The Pioneer Kitchen Diaries: Tomato Vegetable Soup

To me, one of the basic tenets of pioneer living is making do with what you have. After all, in those days, if you ran out of meat or potatoes, you couldn’t just hop on your horse and swiftly ride into town to get more. The nearest town was usually several miles away and shooting and eating your horse was not at all an option because there goes your transportation to said far away town.

That would make everything even more difficult.

This was especially true in the winter. In the book The Long Winter, the Ingalls family is basically trapped in their house due to weather and, even if they could get outside, there wouldn’t be anything to buy because trains couldn’t get into town (at this point, they had a house in town) to deliver supplies. So they had to use what they had if they wanted to eat.

I’ve experienced something similar lately.

I don’t know what the weather is like in your part of the world, but here on the East Coast, it’s horrible. Snow, ice, freezing rain, wind chills making it feel below zero…it’s the opposite of pleasant. It makes you not want to leave the house. And, if you live in my neighborhood that’s sort of in the middle of nowhere and that neighborhood is the land that snow plows forgot, you kind of get stuck. Especially if you don’t have an SUV or 4 wheel drive car.

You know, the modern equivalent of a horse.

So even if you wanted to go somewhere, you couldn’t. And after a few days, cabin fever sets in and food starts to run low. But getting to the supermarket isn’t easy (and they’re probably out of bread and milk anyway) so, like the pioneers, you have to make due with what you have.

That’s where my tomato vegetable soup comes in. I normally have a recipe for tomato soup and a separate one for vegetable soup but I was out of broth and decided to combine the two for something a little different. That also might have come from a place of boredom but we’ll just pretend it came from a place of experimentation.

To make the soup, I looked in my pantry and freezer where I found a can of crushed tomatoes, a bag of mixed frozen vegetables, a can of diced tomatoes, some garlic, vegetable oil, and salt. And water but that came from the faucet. I also had some crushed red pepper on hand for a little kick ( water and red pepper not pictured).

Then I sort of sautéed the vegetables and garlic in some vegetable oil.

After a few minutes, I dumped in a can of undrained, unseasoned tomatoes

I mixed that up, and added in a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes and 2 1/2 cups water along with roughly 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

When it was all done and cooked, I ladled it into a large bowl and topped it off with Cheez Its (because I am gourmet and classy like that)

This made enough for roughly 4-6 lunches, depending on how much you eat at a time. My husband added some leftover brown rice and didn’t complain (at least not to my face).

The soup left me feeling full and resourceful. Just like a pioneer on the cold winter prairie.

Townhouse Pioneer What’s Left in the House Tomato Vegetable Soup

Makes approximately 4-6 servings

Ingredients

• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 16 oz bag frozen mixed vegetables
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 1/2 cups water
• Minced garlic, roughly 1 tbsp
• Crushed red pepper, salt, pepper (to taste)
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions

1. Heat vegetable oil in pan
2. Add in garlic and mixed vegetables. Sautée for a few minutes, until vegetables start to thaw and soften.
3. Add in undrained tomatoes.
4. Stir in crushed tomatoes and water.
5. Heat through. While soup is heating, add in optional spices (note: add at least a bit of salt. Trust me on this one).

Serve with crackers, cheese, sandwiches, or whatever else you feel like.