Category: Soup Recipes

Follow the links for some great home-made soup recipes.  Or have a look at the Recipe Index for lots of other brilliant easy recipes!

I make a lot of vegetarian soup recipes.  For me, there is no comparison between the taste of home-made soup and that of even high quality shop-bought soup.  If you make your own soup it will taste better, cost less and be healthier than shop-bought varieties.   Soup also freezes well so it is a great way of using a seasonal over-supply of vegetables for use later on in the year.

I have a few plain soups which show-case the taste of a particular vegetable.  These include my Tomato Soup, Fennel Soup and Jerusalem Artichoke Soup.  However,  lots of my soups have added herbs and spices.  These include my Curried Parsnip Soup, Spiced Sweet Potato Soup and Beetroot and Coconut Soup.

Soups are not just for the colder months.  I also have some soups which are lighter and can be eaten cold in the summer.  Why not try my Leek and Potato Soup or my Asparagus and Pea Soup?    Or maybe my Nettle Soup which uses foraged ingredients?

Soup

Curried Parsnip Soup

  • Curried Parsnip Soup
  • Curried Parsnip Soup
  • Curried Parsnip Soup
  • Curried Parsnip Soup

Curried Parsnip Soup with Apple

This vegetarian Curried Parsnip Soup with Apple may be the perfect winter soup. The sweetness of the apple boosts the flavour of the parsnips. The gentle spice from the curry powder adds interest to the soup and enhances its warming qualities. Perfect for a cold winter’s day!

This soup is based on an old curry sauce recipe that I inherited from my mother. The recipe is a 1970s version of curry sauce – nothing fancy or sophisticated – and is very simple with medium curry powder, onion, apple and garlic being the primary ingredients. I use the sauce recipe for making my traditional Boxing Day turkey curry and, while I was doing that this year, I wondered whether it could be adapted to make a soup.

Parsnips love a bit of curry flavouring so I decided to use them as the main ingredient. I also added a potato to tone down the parsnip flavour just a bit and to thicken up the soup. I think the flavour is just right – not too parsnippy and not too spicy. My initial taste trials, so far limited to my teenage children, have been very positive. In fact, this soup has been described as “banging” which clearly is an accolade to which I aspire in all my recipes.

Curried Parsnip Soup

Super soup – the perfect weekday lunch

As with all vegetable soups, this recipe can be made in advance and re-heated when required. It can also be frozen and defrosted when needed. I generally make a big batch of soup and then freeze it in individual portions. I can then defrost a portion for my lunch or for my children’s lunchboxes. This works well as long as you make sure that the labels on the portions are legible. I have notoriously bad handwriting – my excuse being that I spend most of my time using a keyboard – and sometimes even I cannot read what I have written. This means that I may sometimes be expecting parsnip soup for my lunch but end up with potato and leek as they are a similar colour!

For me, home-made soup is the perfect lunch as it can be made in advance, is tasty and healthy and is just that bit more fortifying than a sandwich. It also fills you up – there is a lot of fibre in those veggies – so it reduces those mid-afternoon snack cravings. My working life is split between home-working and office working. If it is a day when I am office-based, I heat the soup before I leave for work and take it with me in a thermos. All I need is a roll or a slice of bread – and maybe a bit of fruit for afters – and that is lunch sorted.

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Other home-made soup recipes

I have lots of easy, vegetable soup recipes. If you like this Curried Parsnip Soup, you might like some of the others. All my soups are vegetarian and all can be made vegan by substituting animal fats, such as butter, for vegetable fats. Some of them are pretty simple such as Fennel Soup and showcase a single vegetable. Others combine vegetables which have complimentary flavours such as Celeriac and Apple Soup, Mushroom and Chestnut Soup, Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup or Leek and Potato Soup. A few have more unusual combinations of flavours such as Beetroot Soup with Coconut or Butternut and Peanut Butter Soup. I also have a few chilled soup recipes, which are fantastic cold in the summer, but can also be served warm such as Asparagus and Pea and Tomato.

