Category: Soups

Posted on by — 7 Comments

Soup Maker: Carrot and Ginger Soup Recipe – 1.6 Litre

Another soup maker recipe for you, but remember, you can also make this in a pan.

Carrots make for a wonderful soup.  It really does not matter what is added to the soup, there is almost always going to be an innate sweetness that the carrots lend to the recipe.

When serving this up, you can serve with a little cream on top, creme fraise, or even some natural yoghurt.

Soup Maker: Carrot and Ginger Soup Recipe

Lesley S Smith
5 from 1 vote
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 26 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 4 -6

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g Carrots
  • 150 g Onion Peeled and Chopped
  • 1 Root Ginger Bulb Up to about 3 - 4 Inches Long. Peeled and chopped.
  • 1 teaspoon Salt
  • 1 l Vegetable Stock
  • 1 teaspoon Coconut Oil
  • Rainbow Peppercorns To garnish.

Instructions
 

  • For this recipe, to get more taste, lightly fry the onions and ginger in a frying pan with a teaspoon of coconut oil. The onions must stay white, so they will not need to be on for long. You can miss out this step and just put the ingredients straight into the pan if you are in a hurry, but the taste will not be so rich.
  • Add all the ingredients except the ground rainbow peppercorns into the soup maker and set it to smooth for 21 minutes. With stock, fill to Maximum In Soupmaker or up to 1600-1800g for all ingredients manually in a pot.
  • Serve and garnish with rainbow peppercorns.

Carrot and Ginger soup 5

Posted on by — 12 Comments

Soup Maker: Peppered Mushroom Soup Recipe – 1.6 Litre

Another soupmaker recipe goodie.

Mushrooms are available here all year round and make fabulous soups.  The taste is completely different to anything you can buy in a tin.

This recipe does make for very thick soup when it cools slightly, so you might want to water it down a bit or use slightly less ingredients if you want a more watery soup.    The colour of mushroom soup isn’t the most appetising, but the taste more than makes up for that.

It might be too peppery for some, so if you don’t like the strong taste of peppercorns, add less ground peppercorns to give your soup a milder kick.

Soup Maker: Peppered Mushroom Soup – 1.6 Litres

Lesley S Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 3 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 24 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 4 - 6

Ingredients
  

  • 400 g Mushrooms Washed and Chopped
  • 200 g Chopped Leek and Onion
  • Salt
  • 1 teaspoon Ground Rainbow Peppercorns
  • 1 l Beef Stock
  • Chopped Chives To Decorate
  • 1 Teaspoon Double Cream Per Person To swirl on the top at serving.

Instructions
 

  • This recipe is intended to be cooked on the smooth setting. Add your chopped mushrooms, leek and onions to the pot.
  • Add in a pinch of salt and your teaspoon of ground rainbow peppercorns and your litre of stock (or up to the 1.6 mark on a soupmaker)
  • Set to the smooth setting, or in a pan, simmer for 20 minutes and then blend.
  • Serve with a little cream to temper the slightly spicy taste of the peppercorns and decorate with some chopped chives.

 

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Soup Maker: Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Recipe

Buying vegetables that are nearly end dates is a common feature of my shopping now.  I get them home, immediately make them into some kind of soup and then I have some frozen goodness in the freezer for whenever it is needed.

I would never have actually done that pre soup maker days as the effort required was just too much, especially for a small batch of soup.

These vegetables were on their last day for being sold, so I snapped them up for pennies.  I had made 3 batches of soup within an hour or so of coming home from the shop.

Soup Maker: Butternut Squash & Sweet Potato Recipe 1.6 Litres

Lesley S Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 31 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 300 g Sweet Potato Chopped
  • 300 g Butternut Squash
  • TablespoonParsley
  • PinchSalt
  • Hot Water
  • Stock Cube
  • Parsley and Lemon Seasoning

Instructions
 

  • Prepare the vegetables and chop up into reasonably small pieces for speed of making the soup.
  • Put the vegetables, stock cube and a pinch of salt into the soup maker or pot.
  • Add water to the 1600 ml mark in a soup maker, or to the same level in a measuring jug with the vegetables in if you plan to use a pot for your cooking.
  • Choose your soupmaker setting and set it to go. I use the smooth setting most frequently. If you are making this in a pot, take off a simmering heat when the vegetables are fully cooked and use a blender to puree your finished soup. Sprinkle parsley and lemon seasoning on the soup before serving.

