Soups Made Easy

An Advertorial Feature

Soup can be a heart warming starter or lunch in the winter and a healthy appetiser in the summer, so find out how to make your own.

While there are some great readymade soups currently on the market, whether tinned or fresh, nothing beats a homemade soup.  Soup is a healthy meal or snack and a great way to ensure you are on your way to eating one of those all important five a day, with some soups counting as two portions.

Readymade soups however can often contain quite a lot of salt or cream which instantly makes them less healthy, so if you make your own soup you can monitor exactly what ingredients go into it so you can be as healthy as you want.  You may even find making your own soup is cheaper than buying it from the supermarket.  Take a look at these online recipes which can also work as vegetarian recipes too.

Tomato Soup

This is probably one of the easiest soups to make and takes minutes.

• Gently heat some finely chopped onions for flavour in some olive oil until soft and translucent.
• Add a clove of garlic to taste.
• A pinch of chilli flakes, or if you have it, fresh chilli.
• Add a tin of tomatoes and stock- make sure they are chopped and gently heat through leaving it to simmer for a few minutes.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• As an added ingredient try adding red lentils which give the soup more substance – these often have to be soaked before hand and then added.
• Finally add a good pinch of basil and then blend together – adding water to achieve the right consistency.

As you can see this recipe makes a great tomato soup with a kick and is really easy taking no time at all, so as long as you have a tin of tomatoes in your cupboard, a rainy Saturday lunch can be transformed.  For an extra flavour try mixing freshly chopped tomatoes with your tinned ones, and you can experiment with different types of tomatoes too.

Pea and Coriander Soup

We have all heard of pea and mint soup, but pea and coriander soup is less well known but an equally tasty option.

• As with the tomato soup start by heating some onion in a saucepan with some garlic, chilli and salt and pepper.
• You can make this recipe with frozen peas so you can easily keep some in the freezer, and add straight to your pan, steaming them on a low heat.
• Add hot water and vegetable stock and bring to the heat, simmer for about five minutes and then blend.
• Add coriander at the end to taste.