Vegetable Soup
There’s nothing like a bowl of home made soup and some crusty bread. You can use veggies that have seen better days, but obviously the fresher the ingredients the better the flavour and the more nutritious the end product. Once the ingredients are cooked finish cooking. It will not benefit from boiling away for hours. If you’re using organic vegetables there is no need to peel, but do think about the overall result. Peel potatoes if you plan to process it at all for a smooth or semi smooth finish as bits of potato skin drifting around could prove to be unpalatable!
Ingredients:
Onion (allow ½ per person)
Garlic – 2 or 3 cloves to taste
Chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Sunflower oil
Vegetable stock cube or homemade stock from chicken or vegetable
Any vegetables (one or more) you fancy in any combination from the following list. Allow up to 300g of vegetables per person. Celery,
Mushroom,
Squash,
Carrot,
Parsnip,
Any other seasonal veg!
Method:
Wash your chosen veggies. Peel if necessary. Remove any bits you don’t fancy eating (potato eyes for example). Chop all vegetables.
At this stage you need to think about your finished product. Do you want a super smooth soup, a rustic chunky soup, or something in-between? If you want a smooth or semi-smooth finish, you just need to cut the veg up into similar sized pieces, so that it cooks at the same rate – you’ll process it at the end. If you want chunks of veg in the soup they need to fit nicely on a spoon and be bite sized. If little people are eating it’s important that you consider bite sized for them is entirely different to an adult. You shouldn’t have to “cut up” your soup!
With most soups it’s best to cook the onion in a little oil, very gently until soft. Use the same pan that the soup will be made in to save washing up a separate frying pan.
Add the garlic and again, cook until soft.
Next add whichever veggies you’re using, heat up and stir around until lightly steaming.
Add the stock cube dissolved in 500ml water and sufficient water to cover the vegetables.
Season with pepper.
Simmer gently until the vegetables are cooked.
Process to a smooth finish or leave it as it is.