The nice thing about soup, aside from the fact that it is warm and cosy and just about all I want to eat during the colder season, is that you can make the dish with pretty much anything.
Soups are enjoyed all over the world and for a good reason. Making home-made soup costs less, and is healthier and tastier than most soups you buy.
Once you know how to make a healthy soup, you can get creative with all types of ingredients and spices. Here are five simple tips to help make the perfect soup this autumn.
Before you start
Think about the bowl of soup you want to sit down to. Is it a brothy chicken noodle? A chunky minestrone, or a puréed butternut squash? With that image in mind, build a foundation using cooking fat, an aromatic base, and seasonings.
Add plenty of vegetables to the soup
Use any combination of fresh, frozen, canned or leftover vegetables. Chop fresh vegetables to the same size so they cook evenly. Add fresh or frozen vegetables to the soup at the beginning. Add any leafy, canned,and leftover cooked vegetables at the end so they don’t overcook. Once the vegetables are soft-cooked you can purée the soup or leave it chunky.
If you’re using meat, cook that and set it aside.
If you’re working with uncooked meat, be sure to precook it for a bit on the stove. It doesn’t need to cook all the way through (because it will continue to cook in the hot liquid later), but you should definitely get a nice sear on all of its sides first, because that will add a richer, caramelised flavour to your soup.
In most cases, you will want to cook the meat before you cook anything else, transfer it to a plate, and remove excess fat that it leaves behind in the pot. (You will transfer the meat back to the pot when you add the liquid source.)
Salt carefully
Depending on the ingredients you are adding, you don’t always know how much salt is going in. Many stocks have high levels of sodium, as do canned beans, vegetables, and tomato paste. For this reason, save most of your seasoning until the end. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper as needed.
Cook it low and long
Don’t hurry. Slow cooking will give your soup a unique blend of flavours. The longer meats, vegetables, herbs and spices blend in hot liquid, the more complete their combined flavour will be. Once you get the ingredients up to a boil, lower the heat to the lowest possible temperature, to keep just a gentle simmer going throughout the cooking process.