Stone Soup

Why I Love This Recipe
I had invited the neighbors over for dinner but I procrastinated making a main dish until the last minute and didn't have time to run out for groceries. I felt doomed. But I managed to make a yummy, filling soup out of very few ingredients. It was a surprising success.
Ingredients You'll Need
6 cups of water
6 T of "chicken base" powder
1 T of vegetable base powder
1 cup of small, round pasta noodles
10 baby carrots, sliced thin
dill
red pepper flakes
garlic powder
sea salt
pepper
rosemary
parsley
2 potatoes, roughly cubed
3/4 of a white onion
butter
2 more cups of water
2 more T of vegetable base
Directions
I had invited the neighbors over for dinner but I procrastinated making a main dish until the last minute and didn't have time to run out for groceries. I felt doomed. But I managed to make a yummy, filling soup out of very few ingredients. It was a surprising success.
I boiled 6 cups of water and added about 6 T of "chicken base" powder and 1 T of vegetable base powder -- of course, I would have prefered to use chicken stock, but I was out.
I then turned the heat down to medium, so it just bubbled gently. To the water, I added 1 cup of small, round pasta noodles. You could also use rice. I also added about 10 baby carrots, sliced thin (all I had in my refrigerator). If I'd had a rib or two of celery I would have added that, too. But I didn't.
I sprinkled in some dill, some red pepper flakes, garlic powder (out of fresh garlic, too!), sea salt, pepper, rosemary, and parsley. I stirred it all up. Then I added 2 potatoes, roughly cubed, to thicken it a bit more. And I cut up 3/4 of a white onion, sauted it in some butter on the stove, and threw that in as well.
I let everything cook, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes. It lost some water, so I added 2 cups of water and 2 more T of vegetable base. I adjusted my spices as necessary.
While this was going on, I threw a loaf of beer bread in the oven (recipe on this site) and got out some cookies I had baked. Beer bread, "stone" soup, cookies, and the salad my neighbors supplied triumphed, despite my laziness!