Remember the old Campbell’s Soup advertising slogan, “Soup is Good Food”? It was a brilliant stroke of marketing genius. Unfortunately, the company was forced to pull that ad campaign in the late 80's as a result of a legal issue, partially due to the products’ high sodium content. Since then, Campbell’s has launched a whole line of healthier, lower sodium soups. Good for them! Sadly, many brands of canned soups still contain some ingredient “no nos” such as MSG and high fructose corn syrup. Who needs that? But, that doesn’t mean that soup can’t still be good food. It can be, and is, very good food, especially when it’s homemade from your very own kitchen.
I decided to take advantage of our recent arctic temperatures and have been making soup like mad. Luckily for you, I am not a "soup nazi" and I'm willing to share my soup-making know how. Today, the menu at chez moi is some good, old-fashioned, simmered on the stove all day, beef barley soup.
This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2010.