home-made soup

[corrina28]

i'm fed up of buying tinned soup so i have decided to make my own. Where do i start???

not sure, other than blending veg with stuck, so am going to lurk if thats ok?

stock..

i'd start with a simple veg soup.

melt a nob of butter in a pan add chopped garlic, diced carrot, chopped onion, celery, cover and let this sweat for about 5-8 mins then add 2 pints of veg stock diced potatoes, parsnip, squash etc(whatever root veg you like) , table spoon of tomato puree and some dried parsley. Let this all simmer till veg is tender then you could add in some soup pasta or you could blend it to smooth thick consistency and serve with crusty bread.

I usually blend all the leftovers from roast dinners and it makes a gorgeous soup.

heres' an easy lentil soup recipe as well:
8oz split red lentils
1oz butter
1 med onion peeled and finely chopped
2 stalks of celery finely chopped
2 carrots scrubbed and diced
grated rind of one lemon
2 pints of light veg stock (or one pint veg stock and one pint boiling water)
salt and pepper

rinse lentils remove any stones, heat butter in pan and saute onion for 2-3 mins add celery and carrots and let sweat for 5-10 mins stir in lentils, add lemon rind and stock and season to taste. Bring to boil then reduce heat till veg are tender. roughly blend so it's not too smooth.

I've made a few easy, tasty soups recently - watercress is particularly nice, just fry onion and potato until soft, add packet of watercress and pint of stock, cook for c. 15 minutes then blend. add cream if feeling lardy. delicious!

Winter Warming Soup

1 large carrot diced.
200g of potato peeled and diced
1 medium onion diced
100 g brown lentils
1.5 litres water or veg stock (I use the veg stock, it tastes better then if it is made with just water)
50 g dried skimmed milk powder

Put the carrot, potato, onion and lentils into a thick bottomed saucepan with the stock. Bring to the boil slowly and simmer gently for about 2 hours.

Place all the ingredients including the dried milk into a blender and blend until the soup is the consistency you like.

Return to the pan season will freshly ground black pepper and serve piping hot.

the possibilities are endless!!!
for the base of your soup always start with an onion and fat glove of garlic saute in a little oil or butter add any chopped veg combo and a pint or two of veg stock(marigold vegitable boullion is best)then blend
Broccolli and leek , leave out the onion and add some milk
Tomato and basil use 2 tinns chopped toms and dry basil and then add some fresh at the end
Butternut and sweet potato add some chilli fresh or dry and some natural yogurt at the end.
Sweet red pepper and courgette add a couble of carrots and a tin of chopped toms, stir some pesto through at the end