Curried Parsnip Soup

Curried Parsnip Soup with Apple

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Curried Parsnip Soup

Curried Parsnip Soup

★★★★★ 5 from 5 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 17
  • Total Time: 32 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: English
Print Recipe

Description

This Curried Parsnip Soup is mildly spicy and sweetened with apple.  Healthy, easy to make, warming and delicious, it is the perfect winter soup.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
  • 1 large onion
  • 3 parsnips
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 sweet eating apple
  • 1 large potato
  • 2 teaspoons of medium curry powder
  • 500 ml vegetable stock
  • Plain vegan yogurt and turmeric (optional)

Curried Parsnip Soup

Instructions

  1. Peel and roughly chop the onions.
  2. Peel and roughly chop the parsnips.
  3. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and add the chopped vegetables.  Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Cook gently over a low heat for around 15 minutes until the vegetables are starting to caramelise. 
  5. Crush the garlic clove.  Peel, core and roughly chop the apple.  Peel and roughly chop the potato.  Add the garlic, apple and potato to the pan.
  6. Stir in the curry powder and cook for two minutes.
  7. Add the vegetable stock to the pan and bring to simmering point.   Cook gently for 15 minutes.
  8. Blend the soup in a food processor or by using a hand blender.
  9. The soup will be quite thick.  You can add a little additional water to thin it to your desired consistency.
  10. When you are ready to serve the soup, reheat it gently and pour into individual bowls.  If you wish, you can decorate each bowl with a swirl of plain vegan yogurt and a sprinkle of ground turmeric.

Curried Parsnip Soup

Notes

This soup is vegan.  If you are not a vegan, you can substitute butter for the vegetable oil and use non-vegan yogurt.

Keywords: parsnip, apple, curried, soup, vegetarian

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare with Peachick Bakery and #FiestaFriday with Fiesta Friday and Diann of Goats and Greens

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

Sweetcorn and Pumpkin Soup

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

Fennel Soup - vegan or vegetarian

Fennel Soup

Easy Pumpkin Soup

  • Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup
  • Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup
  • Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup
  • Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

Easy Pumpkin Soup with Sweetcorn and Thyme

This Easy Pumpkin Soup brings together the natural sweetness of pumpkins, squash or sweet potatoes with sweetcorn. I have flavoured it with fresh thyme, which combines well with all the main ingredients, and have resisted the urge to add chilli. When I first made it, I thought that maybe it would be too sweet and might a bit of chilli heat. However, I tasted it before I added any chilli and decided that it was pretty good as it was. It has a thick, rich sweetness – a culinary equivalent of being wrapped in a warm blanked – which I think is perfect in autumn when the days are getting colder.

Choose your squash!

This soup can be made either with pumpkins, when they are in season, but is just as good using other squashes (such as butternut squash) or with sweet potatoes. What you need is a main ingredient that has a natural, starchy sweetness which is enhanced by slow cooking. As you will see from the recipe, I also add a regular potato to the soup. I tend to do this with most of my soups as it adds a natural thickness and body to the soup.

How to separate corn kernels from the cob – a guide for the terrified..

I also use fresh sweetcorn in this soup. The first time I came across a recipe that involved taking the kernels off the corn cob I thought it would be hard to do. However, it is really straightforward if you stick to the following process. 1) Get a sharp knife 2) Cut off the thicker end of the cob so that you have a flat base 3) Stand the cob vertically on its flat base and cut downwards with your knife to separate the kernels from the cob 4) Work around the cob until all the kernels have been removed.

The wonderful world of home-made soups..

I think making soup is an absolute no-brainer. Not only is it tastier than anything you can buy in a store, you also know exactly what goes into it and can adjust it to suit your own tastes. Making soup is also really easy and you can make it in advance and keep in the fridge or freeze it. If you like this Easy Pumpkin Soup recipe, you might like some of my other soup recipes such as Mushroom and Chestnut Soup, Fennel Soup, Celeriac and Apple Soup, Beetroot Soup with Coconut or Butternut Squash and Peanut Butter Soup. All are vegetarian and most can easily be made vegan by swapping out butter for vegetable fat.

