Food Bargains - Rock Soup

One of the best ways to provide a good meal inexpensively is to utilize cheap foundations and then build on it. I often think of the old story about "Rock Soup". I first read this story while in elementary school back in the 1960s. Below is a highly condensed, and so not very entertaining, version of the story.

 

    Once upon a time, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day, a kindly looking stranger came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

“There’s not a bite to eat in the whole province,” he was told. “Better keep moving on.”

“Oh, I have everything I need,” he said. “In fact, I was thinking of making some Rock Soup to share with all of you.” He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the stranger sniffed the “broth” and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

“Ahh,” the stranger said to himself rather loudly, “I do like a tasty rock soup. Of course, rock soup with cabbage — that’s hard to beat.”

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he’d retrieved from its hiding place and added it to the pot.

“Wonderful” cried the stranger. “You know, I once had rock soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king.”

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all.

 

So the concept is to take something cheap and add to it until you have something "luxurious". I do this with potatoes, rice, and noodles. In this instance let's talk about noodles. 

Anyone that was ever in the military or a money-less student in collage has probably ate a few meals of Ramen noodles. I have eaten Ramen, or something similar, hundreds of times. And sometimes just a pack of noodles by itself is a nice, light meal or snack. But when I want a real meal, I re-enact the Rock Soup story.

 

This past weekend I bought two servings of Maruchan Yakisoba noodles. These are 77 cents each. You can get Raman noodles for about 15-20 cents a pack. I like these Yakisoba noodles better, even though they are three times the price, because they are a larger serving size, have some dried vegetables in them, and they have a better nutritional profile. 

As you can see, one serving has 510 calories, a surprising amount of fat, almost no sugar, and 11 grams of protein. The biggest downside is the high level of salt. Most of that will be in the broth and I rarely drink the broth so I probably cut that amount to a manageable half.

Whichever type and brand of noodle I have on hand, that is my "Rock Soup", and now I will enhance it like the villagers did in the story. Everyone has bits of leftover meat in the refrigerator or freezer from a prior meal. I will often have lunchmeat that was a day or two away from starting to spoil that I threw in the freezer. I'll get that out, cut it up into pieces, and fry it in a pan to make sure it is safe to eat. Otherwise, I dig through the freezer looking for small prices of leftovers that aren't big enough to be a meal by themself. I cut that up into small pieces, microwave it, then throw that in with the cooking noodles. Then I hit the vegetable/fruit drawer in the fridge and grab whatever is there; onions, peppers, green beans, carrots, peas.....whatever. Throw a good sized handful of chopped veggies in with the noodles. Cook a little longer that the package instructions because you have more solids to cook.

So we are looking at 10-15 minutes of preparation and cooking time to make a fantastic luxury-level Rock Soup that tastes great, is very nutritious and costing maybe a dollar to a dollar twenty-five at most.