please post your yummiest soups recipes!

[chrispackhamslovebunny]

its getting cold and im rubbish with food most of the time - some nights i do a full jamies 30 minute meal and love it but other times if its just me and the kids who wont eat anything "fancy" i end up cooking them rubbish and grabbing a bowl of cereal.
i realise thats not great and someone today suggested soups. and i thought "of course!" soups!"
i could freeze them.
i could take them to work.
the kids love soup and they are healthy and nutritional.

so the only snag is i havent a clue where to start!
please can you post your yummiest recipes (nothing too taxing though!) for me to whip up some nutritious and delicious soups?

ive only got a hand blender but it does the job.

ta in advance!

I just made a gorgeous soup yesterday with stuff I had left in the fridge:

About 6 medium sized sweet potatoes
large onion
half a clove of garlic
stalk of brocolli (always keep these for putting in soup they are the most nutritional part of the brocolli)

I sweated the onion, garlic cloves (didn't even chop them) then added one teaspoon of cumin, one teaspoon of coriander, half a teaspoon of turmeric.

Add sweet potatoes, some stock (made with Swiss Marigold bouillon powder)(which is the best imo).

Simmer for half an hour. Hand blend. Delicious and very healthy.

cheers, sounds yummy, will give that one a go. So thats one, anyone got any more? could do with a few to vary things a bit. Thinking of have a soup making day at the weekend and filling the freezer.

Chick pea, garlic and pasta soup

Chop 2 onions and fry in some olive oil with about 5 cloves of garlic, until softened. Add 2 tins of chick peas and 3 pints or so of veg stock. simmer for 15 minutes or so and then part blend with a hand blitzer. You still want some bits of chick pea in the soup so don't make it too smooth. Add about 200gms of past and a couple of tspns dried basil. Simmer another 15 minutes, check seasoning and thickness (you can always add a bit more hot stock). Serve with crusty bread.

Country pea and ham

Soak 1lb of dried marrowfat peas overnight. Drain them and put them in a pan with about 4 pints of water. Bring to the boil and simmer until peas are almost tender. Add 4 rashers of bacon, chopped up, 3 or 4 grated carrots, a couple of chopped onions, a couple of chopped celery sticks and a chopped leek. Season well. Simmer for at least a couple of hours until the peas are broken down, the veg are completely tender and the soup has a good bacony flavour.

Potato soup

a couple of pounds of potatoes, peeled and chopped into little chunks, 3 or 4 decent sized grated carrots, a couple of chopped onions, a chopped leek, some chopped celery. Put it all in a pan with about 3l of veg stock and simmer for as long as you like.

Love this soup don't bother with all the grating just blend, in fact I'm going to make in in a minute.

this is a great one www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5302/spicy-butternut-squash-soup

cheers, great recipes. going to work my way through them, thank you!

Mmm I like the look of shinybaubles recommendation too. Before I was a soup maker I was soooo impressed with anyone that made soup. Now I know how easy it is!

The secret I think is to sweat the onion, garlic, leeks or whatever while you are chopping up the rest of the ingredients. I tend to chuck whatever I have available in and I always keep stalks of brocolli, stalks of kale (after I've peeled off the leafy parts for another recipe). I never waste vegetables - everything goes into soup.

The other things that really makes the difference, I think, is to add some spices, or fresh ginger to perk the soup up. Sometimes a couple of dashes of Tabasco but more often I just put in some coriander seeds, cumin, curry powder etc just at the end of the sweating the onions stage and let the spices cook for a couple of minutes.

When I was a soup novice I once made stock from start. NEVER AGAIN. It took ages and the end result was blah. The Swiss Marigold bouillon powder is fantastic (Sainsbury's about £2 a tub if I remember rightly).

Watching this thread with interest :).

Anyone got a good Pumpkin soup recipe for using up our lantern innerds over the weekend?

I make a really good lentil soup - sweat chopped onion, garlic, carrots and celery until soft, then add red lentils, tin of tomatoes, chicken/veg stock and a bit of sugar / treacle (makes it lovely and rich). Any other root veg can be chopped and added.
Cook for at least 30 mins and blend or eat chunky.
Even better the next day!

i posted a lentil and bacon recipe [[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food/1326162-Cooking-family-meals-day-after-day-ARGHHHHHHHHHH here][

this fish one is also fab and really quick

this delia one with lamb and couscous is great for winter but IMO it serves 4 not 6 if you're having it as your main meal.

