Urgent, Help needed pls...bland boring soup!

kippers

I've just spent ages making a massive pot of veg soup for work (so i can freeze the portions). I usually take homemade leek & potato or pumpkin soup and they are lovely. I had read so many of your posts saying that vegetable soup is lovely so i thought i'd make a low fat version....

I used chicken stock, soup & broth mix, cabbage and broad beans and simmered for 30 mins. I've just liquidised it and it looks lovely....i've just tasted it and its so bland and i wouldn't like to drink a bowl of it!

I've added salt & pepper and a knob of butter but it hasn't made a difference...can anyone pls give me any advice on what to add to make it more tasty?....Please

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there...

Some dried herbs may help... corriander is nice... or even a veg stock cube crumbled in may help by adding that bit of extra depth to the flavour

sillyvixen

when i make veg soup, i use marmite and water instead of stock, i also like to add a few spices with certain veg mixes to make spicey soup.

kippers

Which spices do you use?

kittyscarlett

I would go with add more stock flavouring or maybe sweat off some onions/leeks and add them... most spices don't really do that well if you plain simmer them into a soup or stew, apart from things like maybe cinnamon sticks, star anise, etc which may not be quite the right taste for your soup.

Also, no I'm not on commision but I can't say this enough times... Swiss Marigold Bouillon powder = teh magic !

lolarentt

Cabbage and broad beans wont give you much flavour. Why not add leeks or onions (sweated down on a low heat), you only need a tiny amount of oil just to get them started and 10ml of oil is 95 calories, nothing to a batch of soup - also garlic if you like it. Marmite (as already mentioned) although this tends to make everything taste of Marmite not veg if you're not careful. Ready mixed mustard - herbs (although they're not much good with this batch which you've already made). There's no reason to exclude potatoes from a low cal soup either. Final suggestion yellow lentils, which you could add at this late stage, which will break down to give body and flavour.

Cazzdevil

I usually just bung an amount of dried mixed herbs in because there's bound to be a flavour among them which will liven up the taste

sillyvixen

i normally use chilli powder but do get a bit experemental with others ocassion with whatever i find in the cupboard. with marmite you only need about a teaspoon for a big pot, more if you add lentils, it never tastes overtly of marmite. always add flavour sparingly and last the liquid, you can allwas add more but never take it away.

Raspberry_Swirl

fry some onion/leek, carrot, celery and garlic and then add everything else you have and simmer with your stock. that should add some flavour.

kethry

i'd second adding onion, carrot and celery. They're like the base notes for almost anything savory. You don't necessarily notice them when they're there, but you definetly notice when they're not.. I'd also second using marigold's boullion.. i love the stuff (i sprinkle a little of it into almost anything savory).

in terms of spices: the only other thing i can suggest is a lil nutmeg, but instead of sprinkling it directly into the soup, try just sprinkling a very little bit it ontop of a spoonful of soup (to try) and if you're happy with that, ontop of a bowl of soup.

HTH

keth
xx

Bogof_Babe

I always put a couple of glugs of soy sauce into my veg soups. Gives a bit of colour as well as flavour.