Soup recipe for 20 people

Nannarose

This is how professional cookery writers do it:

Get ready to make your usual lentil soup, with pencil & paper by you. As you make it, note everything - weigh things like carrots - and there you have your recipe.

I also like Granny23's idea.

I shall have to do that soon - I’ve been asked to make soup for Gdcs’ school outdoor ‘Victorian’ Christmas fair ?. I never use recipes for soup, so there’s going to be a trial run with a much smaller amount, weighing everything.

I’ve been dithering over which to make - my usual very thick multi-veg (not blended) won’t do for soup that’ll have to be in mugs, so I’m going to trial a smooth ‘root soup’ I used to make, which could be vegan if needed. Nicer with milk and butter though - I might try it with e.g. Oatly.
Carrots, potatoes, swede, celery, celeriac, onions, veg stock, parsley. ?

Just wish I had a bigger freezer so I could make plenty well in advance.

Thank you all for the suggestions, off to get my shopping list ready now!

I often used to make large pots of soup for church events. Split pea and ham always went down well. I'd say just size up your existing recipe.

Indian red lentil soup

Rinse half a pound of dried split red lentils well and place in a pot.

Cover them with water and add
1 large onion chopped very finely,
3 cloves of garlic, likewise finely chopped.
4 bay leaves

Bring to boil and simmer until the onions are soft and the lentils have changed colour from red to carry - yellow and look mushy.

Stir frequently while the soup simmers.

When the mixture is mushy and soft, remove the bay leaves.
Flavour with ground cummin, salt, pepper, garam masala , ground ginger, and if liked, a very small teaspoonful ground cloves.

You may wish to add more water at this point if the soup looks too solid.

Bring it to the boil, whilst stirring and taste. Add more of the spices if necessary.

If you prefer you can add a vegetable soup cube to the water when boiling the lentils and onions. If you do so, the finished soup will probably not need additional salt.

You can make this soup well in advance and freeze it or alterately make it the day before it is to be eaten and keep it overnight in the fridge.

Serve with bread or chapattis.

So many lovely recipes available online, then simply double, treble, quadruple or X more from the amount you usually make.

These are the soup recipes www.gransnet.com/recipes/type/soup

Or here for readers' recipes. www.gransnet.com/recipes

Try here, Polnan www.gransnet.com/food/warming-winter-soup-recipes

For my style of soup and stew cooking, there is just one rule:
Use only white pepper, never black.

White goes in food.
Black Pepper goes on.

There is a lovely recipe for a Lentil and Bacon soup on the BBC Good Food website which can be scaled up. Bacon can always be omitted if there may be vegetarians present. I have made this recipe many times and always receive lots of compliments. Hope that’s of help.

I was hoping to read a recipe for home made soup here.. I am not a very good cook, but lost my appetite so striving to find a good, satisfactory sou.

Thanks everyone. As Nannarose suggested I made a note of amounts as I went along and ended up with 3 litres of soup which should provide 15 portions. If any more is required from me I can now make the same soup again. Result!

This is how professional cookery writers do it:

Get ready to make your usual lentil soup, with pencil & paper by you. As you make it, note everything - weigh things like carrots - and there you have your recipe.

I also like Granny23's idea.

People I know with nut allergy also have allergies to peas,beans and lentils .Might be worth checking .I think they belong to the same "family" of legumes ...I know from experience as I once made lentil soup for a friend who hadn't explained that peas and nuts were related to lentils .

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Unfortunately I don't use a recipe - I just judge how many onions, carrots, sweet potato, etc. and how many lentils to use with a veg stockpot and then add water according to how thick I want the soup to be. Needless to say it is never the same twice! I would still like to have a recipe with more accurate amounts because several people are going to make soup and some of them are novices! Thanks for your help and I'm sorry to be unimaginative.

I do not know what size pot you use normally,.
If you measure the portions in your normal pot, then the amount of ingredients used you can then multiply it to make 22 portions. Always over estimate and take your own serving ladle as I have been caught out in our Church by larger/smaller ladles. It is also the way I calculate portions for professional jobs. remember you can always add a bit of water or stock if it seems too thick. Just be careful with any kind of stock cube the more you use the more salt you get.
Good luck.

Snap, G23 !

You could make your usual amount, and repeat that until you had enough for 20 then mix them all together. It will take longer than one big batch, but you would know that it works.

Why not make it in batches (using usual quantities) in advance, freeze them and defrost into big pot the night before? Also has the advantage that if the soup 'sticks' you have only wasted one batch.

Just double, treble, quadruple it much better to stick to a successful receipt than try out a new one

If you have a good recipe, I would simply scale it up - I have done this lots of times and never had any problems.