Eat Food, Save Money: Freezer Friendly Spicy Vegetable Soup

On this edition of "eat food, save money," we're goin' cold. Ice cold.

Homemade soups freeze very well. They are also heartier and more flavorful than the kind of pour out of a can. And when you make homemade soup, you get A LOT more soup for your money than you do when you use the canned version.

Frozen meals make for an easy weeknight dinner. After a rough day when you're tempted to just eat out, if you have a ready-made dinner waiting at home, it's much harder to justify a run through the drive-thru. So, the next time you have a lazy weekend afternoon, consider helping your future weeknight self by making some soup and then freezing it.

Notes: The easiest way to freeze meals (if you ask me) is to freeze individual serving sizes in small plastic freezable containers. Then you can just pull 1 or 2 containers out of the freezer depending on how many people are eating.

Let a frozen meal thaw in the fridge for at least 24 hours. If dinner time rolls around and your meal isn't completely thawed, you can always just heat it up in a pot on the stove.

I start this soup the same way I start my gumbo. It gives the soup a nice deep color and flavor. And since the soup is made with cajun seasoning it makes sense to treat it like gumbo.

You can use hot sauce or fresh chopped hot peppers in place of cajun seasoning.

Feel free to mix up the veggies and use your favorite. You can even use a selection of your favorite frozen vegetables to make the soup more pantry-friendly.

Need some protein? Add some canned beans when you add the frozen corn.

If you want to make this even easier, just skip the butter and flour and throw it all the slow cooker for 8 hours on low.

Ingredients:
1 quart chicken or veggie stock (or water)
4 tablespoons tomato paste
5-6 carrots
1 bunch celery
1/2 pound fresh green beans (or 1 cup frozen chopped)
1 cup frozen corn kernels
1 onion
1 tablespoon cajun seasoning
1 small bunch fresh rosemary
5-6 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour

Directions: Dice the carrots, celery, and onion. Chop the green beans into small bite-sized pieces. Mince the garlic and rosemary.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. When the butter melts, add the flour and whisk to create a roux. Whisk until the roux is the color of milk chocolate. Remove the pot from heat and dump in chopped veggies, garlic, and rosemary. Stir until the sizzling stops.

Add in tomato paste and cajun seasoning and stir. Return to heat and stir in stock. Add corn kernels. Bring the soup to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. Allow the soup to simmer for between 1-2 hours.

When the time is up, remove the soup from heat and allow it to cool. Divide it in to single servings in freezable containers. You can defrost the number of servings you need for 24 hours in the fridge and then heat the soup in the microwave before you serve it. You can also just put the frozen soup straight into a pot and heat it on the stove.

Enjoy your frozen and frugal meal!