Many people buy vegetable soups in tins and packets, thinking that making their own is complicated and time consuming. But making soup is cheap, quick and easy, and does not even require a recipe. It is also a means of using up left over food, thus reducing waste and saving money. And homemade soups are far more nutritious than shop bought ones.
Basic Method of Making Vegetable Soup
Any vegetables – cooked or raw - can be roughly chopped and boiled in water until the resulting mixture is very soft. Then some flavouring is added, and the resulting soup is ready to eat. That is all there is to it! However, a few other ingredients and techniques will dramatically improve the taste.
Other Cooking Techniques
No matter what vegetables are being used, it is a good idea to add an onion or two; this always improves the flavour of the resulting soup. If enough time is available, the onions should be fried first; this is said to seal in the flavour. However, it is not absolutely necessary.
An excellent method of making soup is in a ‘slow cooker’, if one is available. The vegetables are cooked very slowly by this means, often overnight. For the busy cook, this is an ideal method, since everything can simply be thrown in the cooker and left until the morning.
If a thicker and more filling soup is required, it is a good idea to add some potatoes, sweet potatoes, or parsnips.
It is worthwhile investing in a food liquidiser, so that the texture of the soup can be varied. The soup can be liquidised after it is cooked, or if the liquidiser is used when the vegetables are part-cooked, less cooking time will be required.
Flavourings
Cooking the vegetables in stock instead of water makes for a more tasty result. Vegetable stock cubes can be bought at any supermarket. Some people like to add milk or yoghurt, but the latter should not be added to boiling liquid.
Other useful flavourings are marmite (or vegemite), tomato puree, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and any herbs or spices which happen to be available. It is best to add these when the soup is part-cooked, and taste to test the result.
Amounts of Ingredients
It is best to cook up a pot of soup, which will keep in the fridge for a few days. However, if the cook needs to know how much to make, it should be noted that a large handful of chopped vegetables is about right for one portion.
The above is really not difficult, and the cook will now have a healthy and delicious soup, full of vitamins, with which to feed the family. A thick soup, eaten with bread and cheese, can be a meal in itself. And with experience, she can vary the types of vegetables used so that no-one ever becomes bored with soup.
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