Soup
up Mealtimes
The aroma from a steaming bowl of home-made soup on a cold
winter's evening never fails to delight.
The cruel elements rage outside whilst you enjoy a cosy evening by the hearth
and the soup slides down easily, making you feel loved and indulged.
Recipes by Chris Hardisty, sponsored by Marigold Health Food Ltd.
If you are entertaining then there is no better way to start the meal
than with a smooth creamy soup. The family will welcome a hot vegetable
broth when they come home and, of course, a sophisticated chilled soup
is wonderful to serve on a hot summer's day. Many soups are ideal to
serve as a 'one course' meal with lots of crusty bread, toast or dumplings.
At one time making soup was thought to be a fiddly and time-consuming
operation. Not so now, with the aid of liquidisers and food processors,
although it is still possible to make soup without them by pressing it
through a sieve with the back of a spoon to produce a creamy texture.
This method removes some of the fibre and will make the soup slightly
thinner but this can be easily remedied by combining equal quantities
of flour and butter and adding to the soup in small pieces until it has
reached the desired consistency. If your soup is too thick, add a little
more stock, water or milk. For a non-dairy diet, soya milk, nut milks,
creamed coconut or tofu can be used instead. If you intend to make a
lot of soup, consider a hand blender which will liquidise the soup in
the pan in which it is made - no more pouring soups from one container
to another.
The basic method for making a good soup is to wash, trim and cut up
the vegetables. Put a little oil or butter in a pan with the vegetables,
cover and allow to 'sweat' over a very low heat for a few minutes until
the vegetables begin to soften. This method gives the best possible flavour
but can be omitted if you want to avoid the use of extra fat. If this
is the case, use a teaspoonful of bouillon powder mixed with two tablespoonsful
of water and cook until the water has evaporated and formed a brown ring
around the pan. Mix this with a little water and use instead of fat to
brown the vegetables and make them taste delicious.
Always remember that the more flavourful the stock you use. the more
flavourful the finished soup. However, it is not always necessary to
make a stock every time. Save any cooking water left over when cooking
vegetables or beans and make up to the required amount for the soup recipe
with water or milk. Some commercial stock cubes and powders are excellent
whilst others are very mediocre - these can only be discovered by trial
and error.
Yeast extract, soya sauce and miso can also be used either with or in
place of a stock, but they may change the colour of the soup slightly
so use them only with the darker-coloured or tomato-based soups. |
