Once you have made your own you will be horrified at how much a tin costs and wonder why you ever bought them.
Which recipe you use depends on what equipment you have to use and personal preference, they basically fall into two categories; smooth or chunky, but you can do a combination of the two.
Smooth can be done with a masher or metal sieve, but who on earth can be bothered doing it like that!!! So smooth is if you have access to a food processor, blender, liquidiser or hand blender (that relative who keeps asking can they get you anything for going to Uni....this is what to ask them for...or a wok but I will get to that later).
If you don't have any of these don't despair you can still make a quick and easy soup.
Smooth soup
Ingredients:
Flavour starter (Pick 1 or 2 from: Garlic, chili, ginger, onion, leeks)Veg (Whatever you have, see below for tips)
Stock powder
Water
The quantities are up to you and what you have, you could make a bowl of soup with a carrot, half an onion, a clove of garlic, a tea spoon of stock powder and about 3/4 bowl (the bowl you want to fill) of water.
But why just make one bowl when it is so cheap to make?
Tips: When you cook broccoli or cauliflower do you throw the stalk away? Or do you only use half the leek? This is part of the vegetable it still has the same flavour, it is just ugly. So use these bits up for soup. Anytime I have broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, leeks I save the bits I don't want with that meal for soup, when I have half a pile I make a pan of soup.
What else? Any root veg is great for soup and is usually cheap too, even if it has gone a bit wrinkly or bendy, it is still fine for soup. If you live near a market, look out for them trimming cauliflowers and broccoli as you can buy the trimmings from then for a few pence or they may even give you them for free. Or they may have a box of broken or ugly veg that they are selling cheap. Even supermarkets will sell off bags of ugly root veg, so keep an eye out for them, it all makes great soup. Here are the ones I have used in the past: Carrots, parsnips, swede, celeriac, cauliflower, broccoli, beetroot, butternut squash, pumpkin (use the insides from your Halloween lantern), courgettes, potato, leek. You can also use lentils or beans, if you are using the dried ones then check if they need to be soaked first. If you are veggie or vegan then red lentils are a great source of iron and don't need any pre-soaking, just add a handful to your soup with your veg. If you like your soups thick then add potato, beans or lentils
Instructions
1. Chop up your flavour boosters and fry in a little oil in the pan you are going to use for the soup (Only one pan to wash up then, but just make sure it is big enough). Keep the heat on medium as you don't want burnt bits. If you are doing onions then you want to cook them until they are translucent (or if that doesn't make much sense, until they stop being bitter and crunchy when you taste them). If you want to use a spice paste such as curry paste or harrissa then add once your onions are ready and cook for 30 secs.
2. Take the pan off the heat and chop up the rest of the veg. You are aiming for about 1cm cubes but they don't have to be neat or all the same size. No one is going to see how bad your chopping is when you have blitzed it smooth.
3. Put the pan back on the heat on high and add the veg, keep stirring round and cook for about 2 mins (no need to be that exact, you are just trying to release some of the sugars from the veg but not get any colour on it, again you don't want your soup to taste burnt. If a bit of veg does go dark brown or black just remove that piece. If it is just light brown then don't worry, it will still taste fine)
4. Add enough water to just cover the veg. Add stock powder. You want about a teaspoon to each pint of water, if you are not sure just add one teaspoon you can always add more at the end.
5. Once the water is boiling turn the heat down to low and put a lid on the pan (If you don't have a lid then you can use a plate)
Note: You can also add any herbs and spices you want in your soup at this point. Add a teaspoon of your chosen herb or spice for now.
6. After 5 mins check your veg by sticking a fork into the biggest bit you can see, if the veg falls off your fork when you lift it, then it is ready to become soup if it stays on the fork, then cook it for a few minutes more and check again.
7. Once the veg is cooked, turn off the heat and leave it with the lid off to cool slightly before blitzing.
8. If using a hand blender then just put the blender end in to the soup and then switch it on, keep it very upright but moving so that you blend it all and don't end up with lumpy bits. If you are using a blender/liquidiser/food processor then spoon or pour your soup in there (make sure you put the lid on right, you don't want to decorate your kitchen with soup, you won't be very popular then) and blend until smooth.
9. taste the soup to see if it needs anymore flavour and add salt, pepper, spice or herbs as it needs. If it needs more stock then add a teaspoon of stock to a cup and pour on a little boiling water, stir till the stock dissolves and then add to the soup.
10. Heat it up a bit and then enjoy. You can serve it with bread, tortilla chips, crumpets or whatever you like really.
Extras: Soup doesn't have to be veggie, chop up some cooked meat and throw it in when you warm it up to serve. Try a spicy butternut squash soup with chili and add some ham or sausage, or use thai green curry paste with any veg you like and then add some cooked chicken, To make a smooth soup into a meal for a veggie add some tinned chickpeas or beans or even some quorn.
Chunky soup
Ingredients:
Flavour starter (Pick 1 or 2 from: Garlic, chili, ginger, onion, leeks)
Veg (Whatever you have, see below for tips)
Added chunks (Whatever you have, see below for tips)
Stock powder
Water
The technique for this soup is similar to the smooth soup, but because you are not blitzing it you need to pay a bit more attention to your chopping. The advantage of this soup is there is a lot more you can add, think chicken noodle soup or minestrone. You can make it as chunky as you like so that it becomes a meal and almost a stew.
