The recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon is all about the balance between effort and result. When you make real meals from scratch, the result can be phenomenal. But those meals usually take more effort than an off-the-shelf substitute.

I’ll always remember one of the comments I saw about my first recipe in the Flathead Beacon, 30-Minute Tomato Soup. Someone was appalled that it would take so long to make tomato soup when she could just pop open a can and heat it in the microwave. She completely missed the point of the recipe—and to this day is likely missing out on its rich flavor.

That reader will likely be just as snarky about this week’s recipe, even though its point is to achieve the equivalent of popping open a soup can by doing the bulk of the work ahead of time and keeping a hot and sour soup base in the freezer. But if you make that advanced effort, the result tastes amazing, even if all you do is heat up a couple of frozen cubes in a mug of stock.

Learn more about making a soup base and get the complete recipe for Hot and Sour Broth Base in my column.

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Twice as Tasty

Next week, my column will feature one of my favorite ways to use this soup base to make a full-blown meal. If you like the soup base shortcut, you’ll find other recipes on the blog that separate the effort from the result, ranging from meals to baked goods.

• Another way to quickly put a soup on the table is to premix the dry, shelf-stable ingredients. I created my Mason Jar Gifts: Mixed-Bean Soup recipe as a holiday gift idea, but you can prepare jars for your own pantry shelves.
• Dried beans take time to cook, but once that’s done, they can be divided among all sorts of meals. Try it by cooking up a batch of Seasoned Red Beans and then using some in Vegetarian Red Beans and Rice and the rest in Taco Salad.
• Cleaning and roasting winter squash is another labor-intensive task that can be done in advance. With Roasted Winter Squash Puree in your freezer, your well on your way to everything from weeknight Pumpkin–Chocolate Cookies to a special occasion Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Pie.
• My Black Bean Veggie Burgers take time to make but are unsurpassed by any commercial patty. Unlike some homemade versions, they hold together well, and the effort feels so worth it every time I pull a couple of burgers from the freezer for an easy meal.
• I also stash all sorts of stocks and sauces in the freezer that are easiest to prepare in a large batch and have seemingly endless uses. I recently shared a couple of these in my column: Grilled Sweet Pepper Sauce and Grilled Tomato Pizza Sauce.
• Two of my family’s traditional Christmas cookies, Vanilla Bean Cookies and Chocolate Rum Balls, are made just after Thanksgiving and left to “age” until Christmas. these recipes not only have intense flavor but also break up the holiday baking season nicely.

You can find more delicious ideas in the recipe index, including recipes for other soups that you may make in one go but taste just as good—or better—as leftovers. You can also learn more about using one prep session to make two meals in this blog post.

Want more Twice as Tasty recipes? Get my books! Click here to order a personally signed, packaged, and shipped copy of The Complete Guide to Pickling directly from me. I also share tasty ways to use pickles in The Pickled Picnic; it’s only available here.