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I need some soup suggestions - not recipes

4K views 31 replies 23 participants last post by  Daisygirl 
#1 ·
I don't think I've EVER followed a recipe exactly from start to finish. Soups especially. I believe that soups are a great way to use up leftovers and small quantities of foods, and to stretch the budget. However, I'm stuck in a rut. My soups are bland and they all tend to taste the same.

My basic soup is a poultry broth (turkey or chicken), with potatoes, carrots, & onion. If I have celery I use it, but if not, I have dried celery leaves. I usually season with sage, dill, garlic powder, maybe some rosemary, a bit of cayenne pepper, and a dash of salt. I add more salt to my bowl at the table, but dh & dd's are fine low salt. I also may use rice or noodles (homemade or commercial) and if I do that, I may or may not eliminate the potato (since both are starch.

I tried to make something different this week, but it was SO bland. I had turkey broth, fake 'meat' (soy strips), white beans (AKA navy beans), kidney beans & pinto beans. Plus potatoes, carrots & onion. And seasonings similar to those listed above. It just had so little flavor.

I am getting some beef bones next week & can make some beef broth, as well as a turkey that I can use for meat in the soups. But I just need some ideas. What can I do to spice it up a bit? (Not too much tho, little kids, y'know). What seasonings do you use?

TIA!
 
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#3 ·
What made my turkey soup better ...After a holiday meal is to put the leftover gravy in the soup too.;) It adds so much flavor.

ssh...I've even put in stuffing :eek:
 
#4 ·
I find that anything with beans needs a lot of flavour and I agree with pkelly, tomatoes, oregano, garlic, parsley, basil and bayleaf.
I use that combo for anything with tomato.

For a soup with rice I use curry, you can make your own that's spicy without being hot - just leave out the chilli. I make a tasty curried onion, celery and carrot soup.

For plain vegetable soup I always add barley, it thickens it up and adds a lovely nutty flavour. I also add worcester sauce or soy sauce to this for added flavour.

You can make great soups by just blending one vegetable that has been boiled with an onion - pumpkin, spinach, peas, caulflower, brocolli etc. The onion adds a lot to the flavour but it's the other vegetable that dominates. I add a slurp of cream too after I finish cooking these soups to make them creamy.

Valerie, I never follow recipes either, I just get general ideas from them. It's a great way to cook.
 
#5 ·
These are just the ideas I'm looking for! Keep 'em coming!

I also was realizing (after I posted) that the bean & vegetable soup had NO fat in it. A bit would probably help the flavor. I usually always skim it off of my broths before I can them, but maybe I'll freeze small bits of skimmed fat to add to soups.
 
#6 ·
One of my favorite soups: curried squash or pumpkin. I usually do it by sauteeing a little onion, garlic and the curry powder together, then blending in broth and cooked squash. Adjust for desired thickness and add some cream, if you like. It'd delish. :chef:
 
#7 ·
I put onions and minced garlic in many, many foods that I cook. I'd use a lot more garlic, actually, but DH doesn't like it nearly as well as I do. :toothy: I also favor cilantro and parsley.

Honestly, I just grab random spices from my spice rack sometimes when I need more flavor. Open it, smell it, decide if it suits the flavor of the dish... and add a bit. Nothing organized about it, lol, but it works for me. ;)

Another thing I use for soups or gravies is powdered boullion... not enough to make all the broth, but, maybe a teaspoon here and there for just a bit of extra  flavor.
 
#8 ·
Hi...in most of my tomato based soups, chile, sauce; I usually add cinnamon, and a few tablespoons of salsa. you could use the ingred. of salsa....I try to have chopped red and green peppers in the freezer. Then I can just throw in a handful. (buy them when they are cheap....chop and freeze). I have also added ginger and nutmeg in small amounts for a bit of flavor...think German pot roast.

As far as different ingredients....try a sweet potato chopped up, shredded cabbage instead of noodles. My Mom made a simple soup that we all loved....left over macaroni and cheese...mixed with tomato soup. She called it "pizza soup". To us it was a treat, but I suspect it was her way of stretching things.

Hope this helps.
 
#10 ·
One word


Chipolte!!!!!


Think, tomatoe based, a little brown sugar, everything in your fridges bottom drawers, beans, and smoked chili peppers.

