Your favourite easy soup!

[Mrs Magpie]

Oooh, just remembered one from my childhood. Churl Soup. A knuckle of ham, loads of onions, parsley and milk. Boil up your knuckle of ham (or bacon bits, or gammon or whatever, it's hard to find a knuckle of ham these days) and when it's falling off the bone add loads of quartered onions, cook till they're all melty and right towards the end sloosh in some milk and a good handful of chopped parsley. Lovely. No stick blender required.

 

[catinthehat]

Butternut squash, coconut, chilli, sweet potato and red pepper soup (you can leave out sweet pots or red pepper - I tend to vary it. Cut squash into big chunks and de seed dont peel. Roast with olive oil, put chopped chillis in with it and chopped peeled sweet potatoes (as if you were doing roasted veg). When soft peel squash and put all of it in a pan with a jar of roasted red peppers (Lidyls have these and they are really useful and nice), some veg stock powder (cube, whatever) and can of coconut milk. Simmer for a bit then blend.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Butternut squash

I do what my son calls pepperpot soup which he requests when he's ill as comfort/healing soup. Cut up the squash and just cover with water and simmer. Add fresh garlic and chilli and blend into velvety loveliness.

 

[RubyToogood]

Miso soup with gyoza (stuffed dumplings) and greens. I made this so much last year that I'm a bit sick of it now. It requires an oriental supermarket, but takes 10 mins from chopping board to bowl. Wing Tai in Brixton has all the stuff. Technically it's the wrong way round because the gyoza should be steamed and then fried, but really who needs that? You can get veggie or meaty ones.

Fry some frozen gyoza in a little oil.
Put a pan of water on to boil and add chopped garlic, ginger, and some wakame seaweed (about a spoonful).
When the gyoza are browned, put them in the water along with some choi sum if you have it, or pak choi or just broccoli if not. Put the lid on till the greenery is cooked but before the dumplings go too soggy. It's better to put the greens under the dumplings.
Put a little cold water into your soup plate and stir in some miso. Put the cooked soup into this and stir.

You can also add chillis of course.

 

[catinthehat]

Not yet consumed but I have just made a chicken soup with a bowl of chicken stock and left over chicken. Put chicken in pan with chopped onion and garlic, fry a bit not brown, add some goan curry paste and some chillis, stir a bit, add stock and tin coconut milk. Simmer. Blend a bit if you want it thicker. It looks ok - report back after lunch.

 

[Thimble Queen]

I made black bean, chipotle and lime soup recently. It was fairly quick and well yum.

 

[RubyToogood]

This reminds me that han makes an excellent black bean soup using the recipe on the back of the bean tin, but without the sour cream and tortilla chips:

30 ml olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 medium red onions, chopped
2 jalapano peppers or green chillies, chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 x 400g tins Tropical Sun Black Beans (do not drain)
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
6 tbsp fresh coriander
salt and pepper to taste
soured cream
tortilla chips

Soften garlic, then onion and chillis in oil, add cumin, add beans and stock, bring to boil and simmer for 10 mins. Add some coriander. Cool for 15 mins and blend. Add more coriander and salt and pepper. Serve with sour cream, tortilla chips and remaining coriander on top.

 

[bi0boy]

A tin of chopped tomatoes.

 

[ash]

Following on from last post:
5 min tomato soup
Loads of butter fry finely chopped garlic (can add onion celery carrot if wish). Cook a little add Tin of tomatoes one or two tins of water and glug of chinese sweet chilli sauce season blend and cook a little and bobs your uncle.
I think it's the butter does it.

 

[lizzieloo]

Leek and Potato

Leeks
Potatoes
Skimmed milk
Veg stock
Grated nutmeg
S + P

Fry leeks and potatoes for a bit, chuck in equal amounts of stock and milk, grate in nutmeg, add s + p (I like lots of pepper) wait till cooked, spoon out some chunks, wizz the rest (I used to use a masher) put chunks back and serve.

It's the nutmeg that makes it delicious

 

[Ming]

This is Nigel Slater one i've made a few times (frozen corn is fine):

Sweetcorn and bacon chowder
This is very much a main-course soup, not at all suitable as a first course. It has sweetness, depth and body, and is even better the next day. There is no reason why you can't make it with frozen corn, other than that it seems a shame not to take advantage of the cheap cobs around at the moment. Serves 6.
30g butter
2 plump salad onions or shallots
300g smoked streaky bacon
the leaves of 6 bushy sprigs of thyme
4 corn cobs
1.5 litres water
150ml (or less) single cream
a good handful of parsley
Melt the butter in a deep, heavy-based pan, then peel and roughly slice the onions. Add them to the hot butter and let them soften over a low heat. Cut the bacon into thick chunks, roughly the size of a postage stamp, tearing off the rind as you go. You could quite reasonably use what some butchers sell off as bacon bits for this, checking them over for rind and bone first. Whatever, let them fry with the onion, stirring them only occasionally so a thin layer of golden goo adheres to the pan. It will give a deep, smoky bacon flavour to the soup.
Pull the leaves from the thyme sprigs and stir them in. Strip the kernels from the corn cobs. I do this by holding the cob upright on a board, one hand at the top, then slicing down with a large knife. You will get about 100g per cob. Tip the corn into the pan. Pour 1.5 litres of water over the sizzling bacon and corn, turn up the heat and bring it to the boil. You may find you get a small amount of golden froth on top, like you do with dried beans, and I think you should probably remove this. As the soup boils, turn down the heat so that the corn rolls steadily in the simmering water. Don't be tempted to add salt - the bacon will serve for that.
After 30 minutes, scoop out a little of the corn and check it for tenderness. It should be soft, and of course sweet, with a distinct smoky flavour to it. You can let it simmer a while longer if it doesn't seem ready.
Blitz half of the soup in a blender or food processor, not quite to a smooth puree but well on the way, then tip it back into the pot with the unprocessed soup. Stir in the cream and the chopped parsley leaves, and bring to the boil. Taste and season with black pepper and, carefully, with salt.
Like most soups, this benefits from being served piping hot.

