Soup recipes

[Mrs Pingu]

Care to share? 

[slope]

London particular soup (source HF-W)
★★★★★
Soups
Difficulty: Easy  | Servings: 6

Description:
The delightful name of this thick pea and ham soup comes from the peasouper fogs that used to engulf London until the late 1950s. Traditionally made with split green or yellow peas, which require soaking overnight, you can speed up the cooking time if you like by making it with no-soak green lentils instead – it will taste just as good. Serves six to eight.

Ingredients:
For the ham:
1 smoked ham hock soaked overnight in cold water
1 onion peeled and halved
1 stick celery roughly chopped (reserve the leaves for garnishing)
8 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
1 handful parsley stalks
For the soup:
200g green split peas soaked overnight in cold water (or 200g green lentils)
40g butter
1 onion diced
1.8 litre ham stock from cooking the ham
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Some leftover cooked boiled ham
Celery or lovage leaves

Directions:
Drain and rinse the soaked ham hock and put it into a large saucepan along with the onion, celery, peppercorns, bay leaf, thyme and parsley stalks. Cover with cold water, bring to a boil and simmer, partially covered, for two to two and a half hours, until tender. Leave to cool in the liquid, then remove and strain the stock through a sieve into a bowl. Reserve the stock for making the soup, and shred the meat into bite-sized chunks. Taste the stock: if it's too salty, let it down with a bit of water.
Rinse the soaked peas until the water runs clear (if you're using lentils, pick over them and rinse).
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat and sweat the onion until soft and translucent. Add the peas (or lentils) and the stock, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and skim off any scum. Simmer until the peas (or lentils) are very soft, between 20-45 minutes. Blitz about three-quarters of the soup in a blender until smooth, adding a little more stock if it's too thick. Season to taste. Return to the saucepan with the unblended soup, add some of the ham and warm through. Serve in warmed bowls, with some celery or lovage leaves scattered over the top.

Slope notes:
Used 3 leeks instead of onion + Puy lentils
Could maybe add some frozen peas for colour?

[slope]

Curried Chunky Parsnip & Swede Soup (source Slope)
★★★★★
Difficulty: Easy  | Servings: 5

Description:
Wonderful colour rustic earthy soup.

Ingredients:
2  medium onions chopped
3 or 4 celery stalks chopped
125 g green lentils
500 g parsnips peeled and cut into chunks
300 g swede peeled and cut into chunks
50 g butter
3 tbs hot curry pwder
3 birds eye chillies each cut into 3
1.5 litres veg stock
yoghurt  to serve

Directions:
Boil lentils in some veg stock for 10 minutes
Heat the butter in a large saucepan and sweat the onions and celery until soft. Add 2 cloves of chopped garlic towards the end. Add the parsnips, swede and curry powder, stir to coat and then add the hot stock. Bring to a soft boil. Drain the lentils and add to the pan with the fresh chilli bits, cover and simmer for 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Blend half the soup, return to the pan and mix well so it is chunky. Check seasoning.
Serve with yoghurt and coriander or basil or parsley.
Serve with bread rolls - either soft white or crusty brown

[ian]

Smoked haddock chowder – slice two leeks and saute till soft in butter, add some finely chopped parsley stems. Add a minced garlic clove as the leeks start to turn translucent. Don't colour them. In the meantime peel and dice a potato or two depending on how substantial you want your chowder (two decent-sized potatoes will make enough for four). Add a glass of wine to the pan and reduce till the leeks are sticky and then add the potatoes and nearly enough water to cover, then a glug of milk. Cook till the potatoes are nearly done and then add a good handful of sweetcorn (frozen is fine, or a can). Cook until the potato is coming apart and the sweetcorn is warmed through. Attact with a stick blender till you get your preferred texture. Add additional milk as necessary and then submerge two smoked haddock fillets and let the whole lot simmer till the fillets flake. Take off the heat, grate in a generous dose of cheese (smoked cheddar is ideal) and the chopped parsley leaves.

