General Chat

I never used to make soup from scratch unless I had a chicken carcass remaining from the Sunday roast.

Then all the thoughts of low-fat, diet clubs, weight loss, over took me, and I resorted to the little cube.

Since then, I've never much enjoyed what I've made, just tasting like liquidated veg, which of course was more or less what it was!

I'm back to sweating onions, celery, carrot, a touch of parsnip and plenty of organic parsley from the herb garden. Bubbling away, the kitchen smells like times of old. After straining, it sits overnight before carefully skimming away the fatty top layer.

So back into delicious soups now, never has anything tasted quite so delicious.

Interesting too, that seeing the pounds slowly dropping off, soup was never the big nasty, but rather the packets of biscuits, loaves spread with jam, and Cake. Suddenly, little concocted salads of fresh leaves, roasted vegetables, pulses, peas, salmon, and pulses, all tossed in homemade dressing have never been more enjoyable.

… and also eating more rapeseed and olive oils than have ever done so before.

I love making my own soups. I experiment with all sorts of ingredients this week will be leek based but not sure what else I shall put in with it yet. It helps me with my weight loss as I can snack on that anytime of day and this weather it is very comforting when I come in cold.

We've finally scoffed all the leg of ham (use by date 8th January)....... so tomorrow it's going in my big stockpot with split peas, turnip, celery & onions.

Too hot for pea & ham soup, so it's going in the freezer.

Something to look forward to when the temperature drops.

I detest canned & packet soups....... all I can taste is salt.

:-)

I must remember to get some strong incense or air freshener :-D

We have soup most weeks, hanging soup, anything I can find hanging about.

I used half a carton of passatta in some bolognaise the other night so I put the rest in soup the next day, along with God Knows What that was in the fridge and a tin of cto tomato soup.wang, especially hick-peas.

I always start with sweated onion and sometimes celery and pepper as well. Then it is anything I can find along with several green Oxos. It might need a bit of tweeking at the end to get the taste right. A bit of redcurrant jelly and some vinegar always help with a tomato based one.

As for commercial soups, I use a fair few dried cuppa soups but don't like the taste of tinned soup as the canning process adds a kind of caramelly t

OH bought me a cookery book from 'Terre a Terre' which is a well known veggie restaurant in Brighton - he had a trip there a few weeks ago. It looks fabulous, some things are a work of art, however most can be broken down into simple steps. The base of their soups and purees etc. is a white vegetable stock and I am going to have a go at this, as I often resort to the stock cube too. So much nicer with real, homemade stock :-)

I kept a stock pot going for ages.

You just chuck all your peelings and stuff in and make sure to boil it every day so it doesn't go rancid.

I make soup on a weekly basis.
We finished the vegetable and rice last night and my daughter and her BF took the remains of the red pepper, tomato and lentil home with them on new years day

I stopped roasting peppers for soup... I now buy them, ready roasted in a jar!
I use Marigold Bullion fo enhance the flavour

Home made soup does taste better than shop bought, but is it cost efficient?

Excluding the value of your labour, there are the energy costs to consider + any extra ingredients you've bought to chuck in.

Not making the soup today.

I have the ham bone, turnip, celery........ but I don't have any split peas!!!!

I was sure there was a packet in the pantry........... I'll blame the geckos.

split peas… that sound good! :-)

Oh jam and butter it!

I am in bed and I meant to put some pulses in to soak before I came up but I didn't.

Did you go down and prepare them, Sharron?

I made stock from the chicken carcase so using that up now.


Btw lavender, mind the olive oil, on Secret Eaters recently they warned that it has lots of calories so try not to use too much. I use rapeseed oil now

Lizxx

The gravy we had with the Christmas turkey was made with real stock. It bugs me that we don't get the bag of giblets any more. Our turkey had the neck stuffed inside it, which I didn't know about until it was defrosted. The turkey neck was added to a potful of chicken necks for the stock.

The gravy was nice, but you can't beat giblet gravy. :-D

DH has been sent off with a shopping list, including split peas!

Scozz, you are so right. I do miss the giblets. Do you suppose they end up in the minced chicken mush that is turned into all sorts of things these days, still for human consumption?

Lizx

they probably end up in "nuggets" :-(

I don't eat too much in the way of fast food, but nuggets don't appeal...... they look like deep fried parson's noses.

:-(

Oh ugh, will never look at a chicken nugget in the same way but I do agree. Lots of those chicken kievs are made in the same way I think.

Lizx

DH came back, with the shopping.

One thing on the list was vague.... "something for dinner". Bear in mind that we've had enough turkey & ham to satisfy those taste buds for a while. What did he get? Pork chops!

:-D

He remembered the split peas........... with the help of a lady in the supermarket who asked what he wanted them for! He must have looked lost.

Ladies in shops always have to teach you something and they love questioning.

I went into Boots once with a tickly cough and asked the young assistant for a linctus type cough medicine which I thought to be a perfectly straightforward request for a pharmacy.

She looked totally bewildered which prompted the self appointed doctor behind the counter (not the pharmacist, the busybody) to step forward and question me in detail about what I was after as if they had never heard of a linctus before!

Pea & Phart soup made, and in the freezer. :-D

Must make a note to get a strong air freshener before winter. ;-)

While the soup was cooking I made quiches (with the leftover Christmas ham)...... eight of them.

Two problems........ the freezer is stuffed & so am I. :-(

I think there's space for six quiches in the freezer...... either DH eats the other two tonight or our neighbour gets one.

The other problem is that they are quiches!

Because our village lunches and harvest suppers are such cheap meals I have always asked that nobody make any fuss about my being a vegetarian because I can bring a sandwich or just eat the veg because I am still enjoying the event.

The village lunch costs £3;50 and there is coffee and a pudding which I do eat, not to mention the after dinner mint.

One couple's idea of not making a fuss was to make me a quail's egg salad but, usually, I am presented with a slice of quiche which I would rather not have to force down my throat and often ,especially after harvest supper, I am plied with some to take home too. This will be because nobody in the homes of those who have made them will want to eat quiche either.

What a horrible thing to have hanging over your head, the knowledge that there are six of them in your freezer!