The Souper Soup Thread [Merged]

mike65 · 21-11-2013 12:43am

A bump for my Mushroom soup. Enough for 4 hearty servings.

One punnet of mushrooms - your choice really white, brown, button, flappy, whatever.
Half of a medium onion
3 carrots
3 sticks of celery
3 segments of fresh garlic skinned, chopped and crushed up
1 veggie stock cube
100ml of cream
Black pepper

Chop up onion, carrots and celery, bring two litres of water to boil with the veg stock cube melted first throw in chooped veg, simmer for 15 then fish out contents and empty into blender. Blend. Return veg to stock add cream and stir until smooth.

Simmer away while the mushrooms are shredded using a grater, mix into the soup with black pepper and anything else you might fancy flavouring wise (it is a soup after all).

Although the soup has a creamy base the mushrooms give it some decent texture. Obviously how much one blends the veg will have a big say in this regard.

Enjoy.

Antifa161 · 22-11-2013 9:27pm

How would one go about making the traditional vegetable soup you might get in a pub etc (crap ones excluded!)?

What sort of kitchen equipment does it require?

The Hill Billy · 23-11-2013 9:51am

Really, all you would need is a knife & a chopping board for preparing the veg, a pot to make it in, & then a blender to make it into a smooth soup after it has been cooked.

kitchenkid · 23-11-2013 12:13pm

<mod snip>

The Hill Billy · 23-11-2013 1:01pm

Do not ask for food safety advice in this forum.

Thanks,

tHB

kitchenkid · 23-11-2013 1:07pm

Found answers to my question on moneysavingexpert.com........astonished you are censoring discussion, there is no rationale for it.

the beer revolu · 23-11-2013 1:24pm

kitchenkid wrote: »

Found answers to my question on moneysavingexpert.com........astonished you are censoring discussion, there is no rationale for it.

You are young, grasshopper.;)

Dizzyblonde · 23-11-2013 5:38pm

@ kitchenkid, it's a good idea to familiarise yourself with the Boards.ie Terms of Use, and also the charter of a particular forum before posting in it.

Faith · 23-11-2013 6:01pm

Antifa161 wrote: »

How would one go about making the traditional vegetable soup you might get in a pub etc (crap ones excluded!)?

What sort of kitchen equipment does it require?

If it's recipes you're looking for, I had a thread on that very topic a few months ago. You should be able to find it by searching

. I actually should probably merge it into this thread! It seems celeriac is a good ingredient to stop it being too sweet, but I've not actually managed to replicate a pub/cafe style one yet.

witnessmenow · 24-11-2013 6:28pm

Hey guys,

I'm not much of a chef, but just thought I'd share what I cooked today as it turned out really nice (and its pretty cheap). Any comments or suggestions appreciated!

So I pretty much just followed this recipe

Serves: 6

Time Required: From prep to table I'd say about an hour.

Total Price: Less than €4 (€1.99 for 4 stock pots)

What you need:

1KG of Carrots (I got these in Tesco for €0.99)
2 Small-Medium Potatos (I used the ones that are in Aldi's super six this week)
1 Medium Onion (From the garden)
1.75L of stock (Chikcen or Veg, I used both. 3 knorr stock pots should do the trick)
1 Tablespoon of Cumin

Instructions:

Peel the Carrots, Potatos and the Onion
Chop the Veg up (dont need to be too accurate whit this)
Pre-heat your pot with 2 tablespoons of oil
Add the chopped up vegtables and fry them off for 5 minutes
While the veg is frying prepare the stock. 3 Stock pots mixed with 1.75L of boiling water should be good. I actually used 2 veg stock pots and a jar of the juice left over from slow cooking a chicken the other night.
After the veg has been fried for 5 minutes, add the stock and turn down the heat to a medium setting
Now just wait for your veg to cook. You'll know they are done when you can easily peirce it with a fork
When the veg is cooked, take the pot of the heat
Take some of the water out of the pot. We will use this to control the thickness of the soup. I would take out about 250ml -500ml. We can always add this back in if the soup is too thick.
Using a submersive hand blender, blend all the vegtables. If its too thick add some of the liquid you took out (add it bit by bit)
When you are happy wiht the texture, add the cumin. Add salt and pepper to taste

And that's it!

If you have any of the liquid left over, make sure to save it as it can be used as stock in something else.

This should freeze ok, I have a bag in the freezer so I'll let you know in a few weeks if that's ok!

mike65 · 17-01-2014 9:58pm

Carrot and lemon soup

Chop and dice half an onion and same with two parts of garlic - add 3 sliced carrots and 3 or 4 chopped up medium sized potatoes, sweat in pot with butter.