Very yummy,

Different everytime (like a soup should be)

With squash one of my favourite things to do is to smash it, soup it up with milk, salt it a bit and add several cardamom seeds. Very delicate, exotic and delicious.

babs
 
#11 ·
I agree with the onions and garlic. I think what makes or breaks a soup is the way you start the onions. You have to sautee them to past soft and a bit browned. I love garlic in soup.
 
#12 ·
The "fake meat" soy products really don't add flavor to soup. I think its because the flavor is not in the soy, it's added to it. I sometimes use the sausage style soy crumbles in my cabbage soup, but wait till the end to add them. It is the same way with turkey "ham" or "sausage."

For an oriental flavored soup I add a couple of squirts of low sodium soy sauce or Braggs Liquid Aminos, garlic, a little ginger and sesame seeds if I happen to have them. I used to have an oriental seasoning blend I used a lot but haven't been able to find it lately. Sometimes I also add a couple of squirts of Worchestershire sauce to soup to zip it up a bit.

We like hearty soup so I often use rice, pasta, beans, lentils etc. I think you do need more other seasonings when you use them though. DH is fond of Italian spices so I often use an Italian blend I get for a good price at a kitchen outlet store.

I haven't tried it yet, but have been coming across a lot of soup recipes with fresh spinach or kale in them. That might also add some flavor as does cabbage.

I don't add salt to anything. The only salt we even have in the house is for the ice cream freezer. I've been cooking this way since I was a child, so don't miss it. DH has helped me with other spices though. If you use any canned products in your soup they are already loaded with salt. Broth and buillion cubes, crystals, etc. are really loaded. Some seasoning blends (even most lemon pepper) contain salt. Even certain vegetables such as celery are high in sodium. So added salt is really not needed, especially if your soup is rich in flavor from the spices and foods you use in it.
 
#13 ·
summer savoury and sage and poultry seasoning are great additions to anything where you want a sausage flavour.

Chemically, fats carry flavour and enhance them so make sure you have some in the soup. I start EVERY soup with butter or olive oil.

I'm a fan of sauteeing onions, celery and spices such as a pinch of curry or chili in butter to start.

I ALWAYS brown the meat, fat and skin of any meat based soup FIRST in some hot olive oil till it sticks to the bottom, and all sides are browned. THEN add the water. Makes a rich broth.

Some people roast the bones then start their soup, and wash out the pan with your soup water. Don't lose the brown bits, they are the flavour.

Let it sit and marry the flavours a day in the fridge BEFORE you harden and skim off the fat, because the fat flavours the broth in that time. After a day you can skim off the hard fat, and your broth will still be tasty.

A word about skimming the scum that rises when you cook meat based soups. Please skim and discard. It doesn't add a thing to the finished product and actually can detract from flavour and appearance. Good chefs always skim and discard. Don't be afraid of losing the soup with it, some goes down the drain, there is plenty more.

Remember onions, celery, parsley, and salt for the beginnings. Fry them gently in butter, sprinkle with salt and add a few whole pepper corns and a bay leaf for a good basic chicken or meat based broth.

When you are finished cooking the skin and bones and fat and meat, those onions and so on will need straining out too. They've given their all to the soup, and the sad remains DON'T ADD ANYTHING nice. This is stock you have created, and it needs straining. I let it sit in the fridge for a day, then skim fat, heat it to liquid, then strain it.

Strain it, and start the rest of the soup additions using the highly flavoured stock as the base.
 
#16 ·
yup, you could freeze the sauteed onions, but rinse the pan with some of the "gravy" or browned bits, that is where the flavour lies, and add the water you rinse with back on top of the onions in the freezer cups or whatever.

says she who is CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!:toothy:

but TASTY!!!!!:toothy:

and I'm glad Valerie started this soup thread, these kinds of tips took me many years to learn, bit by trial and error bit.
 
#17 ·
Margery, your post gave me another idea...

Saturday I made roasted potatoes with dry onion soup & oil. They were DELISH!! Today I got around to cleaning the baking dish and it occured to me that had I done so on Saturday, I could've used those drippings toward soup. Next time I make the roasted potatoes, I'm going to swish the dish with hot water and pour it into a canning jar...then I'll save that mixture for my next soup. Yum, yum! (I've really been craving onion lately, for some reason.)
 
