The secret to good soup

schoolhouse

If you are making your own stock using bones it is best to crack the bones first as it will release the marrow and gelatine. This helps enormously with flavour and the jelly consistency.

There is a school of thought that says you should always crack AND roast the bones before making stock. I have yet to try this, cracking the bones and adding some veg has always produced a very tasty wobbly stock.It does need straining and the fat skimming of the top.

CH27

I have most success with leek & potato soup.

1 large onion finely dice
1 large potato cubed
2 leeks finely chopped.

Fry above in butter & 1.5 litres of veg stock & lots of black pepper.
Simmer for 1 hour then blend.

I cannot make edible tomato soup to save my life

Solstice_3

Glad this has been posted my stock and soup is not the best either so it's good to find some tips

janb5

I like the Marigold stock powder and they also do a vegetarian version too. Very good. Look out for large soup pans which you can sometimes pick up at CS or car boot sales or Ebay- much better to make large quantities of soup in.


Also recommend the Covent Garden book of soups which you can pick up second hand.

Downsizing__for_sanity

If you can afford to, and don't mind it not being uber-Old Style, the Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillion powder is excellent for adding to soups, stocks and sauces. It's basically concentrated veg stock with herbs etc and gives a nice rounded flavour. As it's powdered, you can use only a half tsp and work up until you get the right flavour for you. It also comes in low-salt and and organic version I believe. Only a couple of pounds and seems to last for ages. (No links to them!)You can get it in most supermarkets now, not just the Health Food shops.
DFS

gayleygoo

If you are making stock and saving chicken carcasses you can put them in a bag and crush them up so they fit in the freezer better. You can also ask in butchers' shops if you can have chicken or cow bones for soup, they'll often give them for free! A ham hock is usually cheap and is supposed to make delicious stock or soup, though I've yet to try it.

I remember a TV chef once showing how to make "proper" stock. They used loads of chicken wings, roasted in the oven, as well as a couple of chicken carcasses. Veg trimmings are needed too, plus some bay leaves or other spices if you have them on hand.

For some soups I use a HM gara masala powder, or a little bit of curry paste - goes really well with root vegetables or lentils. Some people like to add cream at the end of cooking but I don't as it seems to dilute the flavour a bit, although it might be just the thing needed if the soup ends up too spicy or salty!

cjez_2

I think a good soup depends on the mixture of ingredients. If they go well together.

Great soup ingredients that I have found are:
butternut squash, pre roasted- SO YUMMY
red pepper
red lentils
leeks
celery for anything tomato based

One soup I make that's easy and has too much taste (if you can get such a thing) is pea and ham. I slow cook a gammon joint and if any leftovers make a pea and ham soup. It's tasty because the gammon is so salty, I don't pre-soak it so I don't lose the saltiness.

I have had many a bland soup and it's just trial and error. Husband will always eat it but tells me it didn't work this time. A lot of salt usually helps though!:)

lostinrates

Re stock, I use more than one carcass at a time too, BUT, a good alternative alternative is chicken wings. I remove our wings from the birds for our pets to eat raw, but, in the past I found they made the most amazing chicken soups ever for the about of bone and meat.

meames_2

My soupy flops seem to be no matter how well blended the soup it seems to separate.

Veg soup seems to be the worst and looks like sick.

Broccoli and Stilton is better but it might be the milk cream cheese base. Tomato and red pepper but that might be the passata.

janiebquick

I realise that the purists will raise their hands in horror, but I have found that the addition one Knorr vegetable stockpot to a vegetable soup lifts it from a good soup to a great soup.