I'm somewhat ashamed to admit it but. . . . .

PS Curiously, I'm in the middle of making a large batch of French Onion soup involving 18 large onions...

My soups (like most of my cooking) are a bit hit and miss but when they work out, which they mostly do, they are unbeatable (even if I do say so myself).

I make soup regularly esp. in Winter.it freezes or keeps for a few days in a cool place and is cheap and nutritious.
Here we go
Chop veg, i do potatoes, carrots, parsnips swede etc put in big pot with oxo, add water, cook. Add red lentils, no need to soak, add a tin toms and anything else hanging around, garlic, herbs or whatever you prefer. The lentils will thicken the soup. Stir from time to time. Add lardons of bacon or meatballs if required. Thats it. Eat lumpy or whizz. Enjoy.

Newquay, am not much of a cook myself but this soup is so easy. Flavour to taste with chunky bread. Lovely. Go on, give it a go.

If you want to be lazy (like me) you can buy 'soup packs' from most supermarkets. They are ready chopped vegetables etc and you just pop them in a pan with a couple of vegetable stock cubes and water. They are about £1 and make a good pan of soup. We have had vegetable, carrot and coriander and leek and potato.

I only ever made soup after Christmas, with the remains of the turkey & veg. Froze most of it, and threw it out eventually because nobody wanted to eat it. Cup-a-soup was there and instant if someone did have the urge. :-)

Must admit I am like that Newquay, I buy fresh ones from Waitrose or M&S I can’t be bothered to make them myself. Life’s to short to peal a grape. I enjoy cooking though.

The packs of pre chopped veg plus stock cubes make easy soup! Aldi very good .

Start with leeks and onions, add any veg you have in your fridge eg carrots, cabbage ,parsnip etc. add a couple of vegetable stock cubes, salt n pepper. Add water. Cook in pressure cooker/soup maker/ large pan till soft. Scoop out some of the vegetables with slotted spoon, mash a little, return to pan. Serve.

I have just put saucepan on with tin toms, frozen carrots, frozen sweet potato, 2 stock cubes, left over fresh cauliflower and frozen leeks, some herbs - 25 mins - should be ready. Bit of a blitz down to consistency we like
Had not planned to do this but am on a hungry day and trying to lose weight - rather than slabs of bread and butter have this for lunch for next three days! Yummy
Tinned Toms optional

Enjoy

Plus 1/2 pint water and salt and pepper

I use the Slimming World Little Book of Soups and some of the recipes are delicious!
DM never made soup so I assumed it was difficult. It isn’t!

Soup maker? Surely this is the same as cooking it in a saucepan? Just another unneeded gadget for the cupboard!

I bought a soup maker last year which now sits in the cupboard alongside the blender which also makes heated soup, the bread maker and the sandwich toasters (yes two of them!) none of which see the light of day. I just don't do cooking and although the soup maker did make nice soup I'm not that fussed about eating it either. We have tried making mushroom soup several times both in the maker and in a pan but can't seem to get it thick enough and as I can't taste it can't tell what it's supposed to be like. I don't know why tinned soup has suddenly become like water - I'm sure it was much thicker when I was younger!

Newquay
You sound as if you are in my neck of the woods so should know there is an abundance of local produce in farm shops and even supermarkets around you.
It is not hard to whip up some of these products in a blender adding what ever you fancy.and a bit of imagination. Make large batches and freeze .Plenty of recipes on the internet.

So what? I have never made chips!!!

So what? I am 74 and I have never made chips!!!!

Kim19
Beetroot & Bramley looks good: www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/beetroot-soup/

or, thinking of using baby food carrots, (what a brilliant idea,) I quite fancy beetroot, carrot & ginger: www.riverford.co.uk/recipes/view/recipe/beetroot-carrot-and-ginger-soup

Enjoy.

My Dad often used to say "Finish your dinner or we'll have it for soup for tomorrow". You see, soup can be made from pretty much anything.

Following are some easy (short cuts) recipes:

Today, if you have ready made chicken or beef stock on the shelf, you're one third of the way there. The other third is what they call a 'Mirepoix', which is a fancy name for a base of minced (yellow) onion, grated carrot and thinly chopped celery.

