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GOURMET NEWS www.gourmetnews.com n JANUARY 2016 n GOURMET NEWS 8 8 Frontier Soups Introduces Two All-Natural Additive-Free Mixes By Greg Gonzales Soup has warmed winter bones, soothed aching stomachs and brought families to- gether over nutritious, steamy bowls for 20,000 years of human history. Frontier Soups continues this ancient, cross-culture tradition and meets current consumer stan- dards with new, all-natural, gluten-free soup mixes. "I'm such an advocate for what our dried soup mixes bring to the marketplace, I call them meal inspirations," said Trisha Ander- son, Founder and President of Frontier Soups. "With a few fresh additions, you make a beautiful pot of homemade soup. What we are on trend with in the market- place is the semi-homemade market. It lets people create in the kitchen, feed their fam- ilies and eat a good meal. You're going to add fresh chicken, so you know it's a much more quality product that what you're going to get out of a can." The two new soup mixes — Pacific Rim Gingered Carrot Soup Mix and the Kentucky Homestead Chicken & Rice Soup Mix — are freeze-dried and mixed to provide an authen- tic flavor. The traditional chicken and rice mix is made gourmet through its jasmine rice blend, which contains daikon radish seeds, baby garbanzo beans and Mediterranean ingredi- ents like lemon and oregano. Anderson sug- gests fresh fennel and celery for cooks looking to amplify traditional flavors. Frontier Soups' Thai-Indian fusion, the gingered carrot mix, brings new flavors to the kitchen with the addition of red lentils, which also provide essential fiber and nutri- ents. Brown sugar and cayenne highlight and deepen the mild sweetness of the carrots, while coconut milk provides immune and di- gestive health benefits. The soup mixes are all-natural and low in calories. They're also convenient; consumers can swap out suggested fresh ingredients to fit their personal diets, and the soups cook quickly. "We use the term 100 percent natural be- cause our ingredients have no added preser- vatives; they're dried, natural field products," Anderson said. "No processing, no additives, to the products," including no added salt, preservatives or MSG. Healthy soups also help dieters lose weight. A Penn State study showed that eat- ing a low-calorie soup before meals — or as a meal replacement — fills people up faster, resulting in their eating less. "You're going to get a more substantial meal, and substantially more nutritious," An- derson said. "And you can control the addi- tions you add, so you're going to get quality and quantity. You're getting value, conven- ience and quality control." That's good for vegetarians and vegans looking for a tasty soup, or anyone who wants to try their own custom recipes. Ani- mal-based ingredients can easily be replaced without sacrificing desired flavors. For exam- ple, chicken broth and chicken can be re- placed with vegetable broth and seitan, respectively. "Vegetarians are very good at stacking recipes,"Anderson added. "The sug- gestion we give is to not use the beef in the stew; try mushrooms instead of the meat." Find Frontier Soup mixes, including their 29 gluten-free options, at Kroger, Great Harvest Bread, Omaha Steaks, The Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Central Market, A Southern Season and www.FrontierSoups.com. Striking the Motherlode in Colorado By Lorrie Baumann Colorado-based Motherlode Provisions started with a wildfire. It was back in 2010 when a wildfire broke out below the historic mining camp at Gold Hill, Colorado. "Everyone was evacuated for about 10 days," recalls Carolyn Oxley, who with her husband Leland Oxley, is a Co- owner of Motherlode Provisions. When 230 or so residents of the tiny town were allowed to return to their homes, Le- land, who is a chef, was asked to cater a ben- efit barbecue to welcome everyone back home. He smoked several hundred pounds of meat, brisket and pork shoulder and made a simple sauce to go with it. 'He had a smoker on hand because he's the kind of guy who has a smoker on hand,' Carolyn says. "On a whim, we decided to put the barbecue sauce into bottles and sold it with handmade la- bels." Since that initial introduction of two sauces and a Bloody Mary mix, the Oxleys have continued their recipe development, and new products have joined the line, in- cluding Rocky Mountain Hot Sauce, Wild- fire Hot Sauce, Motherlode Steak Sauce and Motherlode Provisions' newest barbecue sauce, Sweet & Smoky Barbecue Sauce, a sauce with a familiar barbecue flavor. "Be- cause the other two are unique, we wanted to make a sauce that met the expectations of the majority of barbecue-sauce-speaking cus- tomers," Carolyn says. "It contains hickory smoke, and it's on the sweeter side with a lit- tle bit of heat, very traditional flavor and smooth texture. It's a wonderful all-around versatile barbecue sauce, and a great dip- ping sauce for French fries. It's a nice condiment, great on a burger." The barbecue sauces retail for around $8.99 for a bottle, while the hot sauces and steak sauces sell for $5.99 for a 7-ounce bottle. The Bloody Mary mix retails for $10.99 for a 750 ml bottle that weighs 27 ounces. For more information, email inquiry@motherlodeprovisions.com.