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

I have a soup maker I got from Aldi. Chop up onion add 1 teaspoon Olive oil and put into machine switch on. After 3 mins add 3/4 pint water. Stock cube and pre cut pack of veg. Go out and enjoy yourself machine switches off when cooked as has timer. Come back press blend button and reheat, serve with crusty bread. I bough my daughter one as she is very busy working full time and rushes to and fro nursery. She says it saves her time and money as soup cheap and nutritious.

Waitrose sell a packet of frozen veg for soup. I keep 2 in the freezer for emergencies. Heat oil and chopped garlic (get this in frozen cubes from Indian shop) Just throw packet into heated pan and stir. Veges melt through add stock (either cube in water or real) and then any left overs etc. if I need some cooked potato I chop two up small and put in microwave for 3 mins.

I made freezer soup the other day from all sorts of leftovers. Then I refroze it in portions of which I've had a few already. If I remember rightly it contains some beef stew, some chicken stock made from a carcass, tomatoes, sweet red pepper, baby broad beans, carrot, cabbage, bit of mashed spuds....

Delish and so easy. Boil everything up. Blitz in blender. Eat.

To take your suggestion even further, nelliem, I'm thinking why not just specify "stock" and the amount required.

I've always done a lot of cooking but never got into making soup. On the rare occasion I've tried it, it just hasn't seemed right.

Totally off thread but I keep seeing in recipes for soup etc, which says something like "Vegetarians may use vegetable stock,"
That really annoys me. IMO the may sounds to me as if the writer of the recipe is rather grudgingly giving me their personal permission to change to vegetable stock as if I had not thought of that.

Why not just write "use chicken beef or vegetable stock to suit." Just a silly observation.

One of the best things about making your own soup is that you can use all of the tired wrinkled vegetables i.e.: root vegetables like carrots, parsnips etc that are in the bottom of the fridge or languishing unwanted in the vegetable basket looking forlorn. A slow cooker is excellent for soup as you do not need to do anything apart from chuck everything in with the stock and switch on. If you like a smooth soup, then blitz it with a stick blender, and add a little cream to finish.
Check out a brilliant recipe site called allrecipes for lots of ideas too.

I enjoy making soup, as well as eating it, so it’s a win-win situation as they say.
phoenix I love your term ‘Random Vegetable’ and intend to adopt it. My DD always calls it ‘Fridge Gravel Soup’ which sounds rather unsavoury. She keeps coming back for seconds, tho’!
My favourite quickie soup is as follows:
Chop an onion and do the frying bit with a spoon of oil,
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, and one of baked beans, one stock cube, and the empty tomato can of water.
Simmer for 20 mins, then blitz, taste and season.
You can add bacon, other veg, whatever you have available or have time for. It’s very popular with children, probably because of the beans!

I love making soup. If I feel depressed I make quantities of soup, lentils, sweet potatoes and chorizo - plus onions of course - and feel my life has meaning!! Also, there are all these quick meals in the freezer for later. As my grandson says, nutritious and delicious.

I make soup nearly every day. So simple. Put chopped veggies in a pan, add stock and seasoning and cook for 20 mins. Liquidize if you like it smoother. I don't eat stuff in cans - it's full of garbage and way too expensive. Any soup you don't eat, pop it into the freezer.

Thank you Monica, you sound my kind of cook, bung it all tog in a pan and simmer. I actually bunged ingredients and stock cube in microwave and then put the mass of veg in my little mixer (mixer meant for one!) and had a tasty soup with lumps, Thank you so much I have always wanted to make soup but it sounds so fiddly and to make things worse my son in law has special soup making appliance so it all seemed beyond me, but not now thanks to you! x

why do you feel you have to make soup? I have made it in the past but just don't have the time so don't feel guilty!!

I don't see the attraction of a 'soup maker' - a saucepan does the job just as well. Put everything in, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes. There are more complicated recipes, but start simple and then progress, and enjoy.

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

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.....

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!

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

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

So what? I have never made chips!!!

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.

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!