Amish buggies
Canned soup has become a mainstay in many Amish kitchens.
By Kevin Williams
The addition of canned soups to Amish culinary history is, obviously, a relatively new one. Campbell’s canned condensed soups weren’t even invented until around the beginning of the 20th century. But like any widely adopted mainstream food trend, whether it is Tex-Mex or pizza, the Amish eventually took notice.
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Amish Yumasetti
Canned soups were easy to ship and stock in local Mom and Pop bulk food stores where the majority of the Amish did their shopping at one time. Many Amish still do their shopping at such stores but the prices of big chain-stores like Wal-Mart and Meijer in the midwest have definitely taken their toll. Anyway, the soups were less popular as a stand-alone meal in an Amish home and more popular as an addition to casseroles and other dishes that maybe could use a flavorful splash of liquid. So canned soups started showing up in more and more recipes as the century went along. The canned soups fundamentally changed some of the recipes so that they are aren’t recognizable from their original versions. So if you have a can of condensed soup that has been sitting in your cupboard (and who doesn’t?), here are some ways to use it up:
Probably a fairly safe bet you can use chicken in this turkey casserole also, it would be very “chickeny” since it already has a can of chicken noodle soup. Unless otherwise noted, just assume that these are your standard ol’ soup can sizes.
- 3 slices of bread, cubed
- 2 cups cooked turkey pieces
- 1 egg
- 1 can of chicken noodle soup
- 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
- 1 cup of cracker crumbs, crushed
- ¼ cup of margarine, melted
- Place cubed turkey pieces and bread in a greased casserole dish.
- Combine egg and soups and pour over meat and bread.
- Combine cracker crumbs and melted margarine.
- Sprinkle on top of the casserole. Bake at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes.
This next casserole is a classic example of Amish meets soup meets Tex-Mex. . Toppings can be chopped tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, and ranch dressing.
- 1½ pounds hamburger
- 1 package taco seasoning
- 1 small onion, diced
- ½ cup green peppers, diced
- 16 ounces of sour cream
- 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
- 2 cups cheese of your choice
- 8 small flour tortillas
- Brown hamburger, onion, and green peppers. Add taco seasoning. Cut tortillas in small bite sized pieces. Mix sour cream and cream of mushroom soup together. In a 9 X 13 inch pan layer hamburger mixture, tortillas and sour cream mixture and layers. Top with the cheese. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes
This is just your classic, garden variety Amish rendition of hamburger casserole. This is an easy casserole to make on a busy day.Good stuff!
- 2 pounds fresh hamburger
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 8 to 10 medium sized potatoes, shredded
- Colby or cheddar cheese
- In a large skillet brown hamburger and onions.
- Remove skillet from burner and add the shredded potatoes.
- Season to taste with your favorite seasoning and then spread cream of mushroom over the top of the potatoes.
- When potatoes are tender spread slices of cheese over the top.
And for when yellow squash season arrives, and it is creeping closer:
Cook time:
Total time:
- 6 cups squash, peeled and shredded
- 2 cups diced, cooked chicken
- 1 /2 cup onion, chopped
- 1 /2 cup green peppers, chopped
- 2 10.75 ounce cans of cream of mushroom soup
- 2 cups shredded cheese
- Seasoning to taste
- Preheat oven to 350. In a greased 9 X 13 inch baking pan, layer ingredients with the cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until squash is tender.
And canned soup has become popular in Amish egg dishes, consider this egg and bacon bake! Good served over toasted bread or English muffins.
- BACON AND EGG BAKE
- 6 to 8 bacon slices
- 1 medium onion, sliced
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 /4 cup milk
- 5 hard-boiled eggs, grated
- 2 cup shredded cheese
- Fry bacon until crisp. Drain and crumble.
- Sautee onion and bacon fat and mix all ingredients and add a dash of pepper.
- Pour into a 2 quart casserole and bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes.
4 Comments
Mary Stepleton-Hitt
Hi Kevin!
In the squash recipe, change “aquash” to squash.
Your friendly proofreader,
Mary Stepleton-Hitt
Sheila
Please give directions for taco recipe. It currently shows Turkey directions.
Kevin
I fixed it!
Barb
Kevin if you want to see some beautiful pictures of Amish children check out Nancy Noel’s site.