I’m not gonna lie. I cheated. I not only put bacon on top of this, I started the recipe with bacon. That means this entire recipe is wrapped up in bacon. If you have anything against bacon, turn away. There are other recipe blogs for you. This one is not for bacon haters. Okay, fine, you can start with olive oil instead and skip the bacon topping, but dogs aren’t gonna like you and they pretty much like everyone.
I love making this soup on a cold, winter night. It’s super flavorful, hearty, and well, warm! I usually use shrimp and some form of white fish – orange roughy, cod, whatever – but scallops and lobster also make great ingredients.
If you’re ever served this at our house we refer to it as Stone Soup. The origin is a bit of a mystery, but I started making it right around the time a kid I know coined the name for some mystery soup his mom made. Nobody ever knew why that kid called it Stone Soup, but it sounded like a good name for a meal at the time so we threw the moniker on this recipe and it’s stuck ever since!
Prep time, 30 minutes
Cook time, 1 hour
INGREDIENTS
- 5 strips bacon, sliced thin
- 1 cup onions, chopped
- 1 cup red bell pepper, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 32 oz chicken broth
- 1 cup carrots, chopped
- 4 cups small new potatoes, quartered
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp thyme, dried
- Salt, to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups half and half
- 1 15 oz can of cream style corn
- Hot sauce, to taste (optional)
- 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 lb cod, orange roughy or other white fish, chopped bite size
- 2 chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
RECIPE
In a large stockpot cook bacon on medium high heat til crisp. Then remove, leaving the wonderful bacon grease! Confession: I added enough bacon to this recipe that your pups could have some as treats while you cook. Go on, now. This is your time to be their hero. Give them a tasty morsel! You don’t need it all for yourself. Look at it like a diet. They’re eating it as a sacrifice so you don’t.
Add the onions, bell pepper, celery and garlic to the bacon fat, and stir and cook until the onions are tender. Add the flour and stir until coated, for about 2 minutes. Next, add the wine, stir, and let thicken for a couple minutes. Then add the chicken broth. Bring to a boil then add the next 6 ingredients and cook at a simmer (you’ll have to adjust the heat), stirring often, until the potatoes are tender but not quite done. This should take about 20 minutes.
Next add half and half, corn, and hot sauce. Bring to a boil and add the shrimp and fish until cooked through.
Serve with chopped green onions and parsley on top with the bacon bits you didn’t give to your dogs. For the bacon haters, I’m sure your soup is pretty good-ish too. 🙂
