My soup was horrible.

Not shocked Alexa. I sometimes add coconut milk.

I sometimes cheat about adding 'cream' to soup. I bet some people will be shocked but I sometimes add Coffee Mate.

Does it need more salt/pepper/another stock cube? Would some milk improve the texture, or does it have milk already? If so, could the milk possibly have been slightly off?

How about blitzing it, either in a blender, or in the pan with a stick version?

Lately I’ve been making a lot of Thai-style soups with the butternut squashes that come in our veg box deliveries - TBH I can’t really be bothered to do anything else with them - more trouble than they’re worth IMO.

To use them up I’ve added swede, and/or parsnip/carrots/potato/courgette to the standard mix of microwaved B. squash, sweated onion, chicken stock, plenty of garlic/red chilli/ginger, with a can of coconut milk added before stick blending - all have been v nice for lunch.

A giant fennel .
Fennel has been my favourite veg plant for ages , the flowers are so pretty. The common fennel has deep roots so I can see it's compared to a carrot.

Forgot to say that asafoetida is often referred to as hing.

JennyCee, I use it as a substitute for o ions and garlic in Indian curries, stews and soups.
www.bbcgoodfood.com/glossary/asafoetida

I think there's another thread about soups, more recent.
I mentioned adding a tin of chickpeas, rinsed, to a base of onion red peppers carrots etc.
That was a really good soup. Lasted days.

Well the OP made the soup last year so I hope it turned out all right in the end!

The best soup I had, although I say it myself, was home-made oxtail last month. It was delicious. When I came to finish it next day it had set like a jelly, so imagine the goodness in it.

Nothing added, only fresh veg and potatoes.

Usually needs addition of one or more of the following:

sugar, salt or stock cube, pepper, butter or oil, wine

a couple of tablespoons of cream will sort it ,ans dont boil it just bring it to the right temperature slowly

Just eaten chicken and veg soup, made from roast chicken carcass. That was good.

What on earth is asafoetida, mini Moon?

I've made the butternut squash soup now, from a recipe which includes a few other veg. Also a little cinnamon.
It's ok but I'm surprised how sweet it is. Do you soup experts think it would be ruined by adding a little salt?

I make my leek and potato soup exactly like you (but sometimes add half an onion if there's a bit going spare) but I mash mine at the end, then take out about a cupful and blitz that before pouring it back. Best of both worlds.

I don't add cream but I do like a little grated cheese and black pepper on top when I've served it.

I earlier took out of freezer lentil dahl which I love. Turned out to be tomato paste thing. Not great to eat. Forgot to label.

Curried parsnip soup! It doesn’t matter if the parsnips are wrinkled, just add onion and large potato with veg stock pot powder and curry powder to taste......our always favourite!

I love making soup - this week's was mercimek çorbası (Turkish lentil soup).

I love chunky vegetable soup, but don’t do anything fancy in the preparation. I save the stock from a piece of boiled bacon, and add loads of veg. Lentils, tinned chopped tomatoes, onion, carrot, potato, parsnip, mushroom, peppers, tinned kidney beans/butter beans/chickpeas, frozen sweet corn and peas....almost anything really. I add a few stock cubes, seasoning, mixed herbs, parsley, sage rosemary and thyme (I feel a song coming on!)
I just chop it up roughly, throw it in a large pot, top it up with water and leave it to simmer for an hour or so. Sometimes I add a little chopped chicken or bacon. Each batch tastes different, but always delicious.

Commercial carrot and coriander soup, to me, tastes horrible. No taste of carrot at all.
I like to slice and chop onion, carrots, broccoli, cabbage (in thin ribbons) parsnips, potatoes, sweet potato, green beans, fine beans then sweat the onion(s) and add all the other veg with two stock cubes or fresh veg stock plus water. Bring to boil and simmer until soft then par-blitz with hand held blender and add seasoning and finely chopped fresh herbs of choice before serving with chunks of warm crusty bread. ??
I sometimes omit potatoes and add farfalline or pastina.

Why not look on YouTube? Millions of recipes.

Quite probably both!!

My secret ingredient ....Star Anise

Curried parsnip from Witzend is the one I will be trying next. I have a soup maker but it's such a faff to clean.

the soup or the cook?