Some specific soup questions

boo81

Right im new to this soup making lark so ive got some questions:

1) if using fresh tomatoes do you have to de-seed and peel the skins

2) do you have to peel peppers and roast them beforehand (the only recipe I have used says to do this)

3) how much potato to other veg is a good ratio, I dont want to make it bland and just tast of potato

4) I like thick soup and plan to use lentils, again what ration of these can I use and how much stock to veg?

5) what herbs go well in veggy soup, I normally used dry ones-either mixed, parsley or basil in cooking but im open to ideas

6) any other good flavourings to add?

Sorry about all the questions

odds-n-sods

All your answers depend on the types of soup you're likely to make. If your making a tomato-based soup, canned tomatoes are easy to use, if you want to use fresh, you can just chop them up.

Peppers, again, depends on what you are doing with them; in a chunky veg soup, just chop them up; sounds like the recipe you've got is for a roasted pepper soup.

Potato, again, what are you wanting to make! Leek + potato soup is good; add some roasted garlic to it; and it gets blitzed/pureed, so I use 6 med. potatoes to 2 leeks, but if you want a chunky soup with veg, use less.

Lentils swell up, so not too many, try a couple of handfuls, you can always add stock or water if its too thick.

With herbs, depends on what you are making, any herb will work - dill is nice in chicken soup, rosemary, oregano. thyme, bay leaf in italian style, or coriander in thati or other oriental soups. Dried or fresh it doesn't matter, though fresh does have a stronger flavour. (1 tbsp fresh = 1 tsp dried)

What kinds of soups do you like??

boo81

Well ive made 2 soups before - a corn chowder and a tomato and pepper one. I want to make just mixed veggie ones depending on what i have-at the moment this is onions, potatoes, courgette, red pepper, tomatoes, carrots and mushrooms.

Im not sure whether to put them together and make one or split into different flavours. Im not sure how to convert quantity of veg into quantity of soup if you see what I mean?

I have:
4 small/med courgettes
6 tomatoes
1 small red pepper
4 large mushrooms (not a fan of strong mushroom flavours though)
8 carrots (again dont want a strong carrot flavour though)

Maybe that helps more? I dont like thin soup very much and would prefer not too creamy, the choder is perfect texture for me!

odds-n-sods

You want a recipeless soup??

I'd say you want a pureed soup.

OK. Take the tomatoes, peppers, courgettes, 1 mushroom and chop them up with 1 onion and 2 cloves garlic. Saute off the courgettes, mushroom onion, garlic, peppers with a littel salt + pepper in a little oil. Add the tomatoes, whatever herbs you like and add just enough water to cover. simmer until all the veg are soft, then puree. You can add more water if you think its too thick.

You will find that if you use a variety of veg you wont have any that come over too strong unless you put too many of that in. Having said that carrot + orange soup is lovely.

Onions, carrots, garlic, all chopped up + sautes in oil, salt + pepper. Zest 1 orange, add that in, then add the juice, add enough water to cover then simmer until very soft; puree. Youcan add a potato or two to make it thicker if you like.