Homemade Soup Cooking Guide

Making soups from leftover dinners is ever so easy. Play around with flavour combinations, depending on what you have. Sweet-fleshed roots such as parsnips, carrots or sweet potatoes go well with leeks. This easy to follow soup guide will help you make perfect homemade soups

For your soup base

To make your soup base, simply chop half an onion and gently fry it in a little butter or oil in a saucepan. If you have some herbs, all the better – add a bay leaf or a handful of chopped parsley to the pan, then pour in Continental Stock Pot – chicken, beef, vegetable or fish, depending on what type of soup you want to make.

MINESTRONE SOUP

For a chunky minestrone-style soup, gather a variety of chopped cooked vegetables – carrots, potatoes, peas, a handful of leftover cooked pasta, and a squeeze of tomato paste. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat then simmer gently for 15 minutes.

CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP

For a chicken noodle soup, use Continental Chicken Stockpot and add in finely-diced leftover chicken or turkey from your Christmas roast with a handful of broken-up noodles – spaghetti, vermicelli, whichever you like.

SMOOTH-STYLE SOUP

For a smooth-textured soup, follow the recipe for the base then add in a generous amount of chopped cooked vegetables, simmer for 20 minutes and then blend.

CHEESE

Adding leftover blue cheese is a great way of perking up a soup – simply crumble in around 75-100g of blue cheese before simmering and blending. Broccoli and Stilton soup, cauliflower and blue cheese, or potato and blue cheese are all good combinations.

SOUP GARNISH

Dress up your soup with a swirl of leftover cream or a tablespoon of crème fraiche or sour cream. Alternatively, you could use a sprinkling of chopped chives or parsley, or a scattering of croutons made from leftover bread, cubed and fried in oil or butter until golden-brown.