Im rubbish at making soup -ideas?

[dwpanxt]

I love soup and would eat more vegetables and low fat meals if I could crack actually making it so that its edible

So tonight I thought I would use up some veg and make a healthy soup for tomorrow lunch. I fried an onion and then put some potatoes,carrots & swede(twas a bag already cut up meant for mashing but didnt get used) and a few peas along with 2 oxo cubes and about a litre of water into a pot.
I have simmered it for about an hour so far .

It tastes like brown water

I have lots of herbs and spices ,tomatoes (canned and in paste form) and lots of other stuff I can use to make it tasty -but what? When Ive tried spicing previous soups up it hasnt made for edible results .

I am generally a good cook but am beaten by this simple thing.

Help

As a teenager I made some soup that was so grim it had to go. It was too thick to go down the plughole and too thin to put in the bin so I dug a hole and buried it

Rather than oxo, try Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon powder next time, its much nicer. For now, maybe you could try taking some of the soup out and liquidising it, then pouring it back in - that gives it body and somehow it tastes much better. Or you could liquidise the whole thing.

You can make a lovely broccoli soup by sweating an onion, adding chopped broccoli and a chopped potato along with some bouillon. Cook it until the potato is soft, add a bit of nutmeg, pepper (no salt as the bouillon is salted) and a teeny squeeze of lemon, then blend. Its lovely. Milk instead of some of the stock is good too. Cauliflower soup made the same way is great too.

The New Covent Garden cookery books have some divine soups, and this by Nick Nairn is my daughter's fave.

If all else fails, you could always bury it.....

I think you are struggling as you are trying to be too 'low fat'!!! I think the secret is to 'sweat'the veg rather than fry anything. Use butter- a couple of ozs. Melt it and add onion and garlic first- low heat and lid ON. Take your time and chop other veg during this stage. Add other veg- eg roots/leeks etc. Put lid on again and wait a bit longer- stir occasionally. Once all sweated down to a good soft pulpy mixture add the liquid- milk will make for a tastier soup and one stock cube (melted in small vol boiling water). If you are aiming at low fat use semi skimmed milk. once up to boil- (watch closely as milk boils quick) turn right down to gentle simmer. Season and add anything you fancy to flavour it. Once all veg tender blitz with a hand blender / processer. yum

You've cooked it too much and used too much water imo. I wouldn't usually put potatoes in a veg soup and a few celery sticks makes all the difference.

The water should be just enough to just cover the veg. Have you blended it, or do you just have pieces of veg in stock? If so try blending it to see if it can be saved. If you want texture just blend half. If all else fails try some tabasco!

Feck ! Celery!

I knew there was something else that needed to be used up . Is it too late to add it now and recook?

Too much water added? Bah . I thought it seemed about right. But I do just have cubes of veg floating around in brown water.

So next time I need some better quality boullion cubes and cook down the veg (no potatoes -who knew?) before adding a little liquid -maybe some butter and or milk?

I will liquidise half of the soup tomorrow and then see what happens.

Thank you all for the master class in soup making

sweat the onion in butter with a tiny bit of oil to stop it burning for as long as you can-20 mins if poss.

add the rest of your veg eg carrot/celery/peppers turn to coat in fat then cook another five minutes

If you want to spice the soup up add it now-cumin is good or a spoon of curry paste maybe chilli powder

add can of economy chopped toms and simmer gently till veg soft-you could add cubed pots now if you wanted- then add the rest of the stock, salt pepper etc. any softer veg goes in now like shredded cabbage/peas/ broc

cook another 5 mins

I liquidise it (not if I've aded the cabbage-y type stuff) at this stage as the children prefer it and if I want to make it more hearty tip in some red lentils and simmer till soft

Cumin is good for rounding out the flavour, and a dash of vinegar or lemon juice for a bit of sharpness. Soups are surprisingly difficult.

Get the covent garden recipe book - some great ones on there.

ditch the oxo cube and get marigold bouillon powder. You didn't have enough vegetables in the soup, I would use two of those pre cut up bags for 1 litre of stock. Better to make too thick soup at first because you can always add a little more stock. did you blend the soup? Ime it is always tastier semi or totally blended

I have made a nice soup the other day by roasting the veg very low for ages, then just blending with some stock. Not v economical but 150 degrees for about 2 hrs.

Am thinking of ways this could be combined with other cooking.

I make garlic and honey roast veg soup - just do double if I'm roasting veg for the sunday dinner and then extra onion/celery sweated in pan in a little bit of oil and butter, add roasted veg, litre of water or so - just enough to cover the veg, good powdered stock, lid on, simmer til veggies soft then blend.

You only need a tiny bit of butter for a massive pan of soup.

I usually use left over veg to make soup and my fave soup is brocolli/cauliflower stalks and frozen peas. I use the same base - sweated onion, celery and garlic (sometimes carrot).Always Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon powder; celery salt and occasionally miso soup paste and potato.

A low fat and easy soup is butternut squash, onion wedges, sweet potato and chinese five spice. Cut veg roughly and spray with oil - roast for 40 mins. When soft put in a pan, add a pint(ish) of water and Marigold Swiss vegetable bouillon powder. Liquidise in teh pan with a stick blender and add more water to taste. Sometimes I use curry powder and coconut milk instead.

Make a specific 'type' of soup rather than putting everything in together and hoping for the best. Sometimes it works but if you've got too many competing flavours it can end up tasting of nothing. Classic combos like Carrot and Coriander, Leek and Potato or Tomato and Basil are easier to get right. Agree about taking time over it, sweating vegetables in butter, using good quality stock and plenty of seasoning etc.

hello,

I always bung things in the pot and dont bother with sweating or anything.

I think the key is the stock, I love the knorr stock pot "cubes", they are much better than any others.

An easy one is , half a butternut squash, an onion, a sweet potato, a handful of red lentils cover with water adda knorr stock pot ( veg ) and boil for 15 mins, blend yum yum.555555

another is a tin of toms, a few carrots, turnip ( not essential) a red pepper a stock pot , a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper, cover wee bit water and boil , blend , add a wee bit milk to thin.