Make a Soup Without a Recipe

When you want to make soup, you may have things around to use, but don't know which recipe to choose, or feel like following a recipe. Maybe you just don't feel like shopping. Here is an easy answer - make a great soup without really trying or following a recipe. To make soup without a recipe, think of your soup in two basic parts. Stock, and the finished soup. Many different and delicious soups can be made, using all sorts of ingredients most basic cooks will have in their kitchens.

Steps

  1. Find a pot large enough for the soup. A two quart (1.89 liter) pot is minimum, but 4-8 quarts (3.7 liters - 7.6 liters) would be best.
  2. Determine what ingredients you have on hand to decide what kind of soup you will make. Basic ingredients include meat, vegetables, grains, legumes, or fruit. Other potential ingredients include spices, herbs, acid (like vinegar or lemon juice), and fat (like butter or cream). Some basic soup styles include savory, sweet, or sour; hot or cold; heavy or light; cream or clear (consommé). Divide your ingredients into those for the stock, and those for the finished soup.
  3. Decide if you will use dry beans or grains. Dry beans require pre-cooking, either by an over-night soak, or a 2 hour soak in water that is first brought to a boil, then turned off and covered. You can speed things up by using canned beans. Grains such as buckwheat or brown rice need up to an hour to cook (see the package for cooking time).
  4. Make Your Stock. For the stock, start with water, and flavor it with vegetables, cooked or raw meat, fresh fish parts, canned stock or dry cubes, or even just plain onions. After your stock is made, you'll have to add new ingredients to make the finished soup, so make sure you don't use everything in the stock.
  5. Finish your Stock. After your stock has simmered for a while (half hour to an hour for vegetables only, 1+ hours for stock with meat); remove all of the stock ingredients and discard them. Filter the stock through a cheesecloth or strainer, if necessary. If you've used meat, and you have the time, cool the stock to separate any extra fat - put the stock in the refrigerator and wait for the fat to rise to the top and solidify, then scoop off with a spoon.
  6. Start your soup: Add dry beans (soaked) and hard grains with the meats, or at the beginning of making a vegetable soup.
  7. Add vegetables in the order of their hardness. For pure vegetable soups, add the vegetables at the beginning of boiling. For meat soups, add the vegetables at least half an hour after beginning to boil the meats. Wash, peel (if desired), and cut vegetables into uniform bite-sized pieces before adding them to the soup
  8. Cook at a simmer until the meat is very tender or until hard vegetables and grains are tender. Remove all meat bones. You may cool the soup now and finish cooking later, or even on the next day. If you do, skim off any hardened meat fat before re-heating it.
  9. Add soft foods at the end. Soft foods such as pasta and risoni don't need a lot of cooking and will disintegrate if they're overcooked. Leave them for the last few minutes of cooking.
  10. If you want a pureed soup (namely, a soup without any lumps), remove any meat bones and use a blender, hand puree tool, or food processor. (Warning: Hot liquids are very unpredictable in blenders. Be sure to start slowly or else the liquid may explode out the top and burn you!) Take small batches of the solid foods and whirl them with a bit of the stock. Return it to the pot or a separate bowl temporarily. Then return all the pureed soup to the pot and keep it warm.
  11. Add cream if you want a creamed soup. Add up to a cup of milk, cream or half-and-half to the soup, and let it become hot. Do not boil it.
  12. Serve with any garnishes you want.

Tips

  • For blander foods, try to add something to liven the flavours. Bland foods include: white rice, chicken, mushrooms, lettuce, zucchini, potatoes. Use lemon juice, pepper, chilli, oregano, garlic to liven them up.
  • Garnishes can include: toasted nuts or seeds, fresh cut herbs, cheese toast to float on top, dumplings, raw sliced mushrooms, a bit of sour cream or yogurt, grated cheese, croutons.
  • If you begin a soup and plan to continue later, wait until you re-heat the soup before adding any soft vegetables and foods (including left-overs). Do not add cream until the moment that you are ready to serve.
  • Avoid using eggplant, okra, or strong greens such as mustard.
  • Consider the flavours you plan to mix. Start with the basics of meat (or potatoes/grains), onions, herbs and garlic. Be aware of strong flavoured ingredients and don't over-mix them. These include: buckwheat, turnips, mint, chilli, bell pepper, sage, and lemon.
  • Taste the soup after half an hour, and at half hour intervals. Does it need more flavor? Add salt or flavours sparingly. Is it really spicy? Add white rice, bread, or even more water.
  • Find leftover cooked foods to add at the end if you wish. These could include bits of: stew, macaroni and cheese, old bread (for thickening), take-out Chinese or Indian foods, meat loaf, cooked oatmeal (for thickening), cooked vegetables, applesauce, salad dressing (for flavour), ketchup, hard-boiled eggs.
  • Fruit soups and cheese soups are more specialized and may require a recipe the first time you try them. Try something else first.
  • You may arrange the colour of your soup as follows:
    • red = tomatoes, paprika, chilli, sweet potatoes, carrots.
    • white = chicken, white rice, mushrooms, potatoes, cauliflower, pasta, cream.
    • green = spinach, summer squash, greens, peas, cabbage, broccoli.
    • mixed = grains, beans, beef/lamb.
  • Medium vegetables include: summer squash, parsnips, celery, bell peppers, peas, green beans, mushrooms, cabbages, cauliflower, and broccoli.
  • Hard vegetables include: onions, carrots, potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, winter squash, pumpkin.
  • Be ready to try whatever you have on the shelf. Add a can of tomatoes, corn, beans, any other soup, juice, or a package of Asian noodles, rice-a-roni, even granola.
  • Beans and grains make a soup thicker, less clear. Avoid them for a clear thin stock.
  • Write the combinations that you enjoy. Classic soups include potato/leek, peas/mint, bean/tomato, cabbage/tomato, clam/potato, and lamb/barley.
  • Soft vegetables to be added only 20 minutes before serving include: all greens, chard, kale, sprouts, lettuce.
  • Often a soup grows too large with the addition of too many ingredients. You may start with only one potato, one onion, etc. but soon it gets large. Limit your vegetables to 3-4, and one bean or grain or pasta, in order to not make too much.
  • You may determine the texture of the soup as follows:
    • smooth = puree and cream.
    • chunky = bits of meat and grains/vegetables.
    • clear = chicken stock which is strained, then add lettuce, mushrooms, cabbage, tofu.
  • You may choose the basic flavour of your soup as follows:
    • meaty = meat, onions, garlic, potatoes.
    • mild = potatoes, light herbs such as parsley or marjoram, rice, mushrooms, mild greens such as spinach.
    • creamy = cream, yogurt.
    • spicy = garlic, lemon, chilli, ginger, curry, Tabasco.
    • sweet/sour = vinegar plus brown sugar.

Things you’ll need

  • 4-8 quart soup pot with lid
  • Large wooden or other spoon to reach the bottom of the pan
  • Chopping knife
  • Cutting board
  • Measuring cup or coffee mug to measure liquids
  • Strainer or cheesecloth for clearing soup stocks
  • Blender or food processor for purees

Related Articles

  • Make Ginger Garlic Soup
  • Make Garnishes for Soups
  • Make Cauliflower Soup

You may like

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Make_a_Soup_Without_a_Recipe&oldid=289089"