I love making soup. I especially love how soup can clear out a fridge of leftovers. The only thing I had to buy for this lasagna soup recipe was the chicken stock. Everything else I had in my cupboards and fridge already. I based this recipe on Paula Dean’s “Tastes like Lasagna Soup” but like most recipes I made it my own. Number one there were too many ingredients in it. I don’t want to go to the store and buy a whole bunch of extra ingredients I want recipes that are simple and easy to make. Number two I wanted to use what I had in the house. So I encourage you to use what you’ve got have fun with it. Really you could put anything in this soup that you would find in lasagna. For a veggie version just leave out the meat and add more veggies. It really is just that easy.

Some of my changes I think made the soup even better. For one I had an open jar of roasted red peppers in the fridge. These made my soup so much more flavorful and delicious than using chopped bell peppers. I also, for health reasons, make all my recipes gluten free. For this recipe there are two important ingredients that needed to be changed in order for it to be gluten free the pasta of course and the chicken broth. For my recipe you will need.

1.5 lbs ground meat (I used a combination of Italian Sausage and ground beef)

3 jars of pasta sauce (I used sauce because I have 30 jars in my basement. The original recipe calls for one and canned tomatoes plus a lot of spices. I don’t think that the kind of sauce is all that important. I used several different kinds I had an open jar of marinara and an open jar of pizza sauce. I used a jar of meat sauce and a jar of garlic and herb. Use what you have or what sounds good to you.)

1 box of chicken broth (I used Pacific brand because it is gluten free)

1 cup mozzerella (I used fresh because that’s what I had)

1 large onion

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers

1 box lasagna noodles (I used Tinkayada Brown Rice Pasta)

1 cup chopped mushrooms (just because I had them in the fridge)

I started out by sautéing my onions and garlic together and then added the meat to brown. I did this because sautéing really sweetens the onions and I wanted those onion and garlic flavors to really marry with the meat. Also because I was using some sausage and some ground beef I wanted those to be well mixed together. Once my meat was browned I added the pasta sauce, the stock, the mushrooms and the peppers. I then let all the ingredients stew together in the pot for a few hours. I added the pasta and let that cook for another hour and then added the cheese at the end and gave it just enough time to melt on the top.

This soup was so delicious. It really cleared out my fridge of leftovers and I can’t wait to make it again.