Notes

All the ingredients for the 1.6 Litre output of soup need to total up to approximately 800g.  I simply add a few carrots, potatoes and the onion and then top up with the largest main ingredient to the 800 grammes.

 

 

Posted on by — 49 Comments

Soup Maker Recipe: Cream of Potato and Leek Soup 1.6 Litres

Potato and leek soup is so simple to make that it’s in the pot and cooking in just a few minutes in the soup maker.  I rarely bother with exotic spices and herbs for basic vegetable soups and as this one has cream in it, it isn’t suitable for freezing.  Leave out the cream and add water as a substitute if you plan to freeze.

Soup Maker Recipes: Cream of Potato and Leek Soup

Lesley S Smith
4.50 from 2 votes
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 31 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 4 - 6

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g Potatoes Peeled and Chopped
  • 200 g Leek Chopped
  • 100 g Onion Chopped
  • pinch Salt
  • pinch Pepper
  • 100 ml Fresh Cream
  • 700 ml Boiling Water Or fill soupmaker up to 1600ml mark on kettle.
  • 1 Vegetable Stock Cube Crumbled

Instructions
 

  • Pop all the ingredients into the kettle. Set to smooth setting.
  • Simmer for 21 minutes in the kettle. If you make the soup manually, you will have to blend it after cooking.
  • Serve with fresh bread and parsley.

 

 

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Soup Maker: Broccoli, Cauliflower and Carrot Soup Recipe

Looking for quick ways to make soup is easy with a soup maker.  After my review, I’ve decided to keep making different soups to see how they work out.

In the co-op, I found these small bags of washed and prepared broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.   It was really easy to make these into a fast and delicious soup which is perfect for a lunch, starter or even just a light snack.

Cauliflower Broccoli and Carrots

Soup Maker: Broccoli, Cauliflower and Carrot Soup 1.3 Litres

Lesley S Smith
Print Recipe
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 23 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g Carrot Cauliflower and Broccoli
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Stock Cube
  • Hot Water
  • Bay Leaves

Instructions
 

  • Put vegetables into the soup maker.
  • Add salt and pepper to taste & sprinkle on the stock cube.
  • Fill the soupmaker up to the 1.3 litre level and switch on to the smooth setting.
  • Serve with a 2 bay leaves for decoration.

 

Posted on by — 30 Comments

Review: Morphy Richards Soup Maker, with Squash Soup

Morphy Richards Soup Maker 1

Morphy Richards let us have this Soup Maker to play with before Christmas.  It’s perfect timing for our household and I have been amazingly surprised just how fast it makes nice thick soup the way we like it.

Look out for later this week as I’ll be giving one away to my readers just in time for Christmas.

I don’t usually measure out ingredients for soup, I’m more of a judge it by eye person and after one use of this wee machine, I’m sure I’ll quickly go the same way with our new soup maker.

I had reservations about there being enough soup for all of us from it but we did all manage to have a plateful, even if there wasn’t any left for seconds.  My ideal size would be a 2 – 2.5 litre soup maker, but considering it only takes 21 minutes to make a pot of soup, I could just throw on some more veg and have another fresh batch.

I put the veg in the machine, made a mental note of how much veg I needed to make 800g, added water to the maximum level and set it to go.  It seemed to be such a short time later, it beeped to say it was done.   I hate to say it, but the end results were actually better than my regular soups.  Perhaps I overcook mine normally.

I could have chosen from chunky soup or smooth.  The smooth was very smooth and much more so than my smooth soups come out after using a hand blender.

In reality, there was one pot, one spoon that I used to stir the soup (unnecessarily) and no ladle: the soup maker has a lip to pour directly from.    Cleaning it was simply a quick rinse with soap under the tap, dry, and put away.  I’ve put the cable inside for storage but be careful with the blade if you do that too.

The Soup Maker also has a juice setting to make smoothies and fruit drinks.  I suspect less hassle and difficulty than washing my blender.

The Soup Maker is available from www.morphyrichards.co.uk as well as other leading retailers.

