Boring or downright horrible soups - tell me your soup secrets.

[Giggorata]

I am on a mission to use up all my veggies and/or to make good use of the vegetable boxes that DH brings home from the supermarket.

How can I avoid that sour smell that some soups acquire the next day?
How can I make them a bit tasty and interesting?

I have tried with and without the broth mix, with and without cabbage, lots of garlic or none, even veg stock cubes. Also the Polish seasoning stuff, soy sauce and/or Worcestershire sauce. With or without potatoes..

I don't really want to fill them full of UPF stuff, or salt. What is the secret?

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/oct/12/how-to-make-the-perfect-ribollita-soup-recipe-felicity-cloake

I make versions of this to use it veg - I've made it so many times now I don't need a recipe. But the first time - follow the recipe.

Stocks vary - the best stock I've found is the M&S concentrated Chicken stock.

I also put the rind of a parmesan in if I have one handy - I freeze them once I've got to the end of the cheese.

A bit of sugar sometimes helps too or wine vinegar (a very small amount) to balance out the flavours.

How can I avoid that sour smell that some soups acquire the next day?

The only time I've ever smelt/tasted that was when a soup had been left out of the fridge and gone off! Do you eat meat? I use a smoked ham knuckle/hock to make pea and ham soup. I also add in alot of root veg and its always delicious. No stock cube, no added salt- just the flavour of the veg and smoked meat.

A small amount of smoked bacon can do the same. If its just veg, then roasting them or in the air fryer to get some caramelised bits might add more flavour.

I’ve never had a soup smell or taste sour the next day. But based on what you’ve described, I think you’re putting too much weird stuff in it. Literally just sauté onions, add garlic, add your veg, add stock powder/water, cook til soft, season with salt and pepper, blend, check for seasoning and season more. I tend to serve every soup with a bit of cream or creme fraiche, possibly some grated cheddar.

Oh and keep it simple. Don’t add every veg in the fridge. Tomatoes, peppers, carrots, or broccoli, courgettes, kale, or carrots and red lentils.

In my experience of soup making, it's only been copious additions of salt, butter and cream that's made most soups palatable.

But then, I'm not really a soup lover. I do make a mean mushroom soup, but only by adding lots of butter and cream...

I never use stock. It makes all soups taste the same and you don’t need it.
You just need to season it well and add herbs and/or spices.
Follow a decent recipe and it’ll should be fine.

I stick to pho or pea and ham. Never had sour soup the next day, I think that might be something to mod with the the cabbage. I’ve never come across cabbage in a soup.

I make soup all the time on the stove top. All of these recipes can be adapted and add or remove veggies you don't like.

Traditional Scottish Lentil Soup

One onion
One leek
2 carrots
3 small potatoes
2 celery sticks
3 cloves garlic
3-4 slices of bacon
200grams red lentils

Roughly chop everything and sweat in oil or butter for a few minutes
Add 1.8 ls of vegetable stock
Season with salt and plenty of pepper
Add some thyme

Bring to boil
Simmer until veggies soft
Blend

Spicy lentil soup

One onion finely chopped
One leek finely chopped
3 large carrots grated
One small potato finely chopped
One stick celery finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
100 grams red lentils

Fry in oil or butter for a few minutes

Add 2 tsp of curry powder (or chilli powder) stir and fry for a minute

Add
I tin chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp of tomato puree
1.4 l vegetable stock

Season with salt and pepper
Bring to boil
Simmer until veggies soft

You can blend this one too but I much prefer it unblended and the texture of the veg

Chicken broth

Soak a cup of broth mix in water overnight

Left over bits of roast chicken or chop up a chicken breast
1.4 l of chicken stock
1 onion
1 leek
1 carrot chopped or grated

Pop all in pan, bring to boil then simmer for around 45 minutes until broth mix is softened

Do not blend this

Celery soup

1 leek
1 whole celery (or leftovers)
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
thyme

Fry all in butter or oil for a few minutes

Add 75g of basmati rice and fry for a minute

Add 1.3 l veg or chicken stock

Bring to boil then simmer for 20 minutes, season

Do not blend this

Roasted tomato soup

Punnet of tomatoes
Basil leaves
4 cloves garlic

Put all in air fryer drizzle with oil and cook at 200C for 15 minutes

Blend then add 450 ml of vegetable stock and some cream if you like.

I use Kallo veg stock cubes. I also like a spicy soup so I tend to add a lot of flavour with cumin, paprika, turmeric, chilli flakes etc.

Two of my favourites (& family’s)
Chicken , veg & pasta
1.5 pints chicken stock
generous handful carrot batons
diced onion
peeled & diced 1/2 inch fresh ginger
couple cloves garlic
handful orzo rice pasta
pepper
generous amount cooked chicken, torn into chunks.
Turmeric powder if we’re trying to shift a cold

fry the onion until clear in a little olive oil or butter. Pour the stock onto the onion, add the carrots, ginger, garlic, pepper and turmeric if using and bring to the boil. Add the orzo pasta. Once almost done, add the chicken. Continue to cook until the orzo is done.