#18 ·
I know I'm wierd for this, but considering the price of butter, bacon and good cold-pressed oils, I hate wasting fat. If I've made broth and there's a layer of fat on it, I'll use it to cook eggs or sautee veggies instead of butter or olive oil. :toothy: Frugal and delicious!
 
#19 ·
How do you save your fats? In containers in the fridge? Do you label them? Are their some fats that don't mix with some foods? I was thinking about this very same thing yesterday. Great minds! ;)
 
#20 ·
I love this thread Valerie, I think it's a lot about building flavour into foods. Cooks know these tricks, but magazines don't always tell, because many of the writers don't know. If I had a dollar for every soup recipe that starts with boiling something I'd be rich!!!!

Frying is where to build flavour. Just like when you are doing chops or fish a light dusting of flour, and a little butter or olive oil frying gently in a nonstick pan gives a much nicer flavour and appearance than the same food without the flour.

Why? The starches in the flour and the proteins in the food, combine and caramelize and create flavourful compounds when heated in fat. The flavour is in the fat and the light dusting (not a heavy coat at all) of flour holds that flavour filled fat and the browning compounds next to the food.

(dont' do non stick on high heats, fry at med to med high heat for safety) Non stick pans release the browned bits with little water compared to cleaning out a steel or iron pot. (and you can brown in less fat).

Which is why when you crockpot a meat it always goes nicer if you do this little dust with flour, fry in oil, then when it's browned, dump in crock, and swish the pan with water which you add to the crockpot.

People who don't know this trick have to compensate by using stock cubes and a lot more salt. Or a LOT more fat in the foods.

A SMALL pinchy of salt, and an even smaller pinchy of curry powder is a flavour enhancer that works almost as well as MSG without the terrible chemical hit that MSG delivers to the brain.

A light browning with a little dusting of flour on the surface keeps things moister and tastier in good fats like butter and olive oil.
 
#23 ·
One of my favorite things to do to thicken up a soup is to freeze any left-over mashed potatoes and when you go to make a soup, toss some of that into it. The potatoes, when frozen, get very very mushy, kind of like instant potatoes. They thicken up a soup very well and you get such a warm, yummy soup. I often do this instead of cream, as I am not able to digest lactose.

The other thing I like to do is add a can of tomato soup (I only use Heinz as I find all the other brands leave a very metalic taste in my mouth). Just a straight can of tomato soup and it comes out beautiful.

Rice, barley, any veggie in the world, grated cheese, soy sauce, etc. are all wonderful additives to good ol' fashion "leftover stew". :)

I also save the broth from other stews and soups to add to another concotion later in the week. :)

My biggest problem is, I add so much to the soups, they end up too thick, like mush! :p
 
#24 ·
Hmmm...I wonder if your mashed potato trick would take some of the heat out of the White Chicken Chili I'm making today. http://www.thatsmyhome.com/slowcooker/white-chicken-chili.htm I've made it before with half the green chilies, but found it needs a lot of (fattening) sour cream to not set my mouth on fire. And I like heat! It's also more brothy- not creamy. I think I'll try the potatoes today. I'll let you know how it works out. :)
 
#25 ·
I made bean and bacon soup today, and I think the biggest flavor enhancer was frying the bacon really crisp, and then carmelizing the onions, celery, and carrots in the bacon grease, and then a few minutes before done, adding the garlic to brown it (be careful, it burns) toss it all in, crock pot on low all day (my house smells wonderful) I also threw in some dry red pepper flakes,fresh parsley, and some celery salt as I was a little short on celery.
Leanne from Flylady always talks about stir frying the veggies even in veggie soup before putting them in.
We also boil our shrimp shells, strain and freeze in little rubbermaid containers (holds about 1/4 cup) and pop them into a plastic bag. Like little broth ice cubes. They add a lot of flavor to any kind of soup, even not a seafood soup.
I am looking forward to fall, I love cool weather and soup season!!
 
#26 ·
Green chilies, jalapenos chopped, fresh minced garlic is way better than powder, hot pepper sauce, cumin and ground red pepper. I use these alot in our soups.
 
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