Two Favorites: Creamy Tortellini Soup & Cheeseburger Soup
We played basketball in the driveway Sunday afternoon.
We shoveled six inches of snow off the driveway Monday morning.
So goes March in Iowa.
As we flip-flop between “spring is in the air” and “nope, still winter,” I find myself considering which soups I should make “one more time” on the “winter is still here” days. After all, the arrival of spring signals the end of soup season.
As the Bible says, “To everything there is a season, a time for soup and a time to long for soup season to come again.” At least I think it says that somewhere, but even if it doesn’t, I’m not going to make soup in the spring, no matter how much I love it. It just wouldn’t be right.
If you too are looking to make one last pot while winter is still hanging on, here are my two favorites from this season.
Creamy Tortellini and Sausage
This one I will provide no recipe card for, just a link. You can find it here at therecipecritic.com. I have made no adjustments or tweaks to fit my preference. It is perfect as it is.
Okay, that is not exactly true. I usually use chopped up chicken sausage meatballs instead of the ground pork sausage, spinach instead of kale, and sometimes even toss in whole wheat penne instead of tortellini, but those seem like fairly insignificant substitutions in the grand scheme of things. Not enough to claim the recipe as my own. The creamy tomato base is where the magic is, and, like I said, it is perfect as it is.
(Note: We always prefer tortellini because they are fun and tasty, but they are also more expensive and not whole wheat and so for “everyday” we go with whole wheat penne, but for special occasions, bring on the tortellini!)
Cheeseburger Soup
This one is inspired by a recipe at therecipecritic.com, but I have made some changes to the quantities and process. This was actually a pretty bold move since over at The Recipe Critic they say their version is award winning. Here is the link if you want to see how they do it. Feel free to try both and see what you think.
Cheeseburger soup runs in a similar vein as my potato soup but it has more veggies, different dairy goodness, and ground beef (I like ground beef). I know the ingredient list looks long but it is normal stuff, things I usually have on hand and you probably do, too. Though the Creamy Tortellini has a fancy kind of taste to it, this one is just pure, homecooked comfort in a bowl.
Cheeseburger Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lbs ground beef
- 1/2 cup (one stick) butter
- 3/4 cup chopped onion
- 3/4 cup shredded carrots
- 3/4 cup chopped celery
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
- 2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1/2 cup flour
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 8 cups diced potatoes
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 2 cups shredded cheddar or Monterey jack cheese
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large pot and add onions, carrots, celery, basil, and parsley. Cook until softened.
- In the meantime, brown the ground beef in a saute pan, drain, and set aside.
- When veggies have softened a bit, add flour to the pot and stir for a minute or so. Then slowly pour in the chicken broth while stirring. Set on medium heat and bring to a slow boil.
- When a boil is reached add the potatoes to the pot. (While it is coming to a boil is great time to dice the potatoes). Let potatoes cook for 10 minutes or so until fork tender.
- Turn heat to low and add the milk, sour cream, cheese, ground beef, salt and pepper. Stir to combine until cheese is melted.
Which one will be the “last soup of the winter” in your house? Or maybe tuck both recipes away to await the day a crisp chill creeps into the October air. Either way, with these soups, you can’t go wrong.
Unless you make them in the spring or summer.
That would be wrong.
