Vegetable soup - the kick off

Let's pretend that this is your first time in a kitchen. Don't think that you are alone with that. There are others out there who try it first time today. 

How I make vegetable soup

Chicken soup

The first photo I have taken is of a chicken soup with vegetables. It is a very nice Hungarian soup, basically it is a broth. I cook this soup - really a large amount of soup - and put the liquid to plastic containers. I normally keep three containers from one soup. When I want to have a vegetable soup quickly during the week, I just defrost the liquid with some additional water, put some carrot and potato in it. I already have the flavour, the richness, the love in it. I also add some pasta. The one I used on the second photo is a special Hungarian pasta. Any pasta would be fine which is small enough.

Vegetable soup

How you make vegetable soup

Ingredients:

carrot

potato

tomato

onion (some don't like it because difficult to digest - cut it to really small pieces or leave it as a whole and remove it from the soup at the end)

garlic (same as onion, leave it as a whole, only make a cut on it and remove it when the soup is ready to be served)

any additional vegetable you like

pasta

water

salt 

pepper

olive oil

the basic herbs: lovage, parsley, celery

you can add anything you like and feel would fit

Clean and slice every vegetable in a form you like and put it in a pot. Add water. The minimum amount of water is that it should cover the ingredients. And let's go! Turn on the fire!

Basically, we are almost done. You do not have to stay and stare at the water to boil. Cover it and give it time to warm up. When it reaches the boiling temperature remove the lid. Don't worry, you will hear and see when this happens. Adjust the heat to the minimum or as low that the soup can keep boiling but not running away from your hob. If you see that the water is getting low refill it.

Normally after 30 min the vegetables should be good. It depends on the vegetable's age, the temperature you use on the hob, etc. Keep trying to check whether the potato is soft enough. I would suggest that you use fresh vegetables, especially the carrot can be disappointing when it is old.

Add now the cut herbs. I was told once that the herbs should never be cut by scissors or knife, only torn by hand. Anyway, add the herbs and after cca. five minutes taste it. You will feel that it is sweet but watery. You add the salt and pepper now. Keep tasting. We still need to put the pasta which will soak up the salt, so don't worry if you put some more than needed.

Why do we add the herbs and salt&pepper at the end? Because then you will feel the real taste of the vegetables and not only the spices, yet the herbs can add their own aroma.

Once you feel it is done, add one teaspoon of olive oil. I use virgin oils because of my son. And before putting much salt in the food, I separate his portion. 

Add the pasta now and check back in five minutes. Actually on the bag of the pasta it is written how long it must be cooked. It can be al-dente or ready cooked. You decide.

While you are waiting for the soup to be boiled, the vegetables to be cooked, you have plenty of time to clean the kitchen or have a nice chat with your guests. Once the pasta is done we are ready to serve our first creation. 

What do you think? Was that too complicated? What did we do?

We cleaned and cut the vegetables. Put them in a pot. Keep waiting. Add spices and pasta. Done.

You maybe noticed that I did not add any indication of how much you should use from the ingredients. This is where the art begins. You use your own instinct. This is why I do not write recipe books. I don't want to tell you what to do or how. I just would like to give you a guide to find the artist in you.

Enjoy your soup and the compliments.