Soups : a steaming bowl of corn chowder is just the right ingredient to begin an early spring thaw - and more! - soup recipes

Vibrant Life, March-April, 2002 by Georgia E. Hodgkin

On those blustery days of wind and a few snowflakes, the menu needs hot soup. At this time of year the aroma of simmering onions, garlic, and herbs fits with the weather outside. A hot bowl of tasty soup makes the meal just right!

Soups may usually be either "clear" or "cream." Clear soups are based on a broth of seasoned water, while cream soups use actual cream for the base in many cases. A tasty broth may be made of simmered vegetables or some sort of seasoning, such as vegetables bouillon cubes, McKay's seasoning, G. Washington broth, and the like. Simmering celery tops, carrot pieces, onions, garlic, any leftover vegetables lets you, the cook, determine which and how much seasoning to add.

Commercial seasonings and soup bases may have around 1,000 milligrams of sodium per serving. That is a hefty dose from a single menu item, when the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences recommends less than 2,400 milligrams of sodium per day. Adjust the amount of salt for which your recipes call. Add salt just to your taste, or gradually cut back on the amount of salt you add if you (like the majority of Americans) are eating too much sodium. The minimum requirement for an adult is 500 milligrams of sodium, or one-fourth teaspoon of salt. Use garlic or onion powder rather than their salts. Most of the powder in those products is salt. Try a variety of herbs to build the flavor as a replacement for plain table salt.

Modifications to cream soups will improve their contribution to healthful nutrition. Cream is predominately saturated fat in water. The recipe on page 47 for Creamy Asparagus Soup uses a combination of dry skim milk, flour, margarine, and vegetable stock to make a cream soup. The dry skim milk will add calcium, vitamins D and [B.sub.12], and riboflavin--plus some protein with no fat, as compared to 60 grams of fat per cup of medium (25 percent fat) cream. The potato will add not only flavor but also body or "mouth feel" to the soup. We like fat in our food for the sensation we feel in our mouths when it accompanies each bite.

We also like variety in our meals. A multitude of tastes, colors, aromas, and textures makes a meal much more interesting and satisfying. Salads add crunch to a meal centered on a hearty soup. Choose fresh, colorful, full, unblemished vegetables for the crunch your diners enjoy. For salads based on lettuce, choose the deepest green in the collection of those offered. Red-leaf lettuce, Romaine, and butter-head lettuce are among those that will provide more beta-carotene than the pale (almost white) varieties of lettuce. Romaine has considerably more folate than the others.

A menu of soup and salad may be completed with some sort of bread or crackers. Add variety to your meals and expand the tastes of your diners by choosing specialty breads now and then. Or try the following recipes, which are easy to do. Your helpers just might like to join you in making and kneading the dough or forming the rolls from frozen dough. It makes for good entertainment for little ones on a blustery day that bends the trees and tosses a few snowflakes.

Enjoy!