Wisdom Tooth Soup

Do you and your family make up names for your regular dishes?  A lot of recipes go through name changes around here.

Maybe the title stems from a dish always appearing on a holiday table.  Christmas Salad.  Easter Cake.  Or maybe it's a cutesy name to entice picky eaters.  Like Delicious Dinner--which according to my mom was so totally not.  Or Worms on a Bun.  Ok maybe that's not cutesy.  Not enticing either.  Sometimes the title simply honors the contributor.  Grandma Bev's Mac & Cheese.  Gerry's Punch.  Aunt Bet's Lucky Rolls.  Shakey's Double Espresso Chocolate Pie.  Perhaps the name is descriptive.  Glop.  Slop.  Goop.  That Chicken I Like.  Margie's Unidentifiable Green Stuff (not making that one up).

The Husband made Creole Vegetable Soup (from Tony Chachere's Cajun Country Cookbook) for me years ago when I had my wisdom teeth out.  He called his dad to get the recipe.  I still have it scribbled somewhere.  Chopped everything itty bitty knowing my condition.  Worked all day while I was passed out on codeine.  For true.  It makes me faint.  He chopped, boiled, shredded, simmered.  And then we ate.

Then I ran to the bathroom.  Apparently codeine makes me puke too.

It took a while to shake the teasing that followed.  Both of us.

And in my house Tony's Creole Vegetable Soup will always and forever be known as Wisdom Tooth Soup.

Could be worse.

Mise en place for Wisdom Tooth Soup
For the stock:
2 lb beef brisket, 1 onion, 2 ribs celery, 1 large Irish potato, 1 turnip, Tony's, water

For the soup:

1 can tomatoes, chopped cabbage, 3 carrots, 1 turnip, 2 ribs celery, small onion, medium Irish potato, parsley, 1 can corn,

leftover cooked rice & spaghetti or other pasta

This soup has a couple of nifty tricks up its sleeve.
The first step is to simmer the brisket with celery, onion, and potato. 
I like a recipe that has its own stock built in. 
Store-bought costs more and isn't nearly as good.
And I have this leeetle problem of not wanting to use the stock I have hidden under lock and key in my freezer.

The next step is to remove the brisket and chop into pieces or shred.
Then the liquid and cooked vegetables get passed through a strainer (reserve liquid).  Mash the veg, pushing it through the colander.

Dirty work.  I know.  I know.
But this potato-onion-etc mash will help thicken the soup.
Neat trick to give a soup body.

Everybody in.

Do you compulsively save bits and dabs and dollops of random foodstuffs?
Bits and dabs and dollops that aren't enough for much?

The original recipe calls for raw rice and broken, uncooked spaghetti to be cooked in the soup at the end.
It's hard to time everything so that the rice isn't crunchy.
The pasta not mushy.
The vegetables not falling apart.

This is what my bits and dabs and dollops have been waiting for!
Just before serving, add as much or as little leftover cooked rice and pasta as you want to the bottom of a bowl. 
Ladle on the soup.

Nothin' left but the eatin'! 

Printer Friendly Recipe

Wisdom Tooth Soup
Creole Vegetable Soup
slightly adapted from Tony Chachere's Cajun Country Cookbook

2 pounds beef brisket or soup bone
1 large onion, quartered
2 ribs celery, halved
1 turnip, halved or quartered
Tony's Creole Seasoning
3 quarts water
1 14.5 oz can tomatoes
1/2-2 cups chopped cabbage
3 carrots, chopped
1 turnip, diced
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 medium Irish potato, chopped
2 sprigs parsley, minced
1 14.5 oz can corn, whole kernel

leftover cooked rice and pasta

In a large covered pot, add the meat, halved or quartered onion, potato, celery, and turnip to water seasoned with Tony's.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer for 3 hours or longer. Take soup meat from pot and remove meat from bone. Chop into bite-size pieces, discarding bone and fat.


Mash well-cooked vegetables through a strainer. Return these ingredients, with meat, to the liquid. Add all other vegetables and simmer until vegetables are done to your liking (I usually let it simmer for about 2-2.5 hours).

To serve, add as much leftover cooked rice and pasta as you want to a bowl.  Ladle on the soup.


* normally I skip the turnip, but today I used it just for you!

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