Greetings my beautiful lovelies! It's Emmy, welcome back to another episode of Hard Times, where I explore food and recipes from times of scarcity. Today I'm going to be making ketchup soup, and this recipe, in most part, is a free meal because I'm going to be using ketchup packets. So when you go through the drive-thru, if you get some fast food, grab some extra ketchup packets, and you can pretty much make this recipe.

When I was researching the history of ketchup soup, some said it was a Depression-era recipe from the 1930s which sounds about right. Others attributed this to the hobo community, calling this a hobo ketchup soup, but basically what we're going to be taking is ketchup and a little bit of sugar with hot water. Some recipes call for a little bit of milk, or creamer. So I'm gonna add that as well. This is basically an instant tomato soup, made with a condiment -- ketchup.

To bulk up this recipe you could also use little packets of oyster crackers, or saltine crackers, if you have them. Let's go ahead and make our soup. The ratio that I'm gonna be using today is one that I got from a blog post. I will put the original link down in the description -- and the ratio is eight packets of ketchup to one packet of sugar to around one cup of hot water. And I'm going to add one little container of non-dairy creamer.

So let's begin with the ketchup. So I'm gonna do this two at a time. So each packet works out to be a teaspoon maybe? Whoa! So this is gonna be about eight teaspoons of ketchup. We've got six...seven....and eight. Oh, what a mess. Now, I'm gonna add one packet of sugar. So I'm going to start with about a half a cup of hot water. Add about a quarter cup first to kind of get this dissolved. And it smells very ketchup-y, vinegared, sweet. That's pretty thick. So another quarter cup...So, a half cup actually, I think, is plenty. If you want to have a soup with a little bit more body, I think four ounces or half cup of hot water might be enough.

And to make this a little bit richer, I'm going to add a little bit of coffee creamer. Doo-do-dooo.... Oh, look at that! You can just make it gourmet. Boom! There's no reason why you can make inexpensive food not look beautiful, right? Gorgeous! And, to round things out, I'm gonna include a few saltine crackers, of course. This is not part of the free portion of this meal but a box of store-brand saltine crackers runs about a dollar ninety-nine, and that's a lot of crackers. So it's just a few cents, if that.

So there you have our soup. Let me tell you, I was really surprised by how good it turned out. The first time I tried this recipe, I thought, "This is not going to taste good at all." But then I took a spoonful and... Wow! It's surprisingly good. To me, it tastes a lot like SpaghettiOs soup: sweet; canned tomatoed; kind of comforting in some sort of way because it's warm; and it touches those kid receptors in your brain -- something about this, it works!

I wouldn't necessarily advertise that this is made out of ketchup because it might creep some people out, but if you like tomato soup, I think you might like this. And, it's practically free. Granted, I don't know how well this will fill your belly, or satiate your hunger, but it is something hot. It is something that you put together, so, in that sense, it could be very satisfying.

Umm! Messy! I'm very tickled and surprised by this recipe. So there you have it -- a virtually free meal. Please let me know down in the comments if there are other free meals that you've tried, or concocted, or dreamed up -- I would love to hear more about them. I think it's absolutely fascinating and I love the ingenuity that comes with throwing a free meal together -- or one that is very, very inexpensive.

Thank you guys so much for joining me! I hope you guys enjoyed that one. I hope you guys learned something. Please check out the Hard Times playlist where I explore other recipes from times of scarcity. Uh -- share this video with your friends; follow me on social media; like this video; subscribe; and I shall see you in the next one!

