Tips for Making Delicious Soups
September 8, 2021 6:24 pm Leave your thoughtsFall is almost here, which means it’s time to start making soups for your whole family. There’s nothing quite like a hot bowl of soup ready at the end of the day, especially when there’s a chill in the air and you don’t feel like cooking anything elaborate. Here are some of our best tips for making delicious fall soups:
- Sweat your vegetables: Sweating the vegetables and aromatics is the best way to get the most out of their flavor. Let them cook until softened and the flavor is released, then move on to the next step in your recipe.
- Consider making your own stock: Your soup stock is one of the most important ingredients you can use —if not the most important. A weak, over- or under-salted stock is not going to make the hearty, delicious soup you crave. Start with a good stock. Consider making your own, especially if you’ve made a chicken or turkey recently. You’ll be surprised at how the flavor improves.
- Chop everything into spoon-friendly sizes: When you’re chopping your ingredients, don’t forget to cut them small enough to fit on a spoon. Both meat and vegetables will shrink a bit when cooked. You just want to avoid having giant slabs of meat in your soup—there shouldn’t be any need for a knife.
- Use salt sparingly: When your broth reduces, the saltiness of the stock and other ingredients will be concentrated. Use salt sparingly until the soup has finished cooking, then feel free to salt it until it tastes right.
- Add noodles at the end: Don’t cook your noodles separately—add them right into the soup near the end, so they can soak up the flavor of the ingredients. Of course, if you plan to freeze some of the soup, don’t add the noodles until you thaw it and reheat it. They’ll fall apart otherwise.
- Time your ingredients so everything finishes together: Chunks of carrots, meat and other ingredients all cook at different times. Time their addition to the stock pot so everything cooks—and finishes—at the same time.
- Simmer gently: Keep your soup at a gentle simmer, unless you like tough ingredients. You might need to check the soup frequently to prevent boiling.
- Know how to use cream or milk: Cream and milk can curdle when they’re added to a hot soup, so be sure to warm them ahead of time. You’ll also want to make sure you consider how they may thin or thicken a soup before adding.
- Cool before freezing: If you plan to freeze your soup, let it cool an hour or two before freezing it.
- Make a double batch: Speaking of freezing soups, here’s our favorite tip: make a double batch and freeze the extra for those nights you just don’t feel like cooking at all.
If you put the above soup tips into practice, you’re sure to come up with a dinner your whole family will love. When you don’t feel like cooking your own fall soups, Tony’s Delicatessen & Fresh Meats has you covered. Call today to place your next dinner order, and save yourself the hassle!
Categorised in: Soup
This post was written by Writer