Mixed Vegetable Soup: Sautee the 'mirepoix' in a little bit of oil or butter until shiny and soft, add four or more cups of broth, a chopped tomato or two, a few mixed (fresh, canned or frozen) vegetables (string beans, squash, spinach leaves, turnips, potatoes, more (cut) carrots.....some fresh (chopped) parsley and you can even add some noodles. Bring everything to a boil, lower the heat to a medium simmer and cover for about 20 minutes. Presto! You'll have a delicious vegetable soup.

Bean Soups: Add minced garlic, bacon, ham or crumbled sausage to the mirepoix and sautee throroughly. Add canned, cooked or leftover beans (lentils, garbanzos i.e. chick peas, dried peas) of your choice (drain and rinse optional) and add /or replenish bean liquid with water or broth (about 1 or 2 cups). Add flavors (cumin, parsely, rosemary or cilantro) then season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then cover and cook for about 20 minutes (cooking time is for already precooked legumes only.) Uncover and continue cooking at low heat until soup has the desired consistency

Potato soup: Prepare a mirepoix, then add chicken broth and leftover mashed potatoes. Blend with a hand mixer, reheat and garnish with cut scallions or chives. Serve with croutons.

Have fun!

Thanks PD. I'll investigate both and probably have a go if they're not too faffy. Sure like the sound of your content combination.

For well over 20 years I grated carrots (and sometimes knuckles) for soup along with lentils and leek. I had a lightbulb moment a few years ago and just cut the carrots into large chunks then set about them with a potato masher once they were cooked through.

Can’t believe it took me so long to cotton on.

No don’t do what you enjoy with your life, Paint, walk, play music, kiss nice men ! Whatever you enjoy. Life might be too short to bother with making soup, but then some folks say life us too short to enjoy hone made bread, but I like that so I spend some time doing that. Whatever gives YOU pleasure is right fur YOU

Newquay - once you start, and taste your own home made soup, you'll be so pleased with yourself. There is nothing like coming in on a cold day knowing that you have soup in the fridge or freezer to heat up in the microwave and a few minutes!

Soups - Serve 6-8 as first course

I make all my soups in more or less the same way. I prefer to use powdered milk, as fresh milk tends to curdle, so does yoghurt. If this happens, using a stick blender [or any other blender type machine] mix in some slackened* arrowroot/potato flour/cornflour/farina [about 1tbsp.] into it and that should stop the curdling.

Sweetcorn soup - I use one large tin of sweetcorn - the largest size.

Tomato soup - 2 tins of plum tomatoes. I also add about 1 tsp of sugar per tin of tomatoes.

Pea soup - About 1” of frozen peas at the bottom of the pan.

Mushroom soup - a biggish punnet, or whatever I have lying around. It is delicious to have dried porcini and fresh shittake, if you have them.

Pumpkin/squash soup - enough to fill the pan 3/4 full [if you have that much], otherwise use a tin of pie filling - very useful out of season.

Enough corn oil [not olive oil as it has too much flavour] to cover the bottom of the pan. This gives the onion a good colour and improves the richness and “mouthfeel” of the soup.

At least one onion, sometimes two - gently fried. They don’t need to be cut very fine, except for pea soup, of which more later.

Garlic and Ginger to taste, lightly fried.

METHOD

Fry the onion, add vegetables and fry for a short time. Add a couple of appropriate stock cubes and enough liquid to cover. [A good guide is to add as many tins of water as of whatever]. Boil gently for at least 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft. Zizz [a “small mountain” of powdered milk may be added at this point], adjust seasoning and liquid and serve.

Like many stewed dished, soups often taste better after cooling, and re-heating.

Pea Soup - this is more technical and requires two pans. In the first, you cook the frozen peas, just covered with water, until they are soft and mushy. Zizz then add to a pan in which you have fried finely chopped onion and about 4 rashers of good smoked bacon cut very small - long thin slivers or smaller, up to you. [No powdered milk is used in this recipe]. Bring to the boil, adjust seasoning, and serve.

* Slackening consists of mixing with enough water to make it runny. It is very stiff at first then suddenly “lets go”. All those technical terms.....

Another technical terms - "Zizz" - pureeing with stick blender or other