Fun fact: my little brother, when he was a child, used to love to drink these little cups of creamer. Just right out of the cup.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enGreetings my beautiful lovelies!It's Emmy, welcome back to another episode of hard times,where I explore food and recipes from times of scarcity.Today I'm going to be making ketchup soup, and this recipe,in most part, is a free meal because I'm going to be using ketchup packets.So when you go through the drive-thru,if you get some fast food,grab some extra ketchup packets,and you can pretty much make this recipe.So when I was researching the history of ketchup soup, some said it was a Depression-era recipe from the1930s which sounds about right. Others attributed this to the hobo community, calling this a hobo ketchup soup,but basically what we're going to be taking is ketchup and a little bit of sugar with hot water.Some recipes call for a little bit of milk, or creamer. So I'm gonna add that as well.Super simple, super easy.This is basically an instanttomato soup, made with a condiment -- ketchup. To bulk up this recipe you could also use little packets ofoyster crackers, or saltine crackers, if you have them.So let's go ahead and make our soup.The ratio that I'm gonna be using today is one that I got from a blog post.I will put the original link down in the description -- and the ratio is eight packets of ketchup to one packet of sugarto around one cup of hot water. And I'm going to add one little container of non-dairy creamer.So let's begin with the ketchup.So I'm gonna do this two at a time. So each packet works out to be a teaspoon maybe?Whoa!So this is gonna be about eight teaspoons of ketchup.We've got six...seven....and eight.Oh, what a mess.Now, I'm gonna add one packet of sugar.So I'm going to start with about a half a cup of hot water.Add about a quarter cup first to kind of get this...dissolved.And it smells very ketchup-y, vinegared, sweet....That's pretty thick.So another quarter cup....So, a half cup actually, I think, is plenty. If you want to have a soup with a little bit more body,I think four ounces or half cup of hot water might be enough.And to make this a little bit richer,I'm going to add a little bit of coffee creamer.Doo-do-dooo....Oh, look at that! You can just make it gourmet. Boom!There's no reason why you can make inexpensive food not look beautiful, right? Gorgeous!And, to round things out, I'm gonna include a few saltine crackers, of course.This is not part of the free portion of this meal but a box ofstore-brand saltine crackers runs about a dollar ninety-nine, and that's a lot of crackers.So it's just a few cents, if that. So, let's go ahead and taste our soup. I'm gonna stir in the cream.And let's give our soup a taste. Here we go. Itadakimasu!Hey!That's not bad! I'm gonna add a little bit of water -- it's a little bit too concentrated.That actually tastes a lot like tomato soup -- like canned tomato soup? It tastes a lot like that.There's a little bit of tanginess; definite cooked canned tomato flavor -- signature of, like say Campbell's tomato soup ;it's pretty sweet, but that's what makes it appealing.Wow, I am so surprised by that! I thought it would be very ketchup-y, distinctively ketchup. But don't get me wrong --I love ketchup! I love my fries with ketchup. I like ketchup with my scrambled eggs....I love ketchup on hot dogs. (I know, Chicagoans, don't hate me. Don't hate me.)But this does not. This tastes like canned tomato soup.Granted there's a good amount of sugar in here,but I did add an additional packet of sugar. If you don't like your tomato soup as sweet, you could certainly omit it.But it tastes like tomato soup. It really does!Mm...granted, canned tomato soup --there's a nice tang to it, a little bit of vinegarthat's in the ketchup gives it an extra bit of acidity, the cream kind of rounds things out,but certainly you could omit that as well.It has a nice body to it, too --if you don't add too much water,it has a good amount of body, and you don't need to season it. It's certainly salty enough. It's pretty good!I'm kind of shocked. All right, let's have it with a cracker.Mhm!Classic combination: saltine crackers with tomato soup. I actually love grilled cheese with tomato soup -- classic.Mm-hmmThis is surprisingly good. To me it tastes a lot likeSpaghettiOs soup: sweet; canned tomatoed; kind of comforting in some sort of way because it's warm;and it touches those kid receptors in your brain -- something about this, it works!I wouldn't necessarily advertise that this is made out of ketchup because it might creep some people out,but if you like tomato soup, I think you might like this.And, it's practically free.Granted, I don't know how well this will fill your belly, or satiate your hunger, but it is something hot.It is something that you put together,so, in that sense, it could be very satisfying.Umm!Messy!I'm very tickled and surprised by this recipe. So there you have it-- a virtually free meal.Please let me know down in the comments if there are other free meals that you've tried,or concocted, or dreamed up --I would love to hear more about them. I think it's absolutely fascinatingand I love the ingenuity that comes with throwing a free meal together --or one that is very, very inexpensive. Thank you guys so much for joining me!I hope you guys enjoyed that one. I hope you guys learned something.Please check out the Hard Times playlist where I explore other recipes from times of scarcity.Uh -- share this video with your friends;follow me on social media; like this video; subscribe; and I shall see you in the next one!Toodle-oo! Take care! Byee!Fun fact: my little brother, when he was a child, used to love to drink these little cups of creamer. Just right out of the cup.\n"