End of Week Soup

Hello and Happy new year, I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I have read the comments you left under my last blog and I was surprised because I didn’t think anyone would read this. I must answer them individually, but I have to ask my son to show me how to do that as I’m not sure.

It was nice to read all of your comments, Deadened-glow I liked you comment about your grandparents leftover’s soup. This is one of my favourite soups, it is called “End of week soup” in my home and since lots of people are stuck in doors due to extreme weather conditions I thought I would write about my End of Week Soup, which is all about using what’s left in the fridge at the end of the week.

End of Week Soup

Well, firstly look in your vegetable rack in your fridge, hopefully you will have some vegetables left from the week. Ideally you will have a couple of carrots, onions, a leek, broccoli, some spring onions left over from a salad, cabbage and any other green vegetables.

I use a 3 litre saucepan for my End of Week Soup, but I use a lot of vegetables during the week which means there is quite a lot left over.

Wash all the vegetables, peel those that need peeling and then chop them all, it doesn’t matter how you chop them any size will do. Once you have chopped the vegetables put all the vegetables in the saucepan and add any colour lentils and a good amount of potatoes. I like thick soup so I use quite a few potatoes, 5 or 6 good size ones and make sure you use the oldest ones first. The lentils also help to thicken the soup, I use about 2 or 3 ounces. Make sure you put the lentils on top because they tend to burn if you put them at the bottom of the saucepan. Add vegetable stock, preferably dry vegetable bullion (6-7 table spoons and just throw it on top of the veg) also if you have them add any coloured mustard seeds, about a desert spoon full. Add a good amount of black and white pepper, I use loads of black pepper (about 6 big twists on the pepper mill) but put an amount in to suit your own taste. Don’t put too much in to start because you can add as you go. If you have them you could add a fresh chilli, make sure you de-seed it because it will be too hot and become ‘chilli soup’ otherwise, or you could use a ¼ tsp (tea spoon) of ground chilli. I like this because it adds a spice to a winter soup. Finally a quick shake of salt, this can be added later if you want to and some parsley or any other fresh herbs.

Simmer don’t boil

Now you need to add water, add enough water to only just cover the vegetables (or just a little under) make sure they are not swimming. Turn the heat on maximum and bring the soup to boil and give it a stir. Once it has boiled, immediately turn the heat down to the very lowest possible and leave to simmer (but hot enough to show the odd bubble otherwise it won’t be cooking it will just be sitting there). I would suggest simmering for a good couple of hours, about 2 or 3 or until the vegetables are nice and soft. Make sure you stir regularly, especially if you have lentils in it as they tend to stick to the bottom of the saucepan and burn. Check the carrots and potatoes because they take the longest to cook. The longer you can leave it simmering the nicer the soup, some people cook fast but I like to cook slow so all the vegetables have a chance to omit all their flavours, only slow cooking can do this.

I usually make this soup when I come in from work in the later afternoon and I do other things around the house as it is cooking. Once its simmered for long enough, put it to the side to cool down (may not be cold to put in the fridge by the time you go to bed because the saucepan holds the heat). It is perfectly okay to leave it out over night because it is only vegetables, if you are like me I am in work very early so I put the whole saucepan in the fridge the next morning.

Creamy or chunky

When I return home from work, I take the saucepan out of the fridge and put the contents into my multi-chef which has a liquidizer and a large bowl attached. So you have the choice of a creamed soup or a chunky soup, the liquidizer will do the creamed soup and the larger bowl will do the slightly chunky soup. However, for my End of Week soup I use the chunky option, but it is up to you.

When you have finished liquidizing add a couple of table spoons of double cream into the cold soup and stir, then separate the soup into lock tight containers so no air can get to it and put in the fridge. They can remain there for up to 3 or 4 days or you can freeze if you like. I put one in the freezer and two in the fridge.

When you want to use the soup, take the container out of the fridge and leave at room temperature for 30-60 minutes before re-heating. To defrost the soup, leave in the fridge for 2 days, what ever you do do not defrost it in the microwave. As I said in my last blog, when you come to re-heat it you must do this very very slowly otherwise you will destroy the taste if you boil it. and don’t forget to stir regularly as you reheat.

You can serve this with lovely warm crusty rolls with grated cheese and a twist of cream into the soup bowl.

Enjoy

Mum

My 1st Souperdooper ‘blog’

My son told me that I make good soup. Actually he said its great soup and he loves it, and he thinks other people would love it too. He is a terrible cook and said that he needs to know how to make super soup, in fact he said he wants to know how to make souper dooper soup…hence the name.

My son has persuaded me to write a blog, I didn’t actually know what a blog is, and actually I still don’t know what a blog is or what the point of a blog is. Never the less, he has forced me to write some words about how to make super dooper soup so you can make them too.

On this webpage I am going to write about the types of soups I make with some recipes as well as some of the important things you need to bear in mind. I make soup because its homely, its nice and comforting and if the family are hungry you can see the colour change in their face when they have eaten it. Yes that’s why I like it.

This first ‘blog’ is about my top 3 things to bear in mind when making a soup

1) Only fresh will do:

You can’t make good soup if you use anything frozen, it has to be fresh. Fresh vegetables and herbs such as coriander, parsley sage and all those sorts of things. Also, importantly it is nice to know that what you are eating is fresh and it is good for you, there is no colorants and you can really taste that homely comfort with fresh food, which might sound a bit funny but it’s true. Also, a great complement to a super soup for me is a big wedge of fresh bakers bread or a grated cheese sandwich. Lovely.

2) Don’t boil it to bits, just simmer.

After you have prepared all of your ingredients and they are in the saucepan with water (I will talk about that on the next blog) bring it to boil for about 3 minutes then turn it down to the lowest setting on your cooker. You then let it simmer and cook for about 2-3 hrs, the time of course is dependent on the size of your saucepan so when you have a big saucepan I would suggest around 3 hours. The soup should be simmering just enough so you see the occasional bubble.

3) For the best taste, do not eat straight away.

After the soup has cooked, let it go cold whilst in the saucepan. When it is cold which will take a couple of hours, put the saucepan in the fridge for 1 day. After this time and when you want to eat it, liquidize using a blender to a texture of your choice. Personally I like smooth soup, I don’t mind vegetable soup with bits in it, but not any other. Just remember though, this is important, once the soup is cooked and cooled down (so it is actually cold) make sure you put it in the fridge, if you don’t put it in the fridge you will probably get food poisoning.

When it comes to reheating, put the soup into a saucepan and reheat very slowly on a very low gas setting. Please do not rush this step and absolutely do not put the soup in the microwave. What you need to do is reheat it for between an hour or two whilst stiring it every 10/15 minutes with a wooden spoon. Reheat the soup until it is absolutely piping hot, over 75 degrees. But please make sure you do this slowly because if you don’t you will ruin all the flavors and it will all be a waste of time. Lots of people mess up on this step.

Okay, that is about it for the first blog thing. I will be writing some recipes, my personal favorite are carrot and coriander, tomato and basil, broccoli and stilton, leek and potato, end of week vegetable soup (when you are clearing out the fridge), onion and potato, mushroom…as you can see there are lots of favourites.

I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Mum