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Summa Soup

© Steven C. Karoly

Summa this. Summa that. That's what Navy cooks called the supper soup.

Each afternoon, the cook added all of the noonday leftovers to the soup pot. Since the supper menu only identified the soup as "Soup Du Jour," the cooks hand a free hand at creating any soup for the evening meal. Summa soup, as the cooks called it, gave an outlet for breakfast and dinner leftovers, and it tested their culinary skills.

Leftover meals pose a problem for camp cooks as well. They eat up precious space in the ice chest, and they can quickly spoil if handled improperly. So, it's best to use them quickly. Summa soup is the answer this dilemma. Like Navy cooks, camp cooks can use leftover beans, spaghetti or stroganoff, for instance, as the foundation for flavor-packed soups.

A camp cooking adventure

Summa soup is the ultimate culinary adventure -- at least in the realm of leftovers. You never know how the soup's going to taste. Today, the soup's ingredients meld wonderfully. Tomorrow, they fall short. But despite expectations, summa soup's always good.

It's as easy as blending all the leftovers that you want into a large stockpot. All you need a leftover dish and a few other ingredients. Sometimes, leftovers are sufficient to build a summa soup. Other times, you'll need to add a few fresh ingredients to build your summa soup. Here are a few ideas:

Leftover beans are a good place to begin. Make vegetable bean soup by adding steamed vegetables (who doesn't have steamed broccoli or green beans lurking in the ice chest), chicken stock and bacon or sausage. Sprinkle salt and pepper, add fresh thyme and the soup is ready. It makes a quick lunch.

Leftover spaghetti easily becomes minestrone. Add chicken stock, julienned green peppers, shredded green cabbage and chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper and top each serving with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. The spaghetti sauce gives the soup its foundation while the pasta and vegetables add substance and a little starch for body. The stock brings it all together like an orchestra conductor.

Leftover stroganoff transforms into a beef mushroom soup. It's as simple as adding beef stock and cream. You can use milk if cream is too rich. Just remember to thicken the soup with flour or cornstarch. Stroganoff transforms into beef mushroom soup with a hint of tangyness.

With a little imagination, you'll have wonderful soup to accompany sandwiches on a drizzly day in camp. But remember summa soup is risky business. You may never create the same soup twice. Each meal is an adventure.

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