Chunky Soup Recipe – Any Veg Will Do!
Here’s an easy recipe for a chunky vegetable soup, and is so versatile you can use any vegetables you have to make it so saving waste if you have any short-dated produce.
Basically, you need at least 3 big vegetables all chopped up and a saucepan with a lid. It’s that simple.
Obviously you can chop and change these ingredients as you wish and add stock and herbs if you like, depending on your taste. I don’t mind my soup just tasting like the vegetables themselves – but we are all different – and have different left-overs too!!
I make soup like this all the time, the larger the better as I freeze single portions in lunchboxes for later so then I’ve only had to make it once. But of course, you can make it with whatever you have left over from the weeks shopping and as large or as small as you like!
The Recipe:
By following the general recipe below, you should make about 4 portions of delicious chunky soup! Don’t forget that it is very flexible, so pick any vegetables you want. I always use organic where possible so I don’t have to peel them – just give them a good wash. This helps to give the soup a bit of texture too and lessens waste!
Ingredients:
- A large portion of hard vegetables – for example: 1 giant sweet potato, 2 regular parsnips or 1 medium swede.
- A large portion of soft vegetables – for example: 1 large courgette or 1 large head of broccoli or cauliflower.
- A medium portion or strong flavoured veg – for example: 1 medium leek, 1 large onion or 2/3 red onions.
Finally – about 100-150ml of water or stock – basically enough to almost cover you ingredients in the pan.
Preparation Time:
5-10 minutes washing and chopping vegetables.
20-25 minutes cooking time.
Directions:
- Wash all the vegetables in a bowl of water rather than running water. If you do peel any, give the skins to your guinea pigs to eat, or throw them into your compost bin!
- Chop the hard vegetables up into reasonable chunks or slices – not too small, so about the size of a Brazil nut.
- Chop the soft vegetables up into slightly large chunks or slices.
- Slice the leek into thin slices or the onions into small chunks.
- Boil the kettle with at least 200mls of fresh water.
- Put the chopped hard vegetables into the saucepan and start to heat with a little oil. When vegetables are sizzling, take pan off the heat and place on a cold plate. Add the soft vegetables and leeks or onions, then pour on enough boiling water (or stock) to cover nearly all the contents. Take care as the pan may fizzle and steam at this point.
- Return pan to the heat and wait for it to start boiling again.
- When boiling, lower the heat to a simmer (where you can just see the odd bubbles rising around the edges) then cover with a vented lid. Watch for a few minutes as the lid can sometimes increase the boiling rate. If it starts to bubble too much, then lower temperature slightly.
- With the spare water in the kettle – make yourself a nice cup of tea!
- After about 10 minutes, stir contents slightly and add chopped herbs, spices or garlic if required. If the water level is getting low, then top up with fresh water, but make sure you don’t add to much.
- After a further 10 minutes, stir again. Ideally your soft vegetables have started to break up and your hard vegetables are nice and mushy.
- If not, replace the lid and turn up the heat a tiny bit for another 5 minutes.
- If there is a lot of excess water after this, empty some out before the next step, but don’t worry if there is a small amount left in the pan.
- When ready, you should stir the contents firmly with a wooden spoon to break up the vegetables completely so that none are distinguishable from the general mush. You can use a potato-masher for this if you want to but it will break up the chunks if done too vigorously!
Pour your serving into a bowl and serve immediately with some chunky, buttered home-made bread or a giant handfull of home-made toasted croutons!
Any remaining soup should be left uncovered in the pan (on a cold surface) until ready to decant into smaller containers for freezing. Remember not to put hot food straight into your fridge or freezer as it will raise the temperature slightly. This will not only affect the health of other foods you are storing in there, but will also create more work for your appliance to get cold again!
Other tips:
Here are just a few tips that could help you out when making the soups or just saving wate in the kitchen.
Using the soup for other dishes:
If you want to make the soup go further, then freeze slightly smaller portions. I tend to boil up some brown rice or wholegrain pasta for meals – then when this is cooked, I drain off the water and add the defrosted soup. Stir it all together until the soup is piping hot right through then serve thickly spread onto fresh buttered bread, eat as a soup, or dish up like a risotto with fresh vegetables on the side.
Making you own stock:
If you want to make your own vegetable stock, just save the water from boiled or steamed vegetables and freeze until needed.
To make your own chicken or meat stock it takes a bit longer, but is just as simple. Just save bones from other dishes or a whole chicken carcass from your roast – then boil for a few hours in a covered pan (with veg if you want), keeping the water.
Making your own croutons:
This makes great use of stale bread, or saves bread about to go out of date. But to make bread ‘stale’ it needs to be out in the open really so it reacts with the air. Out of date bread left in the bag will just go mouldy, so make sure that you get it out of the bag in time!
Take the bread and fry it in a pan with plenty of oil (and garlic or herbs). When the bread has soaked up all it can and has gone quite hard on the surface, move onto a plate and cut up into small squares. Use immediately or store in an open container in the fridge until needed.