To make a great soup requires a lot more than simply chucking a bunch of ingredients together and hoping for the best. If you want a sensational soup, the following tips will help you get there
- Build up your soup layer by layer. Start by sweating your aromatics like celery, carrots, onions, leeks or garlic. Let them soften in butter or oil as the first step in making your soup.
- Consider the cooking time of each ingredient. Different vegetables take different lengths of time to cook. Only add them at the appropriate time, or you might land up with mushy ingredients
- Use a good stock as the base. The soup's essence will always depend on the effort taken to make an outstanding stock.
- Let the stock simmer for a long time, so that its flavours can become concentrated. Always use homemade stocks if at all possible.
- Simmer your soup to allow the meat used to become tender.
- If you want a thick soup, add potatoes right at the beginning, so they can soften. Use a blender at the end of the cooking process to complete the thickening.
- Add cream for a richer and thicker soup.
- Add noodles, beans or rice to thicken the soup and give it body. If you want to use these to thicken your soup, take two thirds out towards the end of cooking. Use a blender to thicken, and then reintroduce what you have taken out.
- Add sausages for extra flavour.
- Be careful with the seasoning. Don't use too much salt
- Always serve with fresh bread.
Nothing beats a great spicy soup on a cold winter's evening. They warm you up, are easy to digest, and simply make you feel good.
Bon appetite