[Closed] tasty quick soup

make stocks regularly and freeze them to use as base.

No idea about calorie counts but simple are things like veg (potato, leek, cream, pepper, chicken stock base)

Green thai curry flavours with fresh coriander and some coconut milk and what ever you throw in is a nice one.

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Broth as in thia and not scotch.

for fresh, quick and also in nicely seasonal:

packet of asparagus (approx 300g) (snap off any woody ends)
packet of sugar snap peas
1 large onion
about half a bunch of celery

dice them all up and fry in a bit of olive oil for about 10 mins

add 1ltr of veg or chicken stock

simmer for 5min

blitz then and add the zest of a lemon and between half and all the juice (to taste) and some salt and pepper

For a nice broth-y tasting soup (but without any meat in so pretty lean) look up Antonio Carluccio's Pasta and Bean soup. Quick to cook, pretty much all store cupboard ingredients and really full flavoured - much more tasty than the ingredients would suggest. The recipe say fresh or dried beans but I just use a can for quickness.

Worth looking back through the forum, there's been a number of soup recipes.

I'm currently making a stew of sorts. Fry an onion off till soft, add half a diced swede and a couple of diced carrots and fry a couple of minutes longer.

Add a litre or so of stock, half teaspoon each of thyme and rosemary, bay leaf, couple of teaspoons of gravy granules, pinch of white pepper and a tablespoon of Marmite. Maybe a dash of Worcestershire sauce if you're feeling cosmopolitan.

Simmer for 20 minutes or so, add three roughly diced spuds. I've chucked in some Quorn "steak" strips at this point too, I'm sure you could do something similar with meat.

I've added some dumplings here too - suet and flour, follow the instructions on the suet packet. Cover and simmer till everything's softened and the spuds are starting to break up, thickening out the sauce. Add more stock if it starts getting dense. Could maybe add some peas or green beans for a bit of variety too.

Leek & potato soup is about the easiest soup I know. Here's mine:

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Serves two hungry people.

Ingredients

1tbsp butter
2 cloves garlic
250g leeks (one large leek per person for shopping purposes)
250g potatoes (again, one good-sized spud per person)
1 onion
500ml veggie stock (3x veggie OXO cubes will do)
black pepper
115ml milk

Method

Chop and wash the leeks. The easiest way I've found to chop them is to lop the dark green leafy bits off and then slice them lengthways twice, not quite to the end of the root. Then cut into 1cm pieces crossways. You need to wash the leeks as they tend to hold soil inside the layers, and you're not making leek and dirt soup. Peel and dice the onion, and finely chop or crush the garlic.

Melt the butter in a big pan on a medium heat. Add the onion / leek / garlic and fry gently for about ten minutes until the leeks are soft and buttery. Stir regularly, you don't want the oniony mix to stick or brown.

Whilst the leeks are cooking, peel and dice the spuds, about 1cm cubes is good.

When the leeks are softened, pour in the stock and add the spuds. Give it a generous twist of black pepper. Don't be shy, the nuttiness of the pepper is pretty much essential to this recipe. I don't believe it needs additional salt as the stock cubes are pretty salty in themselves, but if you're using different stock then you might need salt at the stage. Use common sense here, you can add more salt when serving but if there's too much you can't take it out again.

Turn up the heat to bring the soup up to simmering point, then reduce it so that it's simmering gently rather than boiling like mad. Leave it to simmer for about 20 minutes, till the spuds are softened through. Stir regularly so that it cooks evenly and doesn't stick.

A couple of minutes before it's done, add the milk. If you're using creamy milk you might need to let it cool a little first to avoid it curdling; I use skimmed so it's never been a problem just to slap it in. If you're going to liquidise it, do it now whilst the temperature's reduced. Personally I think it's better to leave it chunky. Bring it back up to temperature, stirring to avoid a skin forming, then serve with warm crusty bread.

Nom.

just raiding my recipes. Spicy parsnip is another simple one, and far nicer than it has any right to be given how few ingredients go in. Smells amazing when you're cooking it too.

