Soup Is Good For You
Soups provide nutritious food at very low cost. Many of our ancestors had to survive on it. Recently, I used up vegetables, that were going over, by putting them into soup before they were wasted. My version of soup is that one bowlful is a meal in itself and I could easily live on it, if I had to. No need to have it with a roll or sandwich; a good, hearty soup should provide everything our body needs in one portion and be delicious to eat. Most of my soups contain many vegetables, with or without meat. Having a sandwich with a bowl of soup is a bonus.
When I make soup, I use a big saucepan, enough for many servings which can be ladled into single portion containers and frozen for future use. Several different types of soup can be prepared: those containing only plant-based products and those that have either fish or meat in them, the basis of which is a flavoursome stock. I use readymade stock cubes; they a cheap and easy to use.
Broth
One type, of the many soups I make, is broth, usually made from a prepared mix. This is a packet of dried grains and pulses containing green lentils, red lentils, pearl barley, green peas, yellow split peas and brown lentils. A one-kilogram bag of this mixture cost me only £2.79 and will last me for several months.
If, like me, you keep a lot of fresh vegetables in your larder, there are always some which are going off and will be thrown away if not used. These can be chopped into small pieces to add to soups. I am thinking here of carrots, broccoli, potatoes, celery, onions, courgettes, mushrooms, cauliflower, cabbage and other greens. I seldom use recipes to make soup, unless I want to make a particular kind of soup. Mostly, I just use whatever is available. In my kitchen there is very little waste. I often purchase packs of vegetables that are going out of date; the reductions on such products make them a useful source of ingredients for my soups.
Stock
Some people like to purchase expensive packets of liquid stock; not me. I am happy with boxes of stock cubes or even cubes of OXO. Because these contain high quantities of salt, I do not add any more salt to my soup because the cubes provide more than enough. In my fridge, I have vegetable, beef and chicken stock cubes and sometimes lamb, or even fish, when I can get it. It is not very often that I make stock from say the leftover carcass of a chicken I have roasted. I might do that once in a while but, for everyday soups, I rely on stock cubes. I keep a wide range of dried herbs and spices many of which are suitable for soups and the skill is in deciding which to use and how much to put in. The trick is not to overdo it. You want your soup to be tasty but not have one overpowering flavour. I will sometimes add chopped cloves of fresh garlic and a little paprika to add taste. I keep both ordinary onions and red onions which I cut and dice to fry, in vegetable oil, with any meat I am going to use. That provides the basis into which the other vegetables and stock are added. Some black pepper might also be ground into the mixture as it fries. Bacon can be used to make soup if you have some that needs using up. Bacon works well with lentils.
Thicker the better
Soup can be thickened with either plain flour, cornflour or even semolina, which makes a good thickening agent. Dried coriander powder can also used for thickening as well as adding flavour. Potatoes also thicken a soup or stew but might need to be pre-boiled before being added to the mix. My preference is for thick soups rather than the thin, watery variety. I like a bowl of soup to be a meal in itself rather than just an appetiser. I do not use croutons; these are for fancy preparations. There is nothing like a piece of crusty bread or a crusty roll with a bowl of soup. In the rare event of me wanting to serve soup to guests at a dinner party, I might put croutons in; but I don’t need them when eating alone. A nice slice of thick bread is enough if a filler is needed. I nearly always have soup and a sandwich for lunch.
I would never make one bowl of soup at a time. If I am going to the trouble of making soup, I have to make a large saucepan of it. I have a collection of small plastic containers, each of which holds just enough for one serving. Once cooled, the soup can be portioned into the containers, labelled and put into the deep freeze for later consumption. Small single-portion containers are better than having to defrost a large amount when cooking just for oneself. As you can see, I am a great fan of soup and the larder always has a plentiful supply of it.
1st September. One of my great culinary pleasures is making soup. Today, I have used up vegetables that were going over. In the saucepan, I put carrots, celery, peppers, fresh coriander leaves, dried Tarragon, two slices of bacon, a little Tumeric, and a generous helping of Pearl Barley. I left the pan to simmer for two hours. The result was a delicious bowl of soup which I had with my sandwiches, at lunchtime. This prevented me from throwing away vegetables; I hate wastage. Plenty was left over to put into the freezer in individual portions.