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?

Parsnips (and any sweet veg) need something spicy imo. I love parnsip and ginger soup, although don't like parsnips themselves much at all.

Onion soup with beef and chicken stock, red and white martini (or wine). In for a penny...

Cauliflower cheese soup

Fennel bulb / fennel bulb and tinned tomato. Needs very little else.

Courgette is one of my favourites too but so often i get that horrible bitter flavour in it.

I always use Swiss bouillon and to be honest the only homemade soups I’ve donethat I thought were really nice were pumpkin, broccoli and blue cheese and cauliflower and blue cheese

Oh I remember that! Was a tad windy too if I recall correctly… (shudder)

Mine are not good either 😬. I’m veggie, can anyone recommend a decent veggie stock?

I love this book 📧

• A Soup for Every Day: 365 of Our Favourite Recipes
• by New Covent Garden Food Company

Seasonal recipes, some of the soups are complete meals, & it's good for inspiration.

You're going to have to add salt. Unsalted soup is never going to taste ok. Nor is soup with soy sauce or worcestershire sauce added.

And a stock cube isn't going to kill you.

There are lots of good soup recipes online.

Find one, and stick to it. Don't ad lib.

If you make your own stock, just add onion, garlic, and carrots (peeled), plus fresh herbs (parsley, rosemary in a bouquet garni). Celery can make stock taste bitter.

Lentil soup with potatoes:

1 large onion, diced
12 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
5 ribs of celery plus leaves, finely chopped
3 large carrots, peeled, diced roughly
I large baking style potato, peeled, cubed, or about a dozen small new potatoes, washed, halved
2/3 cup puy lentils (or similar)
Water or stock - one litre at least
Cumin
Paprika
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Sliced lemon
Fresh cilantro/ coriander
Fresh parsley (about half a coffee mug of fresh herbs)
Stock cube - veg, beef, chicken, whatever

Rinse puy lentils and remove grit and any other stuff that isn't a lentil.
Add onion and sweat it in olive oil.
Add garlic, stir around for a few minutes.
Add carrots, stir for a few minutes.
Add a heaped soup spoon each of cumin and paprika. Stir.
Add water or stock.
Add lentils, stir.
Add celery and potatoes.
Add stock cube.
Liquid should cover the veg and lentils innthe pot by about 2 inches. Add heated water or stock to cover veg/ lentils.
Stir, bring to boil, then simmer covered for about 45 mins. Lentils should be soft. Stir now and then during simmering.
Add S&P to taste.
Add sliced lemon and fresh herbs. Simmer another ten mins.

Serve.

I think unless it's actually tomato soup then adding tomatoes to soup ruins it. You need lots of fat and seasoning for soup, I've never used a stock cube for soup .

I'm surprised at all the cabbage soup hate! Cabbage roll soup is a regular for me although as it has mince in (mince in soup is another controversial topic 🙈) I guesse it's more of a stew maybe? We love it regardless 😂

This. Stop getting creative. Find a veg recipe and stick to it.

At the end, taste it and add a little salt, then taste, then add a little lemon juice or white wine vinegar, then taste. Repeat and eventually all the other flavours will appear

For any soup leeks help with the flavour and frying them off in some butter. Also if your making any root veg soups roast the veg first before adding to the soup for blending as it intensifies the flavour.

This soup is so basic and so tasty, I also like to add some red onions to it.

Spiced carrot & lentil soup recipe | Good Food

I make great soups, and here's why:

Use plenty of butter (and a couple of tablespoons of oil) to fry the veg in. Perhaps 4 tablespoons of butter.

For the veg, use: 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 sticks celery, 1/6 of a cabbage, maybe a couple of large cauliflower florets, diced up. Couple of garlic cloves perhaps. Gently fry for ten mins.

Add chicken stock, preferably homemade, about a centimeter above the veg.

Add a big handful of red lentils. Add bay leaves.

Simmer till veg is cooked. Remove bay leaves. Blend.

My main trick with the veg is do not mix red and green veg together to make blended soups. So I'd never do tomato and broccoli, for example. Other than that I'd use a mixture of veggies, but always add at least two onions.

I fins cabbage invaluable in soups, it gives it a such a creamy texture.

I make this too, and it is always better the next day. I make it in my slow cooker.

Actually I use my slow cooker for other soups. Stem soup is a good one, put the stems of broccoli and cauliflower and the leaves add boiling water salt, pepper and a few dried herbs.

When you are ready use a stick blender to get a smooth soup.

Courgette and coriander (this one I do on the hob). One courgette per person and a bunch of coriander.

Slice the courgette(s) and sweat in a little oil for about 10 mins. Add the coriander and boiling water and a veg stock cube, simmer for 10 mins then blend. It can be eaten hot or cold. I usually add a dollop of crème fraiche or a dribble of cream.

If you have any Indian grocers you can get quite big bunches of coriander, if you wrap in newspaper you can freeze it. When you are ready to add the coriander take it out and crumble it with your hand.

Saute the vegetables in butter for a few minutes before adding the stock.

I love a soup! I never try to make it with cruciferous veg though. I know people do but it always tastes bitter when I try it. My favourite is lentil and butternut squash and it's even better if you roast the squash and just bung it in with veg stock and cooked lentils.

Kallo organic stock cubes are good and perfectly healthy, or I often make my own stock by putting potato/carrot etc peelings in a bag in the freezer and boiling it up with wine and whatever bits of old cheese I might have about.

You do need salt. You can top with seeds and nuts etc too for extra deliciousness.

Really good stock, preferably home-made. If you get caught on the hop, a teaspoonful of Marmite dissolved in 1l of boiling water will solve the issue.
I always use a potato to thicken, but needs to be a floury potato.
Never more than 2 main ingredients, in addition to onion and garlic, if using, or if you are making a minestrone.
Plenty of black pepper, freshly ground. Squeeze of lemon or lime juice at the end to lift the taste.
Favourite soups, leek & potato or curried parsnip & apple.
Never underestimate cold soups such as gazpacho or tarator. I also make chilled fruit soups as a pudding on really hot days, especially when my cherry tree is fruiting.
Turn a substantial suop into a main course by adding chopped meat or sausage, serve with soda bread, butter, cheese anf fruit.

I make pretty good soups, mostly through a lot of past trial and error.
I find that picking a veg “colour” works well as a starting point:
Red soup (peppers, tomatoes, maybe aubergines)
Yellow/orange (carrot, squash, sweet potato)
Green (broccoli, leek, courgette, pea)
Brown (mushroom etc)

I always add plenty of onions - soften first before adding the other veg. Always meat stock (beef or chicken, stock cubes are fine). I always add mascarpone or Philadelphia if I’m going for European flavours or coconut milk/cream if going Asian. Fresh herbs (stems and all) added at the last minute before blending.

Biggest tip is don’t add too much water. You can always thin it out but if you put too much in too soon, it’ll be horrible. I add enough water/stock to make it easy to blend and then add bit by bit after that. Plenty of seasoning too.
I never thicken with flour or use potatoes either. Cream, butter and seasonings are your friends!

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/super-lentil-and-vegetable-soup.html

I use this as a base and change up the ingredients

This has been been most enlightening.
Thank you all for your recipes and tips.

Any chance of the recipe for curried parsnip and apple please?

I add Chinese 5 spice to my bottom-of-the-fridge soup. It lifts boring left over veges wonderfully.