I am going to go way back in the archives this evening, and you are going to come away with some Fall & Winter Soup recipes. I’ll add some notes as we go along.

The links to the recipes all seem to be working except for the Sausage Sauerkraut Soup which is here (with a nice photo).

Originally published on December 3, 2013 

This evening we enjoyed the second entrant in our 2nd Fall & Winter Soup Contest,

Added: We used to do this when there were more people living here on the Farm. One soup a week. People rank-ordered them, and then we did some stats to determine a winner. Below I first talk about the soups we had 2011-2012. That’s followed by a discussion of the French Meatless Vegetable Soup from the 2013-2014 contest.

Before I launch into a description of this soup– necessary observations as it is a contest and all, and after two or three excellent soups, the particular excellencies of each fade– I thought we might take a short stroll down soup lane. The first Fall& Winter Soup Contest began 11/8/2011 with Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup. Not every soup we had that Fall & Winter was a contestant. Soups we have every year were– and are again– disqualified (why can’t I find the recipe for Across the Garden Soup?) as are favorite gumbos. (We make the rules up as we go along.)

Blogger’s search function is being uncooperative, but based on keyword “soup,” I’ve cobbled together this list of the nine soups that vied for winner, each with at least one link. (I’ve included dates because sometimes the recipes and the descriptions were in different posts. If you’re interested in either, you should be able to find it if my links are messed up.)

In chronological order… [entrant #, date, name]

2011
1. 11/3: Beer Cheese Broccoli Soup (Includes recipe)
2. 11/18-19: Slow Cooker Potato Cheese Soup with Wieners (Winner for me until #7); Recipe
3. 12/7-8: Corn and Sausage Chowder; Recipe
4. 12/31: Chili Soup (includes recipe)

2012

5. 1/9: Tomato Rice Soup with Pesto (includes recipe; also has good links if I’ve messed them up above))
6. 1/23: Split Pea and Smoked Turkey Soup (includes recipe; second place for me until #2 was bumped by #7)
7. 1/30-31: Sausage Sauerkraut Soup in Slow Cooker (displaces #2 as winner); Recipe
8. 2/7: Sportsman’s Lodge Lentil Soup (CONTEST WINNER); Recipe
9. 3/2: Rutabaga Soup Ha. Looks like I never posted the recipe for this one. I mention it, but cannot find it.

Thanks for bearing with me while I sorted that all out. 

And now to this year’s French Meatless Vegetable Soup.

#2 is in Second Place. I thought the Hot Potato Soup (recipe) was better. I made this soup. I scraped 37 pounds of carrots and turnips and whatnot. It’s a good healthy soup. Miss M thinks I didn’t season it appropriately, and that may well be. I would have left out the pasta, as it seemed to soak up too much of the good veggie broth. In the cooking of it– a three hour affair– it did impart to the kitchen a wonderful fragrance. So it’s got that going for it. And it was good. 

But I liked the potato soup better. I’m partial to potato soups. 

If you’re keeping score, Miss M and Mr. Big Food have this one ranked #1; AL & I liked the potato soup better. TIE GAME. 

Let’s do some math. Last time we did a soup contest, we had nine contestants. Let’s imagine we have 12 this year. That’s 3 per quarter. So, with five minutes left in the first quarter, the game is tied.