Easy Pumpkin Soup with Sweetcorn and Thyme

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Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

Easy Pumpkin Soup with Sweetcorn and Thyme

★★★★★ 5 from 3 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 2 pints of soup 1x
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: English
Print Recipe

Description

This Pumpkin Soup with Sweetcorn and Thyme is thick, savoury and warming – the culinary equivalent of a hug!

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 onions
  • 1 small pumpkin or squash or 4 sweet potatoes
  • 1 large potato
  • 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
  • 2 sweetcorn cobs
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
  • 1 teaspoon of paprika
  • 2 pints of vegetable stock
  • 1 large sprig of fresh thyme
  • Salt and pepper

Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

Instructions

  1. Peel and roughly chop the onions.
  2. Peel and roughly chop the pumpkin, squash or sweet potatoes.
  3. Peel and roughly chop the potato.
  4. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan and add the chopped vegetables.   Cook gently over a low heat for around 10 minutes until the vegetables are starting to caramelise.
  5. Using a sharp knife, remove the corn kernels from the cobs.  
  6. Add the corn kernels and the crushed garlic cloves to the pan together with the paprika.
  7. Add the vegetable stock to the pan and bring to simmering point.   Cook gently for 20 minutes.
  8. Separate the fresh thyme leaves from their stalk and add them to the soup.
  9. Blend the soup in a food processor or by using a hand blender.
  10. Season with salt and pepper.

Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

Keywords: pumpkin, sweetcorn, soup

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare at Lost in Food and on #Fiesta Friday at Fiesta Friday

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

Fennel Soup - vegan or vegetarian

Fennel Soup

celeriac and apple soup

Celeriac and Apple Soup

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

  • Mushroom and Chestnut Soup
  • Mushroom and Chestnut Soup
  • Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

Creamy and flavourful Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

This Mushroom and Chestnut Soup is just the ticket on those cold, grey January days when you need a bowl of warming comfort food. It uses a combination of fresh and dried mushrooms which gives it an added depth of flavour. These are combined with sweet chestnuts which are a great flavour partner for mushrooms and also thicken the soup and give it a creamy texture – with no added cream!

You can use any kind of fresh mushrooms for this soup. I generally use a combination of the big, flat capped-mushrooms which have a strong flavour and smaller button mushrooms. The addition of the dried mushrooms, which are one of my favourite ingredients, is what really makes this soup special. They add a deep, savoury umami  flavour which underpins that of the fresh mushrooms. Dried mushrooms are available in lots of supermarkets. I get mine from Tesco, which does great own-brand dried Porcini mushrooms but all major supermarkets have equivalent products and Merchant Gourmet also produces dried mixed mushrooms. You don’t need to add very many dried mushrooms to a dish – think of them as a condiment or flavouring – but they will have a major impact on the taste.

Ready-prepared sweet chestnuts can be found in most supermarkets. Merchant Gourmet produces a range of chestnut-products, including chestnut puree and whole chestnuts. There is no need to roast your own! Although traditionally associated with Christmas, I use sweet chestnuts throughout the autumn and winter, often combined with mushrooms, in soups, pies and sauces.

This soup resulted from me trying to find ways to use the flavour combination in my Mushroom and Chestnut Pies. I also developed a Creamy Mushroom Pasta sauce using the same ingredients which I use all the time, and is very popular with my children.

Here at Tastebotanical we have lots of other recipes for tasty, warming winter soups. What about Beetroot and Coconut Soup? Or Butternut Squash with Peanut Butter or Easy Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup? There is tasty Fennel Soup, with its subtle aniseed flavour, and classic Leek and Potato Soup. Vegetable soups are very easy to make and are a fantastic way to increase the amount of fresh vegetables that you eat each day. They are packed with fibre, nutrients and, of course, taste!

