Homemade soup is an "extra" meal that you already paid for.

Soup has strayed a long way from its origin : hungry cave cook adds water to the last of the leftover kill. Today, most soup eaten in America was purchased ready to heat and serve.

It’s not that there are no recipes around; thousands are available from the Internet, the media, publications and chefs, and many of them produce fabulous results.

The problem is that soups requiring a plethora of ingredients or complicated preparations are expensive and time consuming, the opposite of add water to what’s left and feed the family. And it’s those soups, the ones made spontaneously and inexpensively from delicious home cooked leftovers that have almost vanished from American kitchens.

If you haven’t made soup from leftovers or homemade soup stock before, you are in for a happy surprise. It is really easy. The key to being able to cook delicious soups from leftovers is planning for leftovers so you have some to start with.  It will be a cinch to make homemade soup (or other meals) if you keep your pantry stocked with the following:

• Basic herbs – Thyme, Tarragon and Italian mixtures: Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Marjoram
• Essential spices – Cumin, Fennel, Sage, Bay Leaf
• Dehydrated red pepper flakes
• Soup stock or a stock bag in your freezer
• Fresh garlic
• Fresh yellow onions
• Extra virgin olive oil

If you need inspiration, go to a farmers market (you might have to wait until next summer) or to a grocery store with a big, gorgeous and well stocked produce section and just walk around looking at and touching all that gorgeous bounty nature offers.

I love to cook and have since I was a child. Soup is one of my favorite foods to cook because it is easy, spontaneously creative, inexpensive and almost completely fail proof to prepare. And as I use up leftovers from last night’s dinner or the refrigerator I know good food will not be wasted.

It is in the spirit of soup’s humble beginnings (with a few added creative twists) that I offer some of my favorite hearty winter soup recipes. I hope that after reading and cooking several of the soups you will embrace its heritage, make up a leftover version of your own and become an enthusiastic participant in soup’s culinary evolution.