Cooke Tavern Soups: My Pantry Secret!

Yay! It's soup season, my cafe friends! All of your dinner dilemmas have been solved!

Seriously, I could eat soup for every meal, I love it that much. And if you are a regular here at the cafe, you will see that I'm often concocting my own soup recipes, like copycat Panera Turkey Chili, or Tuscan Bean Soup. I have a lot of "go to" recipes that I make often.

But sometimes, on a busy day, dinner time sneaks up on me and someone in the household will ask the dreaded question:

"What's for dinner?"

Aack! Good question!

This season, I decided to stock my pantry with my new favorite dinner helper:

Cooke Tavern Soups!

I first discovered these soups at their booth at the Country Living Fair in Columbus, Ohio a few years back. My sister and I sampled their corn chowder, and we were sold!

These soup starters are really amazing. If you've ever bought a pre-made soup mix at the grocery store, I can promise you that these do not even compare. They are really that good.

Last night's specialty was one of our favorites: Blacksmith's Black Bean Chili. SO GOOD!

What I love about these soups is that they typically cook quickly, probably because most of the ingredients have been dehydrated. I also love that I can add a few ingredients and make each soup my own.

For last night's chili, I added the brown sugar, water, Worchestershire sauce, and canned crushed tomato to the soup starter. And before serving, we topped with a dollop of Greek Yogurt and some shredded cheddar. Serve it with a salad and a nice hearty bread, and dinner is done.

And take a look at the ingredient list. Nothing weird that you cannot pronounce, no MSG, no preservatives.

These soups also make great gifts for the holiday season! You can order a nicely packaged soup sampler from their website and have it delivered. What could be easier? I plan on ordering quite a few of these to give as gifts this Christmas!

You can visit their website at:

www.cooketavernsoups.com

I believe they have fourteen different varieties to choose from. And yes, I ordered one of each!

Rejoice! Soup Season is here!