I had a lovely squash that I bought simply because of the colours, so the first soup I tried as a simple squash soup which I based loosely around quantities of vegetables used in the sample recipe book that comes with the soup maker.

 

 

 

Soup Maker: Squash Soup Recipe 1.6 Litres

Lesley S Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 21 minutes
Total Time 31 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 6

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Onion
  • 3 Carrots
  • 3 Small Potatoes
  • 1 Small Squash
  • Hot Water
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1 Chicken Stock Cube

Instructions
 

  • Prepare the vegetables and chop up into reasonably small pieces as they are going into a soup maker.
  • Pop the vegetables into the soup maker and add some salt and pepper to taste. I added one chicken stock cube and flaked it onto the vegetables.
  • Fill the soup maker up to the maximum 1.6 litre line, put on the top and select smooth or chunky. The smooth version will take 21 minutes to fully cook.
  • Serve with fresh bread.

Notes

All the ingredients for the 1.6 Litre output of soup need to total up to approximately 800g.  I simply add a few carrots, potatoes and the onion and then top up with the largest main ingredient to the 800 grammes.

 

 

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Fast Potato and Leek Vegetable Soup Recipe

Vegetable soup is just that.  It can be made from anything and absolutely everything that just happens to live in your fridge or kitchen cupboard.

This version was as a result of vegetables that would likely have been thrown out in a day or two so they needed to be used up and I’d no meat out of the freezer to make a casserole or meat dish.

Fast Potato and Leek Vegetable Soup Recipe

Scottish Mum Blog
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Small Turnip
  • 4 Medium Carrots
  • 8 Medium to Large Potatoes
  • 2 Large Leeks
  • 1 Medium Onion
  • 1 Vegetable Stock Pot
  • 3 l Boiled Water
  • Salt and Pepper to Taste
  • Parsley to Garnish

Instructions
 

  • This type of soup is about as simple as it gets. Put a litre of the boiled water on to moderate heat with the vegetable stock added and simmer for 5 minutes.
  • While the stock is simmering, peel and chop the vegetables into smallish chunks. The smaller they are, the quicker the soup will be ready.
  • Pop the vegetables into your pot and fill up the water until there is a good covering of water around the vegetables. Add more water for a thinner soup and keep it less for a thicker version. You can always add more water later if you haven't added enough.
  • Sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for approximately 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.
  • Blend for a smooth soup or if you have chopped your vegetables really small you might wish to have a more watery version with the vegetables in it. I prefer the blended version. Add more salt and pepper if needed and serve with home made bread.

 

 

Posted on by — 4 Comments

Noodle Chowder Recipe for an Emergency Meal in a Bowl

You could be forgiven for thinking that the picture with frozen veg in it looked like something that should have hit the bin as soon as it emerged from the freezer.   A chowder recipe was far from my mind as I raked the freezer for instant food.

Coming home from holiday, going shopping was the last thing on my mind, but there wasn’t anything fresh in the house.  The kids had eaten at Maccy D’s and others far too often over the last fortnight and I couldn’t be bothered to drive anywhere.  I made this up on the spot, and I was surprised how popular it was, considering how unappetising it looked when it hit the pot on top of the stove.

From the depths of the big freezer in the garage, out came some frozen mixed veg, frozen leeks, frozen onions, frozen peas and frozen cauliflower.  I imagine fresh would do just as nicely, but for this recipe, it’s an emergency meal in a bowl.

The idea of chowder is really to have  just a very thick soup, so it’s both warming and filling.

My heart was in my mouth when I first served it up, but the kids came back for seconds and even thirds.  I think a version of chowder will be in the Scottish Mum house a few times a year now.

Noodle Chowder for an Emergency Meal in a Bowl

Lesley S Smith
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 32 minutes
Course Soup

Ingredients
  

  • 1 bag Frozen veg Fill your pot to approximately half way. I used frozen cauliflower, leek, onions, peas and mixed veg
  • Boiled water To cover.
  • Stock Vegetable, Chicken or Beef
  • 1 l Litre long life cream Fabulous standby for cooking.
  • 250 - 500 g Vermicelli or noodles
  • pinch Salt / pepper To taste.

Instructions
 

  • Add the frozen veg to your pot in simmering stock liquid for approximately an hour. To decide how much water you need, just fill the pot up to the top of the veges, as the idea is to have a very thick soup.