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Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, thickly sliced
500g parsnips, peeled, cut into chunks
spices - 1/2 tsp each of coriander / cumin / turmeric / garam masala
salt and freshly ground black pepper
750ml veggie stock
200ml double cream
paprika / chilli flakes / coriander leaf to garnish?

Method

Put a roasting dish in the oven with the oil and preheat to 200'C.

Add the spices to the oil, then add the veg with a little salt and pepper and mix well. Mix well and roast for ~30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden.

Put 500ml of the stock in a large soup pan and bring up to boil, then add the veg.

Pour the leftover stock into the roasting dish and place over a high heat. Stir and scrape any brown bits from the dish, then add the liquid to the soup. Simmer for 20 mins.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, then liquidise until smooth. Return the soup to the pan, add the cream and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Cougar no soup recipe in the world should ever serve two hungry people.

Soup recipes must feed the masses for at least a week.

I've posted this before, but it's my "signature" soup, all my own work and I'm dead proud of it. Bit more work but well worth it. Thai Chicken(less) Noodle Soup.

Ingredients

75g creamed coconut
1L veggie stock (5x green OXO cubes or equivalent)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
175g Quorn roast chicken strips (or whatever the pack size is these days)
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp hot chilli powder
30ml (1 tbsp rounded) crunchy peanut butter
Juice of half a lemon (use fresh, not bottled)
60g fine egg noodles, broken into ~6cm lengths
1 tsp dried / 1 tbsp fresh coriander leaf
Handful of spring onions, chopped
Black pepper

Garnish
1 tbsp Desiccated coconut
1 tsp Dried chilli flakes

Method

Dissolve the creamed coconut and peanut butter into the hot stock. Thoroughly mix so that there's no clumps. This takes a while.

Meanwhile, fry the chopped garlic in the oil for a couple of minutes, in a large soup pan on a medium heat. When the garlic starts to brown, add the Quorn strips, turmeric and chilli powder. Fry for five minutes, stirring constantly to prevent the Quorn from sticking.

Add the stock / coconut mix to the pan with the lemon juice. Simmer partially covered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the coriander, spring onions, noodles and a few twists of black pepper, then allow to simmer for another five minutes.

Whilst the soup is finishing cooking, make the garnish. Fry a spoonful of desiccated coconut together with a sprinkling of chilli flakes in a dry frying pan, stirring constantly until the coconut turns brown but not burned.

Decant the soup into bowls, and sprinkle with a little of the garnish. Serve with the rest of the garnish separate to allow seasoning to taste; chilli flakes are hot. Tortilla chips go well with it, if you want something to scoop the soup.

(For a carnivorous version, substitute the Quorn for cooked chicken pieces.)

Soup recipes must feed the masses for at least a week.

Sure, you just need a multiplier and a bigger pan. My recipes serve two by default as that's how many people are in the house, I usually make more to freeze or take into work for lunches.

I inherited my gran's old pans from the farm, absolutely fantastic when you need to make a vat of chilli to feed the 5,000 or something.

Inordinately rich French Onion Soup.

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Ingredients

350g onions, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
25g butter
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 level teaspoon granulated sugar
1 heaped tsp plain four
600ml stock
140ml dry white wine
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp Marmite
1 tablespoon Cognac
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the pan on a fairly high heat and melt the oil and butter together. When this is hot, add the onions, garlic and sugar, and keep turning them from time to time until the edges of the onions have started to colour – this will take about 6 minutes. Then reduce the heat to low and leave the onions to carry on cooking very slowly for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to stop them catching. After 30 mins the base of the pan will be covered with a rich, nut brown, caramelised film.

Sprinkle in the flour, stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Then pour in the stock and white wine, season and add the thyme and Marmite. Stir with a wooden spoon, scraping the base of the pan well.

As soon as it all comes up to simmering point, turn down the heat, then leave it to cook very gently, covered, for about half an hour. All this can be done in advance but, when you're ready to serve the soup, bring it back up to simmering point, taste to check for seasoning and add a tablespoon of Cognac.

