Vegetable Soup

astara

Hi

Can you please tell me how you make vegetable soup from scratch I usually just buy the organic vegetable soup in a tub from tescos but would really like to start making my own.

Thanks.

CamperMan

get some veg, peel and slice them, put them in a pan of water and boil, add an oxo for a bit of flavour

astara

Thanks for that CamperMan. So easy when you know how

Magic Monkey

The body of any soup you make is in the stock. There's a very informative article here about stock-making, with recipes. If you're not in a hurry, there's a really nice way of making veg soup by roasting the veg first, recipe here.

CamperMan

I also chuck some pasta into the mix and some dumplings... yummmmmmy!

Dizzyblonde

I dice a couple of carrots, onions, sticks of celery and potatoes and sweat them in olive oil for around 5-10 minutes. Then I add a crushed clove of garlic and a tomato or two, chopped up. I sprinkle on a dessertspoon of flour and stir it well. Then I add a full kettle (around 1.5 litres) of hot water and one and a half chicken or veg stock cubes. Salt and black pepper and a pinch of mixed herbs. I simmer it for 50 minutes, then put the hand blender into it and blitz it a bit till it's thick enough but still has chunks of veg.
It keeps for 4 -5 days in the fridge.
The important thing about making soup is that you don't have too few vegetables or it will be thin and weak-tasting.
If you don't have a lot of veg in the fridge, a handful of red lentils will give the soup body and texture - but you need to simmer it for a full hour in order to cook the lentils.

Planet X

Stock Stock Stock.
Keep all chicken carcases and make stock.
Veg, spuds, carrots, Brussell sprouts etc all chopped very finely. Any veg. that's in season.
I always throw in a handful of barley aswell.
Blend half of it with a hand blender and leave some chunky veg.

mildews

My favourite veg soup consists of:
Potato
Onion
Carrot
Broccoli
Chicken stock...
And a good blender.

Alun

Yes, basically any generic vegetable soup recipe consists of chopping the vegetables, sweating them in butter or oil, adding the stock, bringing it to the boil and simmering for an amount of time depending on the vegetables until they're tender (30-40mins on average). What you do then is up to you, but I concur with the others that best is to remove some of the vegetables and put to one side, whizz the rest (a stick or hand blender is far easier and less messy than decanting everything into a normal blender IMO) and then returning the vegetables into the mix and stirring in.

The vegetable mix is entirely up to you, and in our house depends on what is lurking in the fridge or at the bottom of the vegetable drawer at the time but you generally need something to add a bit of bulk (e.g. potato or some other root vegetable) and I rarely omit onions, unless it's leek based.

Minder

I use a recipe by Simon Hopkinson for a winter vegetable soup - it is very similar to the recipes here - onion, carrot, garlic, tomato, courgette, celery, leek - sweated until juicy. Add potato and stock and cook until the vegetables are soft. Then add watercress and allow it to wilt. Instead of using a blender, Hopkinson suggests using a mouli. Once the soup has been through the mouli, adjust the seasoning and add enough cream to enrich the soup.

The mouli has a number of graded screens that sit in the bottom - a bit like a grater. The finest screen gives the best results. The mouli avoids the soup being a puree and also filters out the tomato skins.

A mouli also makes the best mashed potato I've ever had.

taztastic

CamperMan wrote: »

some dumplings... yummmmmmy!

can you tell me anymore about how you do this?

The Hill Billy

OP - I generally make my veg soup by roasting extra veg & garlic when I do a roast dinner. (If I'm doing roast chicken I do chicken & veg broth the day after.)

Veg Soup -
Finely dice 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery & one medium onion.
Sweat these veg in a splash of olive oil with a few stalks of thyme & a couple of bay leaves.
Chop the roasted veg - spuds, parsnips, squash, onions, garlic, etc. & add this to the pot with 2 litres of chicken stock (made from the chicken carcass or else a good stock cube).
My preference is for chicken stock as I think vegetable stock doesn't have as deep a flavour.
Simmer the above for an hour or so.

To make the chicken & veg broth - add any remaining meat from the roast carcass & a small handful of pearl barley to the above.

the beer revolu

why are people saying to cook soup for anything up to an hour or more??

Once the vegetables are soft, then the soup is cooked.
Can't think of any veg, when cut up small, that takes more than 10 - 15 minutes to cook - especially if they have been sweated in a little butter first.

There is no advantage, imo, to be had from over cooking a veg soup - you loose alot of the fresh taste.

