Soup's Up

Soup has to be one of the easiest things to cook from scratch. Even for the most novice chef, you need to walk away from the cans (and tetra packs) head over to produce, put a few colourful and flavourful things into your basket and head back to your kitchen. Soup is also an awesome dish to cook up on a cold winter weekend, and make a big batch so you have extra during the week.

To begin you can make your own stock (chicken + onion + celery + carrot + water x heat to boil and simmer) or you can use a premade stock or quickly make some with a bouillon and water.

Once you have stock ready on the side, you want to start with a flavourful base, definitely saute some onions, you can add celery and carrots, or whatever tickles your fancy. Once that is aromatic toss in the rest of your chopped up veggies and stock, bring it to a boil and then let it simmer to bring out all of the flavours.

Personally, I enjoy a thick and hearty soup, but not necessarily cream soups, so I usually toss in a potato or two. After about 20 minutes on the heat, I like to use a hand blender (or potato masher) to thicken up the soup and make it less brothy. I only do a few quick blends, because I like the soup to be thick and hearty, and still chunky with lots of veggies floating around. If you prefer something completely pureed, just keep the blender in there until you have a smooth consistency.

For those who like a brothy soup, you can always add some pasta toward the end for added texture. The best types are small ones like alphabets, orzo, ancini di peppe, etc. If you are making a simple chicken soup, you can use something with more substance like tortolini.

I often hear people complain that they don't know how to cook, or are not creative enough. Soup is a great place to start, and it is pretty difficult to mess it up. Vegetable soup is one of the most basic things to start with. And for those who need a little inspiration here is what I put in the soup I made this weekend:

- onion, celery, carrot, zucchini, potato, white beans, tomato, spinach; and for a kick of flavour I added some garlic, marjoram and just a light sprinkle of curry powder

This is a wonderful, healthy and inexpensive meal to make. When I plan to cook with lots of produce, I head over to a small independent grocer in my area, it is not a fancy place, but the savings are well worth it, I bought 2 bags of produce for $7.00. Significantly cheaper than your big box grocery stores!