I'm sorry to be [i]that[/i] guy, but soup is not the way to lose some mass.

I really sorry, but it's posted with genuine non-trolling intent. Home made soups are awesome, but they're not a path to easy mass loss; probably the opposite. I'm not going to even talk about the salt in stock.

Don't know what your circumstances are, but it you're pressed for time and want to get full:

Chop up some peppers, celery, throw in a bunch of baby toms, maybe some chopped cucumber and chuck it all into some tupperware. It'll stay good for 3-5 days.

Each evening, just boil a bit of wholeweat pasta and mix a few generous spoonfulls of the salad mix with some chicken/turkey/tinned tuna/salmon etc.

You'll be full and be consuming lots of nice clean fodder.

That's it. I'm not trying to derail a thread I promise and won't say any more!

I'm not going to even talk about the salt in stock.

Depends how you make stock, surely?

I often use stock cubes, which have scary amounts of salt I know. But fresh stock won't have any at all unless you add it, no?

Chorizo chop brown.
onions and garlick soften.
chopped butternut squash, some chile to taste.
chicken stock, boil, blitz eat.

My quick easy recipe that always works is a sort of sweetcorn chowder.

It's basically the leek soup recipe, but use onion instead of leek. At the onion browning and garlic adding stage, also add say a finely chopped chilli - or as many if you like if you like spicy. When adding the stock and potatos, also add a tin of creamed corn and cook through.

Then use a hand blender til fairly smooth - its warm, filling, thick and can be made as hot as you like.

Depends how you make stock, surely?

I'm guessing the OP isn't going to be boiling down a chicken carcass. 🙂

It just grates me that people with good intentions, go down the soup route.

Soup is one of the least nutritious lunch options going, unless you have a pret sarnie.

I know, I said I wouldn't say any more. It just annoys me when folk have the best intentions, end up making bad choices.

I repeat, home made soup is [b]awesome[/b]. Just not a path to weight loss.

Clean carbs, protein and some minerals with a salad/veg option. Job done.

I'm guessing the OP isn't going to be boiling down a chicken carcass

Why not. That's what I do. I never make soup with cubes.

Cubes only used for stews in our house.

The word "quick" in the thread title suggests that 5+ hours making chicken stock isn't really an option .

Miso soup but meat eating European you will starve as your big bones will suffer ... 😆

For 1 litre soup: (Miso paste from Chinese supermarket)
1. Boil water
2. Brown Miso paste (1 or 2 large table spoons depending on your taste)
3. White Miso paste (1 or 2 large table spoons depending on your taste)
4. Tofu (one or two block regardless of firmness depending on your taste)
5. Chopped smoked bacon (one pack or up to you as you wish)
6. Dry seaweed (up to you but I like to put a bit more but not too much)
7. Spring onion chopped (up to you)
8. Optional - a bit of sugar or MSG the ingredient of god (up to you. I don't use MSG coz I use Korean smoked sweet anchovy powder)

All into one pot and boil. There 10 mins max.

Just add water to boil if you think it's too thick ... not to be creamy like European soup.

Eat with rice or glutinous (Japanese or Thai) rice.

😛

edit: you may include finely chopped leek too if you wish ...

Marked so I can steal some of these later

This is all good. I have stock from roast chicken in the freezer, so some assumptions are mistaken, already make good chicken vegetable soup but was looking for alternatives. As always STW delivers.

I'm still reeling over "when the garlic starts to brown"

[i]I'm sorry to be that guy, but soup is not the way to lose some mass.[/i]

How so? It's mostly water after all.

I'm still reeling over "when the garlic starts to brown"

Starting to brown is perfect - stopping it right there is the trick - theres a hair's breadth between ace and ruined.

