Soup you can stand your spoon up in?

[Fontella]

I'm a fan of 'the homemade soup' and if I do say so meself, I am a bit of a dab hand at the old soup making.

I have a few specialities much loved among family and friends, but a somewhat limited repertoire.

My specialities are a chunky veg (similar to a minestrone but without the pasta); spicy red pepper, creamy broccoli, creamy onion, leek and stilton, and a parsnip and pumpkin combo ... but I do tend to do them over and over again. I'm vegetarian by the way.

Looking for inspiration I decided to go on YouTube for some recipe ideas and was shocked to discover how many so-called soups have the texture of hummus or whipped cream or custard They swirl them around the plate, great slugs of olive oil on the top and sprinkles of this and that to make them look appetising, but the soups themselves are so thick you could literally stand a spoon up them.

That's not my idea of soup. Soup is runnier, something you could fill a flask with and drink out of a cup if you needed to. Isn't it?

So many of the soups I looked at are like a puree, like baby food. Yeah I know I could just bung more water in, but I just find it odd that so many recipes I looked at are that sort of wallpaper paste texture. Is it a new thing?

In one of the videos I watched she dipped a hunk of bread in at the end and it came out dry. The soup was too thick to soak in, or even to attach itself to the bread!

I think it depends on what purpose the soup serves. If it's as a first course before a more substantial main, then it might be about getting the tastebuds going, so a consommé or onion soup might fit the bill. If it's about getting the vegetable content in before a pasta or meat-and-potato course then it might be thicker.

If the soup is meant to be a meal in itself then it needs to be substantial enough, so thicker works well. Some of mine are more like vegetable stews.

If it's just a way of warming you up, then cup-a-soups are literally meant to be drunk from a cup.

I get the thick stew type soup with the chunky veg. No problems there.

It's the blended up gloop that has the texture of hummus I don't understand. It is literally like eating a bowl of hummus with a spoon.

My soups aren't thin like consommé or cuppa soups. They have substance, and are hearty and tasty. But when you dip a hunk of bread in - it soaks into the bread because it's still a liquid, not a gloop.

I can't help I'm afraid. My favourite soup is ribollita. It has bread in it and is very thick!

When you blend them like that you can thin them out as much as you want with a little veg stock. I think if they’re so smooth and uniform you need the oil and sprinkles to add back some texture and contrasting flavour.

’Is it a new thing?’

Anything like that I blame Instagram and YouTube culture. It might be wildly inaccurate but it feels good.

@WhatScratch

When you blend them like that you can thin them out as much as you want with a little veg stock. I think if they’re so smooth and uniform you need the oil and sprinkles to add back some texture and contrasting flavour.

Exactly WhatScratch

I know I can adapt the recipes by thinning them out a bit, I just don't understand why people seem to like eating them like that. A few spoonfuls of that sort of texture would have me gagging.

Like this one ....

I think it’s good for a small bowl as a starter in a restaurant but I wouldn’t want to eat a big bowl of it at home.

That's so weird! Huh. I agree it's more like cauliflower hummus or something.

If you are looking for ideas...how about creamy mushroom soup? I have a great recipe somewhere...

Just had some of my vegetable soup, cooked this am as a large batch. Out of pressure cooker root veg still holding shape with thin broth. Eaten with bread and spoon
Each day reheat it and it gets thicker each day. May blend some of it will consequently present as a thick soup. I like both.

@mouse70

Just had some of my vegetable soup, cooked this am as a large batch. Out of pressure cooker root veg still holding shape with thin broth. Eaten with bread and spoon Each day reheat it and it gets thicker each day. May blend some of it will consequently present as a thick soup. I like both.

I get that. It does get thicker the longer you leave it and reheat, and also it gets thicker when you freeze it and defrost.

But it doesn't start out like that.

That's the thing I don't get. They make the soup like wallpaper paste to start with. That seems to be the texture they are aiming for. You can literally shape it like meringue or whipped cream

That isn't soup. At least it's not soup as I know it.

I don't want savoury Angel Delight, but that's the texture that all these insta/YouTube chefs seem to be going for.

Oh wow, that really is cauliflower hummus. Would have been much better is had added the bean juice from the tins.

I have a couple of really old recipes from my gran, who said she made them like her mother did, so late Victorian, they are very very thick ! She made split yellow pea and ham (which is my favourite) and lentil and bacon. The family eat these regularly and enjoy them.

It seems that Instagram soups are becoming pottage / potage.
Is 2022 going to see a resurgence of traditional British peasant food?
Mushy peas, pease pudding and pottage

I love Mushy peas and had them with my Chippie tea last night. I also used to love pease pudding back in the day although I haven't had it for decades.

As much as I like both, I wouldn't want to eat a bowl of them with a spoon and call it soup.