Ingredient

Soup

Almost every soup is the same three moves: build a savoury base, cook something in liquid until soft, and adjust the body and seasoning at the end. Once you can see that structure you stop needing recipes for it.

The three-part structure

First a base. Onion, and usually carrot and celery, cooked slowly in fat until soft and sweet — with colour if you want depth, without if you want the soup to stay pale and clean. Garlic, spices and tomato purée go in near the end of this stage, where they have fat to bloom in and will not burn.

Then the body. The main ingredient plus liquid, simmered until tender. The liquid should barely cover — you can always let it down, and a soup that starts too dilute has no concentrated flavour to recover.

Then the finish, which is where most home soups fall short. Salt, acid, fat and freshness: a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar, a swirl of cream or good oil, and something raw and green on top.

Where body comes from

Starchy vegetables

Potato, squash, parsnip, cauliflower. Blend and they thicken themselves. The commonest route.

Pulses

Lentils, split peas, beans. Partly blended gives body with texture remaining.

Bread

The Mediterranean answer. Stale bread blended in gives remarkable body — this is what makes a good ribollita.

Cream or coconut milk

Richness rather than body, and best added at the end so it does not split.

Gelatine from stock

A good stock gives a mouthfeel nothing else replicates. See stock.

A roux

Traditional in chowders and cream soups. Reliable, and slightly heavier than blending.

A blended vegetable soup, generically

1. Sweat chopped onion in butter or oil over a low heat, covered, until soft and translucent. Ten minutes, not two.
2. Add garlic and any ground spice and cook a minute more, until fragrant.
3. Add the main vegetable, chopped fairly small, and stir it around in the fat.
4. Add stock to barely cover, bring to a simmer, and cook until everything is completely tender. Undercooked vegetables blend grainy.
5. Blend thoroughly — a jug blender gives a far smoother result than a stick blender, and passing it through a sieve afterwards gives a restaurant texture.
6. Now season: salt properly, then add acid until it tastes lively rather than flat, then fat for body.
7. Adjust thickness with more stock or water, and check the seasoning again once it is at the right consistency.

Fixing a soup

• Tastes flat — salt first, then acid. A soup that has enough salt and still tastes dull almost always wants lemon or vinegar.
• Too thin — simmer uncovered to reduce, or blend in a cooked potato, or stir in a slurry of cornflour.
• Too thick — stock or water, added gradually, and re-season afterwards.
• Too salty — dilute and add more of the main vegetable. A potato does not absorb salt, despite the myth.
• Grainy after blending — undercooked vegetable, or a stick blender doing an inadequate job. Cook longer and pass it through a sieve.
• Split after adding cream — it boiled. Add dairy off the heat and do not return it to a boil.

Common questions