 

[Epona]

Peanut soup is simple to make and utterly fucking lush, very filling and warming - unfortunately last time I ate peanuts it triggered my asthma worse than I've ever previously experienced, so peanuts are now off the menu for me as I do not want to find myself dealing with a more serious anaphylactic reaction now that I have apparently developed an intolerance to peanuts

There are loads of different variations of recipe to be found online (I can't recall which one I used to use, as I can no longer eat it I un-bookmarked the recipe I liked), but I'd recommend making it quite spicy.

 

[kittyP]

Sweat some onions in a pan, add some garlic for a few minutes, fry off what ever spices you have to hand/or not.
Add some stock.
Add whatever vegetables you have so that stock is just covering them.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Boil til veg is tender.
Cool a little.
Wizz with a hand blender.
Lovely and nutritious veggy soup

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I just bunged the beef gravy from yesterday in a pan and added chopped onion, celery and carrot and cooked it up. When I tasted it it was a bit thin tasting so I added a stock cube and chopped mushrooms and bunged some petit pain from the freezer into the oven to thaw/crisp up. It went down well.

 

[treefrog]

I just finished making and eating this. Really, really good Have discovered the joys of soup-making, the freezer also has green curry broccoli soup (AMAZING ERMAGHERD) and lentil and paprika for when I'm not in the mood to cook....

• One medium-sized cute-looking pumpkin
• an onion
• 1 can of coconut cream/milk
• 3ish tablespoons green curry paste
• 2ish tablespoons peanut butter
• 2ish tablespoons fish sauce

Open up that pumpkin and scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff. Peel the onion and chuck both on the wire rack in a oven heated to 200C.

While you're waiting for the pumpkin and onion to get all soft and delicious, clean the seeds of all the stringy stuff (I found that rinsing them and rubbing the seeds works best) and spread out on an oiled tray. Add some sea salt. Chuck in under the roasting vegetables for ten minutes, then give them a shoogle and put them in for another ten.

Eat roasted seeds while you're waiting for the vegetables to finish softening

When the pumpkin is done, take it out of the oven (the onion will probably need another few minutes)

In a saucepan, heat the coconut milk, green curry paste and fish sauce. Start to scoop out the pumpkin flesh and plop into the saucepan. If you fancy it, tear up the soft, delicious pumpkin skin and add that too.

Take out the hopefully-now-soft onion and cut it up as best you can given that it's all soft and hot. Add to the pot.

Take a blender to it. Blend it some more. And a bit more.

Eat the hell out of it.

 

[zora]

This reminds me that han makes an excellent black bean soup using the recipe on the back of the bean tin

I'm just off to buy the ingredients for this, sounds very yummy.

 

[Ceej]

Veg and barley soup.

Chop carrots, onions, potatoes, add a couple of veggie stock cubes. Add water, bring to boil, the turn do low. Add big handful of barley, and a couple of branches of rosemary - cook till soft, s & p to taste. Dip in buttery bread! Lovely, and costs very little, good way of using leftover elderly veg.

 

[Thimble Queen]

Veg and barley soup.

Chop carrots, onions, potatoes, add a couple of veggie stock cubes. Add water, bring to boil, the turn do low. Add big handful of barley, and a couple of branches of rosemary - cook till soft, s & p to taste. Dip in buttery bread! Lovely, and costs very little, good way of using leftover elderly veg.

I do something similar to this with leek, potato, garlic, barley and butterbeans... Its pretty yum and even more yum with a bit of cheese mixed in

 

[zora]

In fact, I might cook my way through the entire thread. Tomorrow: sweetcorn and bacon chowder, methinks.

 

[quimcunx]

scotch broth. Put half a cup of broth mix in 2 l or whatever of water and a couple of beef stock cubes or veggie stock cubes. boil for a while, add a chopped leek and a couple of chopped carrots, boil a bit more. sup.

 

[sojourner]

I made black bean, chipotle and lime soup recently. It was fairly quick and well yum.

That sounds well lush

 

[Pickman's model]

 

[RubyToogood]

The only thing that's helpful to have is good quality stock cubes. Kallo brand are very good.

I've more or less gone over to Kallo veg stock cubes. I used to use Marigold bouillon powder but just ended up eating too much of the damn stuff over the years and getting sick of it.

One of my big soup ingredients at the moment is red pepper paste, rather than tomato puree (available at Turkish shops etc).

 

[Badgers]

Had some veggies to use up so soup is on the hob simmering. This was not a measured ingredients list but roughly....

Half a green cabbage
Load of leeks
Red pepper
Tomatoes
Two red onions
Carrots
Half a garlic bulb
A small mix of chillies
Cup of lentils
Boullion powder
Celery salt
Pepper
Salt

I have a can of tomatoes to throw in if it needs it. Anything else I should throw in? Maybe some paprika?