{"id":283722,"date":"2018-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T00:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/origin-www.tasteofhome.com\/recipes\/stone-soup\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T12:24:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T17:24:14","slug":"stone-soup","status":"publish","type":"recipe","link":"https:\/\/www.tasteofhome.com\/recipes\/stone-soup\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone Soup"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the story of stone soup comes from a beloved children’s book, it’s also a real soup! With potatoes, barley and hearty vegetables, this big-batch soup is warming and filling, making it perfect for dinner on a cold night. There are plenty of ways to make this stone soup recipe special for your family\u2014like including an actual stone.<\/p>\n

What is stone soup?<\/h2>\n

Stone soup is a European folktale popularized in the United States by Marcia Brown’s 1947 children’s book Stone Soup<\/em><\/a>. The story tells of a traveler who arrives in a village with a large cooking pot but no money for food. He announces to the villagers that he can make a pot of soup with nothing but a stone. He simmers his stone and water in the village center, and the townspeople are intrigued. One by one, they offer ingredients to “season” the stone soup\u2014a few carrots here and a potato there\u2014until eventually the traveler has a hearty, satisfying soup to share with the whole village. The people all believe a magical stone makes it taste so good!<\/p>\n

Should you put a stone in your stone soup? While our recipe skips it, you can choose a special stone to scrub clean and add to the soup. (That’s what Dolly Parton and her siblings used to do<\/a> when their mother made stone soup.) Another option is to add a small, whole potato to the soup that can serve as a symbolic stone. Or, recreate the charming tale by having guests over for bowls of stone soup, and ask each guest to bring a different ingredient to add to the pot.<\/p>\n

Ingredients for Stone Soup<\/h2>\n