Why is my soup so flavourless?

[BendydickCuminsnatch]

I always imagine myself to be one of those people who can whip up a hearty soup for a warming dinner from things languishing in the fridge, but they always turn out so flavourless. Currently on hob soup consists of:

onion
butternut squash
carrots
red pepper
2x yellow pepper
2 bay leaves
rosemary
thyme
2 chicken stock cubes
green and yellow lentils
1 tin kidney beans
1 panic spoonful of marmite (always add this to stew so think that was my logic?)

It's just lumps of veg in water basically Should I blend a few ladelfuls to make it more hearty and thick? What can I add to give some flavour?

Oh I do actually have some frozen shredded rotisserie chicken in the freezer which I could add, but not sure how I'd defrost it safely in time for tonight?

Thanks!

[Oncewaswho]

It sounds way too salty for me, unless they are low salt stock cubes. I agree with roasting/sweating/frying veg first, if possible use homemade chicken stock, season to taste.

[ponderingprobably]

I simmer my vegetables in stock. It stops it being tasteless. I don't add any salt because it is in the stock. Just pepper. There are lots of different stocks to choose from, in terms of ingredients. Just pick one you are happy with.

When making soups without stock, I find I need to add salt or something 'salty' to make it taste right. Natural rock salt seems to have a more complex flavour than table salt. Your marmite could have done the trick here but it might not had enough flavour to add to the soup.

[LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett]

You've got a lot of pulses in there - two types of lentils and kidney beans - which are essentially bland and will sook out a lot of the seasoning/flavour (sook out is not a technical term ).

If you roasted the butternut squash, slow fried the carrots with a couple of celery sticks, forget the peppers (they really add nothing to soup) then added the lentils with the seasoning you'd be laughing.

When people do those big 'chuck everything in' soups there has to be some kind of unifying flavour or it's all just a sludgy mess. Less is actually more.

[OliviaStabler]

Oh yeah I deffo put salt and pepper in and fried veg first, thought that was a given. Thanks for advice!

After a recent thread on mn about salt and pepper, I did want to check!

[LegoCaltrops]

I've just made a big pot of this ham & pea soup. I'm having problems waiting for DH to get home so we can start eating it...