Simple Cast Iron Pot Soup [Easy Steps]
Cast-Iron cookware is well known for enhancing foods flavor. The versatility allows for making dishes, from soups to baked goods. The Culinary possibilities with the cast-iron are endless.
This is primarily due to the pot’s metallic strength and versatility to prepare any of your starches, meats, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products for meals and even desserts.
Cast-iron pots can adapt to all types of cooking settings with any temperature or heat source:
- The conventional stove
- The traditional household oven
- The fireplace
- Even an outdoor campfire
The pots are chemical-proof, convenient to clean, durable, and nonstick. These properties make them ideal for culinary variety.
In fact, the pots have grown so popular in the past few decades that amateur cooks have built a collection of all related cookware in the cabinets, cupboards, or pantries of their kitchens at home.
In particular, you can tap a rich online reservoir of cast-iron cauldron recipes for cooking broths, chilis, chowders, soups, and stews such as your French onion soup, stovetop chili, and oven-baked potato corn chowder.
How To Make French Onion Soup In A Cast Iron Pot
Take cooking a French onion soup in your cast-iron cauldron, for instance.
This European gourmet classic serves as a great appetizer to the main course you plan to serve for dinner or even lunch.
There’s just no resisting the rich onion broth of beef stock, croutons, and its thick, cheesy topping for you, family members, friends, guests, or anyone else who sips and savors a bowl!
When creating it, be sure to take your time and apply your fill of sliced onions liberally.
And you have your choice of cheese toppings — American Cheddar, French Brie, Swiss Emmental, Dutch Gouda, American Monterrey Jack, Italian Mozzarella, Italian Parmesan, and Swiss Raclette.
Once you’ve produced the soup, you put your finishing touches by placing it under the oven’s broiler to brown the cheese.
For this, you will need broiler-safe serving bowls and spoons. The bowls can also be used for making clam chowder, another cast-iron pot-friendly food.
While you’re at it, do try a mandolin slicer for cutting your onions for the soup. For example, this is the same mandolin you would use to julienne your carrots, ham, or peppers for salads.
How To Make Stove Top Chili In A Cast-Iron Pot
A cast-iron pot or skillet is perfect for making your time-honored bowls of chili because its tolerance for high heat empowers you to sear and brown your meats for this meal.
You start your chili by cooking your ground meat — whether lamb, hamburger, or elk — in a cast-iron Dutch oven and then gradually adding, stirring in, and heating your other elements.
You are expected to slow-cook this meal. This means you must keep your heat level at medium and take your own sweet time in preparing it.
Otherwise, if you need a meal in minutes, you may have to open a can of pre-made chili. Your beans will not be drained and washed, as the gravy will significantly add to the flavor and consistency of the chili.
Your other ingredients will include diced ones: one onion, sweet bell peppers, tomatoes, tomato juice, two cans of pinto, black, kidney, and Great Northern beans, some chili powder, some garlic powder, and some salt.
In a little over 10 minutes, your cast-iron pot of chili is complete, and you’re ready to serve it with a plate of corn muffins.
Otherwise, to enhance the flavor, you can opt to simmer the chili by decreasing the heat to cook for an hour and stirring it from time to time.
How To Make Potato Corn Chowder In a Cast-Iron Pot
Cast-iron pots or skillets work well with just about any recipe in your traditional household oven appliance because it evenly heats your food and the lids fit tightly, keeping its contents hot and moist.
This goes for your potato corn chowder too, which, amazingly, you will not cook on your stove but instead bake in a standard oven!
Oven-baked potato corn chowder is an enduring favorite. Most people don’t know that chowder can be baked.
This is one of these quick-fix meals you prepare in an emergency some weeknights because you forgot to turn on the slow cooker.
You can use cast-iron Dutch ovens with lids to quickly cook your soups. These pots and skillets are best to use if you’ve forgotten to defrost your meat in advance.
Mainly, you put your frozen meat and any stock, sauces, or seasonings in your cast-iron Dutch oven, place the lid on top and insert your dish in the oven before turning it on. This method of thawing meat is effective.
For your potato corn chowder, your meat of choice will invariably be chicken — skinless breasts and thighs, to be exact.
Then add and stir a chopped onion into that cast-iron Dutch oven, sliced and peeled carrots, cubed potatoes, cups of corn kernels, several cups of chicken broth, salt, ground pepper, and garlic powder.
Preheat your conventional oven and place the Dutch oven inside with a lid firmly on top. Bake the entire chowder with its ingredients from 45 minutes to an hour.
The chicken must be thoroughly cooked, and the potatoes should be soft as a measure of doneness.
Once you’ve removed the Dutch oven from the standard oven, be sure to shred the chicken into manageable chunks and add some cream and more salt and pepper. Your now-completed soup can be served with fresh bread or cornbread.
Final Thoughts
The cast-iron pot is long-lasting and flexible in terms of culinary activity.
As demonstrated in the above recipe examples, the pot can take on your most challenging mealtime recipes, including your broths, chilis, chowders, soups, and stews.
Photo altered by simplelifesaver.com | Photo attribution: Julia Filirovska licensed under CC2.0