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Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup

★★★★★ 5 from 4 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6 people 1x
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

This comforting winter soup has a fantastic, deep mushroom taste due to the addition of dried mushrooms, and creamy texture from the addition of chestnuts.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
  • 2 onions
  • 3 sticks of celery
  • 10 g dried mushrooms
  • Half a teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme)
  • 500 g fresh mushrooms (any kind)
  • 2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
  • 500 ml vegetable stock
  • 180 g of whole, roasted chestnuts (such as Merchant Gourmet)
  • Approximately 500 ml milk (or nut milk)
  • 25 g butter (or vegan alternative)  and 1 tablespoon of plain flour (optional)

Instructions

  1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan 
  2. Peel and chop the onion and slice the celery sticks finely.  Add to the pan together with the dried mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.  If you are using dried thyme, add it at this stage.
  3. Cook very gently for around 15 minutes until the vegetables are soft and sweet. Slow cooking caramelises the natural sugars in the vegetables and greatly improves the flavour of the soup.
  4. Chop the fresh mushrooms and add to the pan together with the crushed garlic cloves. Cook for a further ten minutes. 
  5. Add the vegetable stock to the pan and bring to the boil.
  6. As soon as the soup has boiled, take the pan off the heat and add the chestnuts.
  7. Allow the soup to cool slightly and then blend until smooth using a food processor or hand-held blender.
  8. Add the milk (or nut milk) to thin the soup to your desired consistency.   If using fresh thyme, add it at this stage.   Gently re-heat the soup.
  9. If you wish, you can make a beurre manie  which will thicken the soup and give it a creamier, silkier texture.  To do this, you should mix a little plain flour with some softened butter to make a paste and add it to the soup and heat gently until it thickens.

Keywords: mushroom, chestnut, soup

This recipe has been shared on #CookBlogShare at Every Day Healthy Recipes

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipes. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

Vegetarian Mushroom and Chestnut Pies

Mushroom and Chestnut Pies

Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

Pumpkin and Sweetcorn Soup

Celeriac and Apple Soup

Fennel Soup - vegetarian or vegan

Fennel Soup

Celeriac and Apple Soup

Celeriac and Apple Soup – A tasty, warming vegan soup for a cold winter’s day

This Celeriac and Apple Soup is an easy vegan soup recipe that makes a fantastic lunch or supper on a cold winter’s day. It is easy to make and features the classic celery and apple flavour combination. Think Waldorf Salad but warm and comforting!

Celeriac is not the most popular of root vegetables. Its gnarly exterior, which seems perfectly designed to trap soil puts a lot of people off as it seems hard to prepare. Actually, you just need a confident attitude and a good vegetable peeler. Remove the outer skin, together with all the lumpy, gnarly bits, and you are left with a creamy globe of deliciousness that can be used in a whole range of ways in addition to Celeriac and Apple Soup. It is traditionally used in the classic French salad, Celeriac Remoulade, where it is thinly sliced and mixed in a mustard-flavoured dressing. It can also be boiled and mashed or roasted as a side-dish.

Here at tastebotanical we have lots of other recipes for tasty, warming winter soups. What about Beetroot and Coconut Soup? Or Butternut Squash with Peanut Butter? There is tasty Fennel Soup, with its subtle aniseed flavour, and classic Leek and Potato Soup. Vegetable soups are very easy to make and are a fantastic way to increase the amount of fresh vegetables that you eat each day. They are packed with fibre, nutrients and, of course, taste!

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celeriac and apple soup

Celeriac and Apple Soup

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 35
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: British
Print Recipe

Description

This easy, warming vegan winter soup combines the classic flavours of celeriac and apple.

Ingredients

  • 1 celeriac
  • 1 onion
  • 2 medium-sized potatoes
  • 1 tablespoon of oil
  • 1 clove of garlic (crushed)
  • 500 ml vegetable stock 
  • 1 eating apple
  • Optional garnish:  1 eating apple

Instructions

  1. Peel the celeriac using a vegetable peeler to remove the rough outer skin.   Cut it into 1 cm chunks.
  2.  Peel and slice the  onion.
  3. Heat the oil in your saucepan.  Add the celeriac chunks and sliced onions, season them with salt and pepper,  and very gently fry them for around 20 minutes until they are soft and sweet.   It is really important to  add seasoning at this point and to cook gently to bring out the flavour of the vegetables – it will make a huge difference to the taste of your soup.
  4. Next, peel and chop the potatoes and add them to the saucepan with the celeriac and onions.  Cook gently for a few minutes. 
  5. Then, peel the apple, remove the core and chop into rough chunks.  Add the chunks to the vegetables together with the crushed clove of garlic.
  6. Add the stock to your saucepan and simmer the vegetables gently for about 15 minutes.
  7.  Turn off the heat and allow the soup to cool slightly before blending.

