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?

I often slow cook a gammon joint resting on big chunks of carrot and onion then keep the veg and juices and some of the meat to make lentil and bacon soup. This week I added diced sweet potato along with the ordinary potato and more carrot and onions, plus a chicken stock cube, served it with home made cheese scones and it was absolutely delicious.

I was coming on to recommend the M&S concentrated chicken stock as per the first poster! It’s got salt and sugar already so don’t add more.

And yes, follow a recipe. Some combinations just work.

I make soup for Saturday lunch as we are all eating at different times - this week it will be cauliflower and chestnut soup - last week roasted butternut squash with coconut milk and a bit of Thai curry paste

The basic order of any soup: fry your onions or leeks low and slow until they are soft and golden. Important to cook them long enough to avoid the metallic tang of uncooked onion - it takes 10-15 min IME, so start the onions while you chop other ingredients. Then garlic and any slow cooking/robust veg (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, mushrooms etc) and fry a few more minutes. Add any spices or other robust flavours at this point too. Then add liquids (stock mainly, splash of wine maybe) and simmer until the veg is soft and blendable. Then blend if you want. Then add anything delicate and quick cooking - eg spinach, extra herbs. Then serve.

@minipie do you have a recipe for the chestnut soup? Sounds delicious!

It’s https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/cauliflower-chestnut-soup

Once, in an effort to use up Christmas leftovers, I made Brussel Sprouts and Wensleydale soup. It was really nice actually. The soup itself was Brussel sprouts but I crumbled Wensleydale in to the bowls before pouring the soup over the top.

I make soups like Chinese chicken & sweetcorn or Melissa Helmsleys Filipino rice & crispy garlic soup.
Last week I made Tortilla soup topped with crushed tortillas & sour cream. And this week I made traditional leek & potato from a BBC good food recipe.
I've also been making Jamie Oliver's Caldo Verde soup topped with crispy chorizo for years. As it was one healthy thing that my kids loved when they were young
I've just been sent several Turkish soup recipes so I need to try those next.

I use these too.

I made a fab roasted cauliflower soup yesterday. Cut the cauli into florets, drizzled with olive oil, lots of pepper and a bit of salt. Roasted in the airfryer. Sweated some onion and garlic at the same time. Added cauliflower to the pan with a jug of chicken stock. Simmered until soft, stick blended and added 200ml of cream. Fooking delicious!!!

I also use kallo stock cubes - mainly the chicken but sometimes beef. I also make my own stock - either chicken or veggie. Sometimes use Marigold Bouillon too.

A favourite is lentil. I start with cubed smoked pancetta. Then onion celery and carrots. Half a sweet potato. Stock, green lentils, pile of parsley. Take about half out to blend. Maybe a little cream.
Another I like is a Thai chicken. Onion, celery, carrot, then garlic, chilli and ginger. Half a sweet potato. Then coconut milk, lemongrass and chopped chicken. Then coriander. Then blend smooth.

Don't make cream of celeriac soup. It looks like baby sick. In fact it probably tastes like it too. Bleurgh.

Or celery soup @TroysMammy. I pretty much eat anything, but it was horrible.

@Gastropod
I’m like you… I have red, orange and green portions of soup in my freezer. I often make too much. Your veg combos are similar to mine.

From a long standing soup lover I would think that the bitterness in soup (assuming it was safe to eat) would be a cruciferous vegetable.

Maybe leave out the cabbage?