Souper Delicious
Soup season is here. Grab your soup spoons!
It's almost Fall and that means sweater weather, pumpkin spice and lots of hearty soups! Here are some of our best tips for making souper delicious soups that you'll want to dive your spoon into.
Spoonfuls
Chop your veggies down to sizes that will fit comfortably in your spoon. You want to be able to taste everything per spoonful instead of eating one veggie at a time. Even the most rustic soups have well chopped and reasonably sized vegetables. Tough greens like kale should also be chopped down.
Flavour Building
Start with aromatic vegetables such as onion, leek, garlic, celery, and/or carrots. Sautee these ingredients first in oil or butter before adding your other ingredients and stock. Ensure these vegetables are cooked partially through and softened -- do be careful not to burn it -- as this helps release the most flavour.
Timing is Everything
Consider the time it takes to cook the different vegetables. Add in your ingredients based on the cooking times to prevent undercooked or overcooked bites.
All in the Simmer
Once your soup has come to a boil, take it down to a simmer and leave it there. The trick is to not overheat your soup as that will lead to mushy vegetables, overcooked meat and soggy noodles.
Know how to Noodle
Don't cook your noodles separately, add them directly into your soup once your soup is almost complete. This will make the noodles absorb more flavour, making them taste much better and it prevents your noodles from going soggy. Because who likes soggy noodles? Nobody.
Dash of Dairy
If you're making a creamy soup, make sure to add the cream, milk or yogurt at the end. Also before you add it in, make sure you warm it up first! This will prevent curdling and that would just ruin all your hard work.
Season Sparingly
Sometimes cooking requires you to season throughout but soup is one of those dishes where you should wait till the end. If you're using store bought stock or lots of canned ingredients (think canned tomatoes or tomato paste) then you're already adding a lot of sodium to your soup. Give your soup a taste when it's done cooking and season as needed.