Make 1 litre of veg stock, when veg is softened a bit add stock and bring to boil, turn down and simmer for 15-20 mins. Scoop contents into mixer add 1 standard pot of whipping cream, give it a blast until smooth and return to stock, stir well, shred lemon zest into soup stir well, and heat to eat.

Couldn't be much simpler and much to my amazement it tastes good

dipdip · 20-05-2014 12:47pm

German lentil and sausage soup, adapted slightly from Nigella

Makes 6 - 8 portions

Ingredients

1 onion
1 carrot
2 cloves of garlic
1 stick of celery
2 - 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon ground mace
500 grams red lentils
1.5 litres chicken stock (or vegetable stock) (approx 6 cups)
2 bay leaves
Approx. 8 cooked pork sausages - traditionally you'd use frankfurters
but my OH doesn't like them, so I used Irish breakfast sausages which
I browned first in a hot pan. Any mild pork sausage is fine (avoid
chorizo or similarly spiced sausage).

Method

Peel the onion, carrot and garlic and cut the onion and carrot into
rough chunks. Put them all, along with the roughly cut up stick of
celery into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz till all are finely
chopped. If you don't have a food processor, I suggest finely dicing
the onion and celery and grating the carrot.

Spoon the oil into a heavy-based wide saucepan and put on medium heat.
When warm, add the chopped vegetables and cook for 5-10 minutes, until
soft but not coloured.

Add the ground mace - this may be a small amount but it's crucial to
the taste - give a good stir and then add the split peas and stir
again till they're glossily mixed with the oil-slicked, cooked-down
vegetables. Pour over the stock and add the bay leaves, then bring to
the boil. Cover, turn down the heat and cook for about 40 minutes
until everything is tender and sludgy, adding more stock (or water) as
needed. Sometimes the lentils seem to thicken too much before they
actually cook and need to be watered down. Taste for seasoning once
everything's ready. I added just a small amount of sea salt and black
pepper.

Slice the sausages and add to the pot 10 minutes before eating to heat
them through.

Muahahaha · 03-09-2014 7:15pm

i love seafood chowder but Im looking for a more convenient way of having it during the winter and I want it to have fresh fish rather than frozen. Im planning on doing a soup day in a few weeks time where I'll make about 1.5 lites each of three or four different soups and then freeze them in labelled double portions to store and use over the winter. I'm hoping to make enough soup that Ive got a bit of variety over the winter, I'll probably do the roasted tomato and red pepper recipe from earlier in the thread, some sort of carrot & coriander/cumin combination and defintely something based on butternut squash as its also favourite. Im going to feel like a squirrel by the time all soup making is done !

So with the chowder what I was thinking of doing is making a base of oinions, carrots, leeks, potatoes, softening them in the pan before adding fish stock, allowing to simmer before blitzing and cooling. Then the plan is to put the puree into portions to freeze and when I need it I'll defrost in the fridge overnight before bringing to the boil and then adding fresh cod, smoked haddock, lowering heat to a simmer for 5-6 minutes till the fish cooks through and then adding mussels for the last two minutes of cooking and maybe even a dollop of cream if its a particulary sh1te day outside;)

So is there anything wrong with the above plzn, from a taste or food safety point of view or otherwise ? I just want to find a way that I can get seafood chowder on the table in less than 15 minutes when I arrive home late from work on a cold wet day and am in no mood for cooking an entire meal from scratch.

The Hill Billy · 03-09-2014 7:20pm

Again! As stickied on the main page of the forum...

Comments on food safety are not permitted.

Taste & otherwise is fine.

tHB

sillymoo · 03-09-2014 8:28pm

What a great thread! Was thinking it was going to be soup season again soon. I saw on the first page that a paper lid was used on one recipe before the put lid was put on, why was that and what does it do?

Happyman42 · 03-09-2014 8:37pm

sillymoo wrote: »

What a great thread! Was thinking it was going to be soup season again soon. I saw on the first page that a paper lid was used on one recipe before the put lid was put on, why was that and what does it do?

It allows the veg/ingredients to sweat as they cook, releasing intense flavour. I can smell the kitchen now when you lift off the greaseproof...soup season AGAIN!

sillymoo · 03-09-2014 8:43pm

Oh yummy yum!!! Going to get a load of veg tomorrow and try some soup. Generally can most soups be frozen?

fasterkitten · 03-09-2014 8:48pm

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

1 large onion, diced
2 red chillies, chopped with seeds
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely diced
1 large sweet potato, diced quite small (c 1.5cm X 1.5cm X 1.5cm)
Corn from 2 large cobs (you can use frozen sweet corn but fresh better)
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Chicken stock (Knorr stock pots are great)

Put all vegetables in a lidded pot with olive oil
Sprinkle with salt and stir well
Sweat for around 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender
Cover with water, add stock pot
Boil for around 5 minutes
Liquidise
Add water to get preferred consistency if necessary

MissFlitworth · 03-09-2014 9:53pm

sillymoo wrote: »

What a great thread! Was thinking it was going to be soup season again soon. I saw on the first page that a paper lid was used on one recipe before the put lid was put on, why was that and what does it do?

