How to Make Hearty Soup without a Recipe

If you stock your freezer and pantry with a few simple ingredients, you'll always be able to pull together a quick pot of hearty soup.  Basically all you need is some protein, a little starch, a variety of vegetables, and flavorful stock.  Keeping a stash of Homemade Chicken Stock in my freezer is my secret weapon for a lot of things, but for soup, I consider it an essential.  Whether I buy a rotisserie chicken at the store or roast a chicken at home, I always use the carcass to make stock.  

For this soup, I started with about 8 cups of stock and added a small bag of frozen tortellini, 16 ounces of frozen mixed veggies, about 1/2 cup of frozen edamame, a small bag of frozen swiss chard, a can of rinsed and drained cannellini beans, about a cup of mushrooms that I sliced and sauted, and 4 cups of leftover cooked chicken I had in the fridge.  And since the recent frost didn't completely kill all of my herbs, I added a sprinkling of fresh chopped parsley and chives too.   That's all there is to it - go make some soup!