Soup Secrets......

[Flowertop]

Hi need some advice re: homemade soup. I love soup so yesterday decided to make some from a Delia recipe for Leek, onion and potato. I liquidised it all up as instructed to a puree but it was not that nice. I have just been out for lunch and ordered soup which was lovely and creamy (chicken, sweetcorn). Mine was like a puree. So how do i get my soup to taste and have the same texture as the homemade soup you get when eating out.
All help will be appreciated.
tnks

Don't blast it for too long in liqudiser.
Swirl some cream in at the end.

Was there cream in the soup you had at the restaurant? Often the food you eat out is nice simply because they are generous with the cream, butter etc.

Well there are puree soups and there are veloute soups but to get a really creamy soup there is usually cream involved.

For example a chicken veloute soup( or cream of chicken soup) is made like this.

Melt butter, add flour, cook it ut for a while, gradually add very well flavoured chicken stock, add chopped up chicken, seasoning, sweetcorn if you like and then add lots of cream.

I would guess that your leek and potato soup was perhaps a bit too thick and didn't have enough salt in.

Thanks so far... No it is more to do with the texture of the soup I made. The one I made was kind of bitty and more pureed. The one I had at lunchtime and usually have when out was completely smooth and creamy. Almost as if out of a tin but know it wasn't. Is it something to do with a special liquidiser. I liquidised it for ages but it could not be made smoother if I stood there all day.

Homemade soup can be bitty if the veg isn't soft enough before it is pureed.

I always find that lots of well sweated onions are always the secret base to a great soup!!

Oh sorry I meant to say that in restaurant kitchens pureed soups are passed through a sieve after they have been pureed.

Marigold bouillon is also essential for good soup!

cook veg for AGES before pureeing

More salt than you would think

cream

Are you using a food processor or a blender? I find with the former that it never gets rid of the little bits and a creamy texture is impossible to reach!

soups especially veg ones need something to make them "stick" together otherwise you can end up with a liquid with lots of very small bits of pulp suspended in it. I always use either sweated onion like Imagine, or a potato, or maybe a tiny bit of rice. Then it seems to come up creamier in texture.
Read a good bit of advice the other day too - simple soups with only 1 or 2 main ingredients can be eaten pretty much straight away after making, but those with more complicated ingredients often need longer to sit and "combine" so are best eaten the next day. Tis true.

I was at a dinner party kitchen supper last week and the host did this very elegant swirl of pesto mixed with cream cheese on the top of a fairly ordinary pumpkin soup. It looked fab, and really made the soup taste a whole lot snazzier.

I use a blender and tend to take out the veg first then add a small amount of liquid (to about a quarter/third volume of veg), then blend until smooth. I can then gradually add the rest of the liquid and stir it in. I find if I just put ladles of liquid and veg in at a time it ends up 'lumpy'.