Could I have some inspirational soup ideas please

[lucysmam]

Am getting quite good at cooking rather than relying on ready-made stuff. Trouble is that the only soup I've managed is a veggie one and lentil one off another thread.

Could someone give me some other ideas as my oh doesn't mind soup and a pud of some sort as an evening meal once a week & it's saving me a fortune making my own!

Tia

Chicken noodle (use left over roast chicken, stock, chinese noodles and throw in some very finely sliced veg if you want to make it more balanced)
broccoli soup sprinkled with grated parmesan
leek and potato
courgette (nicer than you think it's going to be)

Always make double what you need and freeze half.

courgette? never thought of that in soup. Could I have a recipe if you have one please franke

Courgette soup is lovely - there is a fantastic recipe in River Café Cookbook 1.

courgette soup delicious..... made some last night. Can also throw in other random bits of veg in that might need using up.... will try to find link...

Tons of good ones here

butternut squash and coriander.

This site looks good. www.mealsonabudget.co.uk/page3.htm. I am going to try their tomato soup sometime

Courgette soup
500 gms courgettes washed, ends removed, sliced
1 onion chopped
750 ml chicken or vegetable stock.
25 gm Butter
1 bay leaf (optional - or other herb)
Ground black pepper

Melt butter in saucepan. Soften chopped onion in butter, add courgettes and cook for a couple of minutes. Add stock and bay leaf and cook for around 15 minutes until courgettes are soft. Liquidise and season to taste.
You can serve this hot as it is, or add some cream or serve cold (perhaps with yoghurt).

I live off soup at the moment (it's great for filling you up and making sure you get all your veg in, fab for weightloss). My boys have it most days for lunch.

There is a roasted red pepper, basil and tomato one on the hob as we speak.

More often than not I chuck in any veg I have left over and then just whizz it up, fresh herbs help flavour and my boys eat veg they would normally not even look at

Pretty much what lilymaid just posted but my recipe involves an egg at the end - I'll pop back later with the recipe.

Roasted butternut squash and smoked bacon is delicious as well.

oooh brill. Will have a look at link now mishymoo. Liking the sound of curried parsnip as well NotDoingTheHousework! Carmenere, thanks for the link as well.

Should have a nice variety going on now, thank-you all.

Am going to invest in a courgette from the market at the weekend, just out of curiosity. Oh is never keen on things with them in so tend to steer clear but I am curious about it in soup now

there's loads of them there Carmenere!! am off to find out where my pen n book are and write some down.

mishymoo, that link looks very useful, have saved to favourites to have a proper look around that website when oh and lo are not so whiney between them

Here are some great soup ideas with pictures

carrot and sweet potato

couple of sweet potatoes - diced
4-6 carrots - diced
1 large onion - diced
tsp curry paste
Chicken stock - enough to cover veg for cooking then for thinning.
Milk or tin of coconut milk for whizzing with.

chuck veginto large pot with curry paste and fry off for a few minutes, pour over chicken stock so well-covered and cook until softened.

Use hand-blender to blend, adding a bit more chicken stock to thin slightly, then add some milk or coconut milk until you have desired consistency.

NB - I keep mine quite thick as bright orange, runny soup does not go well with toddler .

Also - my microwave croutons...

dice some bread, any bread but almost-stale is best. Chuck in a microwave-proof dish, drizzle olive oil (not extra virgin), shake, zap for 1-2 minutes, shake.

If not yet sizzling, repeat zap/ shake (30secs each time) until sizzly then shake and allow to cool slightly. They go nice and crunchy as they cool. Mmmmm, and DS loves them.

Message withdrawn

lmao Teuch I can imagine my lo with bright orange runny soup
Never done croutons in microwave, will have to try that
Thanks Cod, I'll have a google for that

Message withdrawn

Message withdrawn

Pea, Mint and Courgette soup

chop an onion and a potato, fry in the soup pan.

Add chopped courgettes and as much chicken or veg stock as you want. Salt and pepper and add some dried mint.

Leave to simmer until the potato has softened down, then add frozen peas and leave to simmer until the peas have softened.

Whizz up in the pan or transfer to fp to whizz up.

Swirl in some cream if you are feeling posh!

thanks Cod. They look like useful books to have, I'm working on a small list of thing's I would like for Xmas this year so I don't end up with unuseable junk so will have a look through the selection and stick a couple of those down I think

milge, no danger of feeling posh here, common as muck! Think pea, mint and courgette & carrott and sweet potato can go on my shopping list (ingredients I mean) for this week to go in freezer ready to use

Courgette and brie is fabulous!

There's a good pea soup in the Recipes section.

Buy the Covent Garden soup book - it's packed with lovely, quick recipes.

Easy minestrone:
2 leeks, 2 sticks celery, garlic, tin of tomats, macaroni, pesto, veg stock and green beans and magetout.

Chop leeks, celery and 2 cloves of garlic finely and sweat in olive oil for 8 mins. Add 1.75l of stock, a tin of tomats and some macaroni. Bring to the boil and simmer for ten minutes, Add a spoonful of pesto and the chopped green veg. Leave for two mins. Et voila! Lovely with some grated parmesan over the top too.

Wtercress in a good one, especially as the bags of watercress are often reduced.

Fry and onion and potato until soft; add stock/milk and simmer ; then add watercress for 5 minutes beforfe whizzing. Serve with toasted pine nuts on top.