Veg soup and how do I make it last all week? I need to get more veg in my diet!

[eyeeyecaptain]

right, am on a health kick and desperate to lose weight. I need more veg in my diet and have decided that veg soup is the way forward!

However, I don't really 'get' this batch cooking and how you make it last for the week...I am also utterly paranoid (and realise it's stupid but bear it in mind) about eating left over food or stuff that's been in the fridge from days before. If I make something Monday, then I have to eat it Tuesday or throw it away. I have weak stomach and very prone to food poisoning, stomach bugs from slightest thing.

Ok, so tell me your fav veg recipies and how do I make it last all week? Freeze it? and then do I have to defrost it first? or can i microwave it from frozen? I don't understand! Am thick!

thanks

I think you might get a bit bored eating the sane veg soup every day? But if you made 4 portions you could put 2 in the freezer?

Might be better to find ways to add veg to whatever you normally enjoy eating. Could you make veg fajitas? Or have a nice big salad with some quiche or pizza?

sorry, not only eating veg soup...it's basically to stop me eating bread at lunchtime! I am having veg and different food too!

Soup will last 4-5 days in fridge if refrigerated once cooled. However it freezes easily. Take out of freezer night before you want it if you are going to stick it in e.g. work fridge. Else take it out in the morning (I do about 7am), leave it in your bag and it will have defrosted by lunchtime.

You can microwave from frozen it just takes a bit longer and you need to stir every 2 minutes preferably (if you want it to heat evenly). I have the same soup for 5 days and make a different one the next week if I get bored. Last week was curried cauliflower, this week is Savoy cabbage and bacon. Extra portions can stay in the freezer for weeks you don't have time to make it.

You can freeze soup, take it out in the morning before work (or whatever) to let it defrost then re-heat on hob or mocrowave. I wouldn't heat from frozen - but I don't think there's a law! I have a yummy courgette & lemon soup recipe that'll keep in the fridge for a week:

900g courgettes, cubed
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic segment, finely chopped
1 lemon, grated and squeezed
25g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
800ml veg stock

Heat oil and butter. Bung in onion, garlic and courgettes for ten mins, don't let them go brown.
Add stock and bring to the boil, then turn down heat and simmer ten minutes.
Add salt and pepper as you like (I don't bother).
Blend with blender/electric hand whisk. Stir in grated lemon (zest) and the juice.

There you have it. The lemon helps the garlic to be not too garlicky, so no funny breath. It's a staple favourite in our house.

I cook a large pan full on a Sunday then stick it in the fridge and take a bowl out for work each day, I've not been poorly from it ever and I do it each week through the winter. However I don't have any meat based products in it at all. I tend to make butternut squash or root veg. Some days i sprinkle dried herbs on the top other days a bit of dried chilli.

Celery and celeriac
Lentil and tomato/lentil and carrot
Lettice
Any veg (whatever knocking around) and barley
Minestrone
Squash and carrot

I make it batches and freeze in single porton sized tupperware for work. I take out the night before and defrost in the fridge and nuke it in the office kitchen.

Funnily enough I made a large amount of leek and potato soup on Sunday and have had it for lunch every day since :) I boil up it well each day -which kills the bugs -and then refrigerate overnight. Four days is fine. If you think about it, the 'fresh' boxed soup they sell in supermarkets is already a day or two old when it arrives and has a three or four day shelf-life on it.

Leek and Potato Soup (serves 4 - 6)
12oz potatoes (peeled or just scrubbed)
2 large leeks, chopped
2 big celery stalks, chopped
1 onion, chopped
oil
butter
2.5 pints stock
0.5 pint milk
Parsley

• Heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, add the chopped vegetables, put on the lid and cook over a very low light for 10 mins
• Add stock, half the parsley, plenty of salt and pepper and cook until veg are tender
• Blend or keep chunky then stir in the milk and the last of the parsley.

What type of spuds did you use? Last soup I made and zizzed it went all 'sticky'!

I make big batches of various veg soups and freeze them in portions in freezer bags.
Take one out each eve and defrost in fridge.
Heat it up (very hot) while making breakfast then put it in thermos to take to work. It's still hot at lunchtime.

Cog's soup is virtually the same recipe that I use & I always use floury baking potatoes.

I tend to use Maris Pipers... think they're quite floury. But in 3 pints of liquid, 12oz of spuds shouldn't be enough to go sticky. It's not a particularly thick soup when finished.