Home-made soup

[cojak]

OK.
(1) Go round the supermarket veg section. Select whatever they've got that looks nice. Place in basket until heavy.
(2) Chop up & put in the huge aluminium pan that you somehow ended up with after leaving a particularly large houseshare. Leave big chunks, because although it's "soup" you should still be able to eat most of it with a fork. Except beetroot, which doesn't go very soft. Slice that up quite small.
(3) Add liquid to half cover the veg, depending on which of the 3 soup subclasses you fancy. For normal soup, add water. For salty soup, add stock. For creamy soup (good with beetroot because it goes a bright playdough colour), add water and a pot of double cream.
(4) Add fancy bits i.e. ginger, garlic, chilli or crushed juniper berries.
(5) Simmer. If hungry, also grill some sausages to chuck in at the end.

A 1/4 full shopping basket should yield about 3 litres of soup, which should easily cover any non-restaurant meals in the week.

<fires up the printer...>

Ta TL.

I'll add ginger to mine tomorrow for a bit of variation...

[cojak]

OK.

(5) Simmer. If hungry, also grill some sausages to chuck in at the end.

Ooh, ooh - and we've got some sausages that Mr C wants to use up tonight!

[Drewster]

Ooh, ooh - and we've got some sausages that Mr C wants to use up tonight!

Not too sure he wants to hide the sausage in the soup.......

[cojak]

Not too sure he wants to hide the sausage in the soup.......

well he'll need to avoid the ginger...

[thunderlizard]

Should have mentioned...

you need to simmer it with the lid on. That's how you get away with only half covering the veg, so it steams and cooks while still remaining heartily chunky.

[Halo Jones]

I made a beef & barley soup last week, this week it may have to be a leek & potato

[cojak]

..and I have just discovered the usefulness of red lentils to give the soup a bit of 'substance'...

[Sysman]

OK.
(1) Go round the supermarket veg section. Select whatever they've got that looks nice. Place in basket until heavy.

Big nod of approval. Good cooking often comes from using what's available rather than buying off a fixed shopping list.

An alternative to the supermarket is a fresh veg market (Leeds has an excellent one). Go around near closing time to pick up cut price stuff that will be binned if nobody buys it. It doesn't matter if it's a bit crushed since it's going into a soup (ditto for fruit with pies/crumbles).

(2) Chop up & put in the huge aluminium pan that you somehow ended up with after leaving a particularly large houseshare.

You too?

[Sysman]

you need to simmer it with the lid on. That's how you get away with only half covering the veg, so it steams and cooks while still remaining heartily chunky.

And the art is in slow simmering, not boiling.

[mr_woo]

MrsWoo gets a mouthful of my mushroom soup but doesn't like the taste.