Soup making - explain it to me like i'm 5

[IneedhandcreamandaNC]

In order to avoid any smacked gobs or judgement, I'll preface this by saying people learn things at different times and we all have different levels of confidence! And, of course, not everyone grows up in an environment where learning life skills is encouraged.

Now that's oot the way! - tell me the basics of making soup please? People say they chuck in any old thing but there is presumably a base or a range of bases to which any old thing is added. How is the base made? And how do you know the flavours and textures of the any old things will work out okay? Would someone kindly explain it to me with no presumption of cooking knowledge 😳oh and seasoning! I forgot about seasoning. See, I need it explained to me like I'm 5 years old 😂

I fry an onion, diced. Add any vegetables I want to use up, again chopped up. Cover with boiling water and a stock cube or two depending on how much I’m making. Add seasonings. Cook til it all goes soft. Blend. Can add cream if you want to at the end.

leek and potato soup
2 leeks
500g of onions
150g of carrots
2 large onions
1200 ml of water
salt

50ml of olive oil
put it all to boil for 30 min
and then blend - it’s a creamy soup with no cream.

So I make a lot of soups. The base for nearly everything is to sweat some chopped onion and chopped potato (no need to peel) in some butter until soft, i use a low heat so maybe 10 mins.

If leek and potato, use more than one potato and add leek at the softening stage. Season with black pepper and a bit of salt if you like.

Then add stock, either veg or chicken. Stockpots or cubes are fine.

Simmer for about 20 mins.

Blitz with a stick blender when it's cooled a bit, you can do that until it's smooth or leave some lumps if you like.

I also like mushroom and tarragon (add mushrooms pre stock)
Lentil and bacon, bacon in step one, a can of lentils with the stock.
Dp makes butternut squash and sweet potato, that goes in at the start with the onion, then add stock when softened, he likes chilli flakes with it.

Depends what flavours you like.

Also, you can use frozen veg. I do a broccoli and Stilton with frozen broccoli, as you're blending anyway, the texture isn't so important.

I just follow a recipe!

I'm not the kind of person who can just chuck stuff in! I've made a few simple soups from recipes and they've been nice so I must be doing something right!

Agree with this

What really makes a difference to taste:

-fry the onions slowly for a long time so they sweeten
-use some butter (especially for mushroom soup)
-if it’s a root vegetable soup, roast the veg first to bring out sweetness and flavour
-good stock (doesn’t have to be homemade but good quality does show)
-salt, more than you think
-Try adding herbs and spices. For example carrot and butternut go brilliantly with curry spices like cumin and turmeric

Ah, but 'it's about to turn' veg soup from the fridge can be good! And saves wastage. We call it 'green soup' in this house.
Salt and pepper are the basic seasonings.

This 👆🏼

If you're going to freeze some, don't add cream to the pan of soup but to your bowl at the time, it can split when freezing.

Get your vegetables chopped first. I would use, for a basic vegetable soup, one onion - peel it and halve it, then cut each half into small dice/pieces (get rid of the woody root bit if you like). Put to one side. A couple of carrots - peel them and cut off the ends, wash under the tap. Again, chop into dice (think dolly mixture) and put to one side. A couple of celery sticks or a leek; chop the ends off, wash (especially the leek which can trap dirt in between its layers). Dice.

Get a big saucepan. Put on hob, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil or vegetable oil on a medium heat. Wait a minute or so for it to warm then put in the diced onion. Move it about with a wooden spoon to coat it in the oil. After a while it will start to look a bit see-through. If the heat is too high it might burn/go golden - you don't want this, so turn the heat down. Once the onion is softening, put in the carrot dice and the leek/celery dice. Stir around in the oil, let them soften (keep the heat medium/low so they don't burn).

After 5 or so minutes your veg are soft and there will be a base of flavour. You can add different things, perhaps a tin beans (cannellini, borlott, rinse them in a sieve under the tap first so you don't include the canning liquid). A tin of chopped tomatoes. Stir it all together.

Then you need a bit of hot liquid so stick the kettle on. You can use a stock cube or that stock powder made by Marigold in little tubs (a couple of teaspoons dissolved in boiling water). Presuming you don't want to make bucket loads, put about 1 litre (use a measuring jug) or 1.5 litres of boiling water and dissolved stock cube/powder into your saucepan. For extra points, swirl some of it round the empty tin of tomatoes and empty that in for more flavour.

Season - i.e salt and pepper. I like a good teaspoons worth of salt and some black pepper but other people will think that's too much.

