Soup recipes

Kevie192

Plan_for_Chaos wrote: »

I swear by the following versatile soup recipe:

1 large onion
3 medium carrots, diced
1 medium potato, cubed
250g red split lentils
500g of any vegetable(s)
any herb/spice you like.
1.5-2ltrs veegtable stock

Some of my favourites are, parnsip and curry, red pepper and paprika, pea and sweetpotato, sweetcorn and tomato and basil. But you get the picture there's huge variety. This yields about 5-6 servings.

This sounds like a lovely base recipe, but I do have a couple of questions... Do you blend it or leave it chunky? And is the 250g lentils the dry weight or cooked weight?

Thanks

Lippycow

This soup is so easy and quick to make and tastes lovely http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/15177/easy-vegetable-soup

Sagaris

I'm lazy when it comes to soup - I buy a stewpack, peel and slice everything, usually add a large potato, some celery (today I have a small butternut squash) and anything else lurking in the fridge - add a bit of garlic puree, just cover with water, cook over the hob for half an hour or so until the vegetables are tender. Then I liquidise it (I have a stick blender which is good) and use whatever we need immediately - the rest goes in plastic boxes in the freezer. My mum loves it, I've never made a dud batch yet!

Stephen_Leak

As I'm probably going to be making some of this as well as the broccoli soup above later today, I might as well post this. We also don't seem to have any meat soups on this thread.

CHICKEN SOUP

Makes 4 x 250ml servings

INGREDIENTS

1 cooked chicken carcass
1 onion
100g to 125g of at least 2 vegetables (see below)
1 teaspoon of dried sage
2 chicken stock cubes
1 litre of water

METHOD

Remove any skin from the chicken carcass and discard it. Peel the vegetables and chop any tops and/or bottoms off, if required, and then chop them into 2cm (1 inch) pieces. Peel the onion and chop it into 2cm (1 inch) pieces.

Put the chicken, onion and vegetables, sage, stock cubes and water into a large saucepan on a medium heat. Stir thoroughly. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat until it is just boiling (simmering).

Put the lid on and cook for 1 hour. Check the liquid level from time to time and top up if it starts to dry out.

Fish out the bones and put them on a plate. Remove any meat which is still on the bones. Put the meat back into the soup and discard the bones.

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

Use green vegetables (celery, courgettes, leeks) and mushrooms for a light and delicate soup. Use root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, potatoes, swedes, turnips) and tomatoes for a thick and hearty soup, The so-called “Holy Trinity” of soup base ingredients is carrot, celery and onion.

Use mixed herbs.

For Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup, use green vegetables and add a small pack of noodles after blending. Cook them in the soup, according to the instructions on the packet.

For Scottish [CENSORED]-a-Leekie Soup, use 200g to 250g of leeks and add 4 stoned and thinly sliced prunes after blending.

TIPS

Don’t panic, if you fish out fewer bones than you remember going in. The smaller ones will have dissolved into the soup, adding to the goodness.

Eenymeeny

Stephen, thanks for tip to use tinned peas. Silly, but I'd never thought of using them in soup, and handy quantity advice. I often add a tub or tin of pease pudding to soup to give it some 'body' (You buy it from the chill cabinets but it can be frozen in the tubs. I always keep a couple in the freezer) Just add it frozen to the soup and it'll melt in.

Stephen_Leak

We are here to serve.

And I note that you have my culinary hero as your avatar. Only one chicken was harmed in the making of my last soup. Børk! Børk! Børk!

CH27

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

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.

Thanks for this. I never thought of using tinned peas in soup:o

Kiwisaver_2

I like to roast a big tray of mixed veggies anything I have available from (courgette, tomatoes, carrots, pumpkin, aubergine, onions, peppers, some garlic tossed around in a drizzle of olive oil with some garlic). Roast them whilst you're cooking soething else, for about 30 mins until they get a bit charred and lovely. Can be cooled and store at this stage or freeze for later.

When you want the soup, whack the roasted veggies all in a pan and just cover with veg or chicken stock and simmer for a few minutes before whizzing it all together with the blender. Adjust thickness with more stock to the consistency you prefer and season to taste. A glug of cream or creme fraiche never goes amiss.

BitterAndTwisted

I'm much too skint to be using good Stilton in soup so just buy whatever blue cheese I can find reduced. The last batch of broccoli soup I made a couple of weeks ago I used blue cheese had a sell-by date of November as I'd been hoarding it for when I had some broccoli going sad. I thickened that with a couple of potatoes.

I don't have a proper recipe as I just use whatever veg is going bendy and needs to be used up. I particular favourite is chunky butter-nut squash and beans which I make quite spicy with a chopped Scotch-bonnet chilli or two. For that I use either (cheap) tomato juice, tinned toms or passata, depending on which of these I've snatched up on special offer. A pal brought me back a tin of Vegeta salt-free seasoning from Serbia which I often use to make stock or add to veggie stock cubes.

The great thing about soup is that you can make it from almost anything that's lying around.

SailorSam

I make lots of soups in the slowcooker but instead of putting it in boxes in the freezer i find those zip-up freezer bags from Home & Bargain better, you can squeeze them into corners.

I usually use lots of dried veg and lentils or frozen veg but someone earlier said tinned mushy peas, just checked Mysupermarket and they're 10p in Tesco and 12p in Asda, so must stock up on the next visit.