Let's talk about soup!

[Storyteller.]

I've been in the mood for some soup lately, so I was thinking about making a batch to see how it goes. Since I haven't made soup from scratch before I thought I'd see if any of you had, and if so whether you had any tips, tricks, techniques, or ingredients you'd recommend. I don't eat meat so it will be a vegetable soup, probably with pumpkin or potato as a staple, but I'm open to any suggestions for anything you think might work. Even if you haven't made soup do you have any favourite soups you've tried? I'm looking for all kinds of inspiration so feel free to share any soup-related thoughts you may have!

[Dawn.]

I don't usually make soup as I often buy the ones from the shops that are already made. I love lentil and minestrone soup. The below link might help with what to make:

https://www.eatingwell.com/gallery/7...-soup-recipes/

Hope this helped!

[Starseeker]

Yay for soup! I love all types of soups and make them a couple times per week.
In 90% of the cases I use broth as the base.
I use the following ingredients for broth:
- 1-2 carrots
- 1 parsley root
- 1/4 celery
- 1/4 leek
- a handful of parsley leaves
- some salt, pepper, allspice and bayleaf
A chicken quarter is optional, it makes the broth more fatty and caloric, but if you're vegetarian you can skip the chicken and the soup's gonna be perfectly fine. When making a broth only with veggies it's an option to add a supermarket-bought stock cube to make the soup more aromatic.
Peel the vegetables and put everything in a big pot full of water, bring it to boil and afterwards reduce the heat so that it simmers for 1-2 hours. This broth can be eaten by itself (with some noodles or rice), but it can also serve as a basis for other soups, like bortsch, cabbage soup, tomato soup, cucumber soup, vegetable soup, mushroom soup, champignon soup... The possibilities are endless, haha Broth can be frozen to be consumed later. Since I make soups all the time, to save time I buy big batches of necessary vegetables from time to time, peel everything, divide them into smaller packets and then freeze. Afterwards I can simply take out a packet and throw it into the pot of water to make some broth.

[Everglow.]

I love a good old vegetable soup. I think it is one of the best and easiest ways to use up anything left over in the fridge at the end of the week.
I usually make it up as I go along and put any vegetables I have in with some vegetable stock and cook it on the hob or in the oven for a few hours to soften up.
Then I blend it, and sometimes I will eat it with a little bit of blue cheese and some crusty bread.