It's substantial enough without bread, but what the hell, go to town. Is very nice with garlic baguette.

Chicken pot no-pie soup Chop a couple of shallots, half a carrot and celery stick. Saute in olive oil  through till mostly translucent. Add a minced garlic clove and cook till fragrant. Add a glass of wine and reduce slightly, then four or so chicken thighs (you can brown these beforehand, but honestly, it doesn't add much). Add a teaspoon of flour and stir everything around till the flour starts to cook and then add enough chicken stock to cover. Add a teaspoon of mustard (your choice, don't worry if it's English, it'll temper), a bayleaf, and half of a pack of chopped fresh thyme leaves (or a generous teaspoon of dried). A generous helping of tarragon also works. You can now cook on the hob till the chicken is coming apart or – far better – in the slow cooker. Once done, adjust consistency with milk, add frozen peas and warm through. No need to blend, pull the chicken thighs apart with two forks.

You can, of course, avoid adding extra milk and turn it into actual pies, easy enough with frozen flaky pastry. Add cream at the end to either if you want a party in your mouth and aren't worried about the calories.

[rafletcher]

I’d add that tarragon works well in the chicken soup. Also with the chowder, leave out the sweetcorn and fish and substitute chicken stick for the water, but add some small cubes of cooked ham (or fry some cubed pancetta with the leeks) and add some creme fraiche (also works in the chick recipe) for a leek and potato soup. This can be left lumpy as I prefer it, or blended smooth, as my wife prefers.

[Mrs Pingu]

I took a recipe off the internet and bastardised it.

Brussels sprout soup

Chopped up a couple of rashers of smoked bacon and fried them off before leaving to one side.
Then sauted a couple of shallots. There were some baby potatoes in need of using so I threw them in (diced), along with a litre of stock (made from vegetable bullion bouillon).
Simmered this for a couple of mins and then added 500g of (frozen) sprouts.
5 or 10 mins later they were done so I blitzed it and then added the bacon.

The original recipe contained cooking chorizo and chestnuts but I had neither.

[Mrs Pingu]

@ian, Tarragon mustard? (I have several jars in the cupboard...)

[ian]

Tarragon always goes well with mustard, I guess combining them makes sense. I do a good chicken stroganoff with lots of tarragon and mustard.

[fimm]

Courgette soup

Fry an onion. Chop up a couple of large-ish potatoes. Put them in the pot with the onion and add enough water to just cover them. Crumble in a stock cube or two. Bring to the boil and boil for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, finely slice your courgettes. Add them to the pan, just sitting on top of the potatoes. Cook for 5 minutes, then stir, give it another 5 - 10 minutes until the courgettes are well cooked. Blend thoroughly, and add 100g* of cheese and a teaspoon of nutmeg, blend some more. Can be frozen.

* my recipe copied from somewhere says "100kg" cheese which is definitely a TOBAGO.

[Hot Flatus]

Vine tomato soup.

1 big onion, softened, then,add a few garlic cloves( I use 4 or 5 big ones)

Cook a minute or two, then add a diced large carrot and 2 dices celery sticks. Cook till soft. Good dose of coarse ground pepper.

Then about half a tube of tomato puree. Mix in well.

Bung in about 7 large ripe vine Tom's (Lidl is a good dource) de-cored and roughly chopped.

Lid on, medium simmer for 15, then add about w.5 litres of stock. Lid on simmer for 25.

Blend (I use a blending stick).

Check for seasoning. Mix in a whole bunch of basil leaves, they'll wilt in the heat

Serve with a drizzle of good extra V olive oil and a twist of pepper.

