Hi

I am a lover of soups any kind at any time.  The thing is I only eat them when I go to a restaurant or out of a tin.  Just thinking with it being so cold now I could make one and put it in slow cooker so its ready before I get home from work and then could freeze it for another day if there is any left However I wouldnt know where to start preparing soup lol.  I was wondering if any of you out there had any of your own recipes that I could try?  I have looked in some books etc but some of them sound distgusting lol

When I make soup I only put in things I like, that way I'm almost certain that the outcome will be nice too.  Not very adventurous though:rolleyes:

I lived on soup when I was doing weight watchers and this was my recipe. 2 bags of soup mix/pot herbs - from green grocers. 3 vegatable stock cubes 1 tin chopped tomatoes with garlic and herbs and 3 pints of water. Put everything in a large pan and let simmer away for a couple of hours. You can add chicken or beef (I add this half way through, meat already cooked usually left overs from a roast) If I add meat then I use either chicken or beef stock cube instead of veg. You can add lentils and pearl barley if you want a more filling soup.
Also - nice if whizzed up a bit with hand blender - thickens soup but still chuncky.
Hayley. x

This is my own favourite recipe....sorry no quantities as I just bung stuff in without weighing ;)

Chop an onion and some carrots and fry gently in a little olive oil (don't brown them, just soften). Grate some fresh ginger into the carrots and onions and add red lentils and stock (my preference is vegetable stock). Bring to boil and simmer until lentils are cooked (25-30 mins). Season & add more ginger if required. Whizz with hand blender or in food processor.

Simple, fast and absolutely delish :)

What sort of flavours do you like?   Here are two of our current favourites

Ssweet potato & red pepper :
you peel & cut into chunks about 1lb sweet potatoes, remove centres & char 3 red peppers & slice.   Sweat 1 chopped onion & 1 clove chopped garlic in about 1 tabs olive oil, add pototoes & red peppers & cook for about 5 mins.   Add about 1 litre water/stock (use a knorr chicken stock cube with water), and simmer for about 20 mins until potatoes are soft.  

Take off the heat, and, using a stick blender if you have one, blend until pototoes & pepper are blended in & it is thick & smooth.   Season with pepper & salt if necessary (though if you use a stock cube it should have sufficient salt)  and serve with a swirl of cream.   Yum yum!

Leek, potato & sweetcorn soup:

Peel & chop about 1 lb potatoes and 3 leeks.   Sweat together in 2 oz BUTTER (you'll get a far better flavour using butter ;) ) and cook for about 5 mins.   Add stock/water as above, and cook for about 20mins until pototoes are soft.   Add 1 tin sweetcorn kernals, cook for another couple of minutes, and blend as before.   Season to taste.  Yum yum agian.

Margot

My favourite

Chicken and Sweetcorn

1 tin creamed sweetcorn
1 small onion chopped finely
Small amount cooked chicken
Chicken stock to slacken according to taste
A little Chinese five spice
Dash of soy sauce
Garnish Spring onion

Fry the onion lightly till soften add all ingredients and heat through. Garnish with spring onion

Light Vegetable

1 Leek chopped finely
1 Onion chopped finely
1 Potato chopped finely
1 Carrot chopped finely
Vegetable stock to make 1 pint
seasoning

Mix all ingredients bring to the boil and simmer, the longer the better.

French Onion

2/3 Large Onions thinly sliced
1.5 pints good beef stock
Thyme
Dash Worcestershire sauce
seasoning

Cook the onions very slowly for an hour or more till caramelised add the stock seasoning and thyme. Cook for a further 2 hours

Curried Parsnip soup is Yummy :)

Butternut Squash and Onion is delicious :D  and zero points on WW.

brocoli and stilton soup is soooooo nice, and its really simple to make from scratch but its not really one of those recipes were you have the ingredients in the house   

http://www.uktvfood.co.uk/index.cfm?uktv=recipes.recipe&iID=516094

Here is Sophie's very good recipe ;)

I love good old plain and simple veggie soup. Boil a load of veggies, including spuds, stick in veg. stock cube, blend, season, eat. Yummy, almost zero calories and cheap too. I used to make it by the barrel load and freeze it and the dogs would have some too!

MMMMMMmm soup :D

I love creamed mushroom soup :D

Mushrooms (I like the big flat ones for flavour)
a small onion or half a large one (or none if you don't want it) chopped finely
a pinch of fresh/dried garlic (optional)
a pinch of thyme/parsley
cornflour for thickening
1 or 2 tbsp double cream

Just chop the mushrooms as small as you prefer, and either sweat them in butter with the chopped onion or sweat them in a pan with the onion and a little water (depending on how fattening you want it) when they are soft add the rest of the water and the herbs and garlic, simmer for 10 minutes and then thicken to taste, add the cream last thing - delicious.

also Chicken Soup

Chicken (and the bones, with/out skin - your preference)
Vegetables (Onion, carrot, potato, celery and any others you like)
Chicken stock/cube
Sage and Thyme
Garlic

Simmer all together with water until the veg are tender or you can't wait any longer :D

No recipe as I make it up as I go along and it is always different :-)

One chicken carcass - from roast chicken, most of meat removed.

Boil for a few hours then remove all the bones, you can leave the skin in or give it to your dogs as you wish.  I do this in my pressure cooker (with or without pressure as it is my largest pan)

Fry some onions and leaks
Add some/any/all of the following:
onions
leaks
carrots
cabbage
swede
any stuffing left over from roast
potatoes - enough to thicken the soup
any meat left over from roast
any gravy left over from roast
anything you can find in the fridge
salt/pepper/Worcestershire-sauce

Once cooked I prefer to mash or puree and you can add some milk or water if it is too thick and also grate a little cheese to go on top

It is generally better the second day than the first, especially if you keep adding to it, you can add things like rice, lentils, other meat, vegetables, tinned soups, cheese, cream, etc etc