The snow has gone and it has been replaced with rain, rain and more rain. Surprisingly it stopped raining yesterday and the clouds cleared and the sun came out. Later on well after the sun had set and stars started to dot the night sky I could sense that we were going to have a cold night. I was right and this morning the ground and the trees were covered in a snowy white veil.
On a day like this when it is freezing cold you need something hot, tasty and warming in your body and a home made vegetable soup come broth fits the bill perfect. You do not have to be a gourmet chef to make and home made soup and it can easily be made in the smallest of kitchens.
If you take a look in the fridge, the freezer, the cupboard and the vegetable rack you will probably find all the ingredients you need just lying around. One of the key elements in a big kitchen is the ability to cut wastage to the bare minimum and to use any leftovers and make something good from it. Your kitchen should be no different.
Vegetables and meat left over from the Sunday roast are a perfect example of using up leftovers. The meat could be put in a casserole or a Lancashire hot pot style of dish with sliced potatoes, vegetable and onions cooked in a meat stock. The vegetables can easily be used to make a creamy soup or a chunky vegetable soup.
Ideally you would use a good vegetable stock to use as a good base for your soup. If you do not have the time to make it and do not have a stock cube to hand you could always use a basic packet soup or tinned soup and mix it with more water than required. Having made your vegetable stock base you can start to make the soup.
Cooked or raw potatoes are excellent ingredient for making a soup and if you are using raw potatoes, cut some of them in to large chunks and cut some very small and slice thinly. When you add the potatoes to the stock the larger pieces will bulk up the soup and the small thinly sliced potatoes will break down in cooking and thicken the soup in stead of using thickening agents. Cooked potatoes will also do the job. Another thing you can do to thicken/bulk your soup up and add texture is to put rice, noddles or small pieces of pasta in with stock/soup base.
Having built the basics of your soup to your taste and using what ever comes to hand, take a look in the freezer and see if you have any small amounts of peas and green beans and add to your soup at the last minute to give plenty of colour and flavour. Fresh vegetable and greens would be ideal for making a soup but even frozen vegetables have a certain amount of nutritional value and if you have got them you might as well use them and save money at the same time. Finish the soup of with herbs, spices etc.
A quick easy and simple way to make carrot soup from the left over carrots and a few boiled potatoes is to boil and over cook the carrots/potatoes up in a home made veg stock or the water you cooked your carrots/potatoes in, liquidize them in the blender or push through a fine sieve, add salt, pepper and herbs or spices to taste and add a little cream if you have it. You can even use a little bit of natural yoghurt instead of cream.
Simple, quick and easy to make and uses up your left overs and gives you a tasty naturally made soup without all the chemicals and 'E' numbers that you find in the packets and tinned products in your local supermarkets and shops. The fussy kids of this world might just like it and forget about burgers, pizzas, fish fingers and take away food.
looks like my soup is ready and it is almost time for tea.
Bye for now and keep warm.
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