  8. If you wish, you can make a dried apple garnish for the soup.   Slice an eating apple thinly vertically (so the slices are “apple shaped”).  Place on a non-stick baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 200 C/Gas Mark 6 for 30 minutes.  Remove slices and use to decorate the soup.  The apple-shaped slices look good on top of the soup and will also have a concentrated apple flavour which will enhance the taste.

 

Notes

This soup is vegan.

Keywords: soup, vegetarian, vegan, celeriac

Loved this recipe?  You may also like

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup with Peanut Butter

Vegan Butternut Squash Soup

Vegan Beetroot Soup with Coconut

Vegan Beetroot Soup with Coconut

Fennel Soup - vegan or vegetarian

Fennel Soup

Cold tomato soup

Tomato Soup

Asparagus Soup

Asparagus and Pea Soup with  Chervil

Leek potato chive

Leek and Potato Soup

Fennel Soup

Fennel Soup - vegan or vegetarian
Slow-cooked Fennel Soup

Fennel Soup

This Fennel Soup can be made in either vegetarian or vegan variations.   The aniseed flavour of the fennel is mellowed by slow cooking and this gives the finished soup a sophisticated taste which belies the simplicity of the ingredients.    This means that, although it is really easy to make, this soup would not be out of place as a starter at a dinner party, particularly if you include the additions of cream, Pernod and decorate it with chopped dill or herb  fennel.

When I first started cooking for myself, around twenty years ago, I loved to experiment with complicated recipes that included lots of different ingredients.  However, over the years, my recipes have generally become simpler.   Now I like to focus on one main ingredient and cook it in a way that brings out its particular unique flavour.   This Fennel Soup recipe is a really good example of this approach.   It is all about the taste of the fennel and how it can be transformed by slow cooking into something really special.

Not everyone likes aniseed.   Actually, I am not that keen on aniseed!  I do not eat aniseed flavoured sweets and actively dislike Pernod as a drink option.   However, I love fennel, particularly when it has been slow cooked, as the aniseed taste is transformed into something special.   And the addition of Pernod to the soup gives a aniseed boost without being overpowering.

Fennel Soup - vegan or vegetarian
A bowl of Fennel Soup

Fennel Soup

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Fennel Soup - vegetarian or vegan

Fennel Soup

★★★★★ 5 from 2 reviews
  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: for 6 people 1x
  • Category: Soup
  • Cuisine: English
Print Recipe

Description

This is a really easy recipe that showcases the fantastic flavour of fennel.   Slow cooking the fennel mellows its aniseed flavour and produces a sophisticated soup that is at home as a dinner party starter as well as an informal lunch.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 25 g butter or 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 fennel bulbs
  • 1 onion
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1 large potato
  • 500 ml water
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable bouillon powder or a vegetable stockcube
  • Milk or water as required to thin the soup
  • 1 tablespoon Pernod (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon double cream (optional)
  • A few sprigs of fresh dill or herb fennel (optional)

Instructions

  1. Heat the butter or oil in a large saucepan
  2. Roughly chop the fennel bulbs and the onion and add to the saucepan. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and fry them very gently for around 15 minutes until they are soft and sweet.
  3. Peel and chop the potato and add to the pan with the fennel and onion.
  4. Add 500 ml of water and a teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder. Simmer for 15 minutes.
  5. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Blend the soup until smoothe in a food processor or with a hand-held blender.
  6. Add milk or water – or a combination – to thin the soup to the desired consistency. You will need around 500 ml depending on how thick you want your soup.
  7. If you wish, you can add Pernod and cream to the soup before serving and decorate the surface of each bowl with chopped dill or herb fennel.

Notes

  • This recipe can be either vegetarian or vegan.  If you wish to make a vegan version, use oil to cook the vegetables, water to thin the soup and omit the double cream (or use a non-dairy alternative).

Love this recipe?  You may like

Asparagus and Pea Soup with Chervil

Leek and Potato Soup with Fresh Chives

Cold Tomato Soup