There are literally thousands of types of soup you can make yourself, varying widely in the ingredients used, the flavor you are aiming for, and the texture of the finished soup. You can make meat soup, vegetable soup, fish soup, Asian soup, curried soup, thick soup, thin soup, chilled soup and many more kinds! Soup is great for cooks who love to experiment because you can alter the flavor and texture of your soup as it cooks. Before you rush off to the supermarket for ingredients, here are a few useful tips about how to make soup:

Making Soup with Fresh Ingredients

What you put into the soup obviously affects the end result. For the best soups, you should always use fresh seasonal ingredients wherever possible. A winter vegetable soup made with fresh vegetables is not only delicious but also high in nutritional benefits. You might like to sauté your vegetables in a bit of butter before adding them, for a richer flavor.

Flavorings for Soups

You can use ingredients when cooking soup that would otherwise be thrown away. Celery tops, asparagus ends, broccoli stalks, onionskins and fish heads are great examples. These give plenty of flavor and you remove them when your soup base is flavorful enough. Even ingredients like meat bones can be used to make bouillon. If you roast the bones until they are dark brown before adding, they will give more flavor to your homemade soup recipe. You can skim any excess fat from the top of the soup afterwards. If you are using chicken or turkey bones for flavoring, add a tablespoon of vinegar to the bouillon to draw out calcium.

Adding Texture When Cooking Soup

You can add both protein and texture to your soup by using red lentils or split yellow peas. Instant or leftover mashed potatoes, rice, or mashed beans can be used to thicken soup. Most cooked vegetables can be pureed and stirred into soup to thicken it. Meat should be added in small pieces rather than large chunks to enhance the soup texture. A couple of teaspoons of sour cream enhances a lot of soups. Thick soup is more filling than a thin broth so if you are serving your soup as a main meal, a thick soup might be best.

Making Soup - Troubleshooting Tips

If you accidentally burn your soup, you do not have to throw it away in despair! Pour it carefully into a clean pan and use a strong flavor, such as curry powder, mustard, or chutney to disguise the burnt taste. If your soup is overly salty, add a raw potato to the pan and simmer for 15 minutes. This absorbs the excess salt. To remove excess fat from soup, put ice cubes on top when it is ready. The fat will be drawn to them and will harden around them in 5 or 10 minutes.

Whether you are following a soup recipe or cooking soup yourself, the above tips should be helpful. Do not be afraid to be creative with soup either. If you experiment with ingredients and flavorings, you might just discover a new soup recipe, which immediately becomes a family favorite. Nothing warms the spirit like a delicious homemade soup, served with crusty bread and butter!

Salad Cooking Tips:

Useful Salad Cooking Tips for Heavenly Salads

There is more to how to make salad than arranging a leaf of lettuce and half a tomato on a plate. Salad can be served as an accompaniment to a meal or as the meal itself. You can use many different ingredients when cooking salads, such as meat, fish, vegetables, grains, and fruits. There are thousands of delicious salad recipes to try but for the very best salad results, here are a few handy salad-cooking tips:

More Salad Cooking Tips

Soup Cooking Tip -Thickening Soup

Description: A pot of hot vegetable soup on cooking top of the stove.

An easy way to thicken your soups and make them more like a stew is to take a little oil or bacon grease and heat over a medium high heat. When the oil is well heated gradually, sift in flour with a little cornstarch added to it, and stir it into the grease continuously until the flour mixture is a medium to dark brown.

You want to make sure to keep stirring or the flour will burn when this is done stir it into your soup until well blended and allow to cook at least 15 minutes to half an hour so the flour blends fully and cocks so it does not give your soup a raw flour taste. You can very the amount of flour to make the soup thicker our thinner to your desired preference.