[Regulator]

Spicy Parsnip Soup


Ingredients
2 tbsp of good olive oil
600g of parsnips (peeled and diced)
2 cloves of garlic (smoked is good - or smoked garlic puree)
1 litre of vegetable stock (although I tend to use a mixture of vegetable and chicken stock)
1/2 tsp of dried chilli flakes (this works best with dried chilli flakes rather than fresh chilli)
Black pepper (coarse ground)
Sea salt (smoked if possible)

Optional
200 ml cream
Chilli flakes to serve

Equipment
Heavy bottomed pan
Blender (stick blender is fine)

Method
Add oil to hot heavy bottomed pan.
Fry parsnips and garlic for 4-5 minutes until beginning to brown.
Add chilli flakes and cook for 1 minute.
Add stock and a good grind of black pepper.
Bring to the boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer for 12-15 minutes until parsnips are soft.
Blend the mixture until smooth.
Adjust seasoning to personal preference.

Optional
Add 200 ml cream and stir through (i prefer not to as it makes it a bit too rich).
Sprinkle with chilli flakes before serving.

Storage
Lasts 2-3 days in the fridge (if you don't eat it all in one sitting)
Can be frozen (but you may want to freeze it before adding the cream and add that when reheating).

[Regulator]

I took a recipe off the internet and bastardised it.

Brussels sprout soup

Chopped up a couple of rashers of smoked bacon and fried them off before leaving to one side.
Then sauted a couple of shallots. There were some baby potatoes in need of using so I threw them in (diced), along with a litre of stock (made from vegetable bullion).
Simmered this for a couple of mins and then added 500g of (frozen) sprouts.
5 or 10 mins later they were done so I blitzed it and then added the bacon.

The original recipe contained cooking chorizo and chestnuts but I had neither.

Ooh - I shall try that as we seem to be getting lots of sprouts in the veg box. 

I made sprout and asparagus rissotto last night.  Sounds  but was really tasty.  Even Mr R, who is not a sprout fan, came back for seconds.

[Nuncio]

All this is great stuff. I love making soups and need a few additions to my repetoire.

Here's one that usually goes down well.

Spooner's Sexy Can Moup

(My creation, my name)

Red onion/s, tin red kidney beans, chopped celery, some chopped chillis and/or chilli powder, lime juice, tin (or tins) of chopped tomatoes and/or passata, bunch of fresh coriander (chopped), some diced peppers, and ground black pepper. For quantities - play it by ear, or to your taste. (I'm not your boss). But take care with the lime juice - the only time I've spoiled it is when I used too much.

Soften the onions in oil, chuck the rest in, bring to the boil and simmer for around 20/25 mins. For extra crunchiness, delay the chucking in of some of the celery and peppers; and the same for the coriander for extra coriander-ness. I like to use yellow pepper and green peppers for the colour.

[citoyen]

For quantities - play it by ear, or to your taste.

Indeed. I can't quite get with the idea of having a "recipe" for soup - generally, I just follow basic soup-making principles and use my judgment. Usually starts with softening onions in butter, adding other veg. And don't use too much stock/other liquid, especially if the soup contains lots of veg, which will release its own liquid.

One we have quite often is broccoli and stilton (or other blue cheese, whatever's available). As above, it's very much a make-it-up-as-I-go-along affair. The only important things to remember are: Blitz the soup to smoothness before adding the cheese at the very end. And go easy on the cheese when adding - mix it in well, taste and add more if necessary - if you're using a very strong cheese, you only need a small amount.

[Mrs Pingu]

Spicy Parsnip Soup

Just made a variation of this, it was an Anthony Worral Thompson recipe I already had in the files. Pretty similar except the spicy bit came from some toasted cumin & coriander seeds and some ground ginger. Less water (stock made with veg bouillon) as I cooked it in the pressure cooker. (10mins on high in a stovetop PC).
No cream, grated a cooking apple in it after I'd liquidised it.
Yum.

A successful morning relearning how to use the ancient pressure cooker without woosing out or painting the ceiling.

[Mrs Pingu]

I just made
https://www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/chestnut-chorizo-brussels-sprout-soup

It was alright but I don't think I'd bother again, I'd never have guessed there was sprouts in there as everything was so overwhelmed with the spices, YMMV, I prefer the veggie + bacon version I made upthread. 

[ian]

There's an entire lake of parsnip soup in Hell. They drown the Damned in it for fun. That says all you need to know about that rooty muck.