Vegetable soup got made in my house with the paper lid following on from that post and it was just the best, best vegetable soup I've ever had. Really intensely flavourful. I'm not sure how it works exactly so just saying that it stops the vegetable demons leaving the pot (poss. replace demons with flavour).

Dizzyblonde · 03-09-2014 9:58pm

sillymoo wrote: »

Oh yummy yum!!! Going to get a load of veg tomorrow and try some soup. Generally can most soups be frozen?

I often freeze my soups and they're just as nice when defrosted and heated

Happyman42 · 03-09-2014 10:23pm

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Vegetable soup got made in my house with the paper lid following on from that post and it was just the best, best vegetable soup I've ever had. Really intensely flavourful. I'm not sure how it works exactly so just saying that it stops the vegetable demons leaving the pot (poss. replace demons with flavour).

Best explanation I can find;

Sweating vegetables such as onions, carrots, celery, or all three if making a mirepoix, is a process that slowly, with moderate to very low heat, softens the vegetables and extracts some of their liquid. Salt is usually added to help with the extraction of water. The whole point of sweating versus sauteing is when you saute, you use higher heat and thus cause browning or caramelization. Both slight browning and caramelization are necessary aspects of cooking but for more delicate or longer cooking dishes such as soups, stocks and broths, it can cause an underlying bitterness to the dish.

Muahahaha · 04-09-2014 12:22am

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Again! As stickied on the main page of the forum...

Comments on food safety are not permitted.

Taste & otherwise is fine.

tHB

sorry I didnt know we're not allowed to talk about food safety.

If anyone has any tips/advice on my plan from a taste point of view Id appreciate it. Im not sure if I should add potatoes to the base as Ive read in some places that it turns grainy after freezing but then others say it doesnt matter if you put it through a food blender to turn into liquid, any ideas what tends to hold true when freezing soups with potato in them? Also how about flour, if you use it as a thickening agent in soup does freezing it alter the flavour at all?

Faith · 04-09-2014 12:31am

Muahahaha wrote: »

sorry I didnt know we're not allowed to talk about food safety.

In fairness, it's written in all capital letters at the top of the forum, as well as being discussed at length in the charter (which clearly asks you to read it before posting).

For a chowder, I'd be inclined to cube the potatoes, but not blitz them, so if you're cooking fish fresh, then I'd add the potatoes at that stage too.

I've never made chowder though, so I'm just guessing.

Lissavane · 05-09-2014 8:20pm

kitchenkid wrote: »

Found answers to my question on moneysavingexpert.com........astonished you are censoring discussion, there is no rationale for it.

There's a pretty good Food and Drink forum on this website http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=188 . They don't seem to be constrained from discussing food safety. Liability laws seem to be different in Britain.

madmaggie · 09-11-2014 12:19am

Loving this thread! I buy the veggies on special in the various supermarkets, peel, dice and freeze them, ready for soup making, or for dinner.

madmaggie · 09-11-2014 12:22am

sillymoo wrote: »

Oh yummy yum!!! Going to get a load of veg tomorrow and try some soup. Generally can most soups be frozen?

Instead of thickening with flour or potatoes, I use tinned beans, rinsed well. Kidney beans give a great colour to tomato soup, the mixed beans from Aldi are good in any soup, only 59c.

Loire · 10-11-2014 10:25am

madmaggie wrote: »

Instead of thickening with flour or potatoes, I use tinned beans, rinsed well. Kidney beans give a great colour to tomato soup, the mixed beans from Aldi are good in any soup, only 59c.

Thanks for that....a great tip that and a great way to get the "good" beans into the kids.

My tip is to use a good quality potato (rather than the cheapie, water ones around) for a deeper tase. Also I find the Kallo stock cubes very good.

Loire.

madmaggie · 11-11-2014 1:31am

I don't know if the Kallo cubes are gluten free (am coeliac), but I use the Knorr stockpots, very nice.

the_syco · 27-04-2015 1:52am

So, first off I'm picky when it comes to soup. I hate munching on anything marked below that has one star, and anything with two stars I just don't like eating (dislike the taste).

But this is where the "Philips HR 1340 Billy Hand Blender" comes into play. Make soup, and then blend it. I don't know what I'm eating.

I've found any soups that are "bland" need tomatoes, and/or pepper or chilli for some kick, thus their addition

Blended;

Oh, and when chopping the onions, put a metal teaspoon into your mouth. Not sure how it works, but my eyes don't tear up if I do it

The Hill Billy · 27-04-2015 9:14am

Merged.

tHB