Soup-a! Why having a versatile, adaptable and super-easy recipe for homemade soup is a sure-fire winner if you want to avoid food waste and eat healthily

Soup-a!

Many of us think of soup as a cold weather dish, but having this flexible and adaptable recipe in your back pocket is a year-round winner and perfect for those cooler spring days

Helipad Editor and aspiring cookery writer Ali Simpson goes back to the kitchen to show how simple it is to make classic cream of vegetable soup from scratch, and shares a few of the many variations you can make depending on what you have in your fridge and store cupboard

I admit I love making soup! It is perfect for using up every scrap of vegetables we have lurking in our fridge or larder. If you have celery that is too limp or carrots that are too wonky to grace a dinner plate, they are ideal for making soup and it is satisfying to know that you are minimising your food waste at the same time. Once you have tasted home-made soup, you will never go back to tins or packets and, if you have a child who professes to ‘hate’ vegetables, this super tasty recipe is a sure-fi re way of getting bags of veggie goodness into them without them even noticing! The following recipe for classic creamy vegetable soup is my starting-point, but it is infi nitely variable depending on what you have available, so I have also shared some of my favourite adaptations for you - but anything goes with soup, so be creative!

Classic Creamy Vegetable Soup

As you will see, the ingredients for this recipe are completely dependent on what you have available at the time. This recipe makes 6-8 generous bowlfuls, so upscale or downscale in proportion depending on what you have – but remember it keeps happily in the fridge for up to 3 days and also freezes well. Ingredients You will need approximately 1.2 – 1.4kg (about 2 ½ to 3 lbs) of mixed vegetables – I would suggest a rough ratio of two-thirds of ‘starchy’ root vegetables - which will provide thickness to your soup - and one-third of whatever other vegetables you have available. So, for this recipe, 800g (just over 1 ½ lbs) of root vegetables and 400g (about ¾ lb) of other vegetables is about right. Some examples of suitable vegetables are shown below, but I’ve also been known to add sprouts, broccoli, cucumber and even a bag of rocket!

Starchy Root Vegetables: Potatoes • Swedes • Carrots • Celeriac • Other Vegetables: Courgettes Onions • Celery • Peppers • Leeks Fennel • Turnips • Beetroot • Parsnips• Cauliflower • Squash • Pumpkin

Method • Dice all your raw vegetables into cubes or pieces roughly 2cm / ½ inch. • Add a generous glug of olive oil to a large saucepan and gently sweat down the vegetables on the hob for about 5-10 minutes until just softened but not browned. • Add 1 pint / ½ litre of vegetable or chicken stock (fresh is great, but cube/stock pots are just as good!). Top Tip – it is really important not to add too much liquid at this point. It is much easier to add more later to get the required thickness you like during the blending process, rather than add it now and fi nd your soup is too thin or watery! • Cover the pan and bring to a gentle simmer for 20-25 minutes until all the vegetables are tender. • Take off the heat and, using a hand-held food blender, blitz the mixture in short bursts until smooth. Top Tip – a hand held food blender is a handy and relatively inexpensive kitchen gadget (prices start at £10). They are defi nitely worth the investment for making soup as you can blend it direct in the saucepan – which saves on washing up! Alternatively, put the cooked vegetables into a food processor or liquidizer to blend. • Continue to blend and add in more liquid a little at a time until the soup reaches your preferred consistency – about another 1 pint /½ litre of water, stock or milk is about right for this amount of vegetables. I also like to add a generous glug of double cream at this point! • If you would like some extra texture to your soup, once blended you can add a cup of peas or sweetcorn (straight from the freezer) or perhaps a tin of cannelloni beans. Season to taste and gently reheat on the hob for 5 minutes before serving. • And that’s all there is to it!! I usually serve my creamy vegetable soup garnished with a splash of lemon juice and a swirl of good quality olive oil. Needless to say, hot buttery toast is also an absolute must!

Once you have mastered this simple creamy vegetable soup recipe, the variations are endless and totally up to you depending on the fl avours you like and what you have available. Here are three of my personal favourites for inspiration...

Curried Parsnip

Make using a higher proportion of parsnips than the other root vegetables. Once blended, stir in a tablespoon of mild (or hot!) curry powder to taste.

Thai Chicken and Noodle

Add a teaspoon of grated ginger, a clove of garlic, a sliced stick of lemongrass and a deseeded chilli to the diced vegetable mixture. Once blended, add in 2 teaspoons (to taste) of Thai Spice powder, diced cooked chicken and a packet of ‘straight to wok’ noodles.

Christmas Turkey & Stilton

Christmas is long gone but this is a winner for cooler Lamb and Apricot Tagine Spring days, adaptable all year round and particularly good for using left-overs – once blended, stir in diced cooked turkey (and perhaps sliced pigs in blankets or ham!) and about 100g Stilton cheese. This may sound like an odd combination but the cheese melts away and gives a fantastic piquant fl avour to your soup – to fi nish, how about adding a garnish of pan-fried sliced Brussels sprouts!