Im such a terrible Soup maker!

[UKMum]

In all honesty my soup is terrible
I have tried Vegetable soup/Carrott soup and lentil soup, there always seems to be something missing???

What types of soup are easiest to make?
Also is there any ingredient I should add to my soups to flavour them..?

[guest7]

tell us what the recipe you are using

[Darlene]

Pea soup is my tried & true.

Tried and true. I make this whenever I have a ham bone,truth be told that's mainly why I buy the ham.

~Pea Soup~

16 oz split green peas-rinse & check
9c. water
1 meaty hambone
1 lg onion,chopped
2 chicken boullion cubes (I use chicken soup base, it's a powder)
1/2 tsp each garlic powder & oregano
1/4 tsp each blk pepper & ground cloves
1 bay leaf
1+1/2c thinly sliced carrots
1c. sliced celery
s&p to taste

Mix all except carrots & celery & simmer 2 hrs. Remove hambone cool a bit and add any meat from the bone and the carrots & celery to the pot. Simmer another hour. Taste and add more boullion if necessary. Remove bayleaf. May also add extra ham if wanted, just cube & toss in to heat through.

[homesteadmamma]

We love soup here. One thing I always add to soup is pearl barley, no matter what type soup I make (other than chicken noodle soup).

I save all my bones and after I have a few I cook them up to make a soup base. From there I add different spices (whatever I have on hand), veggies, mixed beans.

One thing I found about making soup is you experiment. I never follow a recipe when it comes to making soup and I love trying different spices and different mixtures of things I throw in the soup pot.

[UKMum]

This is the soup recipe Im using and It tastes rotten......

Prepare veggies(carrotts/potatoes/onions/celery/turnip/
leeks/garlic cloves)
Place in soup pot
Cover with water
Leave to boil/soften
Add stock (Im using veg stock)
Leave for another while
Serve.....

Problem is Turnip is hard/soup is too thick and there lacks a flavour from it.....
Any advice......

[britbunny]

Turnip always seemed to be a source of trauma in our house! Now we boil it a little bit before adding it to the soup.

Also I chop the celery really finely (as I don't like the taste of it) and cook that with the onions in a little bit of olive oil for about 10 minutes on a low heat whilst the turnip is cooking.

I also add to my veg soup 1/2 organic veg stock cube (too salty for me otherwise), garlic - one clove if you don't want to taste it and more if you do. A squeeze of tomato puree. Oregano or a sprinkling of mixed herbs and of course the best bit of any meal - loads of freshly ground black pepper!

I use my hand blender to get rid of some of the chunks of veg then if it's too thick add more water or stock. (Although if you'd seen my leek and potato soup last weekend you'd question whether it WAS soup it was so thick!)

When we have carrot and lentil soup I chop the carrot really finely and again cook for 10 minutes with finely chopped celery. Whilst this is doing I blend together 1/2 tin tomatoes, 1 sundried tomato, 1 clove garlic a teeny pinch of cajun spice mix and some mixed herbs.

Add the lentils to the carrot and celery add the tomato mixture and cook for a minute then add your hot stock and cook until the lentils are done. Yum.

Ths is our favourite to come home too after a hard afternoon's rugby!

[Emerald_Mommy]

We make veggie soup from leftover veggies (saved in the freezer). I add a can of crushed tomatoes and some onion soup mix (dried packet). We toss in meat if we have it. Just simmer for at least 30 minutes (you can do more).

Another favorite is an adapted Pampered Chef recipe for Chicken Enchilada Soup. That one has a jar of salsa, a can of enchilada sauce, two kinds of canned beans, a bit of corn, and whatever left over chicken I have. This one also simmers for 30 min.

Good luck with your soup!

[Valerie in WA]

Here's a thread where soup flavoring is discussed at length: https://www.frugalvillage.com/forums/...threadid=60129

[canadian gardener]

thanks Valerie, I was just thinking that thread might help and there you put it in! There are so many good ideas in there on building flavour base.

Thing is you often have to start by gently frying up onions, garlic and spices (I'm partial to a pinch of curry, it won't flavour the soup currywise, but it gives a golden warm brothy flavour).

Curry and Chili powder are two spices that I know for SURE need a gentle fry up in some hot olive oil to release flavour, and so do onions and garlic.

Once you get the sugars in the onions and garlic caramelizing, they go a bit brown on the bottom of the pan and start to stick.

THAT is where your flavour comes from.

I think it's appalling that cookbook writers don't bring out that fact but in all honesty most cookbooks haven't a clue about soup.

That thread has a lot of old soup making wisdom in it.

[canadian gardener]

oh and oven roast the veggies you mention FIRST!!! THEN make the broth, making sure you rinse all the brown bits on the pan into the soup pot with the water.

peel and cut the veggies and toss in a pan with olive oil and cloves of garlic, peeled only, then sprinkle with a bit of salt and maybe some rosemary or basil and roast till golden brown on the tops and bottoms.

Dump into soup pot, then pour some (not a lot) of boiling water on the pan, and gently loosen the brown bits.

Dump THAT into the pot, season to taste with a little more salt if needed, bring to a simmer, and simmer about 20 minutes or so.

If you wish to puree the soup with a hand blender, do so after the veggies are fall apart tender.

If you wish to add a little teeny bit more zip to the soup dash in a little soy sauce instead of the salt.

This will give you a delightful veggie soup suitable for vegans and vegetarians.

Vegetarians but not vegans may wish to add a little sour cream at the table into a pureed veggie soup. Just a dollop, and stir.

Or you may wish to stir in some heavy cream RIGHT AT THE END or it will curdle if you still have it on the heat.

[UKMum]

ThanQ ladies...
I made a pot of soup this morning and it tastes Delicious
Secrets were
slight roasting of the veggies/adding meat stock and salt....
Success!!!!!!