Making your own soup, ideas?

Associate
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At work I've started having a bowl of soup for lunch with a couple of wholemeal brown rolls. Whilst Heinz is rather tastey, it's not that hearty... I want to try my hand at making my own, I have a few in mind I want to try, but variety is the spice of life... So do you guys have any suggestions?

I'm thinking of doing a mulligatawny with some lean chicken, spicy lentil, and also a roughly cut chunky vegetable soup. Apart from that, I'm out.
 
Soldato
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You can use anything that you fancy for a soup really. Sky is the limit. I love to just go with the flow and see what I have in the cupboards.

I'm doing a simple one I saw on river cottage I think it was. 1 Garlic, 1 potato, 1 onion, 1 leek, 1 celeriac. Stock.

That's it.
 
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OP
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brocoli and stilton
chicken and sweetcorn
butternut squash and red pepper
spicy beef
carrot and coriander
tomato and marscarpone

All sound awesome barring brocoli and stilton, as I remember I had gastric flu once, and earlier that day I had eaten a big bowl of brocoli and stilton, needless to say it was one of the worst experiances of my life.
 
Soldato
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Been making a lot of spicy butternut squash soup recently.

Tend to let some cumin seeds and some cloves of garlic sizzle in a pan.
Add butternut squash with a mixture of onion, leek, carrot, pepper, sweet potato, parsnip etc. depending on what's in the flat.
Sautee the veg for 5 minutes or so.
Add boiling water and stock if required(around 2 pints probably)
Simmer for 30-60 minutes.
Season with salt, pepper, cumin powder and/or other spices to taste.
Blend.

Beauty of soup is you can make it different every time depending on what you happen to have in the cupboard or fridge.
 
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Associate
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Just about to make some.

Just a standard veg broth nothing fancy.

I don't measure it out but take 1/3 standard cup of pearl barley and 1/3 cup red lentils and soak them in a bowl for 10mins get rid of some starch. Drain and put these in the pan(think it's about 4 litre pan) and with a small amouint water and start cooking them(they take longer to cook than the veg) . Dice 3 carrots, 1 leeks and 2 medium onions and 1 large potato. After the barley and lentils have been cooking for about 7min fill the pan up witrh about 3-3.5 litres, add 3-4 chicken stock cubes. Salt and pepper.

Can also add a can of chopped tomatoes but i don't usually. Great stuff.
 
Soldato
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Boiled Chicken Carcass, onion & carrot = delicious stock which can act as a base for a whole heap of additions which each make delicious soups: chicken, sweetcorn, butternut squash, pea, ham...

WARNING
: Crusty bread is a legal accompaniment ;)
 
Soldato
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Made that simple celeriac soup. This was just it on. Great soup. I love making soups and all the above soup great.
 
Associate
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My favourite is also a spicy butternut soup - with a twist.

Fry 2 tablespoons red curry paste for a few minutes with a bit of oil. Add 600ml veg stock, and a peeled and cubed butternut squash. Bring to boil and simmer for 10-15 min until squash is softened. Take off heat then use hand blender until smooth, and finally add a 400ml tin of coconut milk.

Utterly moreish.
 
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My creation from last night, it's hot as hell and rather tastey.

1/2 Swede
4 Carrots
4 Potatos
4 small\medium onions
1 bag of cabbage and leek
3 Chicken breasts
3 Chicken Stock cubes (with water to make it up)
1 "thing" of celery
2 cups of rice
8 chilli peppers, green and red
God knows how much paprika, curry and chilli powder
 
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Caporegime
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My mum's legendary pea soup:

1 Packet Split Peas
2 large onion (grated)
2 large carrots (grated)
1 large potato (grated)
1 handful of Celery leaves (chopped)
1 tsp dried Parsley
2 chicken stock cubes
Half a cup of pearl barley
Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse peas in cold water
Put in large saucepan
add cold water till pot is 2/3 full
add all other ingredients
bring to the boil and then turn down the heat
simmer for 1 hour, or until peas are soft.

She usually added a small smoked hock for flavour, you can
also use one or two pieces of beef shin, or you can
go veggie and leave the meat out all together.
 
Man of Honour
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Celery soup. This is a really quick and simple recipe of my own:

Ingredients:
1 head celery - roughly chopped
1 large onion - roughly chopped
1 large potato - diced (thickens the soup)
1 pint vegetable (or chicken) stock
1 oz butter
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 sprig thyme

Fry the onion in the butter until soft (about 5 mins).
Add celery and potato and sweat on low heat for about 10 mins with the lid on.
Add pepper and cook for another 2 mins.
Add thyme and stock.
Simmer for 20 mins.
Season to taste and liquidise until smooth. I like mine peppery so I usually add a bit more pepper.

Can be frozen in portions for whenever you need it.
 
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