Stoup…

“Stoup…thicker than a soup, thinner than a stew”, as Rachael Ray says.

Tonight I made *stoup* in part because I had several items that I wanted to use up. First I sautéed a thinly sliced onion in a bit of olive oil. When softened I added about a tablespoon of brown sugar to help carmelize the onions. I then added:

-a double handful of baby carrots cut in chunks
-some finely chopped celery tops
-about 2/3 of a large red bell pepper (I had used part of it earlier this week)
-a zucchini cut in chunks
-a yellow squash cut in chunks
-clove of garlic, thinly sliced

various seasonings (pepper, Creole seasoning, basil, thyme, lemon pepper, worchestershire sauce, pick-a-peppa sauce)

I added about 1/2 a cup of leftover red wine to deglaze the pan then started adding more leftovers:

-about a cup of tomato sauce
-approx. 1.5 cups of cooked ground beef
-about 2/3 cup of leftover curried veggies I cooked a couple of days ago
-the last few tablespoons of salsa from the jar

I simmered this concoction for about half an hour and then served it with grated cheese, dollops of sour cream (it turned our rather spicy so the sour cream was a nice contrast), and toasted homemade sourdough bread.

My soups are rarely the same twice, in part because they are great repositories for leftovers. However, they somehow always turn out to be really tasty. This one was no exception, if I do say so myself.