About 30 mins
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/21007/thai+pumpkin+soup
1kg butternut pumpkin, peeled, cut into 1.5cm pieces
2 tablespoons red curry paste
270ml can coconut cream
1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves
Step 1
Heat a large saucepan over medium heat. Add pumpkin and curry paste. Cook, stirring, for 1 to 2 minutes or until mixture starts to stick to bottom of pan. Add coconut cream. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
Step 2
Add 2 cups cold water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes or until pumpkin has softened. Set aside for 5 minutes.
Step 3
Blend or process soup in batches until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Top with coriander. Serve.

What sort of mentalist has kilos, millilitres and cups in the same recipe? That's the sort of idiocy I'd do, have a word with yourself.

Have a look on the BBC website for quick minestrone recipe.

Get your hands on some light/immature miso paste and other things of a fermented nature (fish sauce, shrimp paste, vinegar, alcoholic drinks, old bits of cheese, chorizo ect) and start experimenting I would say. It's very easy to make tasty stuff once you start deploying the umami weaponry. Also adding coconut fat or cream is going to drastically change/improve so things but won't be in like with your weight loss program so much. And fry in a butter + olive oil mix (duck/goose fat or coconut oil are also easy to get hold of and well worth trying), ditch the nasty veg oils if you're using them.

If you can make a good stock then you're already 3/4 of the way there as that will delivery a lot of flavour just by itself. Just try stuff out - do what feels right not what you think might be right. Try adding different spices after you've finished frying off your aromatics. I find smoked paprika is great for all sorts of things and it combines well with stuff like cumin. Fresh herbs too obviously, stuff like thyme and tarragon with strong flours will work well. You will need to have a good amount of fat in the pan tho as this will help to carry the flours through the dish.

Plenty of beans and lentils as there's not much to them. Look for calories from protein and fat over carbs, it has worked for me when cutting back.

Broccoli and some water in a pan - cook broc for 5 mins. Add a bit of salt and pepper, whizz with a hand blender = quickest soup I know.

What sort of mentalist has kilos, millilitres and cups in the same recipe?

Do the cups make the kilos curdle?

Soup, in my mind, will decrease the calorie density of my meals. Or more importantly be tasty.

Shamelessly stolen (albeit adapted) from the Covent Garden recipe book, this is really easy, pretty quick, feels healthy, and is oh so tasty:

Lentil and Thyme soup.
Chop up an onion and a garlic clove and fry in olive oil in your soup saucepan for a couple of minutes.
Chuck in 150g of red lentils and stir round for 30 seconds to coat them with the oil.
Add a pint of stock and bring to the boil
Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a squeeze of tomato puree a good load of thyme (fresh is obviously better, but dried works fine), and a *small* sprinkling of crushed chillies.
Simmer for 20 minutes
Stir in a good dollop of mascapone, a slosh of lemon juice and a sprinlking more thyme.
Eat with warm, crusty bread.

Not convinced it'll make me fat, but frankly I wouldn't care if it did. Delicious!

Cougar, that signature soup of yours is the daddy!. Just made it, albeit with a few wee tweeks - lime instead of lemon, bit of ginger too and some jaggery to give it a nice balance of sweet and savoury. I don't know if it will survive til lunchtime tomorrow!.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/333614/red-lentil-chickpea-and-chilli-soup
Or
http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/cream-tomato-and-horseradish-soup/
Both quick, easy, and really tasty.

Sautee chopped onion with a finely chopped chili. Open cans of sweetcorn and add to the onion and chili. Add water or veg stock immediately. Bring to boil for a bit. Add pepper and play with chili powder/ flakes until the heat is right.
Then blend it and serve with a swirl of soured cream and fresh coriander.

Cougar, that signature soup of yours is the daddy!. Just made it, albeit with a few wee tweeks - lime instead of lemon, bit of ginger too

\o/ That sounds a good idea, might give that a punt next time. Thanks.

got one of them Morphy Richard soup maker jug efforts. i use it a lot. never really follow any recipies, just chuck leftovers in and the odd spare carrot and onion you find in the fridge, pint of water, stock cube and set it to smooth. bosh!