In recent efforts to eat well, eat less, and be frugal with our food, I introduce you to 5 more soups.
Noodle Tomato Soup
I roasted some very pretty pieces of red pepper and tried to make a tomato and roasted red pepper soup, but the flavours weren’t coming out well enough with tinned tomato (you definitely need fresh not tinned), so I added noodles.
It also contains half an onion and half a bag of bean sprouts. A lot of flour and a little milk was used to thicken it. Stock, extra salt and a few herbs and spices are a must, but the soup is quick and healthy, if a little peculiar. Done properly with a large quantity of roasted red pepper and fresh tomatoes, skinned by dipping them in hot water, it’s amazing.
Black Bean Soup
I had a lot of black beans in the cupboard, dry, which I soaked overnight and boiled for over an hour. Sadly the soup product still found them slightly undercooked, but you can’t have anything, and it tasted really nice – the flavour soaked out really well!
I found a variety of receipes for black bean soup on the web, but you actually have to type in “vegetarian” if you want one without bacon or pork in it! In the end, I borrowed some ideas and did it myself – using plenty of fresh ginger, tomato puree, stock, and a generous dollop of honey.
Mixed vegetables go into the recipes suggested. Mine contained onion, carrot, potato, mainly.
It’s very much a do-what-you-want-with-it soup, in my opinion.
Floating Mushroom Soup
I don’t like cream of mushroom soup; I think it’s vile. And the Fiance is not keen on mushrooms full stop. However, I do really enjoy the floating button mushrooms in the Chinese Noodle Soup recipe I use from the Women’s Institute, so decided to do a version of my own.
I diced up some potato, chopped some onion, quarted my somewhat large button mushrooms and opened a tin of butterbeans. A bit of stock and cayenne to spice it up, and voila, floating mushroom magic.
It was delish.
Tomato and Lentil Soup
I gotthis recipe, oddly enough, from the Recipe of the Week section in our local Brummy newspaper. I usually just glance at it, as it is mostly meaty, but today’s wasn’t, so I read it, adjusted quantities (I think it was to feed 6 or something) and made some. I made enough to feed 3.
Used:
Half an onion
2 small carrots
2 sticks of celery
…and chopped them up really really fine using a herb chopper until it was practically mash. Heated in a bit of oil until golden, then added
About a cup of lentils
A tin of chopped tomatoes
Half a stock cube (Knorr vegetable)
I also added salt, pepper and thyme, which were not in the original recipe, but made it good.
I then boiled it gently, adding a little extra water, until the lentils were cooked and I was pleased with the viscosity.
I couldn’t get a photo which accurately represented the colour, so here’s one which is too red:
And here’s one which is too orange:
French Onion Soup
This is a very simple soup, but delicious and completely timeless. For soup for two all you need is 1 large onion, 1 stock cube, water and oil – it’s that awesome!
Finely chop the onion, frying slowly on a low temperature until golden. Then add water and stock and boil for a while. Doesn’t really matter how long, and you can always make more and reheat.
To serve traditional French style, toast two slices of bread per person and cut into quarters, then grill a small bit of cheese onto each piece. The squares of cheesy bread may then be floated in the soup. You can also use a French stick.
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