Soup as a meal? Following on from another post

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Just that really.
There seems to be very conflicting thoughts on soup as an evening meal.
We quite often have soup, with hotdogs, burgers (yep you read that right, thanks mum ) or toasties.....

I'm so tempted to invoke the wrath of Mumsnet and have soup for breakfast

You're making me nostalgic now. When I worked in Kenya we used to have spiced clear veg broth for breakfast. I loved it.

@WinterFoxes that sounds delicious! I think I'd be quite happy to have breakfast soup - I've had miso soup and rice for breakfast on holiday so why not?

Soup is definitely a meal in this house, in fact it's 90% of evening meals for DH and I. We generally cook something else if we've got either of the (adult) kids eating with us, or guests, but homemade soup with homemade bread is our default meal for just the two of us.

I make enormous batches of soup at the start of each month and freeze them in portions. I think we currently have about 80 portions of soup in the freezer! My usual varieties are:

pea and ham (shredded gammon)
cock a leekie
mulligatawney
spicy sweet potato, squash and coconut
tarka dahl
chicken and mushroom
tuscan bean
broccoli and stilton
leek and potato

so there's always loads of choice. I bake wholemeal seeded rolls every couple of days so we always have those. The "soup isn't a meal" brigade wouldn't be very happy chez Greensleeves

The problem is, people are imagining different volumes here.

to some people a bowl of soup is no more than 200ml of liquid in a bowl or something you drink from a mug. maybe a 100-200 cal option

Others sit down to a giant tureen of soup with beef/potatoes/veggies/pulses etc in them a 4-700 cal option.

Ds and I had noodle soup for breakfast today. I'm obviously an appalling parent, even though he made it.

Proper home made soup is a great meal!

Do all the homemaders make their own stock as well?

or use stock cubes/ready made?

I use stock cubes. No time for making stock too

It varies depending on what I have. I have stock cubes in for when I don't have homemade stock. Sometimes use both.

I think it's ok as a lunch, with other lunchy bits and bobs, and I do for dd on school nights sometimes when she's had a hot meal at lunchtime, but personally I'd be disappointed with a soup for a main meal dinner.

I wouldn't buy tinned or make soup without homemade stock (sorry).

Stock cubes or bouillon powder.

So how does the argument work tinned vs. Homemade.

some posters have said tinned-unhealthy and homemade is healthy, and seem to imply it’s because of the salt.

but if you’re using bought stock or cubes the salt levels won’t be much better.
100ml of stock from a cube is 0.66g salt
the soup I eat for lunch has 0.39g salt per 100mls.

Well I'm not one of those so that's how it works. My homemade soup will absolutely still be healthier even with stock but I prefer homemade as it tastes infinitely better and is a lot more filling than anything you can find in a tin.

Jesus wept. Bloody MN and people insisting that your homemade soup is nasty, salty muck because you put a stock cube in it. 🙄

Soup not a meal 😂 that’s funny

im often on a liquid diet due to health reasons.

Can even order it on a normal nhs patient menu for lunch and dinner 😂

You’re assuming that people aren’t buying no salt or low salt ones.

Greek chicken soup with egg and lemon sauce 😋 definitely a meal!

Competitive soupmaking now 🙄'Well my homemade soup is better than YOUR homemade soup because I make my own stock, so there!'

I'll just come straight out and say that soup (and most other savoury foods, including bread) made with no salt are extremely bland and dull.

Great, isn’t it? 🙄

May as well give up and live off chocolate instead.

No home made soup (with or without salt) is a match on Heinz tomato soup. Life long favourite. Might have it with cheese toasties as recommend by an earlier poster.

I use stock from a chicken carcass when I have any, but it’s usually cubes.

A main meal one we have in winter is Mulligatawny - onion, celery and carrot fried very gently, then curry powder added, gently fry a minute or two more. Then simmer for 20 mins or so, before adding 4 tbsps rice (for two), simmer till done, then add diced chicken (usually cooked here) and diced apple, simmer a few minutes more.

Another is red lentils (200g IIRC) and risotto rice (100g) with chicken stock and plenty of ground cumin and coriander added, plus lemon juice and fried onions (almost burnt) stirred in at the end. A fantastic winter warmer, exceedingly tasty.

@hryllilegur what sort of chocolate, this could get even more competitive.

Just sorted the larder and found a tin of Heinz tomato soup, 10 years out of date. That would be about the time DD2 went to uni. Evidently not all of us share your tastes (which is great, more for you to buy).