My soup was horrible.

A nice dollop of sherry will enhance a good soup, and a rescue a not very happy one.

I've done this before and I think you need to assess the colour. Too white or pale have you not added enough leek, carrots etc plus extra green herbs, a bit of chilli (my DH swears by it), maybe a little extra rich stock and see what happens.

Make any ‘green’ soup: cabbage, spinach, cauliflower leaves etc. Start with sweated onions, one potato (which helps to thicken), stock cube/s. Add veg and water- when cooked blend and add Stilton cheese, loads of it. Yummy!

ps @ grapefruit - just seen your earlier post - I can't even get my sharpest knife into it!

I love a tin of evaporated milk in this kind of soup .

I love leek and potato soup. I use a soup- maker (never thought I would succumb but, now favourite gadget). I add fresh garlic, pepper and a sprinkling of mixed herbs (fresh or dried, depending what is available). I too use Knorr Swiss stock pot but, sparingly as, has already been said, they are very salty.

Why on earth would you store spuds in the fridge?

The best way to store them is in a cool dark place, ie, a vegetable drawer or cupboard.

They are shaped like a kettle. Mine is Morphy Richards. One gadget I would hate to be without.

Try using Bouillon (not sure of spelling). It's French stock - comes salted/unsalted/with or without herbs etc. Found in some supermarkets but definitely in health food shops. Makes any soup taste delicious. Also, from my experience, too many onions or leeks in soup makes it slimy. I never use a blender, just use a potato masher to leave the soup slightly lumpy. Mine is delicious. Oh and meant to say - I always put in one apple.

Soup makers are brilliant IMHO. Put all ingredients in. Switch on and 21 minutes later pour out lovely thick blended soup.

Sorry, not wishing to be rude but what is the difference between a soup maker and a pan pease?

Last year I bought a bag of freshly cut leeks and diced potatoes from Asda just to try it out to make soup and it was lovely so this has reminded me to look out for the ready prepared mixture. I think it was only £1. No excuse to go without.

Black pepper and a swirl of single cream, you've got a meal fit for a king.

Usually use a soup maker which I bought following a GN thread several years ago. Leek and potato has been the only occasional failure. Now I make sure potato cut very small and only use the palest of green ends. The dark leek leaves can be stringy even when liquidised. I use mainly Marigold stock and a little milk. I also pop in a frozen spinach cube or two which makes the colour prettier. Never fails now. ?

If I am not in the mood to cook and rush it through, the food isn't half as tasty as when I am enjoying cooking.

Did you add some milk?

Does it need more seasoning? Another stock cube, pepper etc? I do think plenty of seasoning is important. And personally I don't think I'd semi-blitz - either wholly or not at all.

I make a lot of soups in autumn/winter, with whatever I have, but always inc. onion and celery for flavour. And usually potato. I chop all veg very small and often start off with sweated chopped onion and celery. . Those and chopped root veg (carrot, swede turnip, whatever), plus often a handful of pearl barley and/or red lentils, simmer in stock for a good half hour.
Any green veg (cabbage, quartered sprouts, chopped leeks, etc. go in just for the last 5 mins or so. I never blitz this sort of soup..

Sometimes I add some small pasta - e.g.orzo, the one that looks like rice - for the last 10 mins.
Usually served with plenty of grated cheese sprinkled on top. These are main-meal soups - dh would happily eat them just about every day!

Another one (easy!) that's been popular in winter is curried parsnip - sweat some chopped onion with curry powder, add chicken or veg stock and plenty of peeled parsnips in chunks, simmer until parsnips are very soft, and then blitz. Taste to check seasoning, adjust if necessary.

I love my carrot and coriander soup, it turns out perfect every time.

Good idea - thanks Jamesnan ..

With reply to Fennel, over the hard butternut squash, I always cook mine while in microwave first, then it is easier to cut.

I like to make a tomato soup, I sweat down a finely chopped onion, chopped skinned tomatoes, or sometimes tinned tomatoes or passata, red peppers finely chopped, garlic, salt and plenty of pepper , what ever herbs I fancy, water and vegetable stock cubes, I like to put this in my slow cooker, my grandson likes me to add pasta! so sometimes I add pasta to it.

If its too salty can throw in a cube of bread to soak up the salt,then discard the bread.or a whole potato.or simply add more water to dilute.

squash, cut sideways, if that makes sense, roast in oil with cumin seeds....makes a great soup. You can toast the seeds and sprinkle on top.

Wow thanks for your lovely ideas. And jane, you have managed to throw a frisson into the mix.

Bathsheba? out of bed the wrong side this fine morning?

I think I was grumpy which influenced the result and I had stored the spuds in the fridge. I will check the stock cube.

Oh, how I love a good soup in the winter.

ps for the tomato/bean soup - take the lemon out before blitzing.

I'm not a fan of leek and potatosoup - a good filler but too bland as someone else said.
An easy recipe is a tin of tomatoes, a tin of butter beans, a few lemon slices, a little water. And a chopped onion, sweated in some oil.
Heat well and blitz.
While on the subject, I have a butternut squash which I would like to make into soup. But it's so hard to cut up.
Where do I start?