time 2

Course Soup

Cuisine American

Servings 8

Ingredients

1 lb chicken breast*
1 lb smoked sausage**
1 lb shrimp***
2 Tb ghee (or 1 Tb butter + 1 Tb olive oil)
5 cloves garlic rinsed, peeled, pressed
1 large onion rinsed, peeled, cut
3 medium carrots rinsed, peeled, cut in 1/4 inch squares
4 large potatoes rinsed, peeled, cut in 1/3-1/2 inch squares
2 quarts chicken stock
1 Tb fine sea salt
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground ginger

Instructions

Preheat ghee over medium heat in a large pot.
When hot, add onion and cook for about 10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.
Add carrots and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
Add garlic, stir, and cook for 1-2 minutes until aromatic.
Add chicken stock, chicken, sausage, shrimp, potatoes, and seasoning.
Stir well, cover with lid, and bring to boil.
Turn heat to medium low and cook until potatoes are easily pierced with knife.
Let sit covered for about 30 minutes.
Serve and enjoy!

Notes

1. For this recipe I prefer cutting everything in 1/4 inch pieces so that each spoonful brings forward a taste of everything. That is, of course, a personal choice.

2. The prep-work is by far the longest and most laborious step in this recipe. I wrote the instructions assuming you have prepared all your proteins and vegetables.

*Chicken

I use boiled chicken breast for this recipe.

– Fill the pot with plenty of water and add chicken breast. Cover and bring to boil. Once boiling, remove the lid and cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes or until thermometer inserted in the thickest part reads 165F.

**Smoked sausage

I buy Hungarian style sausage that is fully cooked. You can also use kielbasa.

**Shrimp

I have tried this with various types of shrimp (raw, cooked, cooked&frozen, raw&frozen) and the results are for the most part the same. The only thing that made a huge difference was that when I added cooked shrimp directly to the soup, it added a noticeable bitterness. So I prefer to either buy raw shrimp, cook, and then add them or buy cooked shrimp, broil them for a minute or two to rid them of excess moisture that caused that bitter taste.

– Broil raw shrimp on baking sheet on HIGH for 7 minutes or until they turn orange-pink.

– Broil cooked shrimp on baking sheet on LOW for 5 minutes.

Keyword Batch cooking, Chicken, Comfort food, Potatoes, Sausage, shrimp