Soup - homemade ideas

sunflower Monday is soup day in my house,I use up any left over veg from Sunday lunch and add onion & spoon of garlic and have been known to pop in a small can of new potato's to give a rustic texture served with crusty rolls.
My favourite soup is cauliflower & blue cheese I make this when cauli's are very much in season say 50p each and it goes down a treat,thanks for reminding me to stock up on pulses I always forget that side of my store cupboard.

Glam, that cauliflour and blue cheese sounds delicious. Do you add cream, or is it enough with the cheese?

I also found a brocolli and stilton recipe I am going to try.

I was just wondering what to have for lunch and now I have noticed the butternut squash sitting on the kitchen window sill. There is also a leek in the fridge which might as well go into the soup.

I made a delicious soup last week with red lentils, mushrooms and spinach.
So on Sunday I put the same ingredients into my soup maker, from Coopers of Stortford, so we could have it before we went out to a fireworks display, and the machine refused to work.
I realised half an hour later, when it should have been ready and wasn't.
I ended up having to cook it in a pan and liquidise it separately. That bit of the machine still worked. It just would not heat up.
So on Monday morning I phoned the company and told them, and was told I would have a phone call back within 48 hours. Yesterday afternoon I rang again and was told that within 48 hours was just an approximation and I would be phoned up that afternoon.
I admit I got a bit shirty with the lad on the phone, told him I used to be a teacher of both English and maths, and knew what within 48 hours should mean.
Needless to say, I am still waiting.
For flavour I like using Clearspring miso soup.

Do lentils/pulses go out of date? Shock horror!

Icyalittle yes they probably reach a point where they take forever to cook and taste stale. Give them a year past sell by.
I threw away a pack of black peppercorns dated 2006 yesterday after filling the grinder.
(I did buy some new this morning.)

Thank you for that NellieM I'd better do a clear out (bottom in air, head in cupboard).

Bought some leeks from a local shop the other day only to be horrified at what they cost [especially as so much is wasted] so the leeks and potato came to @ £2.50 . Realised that once I'd used electricity to cook it and blend it then hot water to wash up it turned out to be very expensive soup. Mind you, in future I'm going to add a potato to any soup I make as it makes it so think and creamy. One of my favourite soups is carrot, celery and onion cooked in oil; add chicken stock, pearl barley and serve with lemon juice and fresh parsley. Ever so filling.

Boil a ham shank, add anything you like to the stock - veg and/or pulses - and simmer until done.
Take the meat off the bone and you have a few more meals too.

I got three leeks for £1 - can't remember if it was Tescos, Waitrose or Morrisons. At that price it's worth doing. Unfortunately our local greengrocer is a lot more expensive. May try and grow some of our own next year, as we had our first success with carrots this year.

When I am near a Lidl I always get some veg, good quality and much cheaper.

Lentil & bacon

I use smoked bacon lardons from Lidl, dry fry them so that you don't need oil, add a large onion, chapped and cook until soft. Rinse lentils (around 4 ozs, but the more you put in the thicker it will be) add to pan. Bung in a can of chopped tomatoes and a bit of stock, simmer.

Freezes well, you can add a swirl of cream when serving if you like.

Didn't dare say I didn't want them sunflowers . I think what hurt the most was throwing so much of the leeks away.

Oh dear Tegan, hope the soup was lovely! Still, was cheaper than eating out . Usually at least £4.50 for bowl of soup and a chunk of bread.

I'm going to add potato for creaminess in future too. Couldn't believe my leek and potato didn't have cream in, it was much nicer than the Waitrose one with cream.

sunflower I've pm'd you with some more suggestions.

..it gave me terrible wind ..which leek and potato soup tends to do.... Insult to injury...

Thanks Glam, good to know that yoghurt cools the soup if you've added too much spice. I'll remember that next time I do a chilli too.

I have carrot/coriander with split red lentils on the go at the moment, also added a little celery, and a potato too.

Someone on MN suggested adding some coconut milk to some recipes, may try that soon.

Tegan glad to say I wasn't afflicted with the dreaded wind lol

Next to cook a few more windfall apples to put in freezer, not like me to be so domesticated - won't last I'm sure

Why make leek and potato soup if you know it gives you wind, Tegan?
By the way, I always use all the leek, apart from the top half inch, particularly for soup.

Because it's one of my favourite soups and I always think that next time I eat it, it won't .

My soup making is a mix. I always scan the recipe sections in newspapers and magazines for any recipes that sound good and cut out and try them. I also do the 'what have I got lying around that needs using up; lets make soup' Then there is the 'I have aubergines, potatoes and walnuts what can I make from them? So I google the ingredients and the word recipe and see what comes up - and quite often it is 'soup'.

We are having a Moroccan style bean and tomato soup tonight, beans and tomatoes, onion, garlic, Ras Hanouf and other Moroccan spices and rice. Served with olive and tomato bread from our local bakery.

There's a good leek, onion and potato recipe in Delia's recipe book. As long as you have celery, onion and and a carrot you have the basis for virtually any soup.
Jamie Oliver has a lovely tomato soup recipe which even uses the stalks of the tomatoes - gives it a really tangy taste.

I was taught by a local chef to start off a soup with just softening onion and garlic in butter or oil. if you have a bit of celery even better. He also used to add bacon lardons , but I don't bother.
Just add whatever you have available. Eg potato and leeks, left over veg. Add stock, Cook and then blend with seasoning.
I'm doing tomato and red lentil soup tomorrow. Just soak the tomatoes in hot water and remove the skins. Soak the lentils for 20 mins before use. I sometimes add leftover red pepper too. yummy!!!

I make a large batch of vegetable soup every few days and freeze in portions, I use every type of vegetable and add lentils to thicken. You can add potatoes and I do love them but they put my blood sugar level up so I eat them rarely.
I eat soup for breakfast probably 4 to 5 days a week instead of the usual type of breakfast.

My daughter loves my turkey and sweetcorn soup, made with turkey stock onions, potatoes these are creamed together when cooked then add the sweetcorn and pieces of turkey heat thru. If you are not watching your cholesterol you can add milk or cream.

I don't add salt to any of my cooking instead add white and black pepper garlic and chillies.

When I had a vegetarian cafe, I used to make a very large pot of vegetable soup every day. The first job every day was to put the onions, carrots, celery and leeks in the pot and sweat in oil until soft. Then add stock and whatever vegetables I'd bought cheap from the greengrocers I passed on the way to the cafe.
After we sold the cafe, I rarely made soup for the next ten years or so.

Mr P is very fond of what is now known as "random" vegetable soup!

Must admit, I've yet to see the value of those soup makers, an over priced bit of unnecessary kit, imho.