Ok Mummas, it’s cooling down, bring out the fluffy slippers and the warming food. Soup is so comforting on a cold day and the NHM Mummas have given us some ideas for great Soups you can make you and your family!
CARROT AND SWEET POTATO SOUP
Katherine Vaughn Chop up a bag of carrots and a couple of sweet potatoes into large chunks. Chuck them into the pressure cooker. Add 4 to 6 cups of stock so the veg are covered. Cook on medium pressure for 15 to 20 mins or so. Check they're soft, then get a stick blender and blend them all until smooth (don't splash yourself in the face with hot carrot at this point, been there done that). Add about a half cup of sour cream and stir through. Taste and season with more stock powder or salt if needed, add up to another half cup of sour cream, etc, depending on how you like it. We serve it with crusty bread.
Those quantities are VERY rough, I make it up as I go along usually and just adjust the flavour at the end. This makes quite a lot of soup.
CHICKEN AND VEGETABLE SOUP
A bbq chook broken up
1 carrot
1 zucchini
2 stalks of celery
1 onion
A cup of chunky pumpkin
Chop all veg according to how fine/ chunky you like it
Handful of baby spinach
A packet of rice vermicelli noodles
2 litres of chicken stock and a dash of curry powder (you can’t really taste it, just gives a bit of extra flavour)
Boil up the stock and veg then add your noodles last as they don’t take very long to cook.
You could add little bits of pasta instead of noodles for something different too
CHCIKEN AND SWEET CORN SOUP
Elise Golby Easy chicken and corn soup like the Chinese shop makes. 1 BBQ chicken broken up, 2 litres of chicken stock, 1 can of creamed corn, 5 shallots chopped finely, 2 eggs beaten. Combine all ingredients except egg and bring to the boil then simmer for half hour. Add beaten eggs at the end and mix around quickly. Season how you like add chilli ect if that's what you like.
LEEK, POTATO AND PEA SOUP
2 leeks, pale section only, thinly sliced
2 large Crème Royale potatoes, peeled, coarsely chopped
4 cups (1L) chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup (120g) frozen peas
1/2 cup (125ml) thickened cream
Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the leek and cook, stirring, for 5 mins or until leek softens. Add the potato and stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low.
Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 mins or until potato is very tender and soup thickens slightly. Stir in the peas. Cook for 2 mins or until heated through. Set aside to cool slightly.
Use a stick blender to blend until smooth. Add half the cream and stir to combine. Season.
Ladle the soup evenly among serving bowls. Drizzle with the remaining cream.
LEBANESE YELLOW LENTIL SOUP
2 cups red lentils
1/4 cup rice
1 brown onion, diced
6 cups water
2 chicken stock cubes
1 teaspoon cumin
Vegetable oil for frying
Salt to taste
White pepper to taste
Method
1.Wash lentils and rice well.
2. In a pot heat vegetable oil and add diced onion. Fry until soft.
3. Add salt, cumin and stock cubes and mix. Add the lentils and rice and mix. Add water.
4. Bring to the boil and then simmer partially covered for approx. 40 minutes or until lentils change colour to yellow and soften. Keep stirring regularly as lentils stick to the pot!
5. Use stick blender to remove lumps and blend the soup to a nice consistency (personal preference on how smooth or lumpy).
6. Add salt and pepper to taste and more cumin if needed.
7. Serve garnished with parsley.
Notes:
The lentils absorb a lot of water so keep an eye on it and add more water as they cook if needed. The soup should be a thick soup consistency, but not pulpy.
PUMPKIN SOUP
Georgia Hennigar start off frying off a little bit of bacon (just for flavour), garlic and either onion or a leek as well as some celery.... then chop up pumpkin, carrots, potato, sweet potato... cover in stock and let it simmer away until veg is soft..... blitz it up and before serving add in either cream or greek yoghurt