I don't generally blend my soups as I find the chunky ones more filling than the smooth.

here?

mega minestra

onion
garlic
pancetta/2-3 rashers streaky bacon in matchsticks
carrots in half moon rounds
celery diced
green beans diced
tomatoes - 3-4, seeds removed & cut in chunks
can of legumes of your choice, i like flageolet beans
stock - i use heinz lo salt chicken stock (in baby aisle)
squirt of tomato puree (optional)

fry onion, garlic and pancetta until all cooked
add in the rest of the veg, stir stir stir (5 minutes)
drain/rinse canned legumes, add
add stock, bring to boil
add squirt of tomatoe puree, stir through
reduce to simmer, ready in 1/2 hour or when veg is tender

serve with crusty bread

this is superfantastico the next day, it gets quite hearty from the legumes

Growlithe

Delia pumpkin soup is nice

Yum marking place [hsmile]

Growlithe here is a lovely pumpkin soup recipe courtesy of Leith's vegetarian bible.

Sweet potato, pumpkin and ginger soup
450g sweet potatoes
450g pumpkin
55g butter (I use olive oil instead)
1 large onion , slice
5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon coriander seeds crushed
860ml vegetable stock
salt and pepper
150ml double cream (I never add this)
1 level teaspoon freshy grated nutmeg(I never do this)
fresh coriander leaves to garnish (when I'm being posh I do this)

Chop potatoes and pumpkin
Melt butter (olive oil) add onion and fry over low heat until softened
Add ginger and coriander seeds and fry for a further 5 minutes
Stir in sweet potatoes, pumpkin and stock.
Season with salt and pepper, bring to boil then lower heat, partially cover ad simmer for 20-30 minutes until vegetables are soft
Blend and serve
or
Pour back into pan and add cream, reheat gently
Add nutmeg, pour into plates and scatter with coriander leaves.

Voila!

i make a soup base by first braising things like onions, carrots, leeks, fennel, celery, parnsips etc for about 30mins until really tender and almost caramalized. I then add enough tins of tomatoes to more then cover the veg. Boil for a few minutes and turn down to a gentle simmer for an hour until you have what looks like a very very thick sauce (all the tomatoes should have melted into the sauce). Put into separate containers and then freeze. Then when you want some tasty soup all you need to do is defrost, add some water and a stock cube and put

red wine and lentils for lentil soup
green veg and broken pasta for minestrone
or any veg that you have lurking the fridge for veg soup

Excellent thread. Keep em coming

(sorry can't add my own, am a soup novice)

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sweetpotatoandcoconu_8811 Sweet Potato and Coconut Cream soup]]

This is AMAZING.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5898/speedy-sweet-potato-soup-with-coconut Speedy version]]

Eeek, sorry! Try again:

Sweet Potato and Coconut Cream soup

Speedy version

I make a chorizo and sweet potato soup that always gets rave reviews:

Chop an onion and a chorizo ring and sweat for a few minutes until the oil turns red.

Add a couple of peeled and chopped sweet potatoes, a sprinkle of dried thyme, and carry on cooking.

Add a tin of tomatoes and two tins worth of boiling water.

Simmer until sweet potato is nearly cooked, at which point add some salt, pepper and a drained tin of chickpeas. Bring back to a simmer.

Serve with crusty bread and cheese.

This freezes very well, and is very amenable to reheating.

Excellent thread. Keep em coming

(sorry can't add my own, am a soup novice)

Tomato and rice

1 tin baked beans
2 tins chopped toms
onion
good squirt tom puree
spoonful chopped garlic
spoonful chilli powder
spoonful sugar
1 1/2 pints veg stock
some leftover cooked rice

Blend beans, tomatoes and onion until smooth. Put into a big pan. Add stock, puree, spices and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer 15 minutes. Adjust thickness and add cooked rice. Simmer for a few more minutes. You can stir a bit of cream through before serving. This is DS4's favourite soup.

These all sound amazing! Going to have to try some. :)

fabulous! theres loads here to keep me in soup for weeks!

is there a way to keep hold of a thread and not lose it? im going to start some of these next week.