The Hill Billy

the beer revolu wrote: »

why are people saying to cook soup for anything up to an hour or more??

It is a matter of taste (if you'll pardon the pun).

For hearty winter soups & broths I find that I get a deeper flavour from longer cooking time.
If, on the other hand, I want a lighter soup such as a Thai noodle soup - I'll reduce the cooking time.

Each to their own.

dancingqueen

Hi OP

For a twist on veg soup, I like to make Butternut Squash and Carrot soup. It's kind of sweet and is really really moreish!!

Ingredients:
Butter
1 small onion
garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
6 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
1 large spud, peeled and finely chopped
1 medium butternut, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 litre veg/chicken stock (the new one works quite well - jelly stock)
juice of half an orange


Cook onion, garlic and carrots in butter until onion is clear. Add spud and cook for a few mins, then add butternut and cook for a few more mins.
Pour in stock and orange juice and bring to boil, reduce and simmer until veg is soft.
Blend.

It's so easy and sooooooooo tasty - esp with toast or just dipping bread into it. I use the mouli to blend it.

frag420

Sorry to hijack the thread........

Anyways I am not a big fan of creamy/thick soups and have been trying to make a veg soup that is watery but it is always tasteless. I usually dice up my veg and boil them untill soft but it just tastes like soft veg in warm water!!!

Am i right in thinking that if I break up a few veg stock cubes it should do the trick. Anything I can add to up the health factor too??

cheers

frAg

Dinkie

I always use Darina Allens basic veg soup recipe and it has never failed:

1 part onion
1 part potato
3 parts any veg
4 parts stock
Seasoning

Add all to a pot and boil until veg are soft (about 30 mins)

No matter what veg I add it always turns out tasty.... and its really quick. I use cups...so one cup onion, etc.

I you want to make a soup healthier you could try adding in some lentils or chopped tomatoes. TBH, you won't find anything healthier then veg soup!

Dizzyblonde

frag420 wrote: »

Am i right in thinking that if I break up a few veg stock cubes it should do the trick. Anything I can add to up the health factor too??

You definitely need stock cubes for flavour. I use chicken stock cubes because I think the vegetable ones are a bit bland. Grating a carrot into the pot can give a nice colour too.
You could throw in a tin of tomatoes, some puree, a teaspoon of sugar and some basil and you'd have a nice chunky Italian soup. I sometimes break in some sticks of spaghetti for the last 10 minutes.

dellas1979

Am hoping to make soup today...bit confused from the thread.

First of all, Id like to put in carrots, onion, potato, peas (can you put in peas?).

-Do I need to chop them up and sweat these first? If so, what is sweating i.e. how do you do it as opposed to fry/

- When then boiling the veg, is it boiled in the stock?

Thanks!

Dizzyblonde

You don't have to sweat off the veg but it does improve the flavour. Sweating is frying very gently in some oil (I use olive oil) or butter, until the veg starts to soften a bit. You can put peas in but not until about 5 minutes before the soup is ready or they'll overcook. If you're going to blend the soup, put the peas in afterwards. Chop your veg nice and small if you're not going to blend it completely - I like to leave some 'floating' vegetables.

Yes you do cook the veg in the stock - and remember it's important to put in plenty of veg or your soup will be too thin.

I have a big pot of leek and potato soup simmering today

dellas1979

Thanks a mill!
Oh is it wrong to say that I am getting excited about making a soup!!??

Dizzyblonde

dellas1979 wrote: »

Oh is it wrong to say that I am getting excited about making a soup!!??

Definitely not! You'll never go back to shop bought soups

dellas1979

Soup was delish - I put a little too much pepper in - I literally on put in 2 grinds of the peppermill but it tasted very peppery. These are things Ill know for next time.

Also, it came out of the blender a little thick, so I put in some boiling water to thin it out and it worked perfect. Had my first bowl there. Was lovely. And so cheap!

eimear1

Thought i'd share my fave recipe for veg soup - actually comes from weightwatchers so is very healthy and i love it!
1 small butternut squash
1 large white onion
1 red pepper
1.2 litres of veg/chicken stock
A little black pepper
Basically, chop everything up and boil in the stock for 25 mins, then blend with stick blender. Will keep in fridge for about 3 days, have big batch there now mmm...
I've also experimented when making a double batch of putting in carrots instead of the 2nd lot of butternut and this turned out really well too. I am a very fussy person when it comes to veg so a great way of getting some of my 5 a day!!!!
PS thanks for all the advice above - some good ideas to try out!