Tips: Just like the smooth soup you can use any veg you like, in fact more veg suits a chunky soup than a smooth. Green beans, peas, sweetcorn, courgette, cabbage etc aren't the best veg for a smooth soup but work really well for a chunky one. Beans work better than lentils in a chunky soup, try chick peas, kidney beans etc to make a soup more filling. You can also add rice, noodles or pasta, though remember you are going to be eating this with a spoon (I hope) so break any long bits up in to small pieces that can easily be picked up in a spoon. You can also get soup pasta but it isn't a necessity, spaghetti broken up into 2cm (ish) bits works just as well. I have even been known to use pot noodle or super noodles for a soup.
Veg (Whatever you have, see below for tips)
Added chunks (Whatever you have, see below for tips)
Stock powder
Water
The technique for this soup is similar to the smooth soup, but because you are not blitzing it you need to pay a bit more attention to your chopping. The advantage of this soup is there is a lot more you can add, think chicken noodle soup or minestrone. You can make it as chunky as you like so that it becomes a meal and almost a stew.
Tips: Just like the smooth soup you can use any veg you like, in fact more veg suits a chunky soup than a smooth. Green beans, peas, sweetcorn, courgette, cabbage etc aren't the best veg for a smooth soup but work really well for a chunky one. Beans work better than lentils in a chunky soup, try chick peas, kidney beans etc to make a soup more filling. You can also add rice, noodles or pasta, though remember you are going to be eating this with a spoon (I hope) so break any long bits up in to small pieces that can easily be picked up in a spoon. You can also get soup pasta but it isn't a necessity, spaghetti broken up into 2cm (ish) bits works just as well. I have even been known to use pot noodle or super noodles for a soup.
Instructions
1. Chop up your flavour boosters and fry in a little oil in the pan you are going to use for the soup (Only one pan to wash up then, but just make sure it is big enough). Keep the heat on medium as you don't want burnt bits. If you are doing onions then you want to cook them until they are translucent (or if that doesn't make much sense, until they stop being bitter and crunchy when you taste them). If you want to use a spice paste such as curry paste or harrissa then add once your onions are ready and cook for 30 secs.
2. Take the pan off the heat and chop up the rest of the veg. You are aiming for a bit smaller than 1cm cubes. The neater your chopping the better your soup will look at the end.
Note: Depending on what you are using you might not want to add all the veg at the same time, as a rough guide the harder the veg the longer it takes to cook so that goes in first, if you are using pasta or rice check the pack for how long it takes to cook, if longer than 5 mins skip step 3 and go to step four and then add it, once there is five mins left for it's cooking time then add veg. (For example if the rice says 10 mins, cook the rice in the stock for 5 mins and then add the veg). Tinned or frozen peas and sweetcorn only take about 2 mins and so add those last. Any cooked meat will need about 3 mins as long as it is chopped up to the same size as the veg.
3. Put the pan back on the heat on high and add the veg, keep stirring round and cook for about 2 mins (no need to be that exact, you are just trying to release some of the sugars from the veg but not get any colour on it, again you don't want your soup to taste burnt. If a bit of veg does go dark brown or black just remove that piece. If it is just light brown then don't worry, it will still taste fine)
4. Add enough water to cover the veg plus about 1cm. Add stock powder. You want about a teaspoon to each pint of water, if you are not sure just add one teaspoon you can always add more at the end.
5. Once the water is boiling turn the heat down to low and put a lid on the pan (If you don't have a lid then you can use a plate)
Note: You can also add any herbs and spices you want in your soup at this point. Add a teaspoon of your chosen herb or spice for now.
6. After 5 mins check your veg by sticking a fork into the biggest bit you can see, if the veg falls off your fork when you lift it, then it is ready to become soup if it stays on the fork, then cook it for a few minutes more and check again.
7. Once the veg (and any pasta, rice or noodles) is cooked, turn off the heat and leave it with the lid off to cool slightly before blitzing.
8. If using a hand blender then just put the blender end in to the soup and then switch it on, keep it very upright but moving so that you blend it all and don't end up with lumpy bits. If you are using a blender/liquidiser/food processor then spoon or pour your soup in there (make sure you put the lid on right, you don't want to decorate your kitchen with soup, you won't be very popular then) and blend until smooth.
9. taste the soup to see if it needs anymore flavour and add salt, pepper, spice or herbs as it needs. If it needs more stock then add a teaspoon of stock to a cup and pour on a little boiling water, stir till the stock dissolves and then add to the soup.
10. Heat it up a bit and then enjoy. You can serve it with bread, tortilla chips, crumpets or just on its own.
Extras: You can also added some chopped tomatoes for a more italian style soup or for a thai style soup some thai curry paste and coconut milk. For chinese style egg threads, whisk an egg in a cup and with the soup off the heat but still hot, stir the soup whilst pouring in the beaten egg in a steady trickle. The quickest soup I have ever made was chicken noodle, chop up chicken (or quorn), break up some quick cook spaghetti, add to pan with water and stock powder and heat until spaghetti is cooked, it is actually quicker than making it from a packet as nothing needs to be re-hydrated.
