Soup recipe

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I have never cooked soup in my life but have some stuff in the fridge like carrots, Swede, potatoes and herbs.

How do I make soup?! I'm not the best cook

I peel and chop my choice of veg, always include onion.
Fry gently in a little oil, add salt and pepper.
Put it all in a large pan with stock and simmer gently until the veg is soft.
You can use lentils, pearl barley, split peas.
There are loads of recipes online.
I make stock from bones, or just use a cube.
Sometimes I blend the soup, sometimes leave it chunky.

You can get lentils dried or in tins.
If you use split peas they have to be soaked overnight.

Soup is so easy you'll wish you'd started years ago, it's also a great way of using up fresh food and sneaking less desirable veggies into a diet.

I am a lazy cook to be honest but I still like home Made food - who doesn't?

I always start with a few handfuls of frozen diced onion (told you I was lazy! But also I suffer worse than most with the issue of crying when chopping onions), clove of garlic, some celery if I have it in sautéed in a little oil then add the ingredients you're going to use, quick stir and then add the stock and herbs. Cook until the ingredients are soft enough to blend, allow to cool a little and then blend and either serve or portion and store in fridge or freezer.

I was late to soup making too and was kicking myself when I realised how easy it was and how useful.

Favourites in my household when dd was growing up were

Carrot and coriander - simple as it sounds, base as stated, carrots, stock, fresh coriander is best but if not ground is fine how much is personal taste. We like a little cumin in ours too but that's not to everyone's taste.

Scotch broth -

Exact amounts depend on how many you're cooking for but proportions I'd say about 1/4 pearl barley, 1/8 red lentils and 1/8 split peas and the rest is made up from the onions, diced carrot and celery but top tip DON'T be tempted to overdo the pearl barley they swell a lot! You do need to soak the dried pulses overnight but as long as you're organised that's no hardship.

Fry off onions and celery, add the carrots and other veg, drain and rinse the pulses and add to the pot, add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 90 mins (it's a good soup to make on a Sunday when you're doing a roast as it can be simmering while you do everything else, also works well done in slow cooker), I then stir in half a teaspoon of marmite. You DON'T BLEND it serve it as is preferably with a good buttered crusty roll. It's a hearty soup so don't worry if it seems very thick. You can add more stock if needed.

Cheesy carrot and broccoli (carrot and broccoli soup with handful of grated cheese sprinkled in bottom of bowl before serving, a cheese that melts well) -

Base as before, diced carrots, chopped broccoli (you want it quite small chopped but remember to use stalks too), stock, we like some Italian seasoning in this so basil, oregano. Boil till soft and then as I said some grated cheese in bottom of bowl (started out as a trick to get dd to finish) serve hot soup onto it and the cheese melts and mixes in.

Spiced butternut soup

serves 2 at least 3 days running (unless one of the 2 is dd when I’m lucky if it’s allowed to cool down!) best served with buttered crusty rolls

Ingredients

1 Butternut squash
4-6 carrots
2 cloves garlic
Teaspoon cumin
Teaspoon curry powder - strength depends on preference I have to stick to mild unfortunately
Oil for roasting and heating spices

Halve & deseed the squash
Pop a clove of garlic in the remaining hollows
Peel carrots and quarter by slicing lengthways
Drizzle with preferred oil
Roast in a med-hot oven for 45 mins

At 43 mins in heat a soup pan with a little oil in and heat up the spices, then add the roasted veg to the pan, you scoop out the flesh of the squash easy once cooked.

Give it a wee shuggle (technical term 😉)

Add 1 pint stock

Season and bring to boil.

Simmer for 10 mins

Blend and serve as is or with a swirl of sour cream or creme fraiche.

Freezes great too and will keep in fridge fine for a few days.

My quick, easy & foolproof method is as follows:

1. Chop all your vegetables to a similar size
2. Melt some butter in a large pan, about 25g to 50g depending on how much veg you have (butter is better than oil, it adds flavour)
3. Throw the veg into the pan & stir well to give it all a coating of butter
4. Add salt & pepper, put on a lid and let the veg soften for about 20 minutes
5. Add enough stock to cover the veg (I usually use stock cubes dissolved in water)
6. Bring to the boil, simmer for around 30 minutes until the veg is soft.
7. Taste & and add seasoning if required, you can add more water or stock if it's too thick
8. Blend or leave chunky, whichever you prefer.

Broccoli and cauliflower ( add a chopped onion) makes a nice combination. Also butternut squash and sweet potato. Chuck in some chestnuts and grated nutmeg.

If you want to thicken the soup without using flour - especially if you're planning on putting some curry spices in it - then blending an onion in a small container with a small amount of water is really good. It turns the onion into a sort of thin puree which thickens the soup as it cooks. This also works for curry, BTW. I make mulligatawny soup this way, using leftover mincemeat & curry paste, & whatever veg are available. It's also a very good way of hiding an onion from fussy DCs...

Minestrone with pesto is really good. Literally just add a good dollop of pesto to any minestrone soup recipe, right before serving. Or even into the bowls.

You can also thicken soup with a little bit of mashed potato.

You can ring the changes with any left over soup, for example if you started with winter vegetable soup you can then add beans, tomatoes and pasta to turn it into a minestrone type soup. Or to chicken soup add left over mushrooms fried in butter on the second day. It all helps to add variety to your meals.
Add soup pasta, which is any very small pasta shape often stars or tiny shells, or barley, or small dumplings or croutons to your soup to make it into a substantial filling dish.