Homemade soups are fantastic for everything from dinner parties to a warm and comforting lunch. They’re easy to make, you can easily double up the recipe and freeze leftovers, and it’s usually really healthy and hearty. So to show our love for this simple dish, we’ve put together six handy tips to help you improve your homemade soups.
- Always use fresh ingredients
The simpler the recipe, the more important fresh ingredients become. You can often mask the flavor of a soup using different aromatics and seasonings, but if your soup only has a couple of base ingredients, it’s important to use fresh ingredients for a better-tasting soup. Try to avoid frozen ingredients when it comes to aromatics like garlic, onion and carrots.
- Remember that each ingredient has a different cook time
Each element of your soup is going to cook at a different rate. If you’re going to put potatoes in your soup, make sure they go in around 20 minutes before finishing to ensure that they’re not completely broken and mushy. The texture you want to achieve is going to have a big impact on cooking times. As another example, carrots can be cooked to the point they offer a little bite but any more and they’ll become mushy.
- Season at the end
It’s often difficult to judge how flavorful our soups are going to be. This is why it’s important to taste the soup as you go and also season at the end so you can adjust it to your tastes. If you try to season at the start, the soup may reduce and develop an overpowering flavor which makes it hard to eat.
- If you’re trying something new, always refer to a recipe
Soups are simple because they usually involve throwing everything into a pot of water and letting it cook. However, there are some soups, such as Italian wedding soup, that have small preparation steps that can improve the overall flavor. For instance, this Italian wedding soup recipe calls for homemade meatballs and simmering them in the boiling soup instead of cooking them before or after the fact.
- When cutting ingredients, make sure they fit on a spoon
Unless you plan to have large bones and vegetables as part of the soup, make sure your ingredients are cut into small bite-sized pieces. Alternatively, try and cut them small enough so that a single spoon of your soup can fit all of the ingredients. This will make it easier to eat the soup and ensures that you get a bit of everything in every spoonful.
- Don’t be afraid to double a recipe
One of the great things about soup is that most of them are great for the freezer, meaning you can make large batches and just reheat it for a snack or quick meal. It’s also a good idea to do this when you’re feed lots of people so they can always request seconds.
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