Bring the saucepan of stock and veg to the boil - wait until little bubbles appear around the outer edge and then slowly spread so the whole pan is boiling. At this point turn it down low so you have a gentle occasional boil. Let it cook for about half an hour.

This is your soup. If you want it taste better, let it cool, put it in a Tupperware in the fridge and reheat the next day, it will taste much better. But you can of course eat it now, maybe grate some parmesan on top.

Nigella is great on vegetable soups, so is Nigel Slater. Don't be scared. The peeling and chopping is the time consuming part. Some people buy a bag of ready-chopped vegetables to speed things up but my mother told me I would go to hell if I did this so I can't.

Most of my soups started as a recipe. Then I started making deviations from the recipe. You really can’t go wrong with that approach. You will quickly learn which steps can be adapted to work for any generic vegetable or any generic protein.

Hhhmmm - I don't think its that simple, both my mother and grandmother took pride in their soups which frankly were awful, boiling the crap out of vegetables and adding a ton of salt does not a good soup make. In my last job we were luckily enough to have an amazing private chef to make lunch for us every day - in five years not once did she make soup, I suspect making good soup is difficult so I will stick with fresh soup from the supermarket.

It really is that simple.

For the best flavour always start with patience, and soften chopped onions, or leeks, in butter or oil. Allow about 10 minutes for this, then add any chopped up veg you have, so carrots, celery, cabbage potato etc. make sure the chopped veg is all about the same size. Then let that soften, technical term, sweat, and add liquid, enough to roughly cover the veg, and half again. Add a couple of chicken or vegetable stock cubes if you have them, or just plenty of salt and pepper. I also add in the left over rind of a Parmesan wedge if I have one. ( I keep those in the freezer)
let it simmer until all the veg is soft and the flavours have made friends with each other, usually only about another 10 minutes,
Then decide if you want to leave it chunky, or blitz with a stick blender.
Chuck in any fresh herbs too if you’ve got them otherwise dried thyme works with most soup.
Now I want some soup!

Quarter of a frozen cheap vegetable mix bag, one chicken cube, half a bag of of instant noodles and 1l of water. Boil for like 15min.

Or
Dump chicken breast or few legs in and cook for an hour.

First wone is student version, second one will keep you alive through flu.
I always keep emergency bag with secon option in my freezer.

I always add red lentils to thicken... Adds more protein and fibre than a potato. Just chuck them in when I pour the stock in

This

if its too wet
Make toast chop it up and add it - sounds weird but it is chefs kiss

I also favour throwing in dried soup mix ots barley lentils etc so nice 🥰

I'm a 'use up leftovers and anything going off' kind of soup person. My most common soup is

Meat base. This is usually left over roast chicken carcass but I have been known to use a beef stew, spag bol or chorizo.

1. Fry onion, garlic and celery. If using carrot and potato, put it in at this point as takes a while.

2a. Add roast chicken carcass and water to cover at least half way; simmer for an hour or so. Remove carcass and get the meat off. I usually wait for it to cook and then use my hand to separate bones from meat. Put meat back in to pan. 2b. Add meat and water, start to simmer

1. Add seasoning. I usually add a stock cube, herbs, pepper. For a spicy chicken soup you can add cajun seasoning, cinnamon. For a curry soup you can add turmeric, cumin, curry powder.
2. Add veggies - tinned tomatoes/ butter beans is a good combo with spicy chicken OR leftover roasted veg, frozen veg (chopped swede/ mixed veg/ peppers), spinach, aubergine, mushroom
3. If you didn't add potato, you can add rice. I like this for a spicy chicken soup.
4. Cook whole thing for another 30 mins
5. Most soups I just mash the ingredients with a potato masher, some soups I blend (like when I used leftover beef stew), some soups if I used whole beans then I just leave as they are.

I then put it in pots and freeze in 1 person portion of 4 person portion. Use it mostly for lunches at work but also a quick evening meal with a pizza or garlic bread.

My freezing tip is to put a tie handled sandwich bag in an old takeaway plastic box, pour in a bowl's worth, tie tightly and freeze. You can then remove the box and stack the frozen soups like bricks, which saves space.

This book is fab, have yet to be disappointed with any I've tried:

amzn.eu/d/9GD80kB

So many wonderfully detailed & helpful replies, thank you. I love this side of MN 😄

Welcome to your future of tasty homemade soups!

Ooh, that's good. I always use up all my boxes!!

500g of onions plus a further two onions???

Excellent tip, but wait till the soup is cold before putting it in a plastic bag!