  • I only had little chicken stock pots available, so 3 of those were added to boiling water to start off the chowder.

  • Once the vegetables are soft, blend the mix in the pot. I use a stick blender that just goes into the pot. Mine had an unappetising muddy green colour at this stage.

  • Add your noodles depending on how many you would prefer. I broke my vermicelli into small pieces, so that it didn’t end up being like spaghetti in a dish.

  • When the noodles are cooked, add the cream slowly, folding it into the chowder.

  • Add salt and pepper to taste and serve with warm bread.

 

 

 

 

Posted on by — 14 Comments

Coconut and Lime Soup – New Scottish Mum Recipe

I know, I know, you probably all think I have gone absolutely bonkers to make soup and create a recipe with coconut and lime, but it was lovely.

So lovely that my kids loved it too.  I was completely prepared for them to say they hated it so it was a nice surprise.  The littlest one is my sticking point as he tends to only want the best of everything and new foods are a hit or a miss as to whether he will eat them or not.

I’m also adding this into Jacqueline’s No Croutons Required for August 2012 as this is an original recipe that I am very happy with.

Carrot and Lime Soup Recipe

  • 10 – 12 servings.
  • Preparation, 15 – 20 minutes + cooking time.
  • Nutritional, rich source of vegetables.

Ingredients

  • 1 litre stock.  fruit, vegetable, chicken or beef.  I used chicken to give the soup a good strong base, as I prefer the taste of soups with poultry stock.
  • 2 litres water.
  • 1 chicken stock cube.
  • 3 large carrots.
  • 5 medium to large potatoes.
  • 1 large onion, or 2 small ones.
  • 3 x limes, squeezed for juice, rind removed.   You could use lime juice for cooking.
  • 2 largish leeks.
  • 400g good quality coconut milk.
  • half litre of milk.
  • salt.
  • pepper.
  • ginger.
  • basil.

Method

  •  Simmer stock and add 2 litres of water.
  • Peel, scrape and chop all vegetables and add to pot.
  • Add 2 teaspoons of salt, pepper and ginger.  I used ground rainbow peppercorns and ground ginger.
  • Add lime juice and flesh of lime, with pith removed if you are using fresh.
  • Simmer for 15 minutes, then add half a litre of milk, 400g coconut milk and the stock cube.
  • Simmer until carrots and potatoes are cooked, then blend.
  • Add salt and pepper to taste.
  • Serve with basil on the top.
Posted on by — 5 Comments

Cauliflower & Cheese Soup

I often have pots of soup on the go, and this one was an experiment as the kids all love cauliflower cheese.  I wanted to make it into a meal in a bowl, so with some extra mature cheddar from Andrew Gordon, our local butcher and fine food store, we were ready to go.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Little Black Bomber Cheese from Snowdonia UK.  It was quite soft and crumbly and was perfect for making soup.  I even tried some on charcoal biscuits and it was quite a mild taste with a lovely creamy texture.  It’s a new find that will now be regularly on our shopping list as the kids really loved it.

Ingredients

  • 1 extra large cauliflower, or 2 small cauliflowers
  • 200g smooth and creamy extra mature cheddar, I used the little black bomber.
  • 2 small onions, or 1 large onion
  • 4 large potatoes
  • 1 fennel
  • 1 litre of stock.  I used chicken as it’s what I had in the fridge.  You could use beef or vegetable.
  • 2 litres of water & half litre of milk.
  • salt and pepper to taste.
  • ciabatta to serve.

 

Method

  1. Set your stock on to cook.  For this recipe, I used ready made stock from my fridge.
  2. Add stock to 2 litres of water and 0.5 litre of milk and bring to the boil.  Turn down to a simmer and add a few pinches of salt.
  3. Chop vegetables into reasonably small sized chunks and just add them all to the pan.  You’ll need enough liquid to cover your chopped vegetables to start off with, so just add a little more water if you need to.
  4. Simmer for 25 minutes, or until all vegetables are soft. You may have to add a little extra water depending on how long you simmer for.
  5. Liquidise, or blend in the pot.
  6. Take the soup off the heat and add the cheese cut into small pieces.
  7. Stir the soup until all the cheese is melted and blend again if needed.
  8. Add salt and pepper to taste, and you’re done.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on by — 10 Comments

Guest Recipe: Seafood Broth from Graeme Taylor

Guest Recipe from Graeme Taylor of Scots Larder, and also found on Twitter as @scotslarder

———————————————

I love seafood, you can’t beat it for freshness, flavour and for sheer enjoyment of experimentation and it goes so well with so many ingredients, it complements chorizo, and the fresh herbs and white wine make it zing. It’s also great to watch everyone get messy as they wrestle with heads, tails, claws and shells!