Tell us what you think about pumpkin soup, ian?

[Mrs Pingu]

I got Sainsbo's to deliver some sweet potatoes this week with the intention of trying some roasted veg soup of some sort. There's also a bag of frozen broccoli.

[rafletcher]

There's an entire lake of parsnip soup in Hell. They drown the Damned in it for fun. That says all you need to know about that rooty muck.

Tell us what you think about pumpkin soup, ian?

Parsnip I can tolerate works quite well with cauliflower and of course added cubes of pancetta, but butternut squash (and by extension, pumpkin)? Why?

[John Stonebridge]

I've started up the Sunday soup kitchen in the last few weeks making enough for the working week ahead - something of a Sunday night ritual in the winter months.  My two favourites -

Gran's lentil soup (a must every New Year's Day)

- red lentils
- onions
- carrots
- white potatoes
- stock (marigold vegan veggie based)
- curly parsley

Sweat the veg, add the stock and cook.  Add the chopped parsley and season.  Job done

Spiced cauli & potato

- chop the cauli, lightly coat it in a mixture of 50/50 olive oil/butter & curry powder or any other spice you like
- roast cauli in oven until its got a char about it
- stick in the pan with chopped spuds and sweat a little
- add stock (marigold vegan veggie based) and cook
- finish with lots of chopped curled parsley. 
- as somebody who would otherwise not eat cauli this is a boon. 

Overall I've found that the biggest difference when making soup is to use a pressure cooker - nothing else gets soup close in terms of getting a glossy consistency.  I also find lots of chopped curly parsley added at the end enhances any soup and reduces the amount of seasoning required esp salt so that's good for the ticker etc.   

I experimented with a roast winter veg soup last week using the turnip (swede to some of you) from a Halloween carving - there's no Americana in this Scots house on 31 Oct, butternut squash, onion, sweet potato and red lentil.  Bearable but I'll not make it again - I blame the butternut squash.   
   

[fimm]

Butternut squash soup is improved by the addition of chilli.
I like carrot and parsnip soup, though I have not made any for ages.

[citoyen]

There's an entire lake of parsnip soup in Hell. They drown the Damned in it for fun. That says all you need to know about that rooty muck.

Tell us what you think about pumpkin soup, ian?

Parsnip I can tolerate works quite well with cauliflower and of course added cubes of pancetta, but butternut squash (and by extension, pumpkin)? Why?

My wife made a butternut squash soup the other day using a Jamie Oliver recipe. It was great. We'll definitely be having that one again. 

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/superb-squash-soup-with-the-best-parmesan-croutons/

She's been trying out a few of his recipes. Another one we liked very much was his storecupboard minestrone - a "use what you have" type recipe, which is what soup recipes should be.
https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/soup-recipes/minestrone-soup/
 

[Flite]

Roasted butternut squash with onion, spices and creamed coconut works well

[Flite]

Celeriac and chestnut is a favourite.
But always use fresh or frozen chestnuts, as dried are tasteless and tinned or vacuum packed are just disgusting.

And for absolute comfort food, Yellow Split Pea Soup.
Just sweat the usual leek, carrot, celery or whatever, bung in the YSP and stock, simmer and liquidise.

The famous Capheaton Village Hall Tearoom used to serve "Red Soup".
Red lentils, carrots, tinned tomatoes etc. In a big bowl with bun the size of half a loaf of bread.

[Regulator]

Celeriac and chestnut is a favourite.
But always use fresh or frozen chestnuts, as dried are tasteless and tinned or vacuum packed are just disgusting.

And for absolute comfort food, Yellow Split Pea Soup.
Just sweat the usual leek, carrot, celery or whatever, bung in the YSP and stock, simmer and liquidise.

The famous Capheaton Village Hall Tearoom used to serve "Red Soup".
Red lentils, carrots, tinned tomatoes etc. In a big bowl with bun the size of half a loaf of bread.

My mother makes her own version of 'Red Soup' using up any veg in the fridge and chucking in a tin of tomatoes and a bit of puree.