Not quite from scratch

I think I'm a little slow here, but I've just discovered how to make quick, chunky soup using canned condensed soup. My only excuse is that Campbell's soup is imported here and I don't pay it much attention when I do my grocery. There's not much variety either—we only seem to have a few of the cream-based soups plus the chicken noodle soup, and only the regular kind too—none of the chunky or low-sodium varieties. But I wanted to make a shrimp-based chunky soup last weekend—it's rainy season here already and nothing beats hot soup when it's raining—and I didn't have much time to make one from scratch because I woke up late Sunday morning. So I grabbed two cans of Campbell's New England Clam Chowder and a brick of low-fat milk and that's what I based my chunky soup on. I don't think I'll be doing this often though. I checked the nutrition information and the sodium content is high!

2 cans condensed clam chowder cream soup
1 brick (250ml) low-fat milk
1/8 cup butter or margarine
2 small onions, minced
1 kilo peeled shrimp, sliced into bite-size pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon marjoram
2 small carrots, chopped
1 medium zucchini, chopped

Place the condensed soup and milk in a stockpot and use a whisk to mix the two until smooth. Set aside.

In a wok or large skillet, melt the butter and sauté the onions until translucent. Add the shrimp, salt, black pepper and marjoram and sauté until the shrimp turns pink. Add the carrots and zucchini and sauté for about two more minutes. Set aside.

Heat the soup. Add the sautéed shrimp and vegetables, including the liquid, and mix well. Simmer for three minutes.

Seafood tomato soup

An un-recipe. Because when I say "pack," it's how my local grocery packed it and I won't have the weight of it for you. Because I decided to use parsley as the main flavor, rather than my usual basil, oregano and rosemary, which I added anyway. Because you can pretty much substitute any other kind of seafood for what I used and list here. And because the only cooking instruction I can give you for this is: fill a pot with water, add the first five ingredients and simmer for about half an hour, then add the remaining ingredients one by one, simmering for five minutes after everything looks cooked.

After ladling the hot soup into bowls, you might want to sprinkle some grated cheese on it before serving.

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one large onion, chopped
one pack parsely, chopped
one small garlic, minced
2 tbsp soy sauce
12 tomatoes, chopped

one pack scallops
one pack shrimp
one pack creamy dory fillet, sliced into bite-size pieces
dash pepper, basil, rosemary, oregano

one head cauliflower florets
one head broccoli florets
one pack green beans, sliced into half-inch pieces
one pack frozen corn and carrots, thawed