Being a confident soup maker

[cjt110]

...Reading threads on here where people just chuck X, Y and Z in to make a soup. I don't have the confidence to do it and not follow a recipe.

How do you know what goes with what and if you find you like it, how do you remember quantities etc?

Aren't soup makers piddly little things though? I make soup in 6 litre batches in a mahoosive stock pot. I wouldn't know where to start with the 100ml of stock a poster mentions upthread.

Cooking soup is a piece of piss.

Jessie making soup on a Saturday night was a big family tradition but as my brother and I started to snub our noses up at it, my dps stopped making it. What idiots we were. I really should get the recipe.

Bloody love soup and make loads. ‘You’re not a proper Scot unless you can knock up a big pan of soup’. Currently have chicken and rice in the fridge. I like to make a massive pan, take one portion then portion it up in the freezer. Then nakeba different type and do the same. Eventually I have loads of portions of soup and have a surprise each time I take a portion out ‘is it minestrone,red pepper and tomato, vegetable, tomato...’ no idea most times till it defrosts lol.

@misseliza get that recipe. My gran made the most amazing soup and I regret not learning her recipe ☹️

Then nakeba different type and do the same.

What’s a nakeba?! Is it a soup maker??

After 36 years of using a large stock pan, my DH has purchased a soup maker for me in the sales. I made turkey stock after xmas and froze this in liquids freezer bags. Each one is enough to make soup for two or three people.

We will stick to tried and tested favourites, such as leek and celery, red pepper and butternut squash, mushroom and good old british winter vegetable soup. It arrives next tuesday, cannot wait to experiment. I hope if the homemade stock is set out of the freezer that morning, it will make soup quickly and easily after work with a few quickly chopped and seasoned veg. Add some crusty bread or perhaps wheaten bread, it should be delicious.

I love soup!!!!

I made a spicy parsnip soup tonight for the first time and it was probably the best soup I have ever eaten. It was seriously delicious. Even beats cream of Jerusalem artichoke soup which is fiddly but epic.

Spicy parsnip is just the best soup. Yum.

I love soup season.

Fluffyears do you have the recipe for the chicken and rice? M&S do a lovely one an£ I can’t get it right...

@peridotcricket it’s so simple it’s my mums recipe. Chop an onion, a couple of carrots and dice a few potatoes add to a pan over a medium heat with some oil (I did SW so use frylight) once the onion starts to soften add about two litres of stock (either home made it from stock cubes/stock pots. Now the secret ingredient:a couple of teaspoons of chicken bovril stirred in. Once the soup starts to boil add some cooked chicken (leftovers from a roast are nicest) and a handful and a bit of long grain rice (sorry I don’t measure). Bring back to the boil then simmer for 20-25 minutes. It’s actually best the next day as the rice swells and the potato absorbs some flavour.

I find Soup making a bit faffy, and dp tells me he’d rather have a tin or pot of shop bought soup! Rude. I think my soups taste nice enough.

I used to make a delicious leek and potato soup with chunky vegetables and Creme friache. That was delicious. Must make it again!

Absolute must for me us stock- every roast chicken gets dismembered & chucked on pot/water/peppercorns & boiled/ simmered 2 hrs min for stock which is frozen in 200ml or so chunks, water added & soup particulars when made. Turkey & ham great too ( obvs not veggie although proper veg stock wi bouquet garnish is yum too)

I make lots of soup, just done the butternut squash & goats cheese from the Covent Garden book with the turkey stock, and it's the best thing I've eaten in weeks. I also like the WI book and especially the winter lentil soup with mint sauce in it, proper stock makes a big difference.

I do random soup if I don't want to shop, often with cumin seeds and maybe ground coriander.

In general, my soup making follows this basic recipe:

Enough chopped veg to fill about 2/3 of my soup pan, enough water to just cover the veg. 2 stock pots or cubes (can add a third later if needed). Boil and blitz. If it's too thick add a bit more water. I like a thick soup.

I don't do recipes.

I don’t do recipes either. I have a great chicken noodle we love my mother thinks it’s horrible as it has ‘nae substance’.

Is there a decent vegetable stock cube/powder out there? Even the Knorr and Marigold ones taste artificial to me? If I could be bothered, I should be collecting all the veggie water each day and saving that to use as stock, but I never do.

I like Kallo stock cubes but tend to use half of one instead of a whole one.

the stock was quite fatty.

Add cold water or a couple of ice cubes, stick it in the fridge for half an hour then lift off a frisbee of fat, keep for roasties or chuck, not like a frisbee though it's tempting!
Our favourite is pea and ham, we get a huge pack of bacon bits, smoked for preference, from the butcher.
Second favourite is the old stand-by, guzzinter soup.

I’m not sure a soup maker would be worth the work top space. Isn’t it just another thing to wash up? Or am I just scarred by my ice cream maker experience?

I am still not sure what a soup maker actually does except for take up cupboard space.

I don't do one use kitchen gadgets.

Can someone tell me the benefits of a soup making machine?

I have followed recipes but here's one that works and is easy:

1 sweet potato
1 large normal potato
1 parsnip if desired
I large onion
4 garlic cloves
A few chili flakes
Teaspoon of Marigold stock
Paprika, herbs that you have in cupboard

Bung in all together (fry up onions for a few minutes first). Add water. Simmer for 30 minutes. Mash or blend. Eat. Yummy. And cheap.

I make proper whole chicken soup with matzo meal dumplings for family and friends who are sick. It’s not part of my culture but I have adopted it enthusiastically. I swear it is curative. The dumplings need eggs and chicken fat as well as matzo meal- you need to make them at least half an hour before poaching them in the soup (or water) so they can be refrigerated for shaping. T stock is made by simmering a whole chicken for a couple of hours and shredding the flesh. I dispose of the original boiled out stock veg and make the final soup with young carrots, onion and celery, and a huge bunch of chopped fresh parsley. As it cooks,I poach the dumplings in it.

It’s the freshest and most tasty meal in itself. But very time consuming. It is food of love. Everyone gets better on it - well, they get better anyway maybe!