Soup recipes

sunflower76

Parsnip and ginger is one of my favourites.

Pink.

Hi rubberbiscuit,

My favourite is minestrone:

-Melt some butter and olive oil in a pan and cook some bacon until it begins to brown (make sure it's not too fatty as the fat doesn't really melt into the soup.
-Add finely chopped onion, plenty of crushed garlic and diced carrot.
-Let it cook for a few minutes then add in either tinned tomatoes or passata and reduce the heat.
-Leave to sweat for about half an hour.
-Throw in some basil (add plenty and I use dried in winter), black pepper, then add stock (and a chicken stock cube if homemade is not strong enough).
-Add diced courgette and finely chopped leek.
-Leave to simmer until all the veg are almost cooked.
-Throw in a good handful of pasta (I use fusilli, the twisty one) and simmer.
-When the pasta is cooked, check the seasoning and stir in a dollop of tomato puree.
-Serve sprinkled with grated cheese (it's meant to be parmesan but I often just use cheddar).

I haven't added quantities as I tend to cook by eye, so just add what you think you'll need for your family. Unlike some soups, this makes a really hearty, filling meal. My lot love it when they come home on a winter evening and smell it...their first words are always, ''Is it minestrone for tea?'' with a big smile! It keeps in the fridge for a couple of days and freezes well.


This thread has lots more recipes for you to choose from:

Soup recipes

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the replies together. Alternatively if there is a soup you'd particularly like to make, use the search facility to find a recipe as there is almost certainly a thread on it on the Old Style board.

Pink

Twiglet0309

When Im in a hurry I make sweetcorn soup. Just use 1 onion, 1 potato, some frozen sweetcorn and some stock. I like to blend then sieve mine. Add a swirl of creme fraiche or yoghurt when reheating.

Stephen_Leak

I have loads of soup recipes, but this is my current favourite. I even bought a big broccoli head with a big stalk on Friday, so we can have some of the florets with dinner today and have enough left over for another batch of soup!

BROCCOLI & STILTON SOUP

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

350g of broccoli, including stalks
½ an onion
½ a tablespoon of oil
1 vegetable stock cube
500ml of water
50g of Stilton cheese

METHOD

Cut the ends of the stalks and chop the broccoli into 2cm (1 inch) pieces. Peel the onion, cut it in half, chop one half into tiny pieces and save the other half.

Put the oil into a saucepan on a medium heat. Add the onion and fry for about 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Stir frequently to stop it sticking.

Add the broccoli, stock cube and water. Stir thoroughly.

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering). Continue to cook for another 25 minutes until the broccoli is soft..

If you have a food processor, put the soup in it and blend it to the desired consistency. If you have a hand blender, put it in the soup and blend it to the desired consistency. If you don’t have a food processor or hand blender, use a potato masher, press the soup through a sieve with the back of a spoon, or leave it lumpy. If you used a food processor, rinse out the saucepan and put the soup back into the saucepan.

If you want to refrigerate or freeze this soup, allow it to cool and do so now. When you reheat it, resume the recipe from this point.

Crumble in the cheese (see below). Stir thoroughly.

Put the saucepan on a low heat and reheat the soup gently.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use other strong cheese. .

Omit the cheese and just make broccoli soup.

TIPS

Try to balance the flavours of the broccoli and the cheese. Neither should dominate. Add half the cheese at first, then taste the soup and gradually add as much as is necessary to achieve this.

Alison_Funnell

Carrot potage.

Sweat an onion, large potato and 4 large carrots in a knob of butter (or oil), add tsp each thyme and sage and a litre of stock. Cook till the veg are soft and blend.

Cheap, tasty and the kind of ingredients I always have at home.

Stephen_Leak

Me again. If you want a cheap soup, try this. I've just checked my usual supermarket, and a 300g tin of economy brand tinned mushy peas costs 12p, a 250g box of dried peas costs 38p and a 1kg bag of economy brand frozen peas costs 93p.

PEA SOUP

Makes 2 x 250ml servings

INGREDIENTS

250g of peas
1 vegetable stock cube
500ml of water

METHOD

If you are using dried peas, soak them in water according to the instructions on the box. If you are using tinned peas, open the tin and drain off the water.

Put the peas, stock cube and waterinto a saucepan on a medium heat. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering).

Put the lid on the saucepan and continue cooking until the peas are soft. Check the liquid level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out.

If you have a food processor, put the soup in it and blend it to the desired consistency. If you have a hand blender, put it in the soup and blend it to the desired consistency. If you don’t have a food processor or hand blender, use a potato masher, press the soup through a sieve with the back of a spoon, or leave it lumpy. If you used a food processor, rinse out the saucepan and put the soup back into the saucepan.

Put the saucepan on a low heat and reheat the soup gently.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

You can use dried, fresh, frozen or tinned peas, either on their own or in any combination. Dried peas need to be soaked in advance. Tinned garden and marrowfat peas come in water and the drained weight of a 300g tin of peas is 185g, so use two tins and 750ml of water and make 3 servings.

You can also make this as pea & ham soup, using the cooking water from a boiled ham joint.

TIPS

Pea soup can be any consistency from a thin liquid with soft peas floating in it to a thick paste you can stand the spoon up in.

HISTORICAL NOTES

Pea soup was very popular in the poorer parts of Victorian London and was known as “London Particular”. It was easy to make, cheap, filling and also difficult to adulterate. And, of course, it gave its name to the “pea-soupers”, the thick yellow-green fogs (or, more correctly, smogs) caused by the burning of sulphurous coal.

kittendothroar

I love making soup, though rarely freeze it.... my favourite cheap one is celery - I never really measure it but basically sweat onion in butter, add heaped 2 tsp plain flour, little veg stock just to make paste, add roughly 1/2 head celery, leaves n all celery diced up, stock to cover, boil 15mins, season, blitz. Voila! . Can add cream or milk if prefer creamier though if freezing, would add on thawing.

Pea and potato is also a good basic one, as is Keith Floyd's white onion soup - sounds dull but oh its sooo delicious, cheap and easy to do!

sharalee99

My favourite staple soup is lentil.
Couple of handfuls of red lentils, an onion, few carrots, some swede and chicken stock. Also some salt and pepper.
I don't sweat veg or anything first, I find there is no need. Just put it all in a pan together, cook til the veg is soft, then I blend til smooth, though you don't have to if you like your soup chunky. It's warming, and filling, and pence to make. Oh, and it freezes well too.
HTH

Barneysmom

I love lentil too, I like to make lentil and red pepper soup Sprinkle bits of crisp bacon on top, nice!

nesssie1702

Lentil (and variations of, lentil and butternut squash, lentil and tomato, ham and lentil) are favourites here too, as is potato and leek, minestrone, vegetable broth.

Recently discovered these two though:

Carrot and tarragon - sweat an onion, add a good 500g of peeled and chopped carrots and about a litre of water and a chicken stock cube. When the carrots are cooked, blend it down til smooth and then add a good handful of chopped tarragon (I've also made it with Barts "Tarragon in Oil" and it was just as tasty)

The other one is Red Thai Vegetable - sweat an onion and then add butternut squash and sweet potato (peeled and chopped) along with a good spoon of Red Thai Curry paste. Add your stock and water and a tin of coconut milk. Blend it when the veg is cooked. If you like it spicy, then add some chilli to it.