To think that Soup is a meal?

[StrawberryTraveller]

As in a decent, homemade Minestone soup we are planning to eat tonight

I was merrily chopping ingredients for dinner tonight, when my mother facetime called us.

Mother: oh sorry, didn't mean to disturb you
Me: thats fine, im only chopping ingredients for dinner tonight
Mother: ooh what are you having?
Me: Minestone soup
Mother: what? soup? for dinner?
Me: erm yep, why not? we like Minestone soup
Mother: (still gobsmacked) what, all of you?

And so on and so on for about 5 minutes. Its a Jamie Oliver recipe, with lots of vegetables in, bacon, harricot beans, and pasta. Hearty, and filling after a day of diy and walking.

If I had called it Minestrone casserole, containing the same ingredients, im sure she would have declared in a marvellous idea. Its just because it contained the word 'soup'

So, is 'soup' dinner for you also?

In ‘Cider with Rosie’, Laurie Lee describes his daily meal as a child. It is a pot of lentils which the whole fatherless family scoff down, famished, so they can be in line for a second helping. And that’s everyday.

We are lucky nowadays- I think it’s a mistake to take it for granted though.

‘Speakout’, hearty soup really isn’t in th the same ponciness ballpark as smashed avocado drizzled with olive oil and served with fresh buffalo mozzarella, is it!

The Mumsnet obsession with ‘proper’ meals - which have to be hot and cooked from scratch - never ceases to amaze me.

Of course soup is a meal, so is boiled eggs and toast or cheese & biscuits - you don’t have to stuff yourself with meat, potatoes & two veg to feel you’ve had a ‘proper evening meal’ .

I think there's a strong streak of snobbery about it tbh. Soup as a main meal is perceived as poor food.

Urbanbeetler

Yes, it is important not to take it for granted.

My mother ( who weighed only 7 stones) was " not hungry" at mealtimes when I was a child. Truth is there was not enough food to go around.
She would make do with pot scrapings, left overs. Giving my father and us children the lion's share

I don’t think it’s snobbery - I think most of us are just so fortunately ‘spoilt’ (in a good way) now. Like Ragwort said - not every day needs to have a big meat and veg type meal in it.

Soup as a main meal is perceived as poor food.

Because it was a food for the poor.
My father ate soup for 95% of his meals.

Soup was 50% of my diet as a child.

Oh your poor mum. Did she have better off times later in life?

Soup as a main meal today can be a way of eating less meat and more veg. And still being full. We can still have nice things in it and on it and with it.

Agreed speakout. We ate a lot of soup as kids as well. And "pottage" was the default diet for the majority of poor/working people for hundreds of years. I do think there's a hangover of snobbery in the insistence that "soup is just a starter", culturally.

I nearly always have soup for at least one of my meals a day. Every few days I make a big pot of soup using whatever vegetables I have in, stock and some seasoning then just blend it all. It's pretty quick to make, cheap and a few of my '5 a day' as well.

Of course soup is a meal...if the meal is lunch. Having said that, if someone made me a good minestrone for dinner and that meant I wasn’t having to cook, I would thank them and enjoy it (with lots of cheese and bread).

Only if served with a sandwich or half a loaf of bread.

On its own, nope.

Urbanbeetler

Yes thank you, although became wealthier still hang ups about food, would rather eat 3 day old sandwiches rather than throw them away.

Many of us are lucky to have so much food around nowadays and we have a very complex relationship with food. Much of it is historical and cultural.

tomato soup and cheese on toast last night

OMG why have I never thought of that combination

I think anything you choose to eat for dinner at dinner time is classed as a dinner.

As for the soup, I grew up eating soup for dinner at least twice a week but usually more than that because it was cheap and quick to make in bulk and my parents were both busy with work. As an adult I hardly ever eat soup as I have eaten enough soup for a life time.

And if the thought of soup for supper is getting knickers in a twist - one of my dc likes soup for breakfast

I reckon soup is one of the most nutritious things I cook. Loads of veg (whatever we have) lentils, chickpeas. I used to make awful soup and then one day suddenly I could make a delicious soup. Must be an age thing

We often have big, hearty soups and bread for a main meal. When I’m including my MIL in the dinner we call it stew or casserole because she is convinced that soup isn’t filling enough.

I do a particularly lovely spicy tomato soup with lots of cubed pork, new potatoes and peppers which is slow cooked and served with cheese on top and big chunks of ciabatta garlic bread. You can’t move after a bowl of that.

Also depends on who you are feeding.

Soup would be fine for a light dinner for OH and I when we have had a hard day and can't get too worked up about eating.

If we are feeding the whole family with a couple of ravenous teens who have been at school and a couple of hours of rugby/dance, a bowl of minestrone just wouldn't meet the mark.

The soup I eat I wouldnt consider a meal, but that is because I can't imagine anything worse than eating flavoured water with lumps of meat and veg floating in it. So I strain all soup (yes, even cream of just in case)

Soup with all the bits for a normal person I would consider a meal.

This was my dinner. This and a slice of tiger bread with salted butter.

I’m stuffed, it was most definitely a meal and not snack or starter! But very definitely ‘soup’.

My pea and bacon soup.

1 box of Batchelors Quick Soak Dried Peas (presoaked for 2 hours as instructed on box and rinsed)
60 g split red lentils
2 parsnips
1 large leek
4 carrots
2 onions
2 tsp asda bouillon powder (less salty than marigold one)
2 asda vegetable stock cubes
1 tsp powdered mustard (powdered has no salt)
2 litres boiling water

Simmer for 30 mins until peas and lentils start to break up

Add a punnet of sliced mushrooms and cook till they're tender.

Crispy fry a 250g packet of smoked bacon, cool and blitz with a stick blender.

Add bacon to soup, and blend soup till smooth. Might need to add a bit more water. Add some black pepper and dried parsley and serve with crusty bread (I prefer white home made crusty rolls with butter)

I can't move for two hours after a bowl of it so to me it's a meal.

I'm sure it was nice but it looks like someone already ate it then threw it up.

😂😂😂

MicroManaged that looks suspiciously stew like.

I really want crusty bread with butter!