Easy homemade chicken stock
carcass of a chicken you’ve roasted for another meal.
1 large onion, halved but skin on.
couple sticks celery
1 carrot, washed but skin on
heart of cauliflower / broccoli if you had any with the roast.
freshly ground black pepper
Chuck all the above into a pan (I usually have a pan alongside while I carve the chicken & chuck the bones / skin in as I go along)
Add enough water to cover everything
Bring to the boil then simmer for around an hour, skimming off any scum as it forms.
Allow to cool then pour through a sieve into a large jug or another pan while still warm. Press any bits of meat through the sieve too.

Allow to go cold, skim off any fat that rises to the surface. Store in the fridge and use within 3 days or freeze to use later.

You can add garlic or any other seasoning to the stock but I tend to add those later on.

Oxtail soup
I’m lucky in that a friend has a smallholding so I can get oxtail but you can sometimes find it in good butchers.

1.5 pints beef stock
diced onion , garlic and a couple of sticks of celery
black pepper to taste

Method is similar to the chicken except you’ll need to use a cleaver to break the oxtail into chunks, removing any skin etc. before adding it to the stock, and simmer for around 2 hours (or use a slow cooker set to medium for about 4 hours).

Beef stock can also be made in the same way as the chicken; we have a local wholesale butchers that sells the bones but some of the independent ones do too. This stock had the added benefit of the marrow so is very rich.

If you’re planning on giving the bones to the dog after the stock is made, DON’T add onions or garlic, add those later.

Sadly I think salt and sugar are usually the key- and possibly chilli, depending on what you’re cooking up.

Charlie buckets mum made that for dinner every night 😆 🤣

I make that sort of soup all the time, but I don’t add bread. It always seems a bit much, soggy bread. I might add a potato or a little macaroni or similar as a thickening agent. I havent tried red onion; great tip.

OP, I think it’s critical to keep soup in the fridge.

Butter or cream.
Wine.

Im currently making roasted tomato soup in my Airfryer from my huge crop of lovely tomatoes.

As the poster above 's recipe but I also add a resh oregano leaves , a tablespoon of balsamic, teaspoon of dark muscovado sugar, a splash of red wine, pinch of cayenne pepper, freshly ground salt and pepper.
It definitely benefits from adding cream too, its absolutely delicious

I have also never had soup taste sour the next day.

Start off simply and use a proper recipe, there are hundreds on BBC Food.

When you talk about avoiding UPF do you mean avoiding stock cubes?

Here is a recipe I made recently.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/red-pepper-squash-harissa-soup

Are you mixing in too many vegetable types to one soup ?

stick with a base - onion ( plus celery if liked)
add your main veg - eg carrots or mushrooms or peas or broccoli or beets or tomatoes
add Your liquid - milk for mushroom and stock for anything else
cook processes
add your finishing touches - I use garlic with beetroot, corriander with carrot , blue cheese with broccoli , pepper with mushroom
a dash of cream at serving time

There was a whole weight-loss diet program based around cabbage soup in the 1980s and it's just coming back into fashion. I think it works on the basis that it puts you off food for weeks at a time😁

Yip cabbage in soup stinks

I sauté carrots onion celery and leeks in butter. Add in some chopped garlic and red peppers and some paprika and parsley. Then add in veg stock. Bring to the boil and then just leave it to simmer for 25 mins. In a separate pan I fry off some mushrooms and once cooked add those and the liquid to the pan then just blend part of it so it’s nice and thick. Sometimes I’ll add potatoes but more often than not I don’t. I’ve never had issue with it smelling sour the next day

You do need salt. You won't need to add as much as processed soups contain but you do need to add it.

If you add in too many vegetables it will taste muddy and confused. Blanch and freeze the veg and then you can make more specific soups.

seasoning will help and think about the volumes and how much seasoning is needed may be a lot higher than you are including.

think about roasting vegetables before adding them to the soup base for more flavour. Also think about texture reserve 1/4 if the soup and liquidise the rest and then recombine for interest.

also never had sour soup.

I love soup and make it all the time. But the one soup I have never mastered, and have never tasted a decent one whilst dining out, is anything with parsnips. Just a tiny bit makes the whole thing taste like sweaty farts. Keep away from the parsnips.

I don’t ever put cabbage in soup. Maybe some raw shredded cabbage to throw in ramen but not in proper soup!

Actually I don’t always put garlic in soup either.

The secret is to start with a good base, eg slowly frying onion, celery and carrot for a long time to pick up colour and flavour. You can do an amazing minestrone from that point - my favourite. Or lentil and tomato.

Make sure to slowly cook your vegetables for a decent amount of time before you add your stock. Give it at least a good fifteen minutes to bring out the flavours (don't caramelise it, just a really looooow heat and the occasional stir). Butter is lovely with leeks, onions and other root vegetables. Olive oil is great for tomatoes and peppers. Cabbage is the food of the devil and will overpower everything else in there. Seasoning (with pepper, and also salt) is essential for a nice taste. Also, use a decent quality stock cube.

This is the first soup recipe I ever made and it's still one of my favourites.

https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/root-vegetables/leek-onion-and-potato-soup

Me too - I think it's when vegetables ferment slightly. I think the answer is 'refrigerate'.

My favourite soup is courgette; with garlic, Parmesan, cream and a good wodge of basil. It's delicious and the basil makes it summery fresh.