I threw this soup together with what I found available in the fishmonger and supermarket but really it’s all about experimenting with what’s available and in season.

I made my own stock using the bones from the gurnard with stock vegetables but you could use a cube if heads and bones offend you or even a shop bought pot of stock, many fishmongers do excellent ones. I just don’t like to see flavour going in the bin so made my own.

This will serve 4

Ingredients

1 Gurnard filleted and chopped into bitesize chunks
100g clams
100g squid chopped into rings
Dozen mussels
150g king prawns
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin cannellini beans
50g chorizo piccante finely chopped
2 shallots finely chopped
Splash white wine (just a splash, not a sploosh, there’s a big difference!)
Tiny splash sherry vinegar (maybe 1tsp)
Dessertspoon finely chopped dill
2 small ladels fish stock

Method

  1. In a medium pot sweat the chorizo in a little olive oil until it begins to give up it’s colour then add the shallots and cook slowly until soft.
  2. Add the gurnard and coat in the orangey oil to brown a little and then add the tomatoes.
  3. Add the sherry vinegar and beans and bring to a slow simmer.
  4. Meanwhile clean and de-beard the mussels and clams making sure you discard any dead ones. The end of this recipe is all about timing, nobody wants cold or overcooked seafood.
  5. When you’re happy with the flavour and consistency of the soup, probably around 15 minutes, put a little olive oil in the bottom of a hot pan and then add the mussels, clams and white wine, cover and set timer for 4 minutes.
  6. Add the prawns to the soup and give the shellfish pot a shake but don’t take off the lid or the cooking steam will all be lost.
  7. When the buzzer goes drain the shellfish pot into the soup to get all the flavour the clams and mussels have given up along with the white wine.
  8. At this point put the squid into the soup as any more than two minutes will render it elastic band like!
  9. Take the mussels and clams from their shells except a couple for decoration (not essential unless you’d like to impress somebody!) and add to the soup.
  10. Take off the heat, stir through the dill, correct for seasoning and serve in warmed bowls with a huge chunk of Guinness soda bread.
Posted on by — 9 Comments

More delicious foodiness. Turkey and Potato Soup made with Scotty Brand Potatoes

Making potato soup is a big Scottish thing I think.  It’s often so cold here that soups are ideal for little snacks and to warm us up when we’re cold.

 

One of Scottish Mum and no measuring recipes again, and I just judge how much goes in by the size of my pot.  I used a big pot for this, so I used a whole 2kg bag of gorgeous Scotty Brand Kestrel potatoes which I was sent to make meals with.

This served 6 people about 3 times, so if you have a smaller family, make half the recipe, or freeze for future meals.

Ingredients

  • 2 kg potatoes diced
  • 0.5 kg carrots chopped
  • half a small turnip – chopped
  • two small or one big onion
  • turkey leg
  • salt
  • pepper
  • stock cube x 3

Method

  1. Make stock from the Turkey leg.  I used it straight in the pot, and let it simmer for two hours with the stock cubes and enough water to cover the Turkey leg completely.
  2. Remove the Turkey leg.
  3. Make sure there are no Turkey bits in your stock by straining the liquid.
  4. Add potatoes, carrot and turnip and onions.
  5. Add water to cover.  I just fill with water from the kettle till all vegetables are covered by a good couple of inches, often  more.
  6. Simmer for 40 minutes, or until vegetables are cooked.
  7. Salt and pepper to taste.
  8. Serve with warm bread.

The one thing no foodie will say is that the soup should be spoiled by the addition of anything else, but one of my boys won’t eat home made soup unless it is a tin of Heinz Tomato Soup.  We compromised and he has his own little pot which is mixed with Heinz.  He still gets the goodness of the Turkey and Potato Soup so I’m  happy not to fight this battle.