How To Make Soup from Almost Any Vegetable

Soup - it's the easiest way to warm up your kitchen on a cold day, and to feed yourself and your family in one delicious and healthy bowl. We realized this weekend that some of our favorite vegan and vegetarian soup recipes tend to follow a pattern that can be easily adapted for any vegetable.

Here's what you need: vegetables, butter or olive oil, salt and pepper, and some stock and wine. That's it. Read on for a method to make easy soup out of almost anything.

1. Nearly any vegetable will do - sweet potato, zucchini, squash, turnip, tomato, celery, mushrooms, onions, or leeks. Cut about a pound of vegetables into a medium dice - about an inch across - or smaller if you're using a dense vegetable, like potato.

2. Sauté the vegetables in a little olive oil or butter, keeping the heat to low and letting the veggie really cook and develop flavor. When not using an aromatic vegetable like leeks, we like to add some onion or garlic as well to develop the flavor.

3. After the vegetables have softened and developed some fragrance and flavor, add about 4 cups of stock and a little wine, cover and simmer. (Even water will do, in a pinch!)

4. Simmer for about an hour or until all the vegetables are soft. Puree the soup in a blender or with an immersion blender. Voilà! You have creamy, easy vegetable soup.

More ideas: Dump in that last handful of pasta you need to use up. Add a few crumbles of ground turkey or beef. Lay cooked strips of chicken breast on top of each bowl. You can also add a little bacon for flavor near the beginning, or you can leave the chunks of vegetables whole. Put in a cup of rice and simmer until done. Use up whatever you have around, but remember that you can still make a very good soup with just a pound or two of leftover vegetables.

(Image: Flickr member uncleboatshoes licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Edited from post originally published on November 12, 2007

Comments (15)

i really super duper love cooking soup. the process of making it is so simple, but so satisfying. and i like standing near the pot with a glass of wine and stirring. it's a nice cheap version of therapy. :)

I smile every time I think about making soup, or hearing about someone else stirring soup on the stove. It's just about the easiest, most nourishing, comfortable food on earth. If you're needing protein, toss in some miso (but don't let it boil), cheese, tofu, or bacon. Enjoy!

If you do this with just tomatoes, it will be tomato soup? Sorry if that seems like a silly question, I've just been thinking about trying to make my own tomato soup recently but I am NOT much of a cook. If it's really this easy then I just may try it this weekend!

great recipe. Toss in a diced potato if your main veg is not starchy-- it'll make the soup velvety-smooth and rich.

@ bluestar:

I would NOT try this with fresh tomatoes. You'll need to get rid of the peel and the seeds first, and that's a pain. Instead, try it with a big can of peeled, whole san marzano tomoatoes. Toss a rosemary stick in the oil along with garlic. Add the tomatoes. The stock. Then, add half a can of chickpeas. after it cooks down a bit, blend it up. (the chickpeas give it a creamy consistency).

We make a HUGE pot of vegetable soup when one of us is sick. It's so easy and there are always leftovers to freeze. Here's how we do it:
1. Chop up whatever veggies we can get our hands on (carrots, potatoes, onions, zucchini, celery etc.)
2. Sauté carrots potatoes and onions with a little bit of butter and garlic.
3. Throw the veggies in a big pot. Add vegetable or chicken stock, a cup of wine, cans of mixed beans (with juice), kidney beans, chickpeas, diced tomatoes, more garlic, salt, and some whole peppercorns for flavour.
4. Cover and cook on the stove for about an hour until all the veggies are soft (stirring occasionally)
3. Serve with some parmesan cheese on top and some nice crusty bread (for soaking up the juice).

Freeze the remaining leftovers for homemade soup anytime! I like to stick the leftovers in a blender for a few seconds before serving for a thick blendy soup.

There's virtually no fat in this recipe and loads of vegetably goodness.

Basic, but good and handy to know. Thanks.

i like to saute some onions, garlic, and bacon or pancetta, then mix with a can of tomatoes, a can of white beans, and a bag of baby spinach. some chicken stock and a little wine, a little salt and pepper, and it's good to go.

Why puree and make the lovely chunky soup baby food?

Also good enhancers: a little vinegar, hot sauce, soy sauce, worcestershire, sprouts, fresh herbs, beans, salsa - just probably not at once!

make your own croutons when you have leftover bread and herbs... save them in a tupperware and use them in your soup. delish!

I'm not a fan of soups with a million different vegetables, but I love a simple one or two veg soup with the aromatics of sauteed onion,garlic,and finely chopped celery, with a water base rather than broth, not cooked too long. This is one of my standard items to make on a weeknight, including in the summer. It's nice to finish with a squeeze of lemon juice.

@Bluestar

I actually just made about 4 quarts of tomato soup earlier tonight. Its actually really easy but you need to have canned tomatoes. I buy mine out of the 'italian food' section of my local Meijer, just get the biggest you can find.

A lot of people don't realize that you can add a lot of other vegetables to your tomato soup to spruce it up- as long as you're blending it after its done cooking. That way the texture is still nice and creamy. I like adding carrots because it gives it a nice orange tint.

Here's the recipe if you want it: http://communalcooking.blogspot.com/2010/05/tomato-soup.html

You can make homemade tomato soup with fresh tomatoes. It's just a bit more labor intensive as you need to peel and seed them. I took my heirloom tomatoes from my garden, quartered and seeded them, then tossed them in my oiled grill pan to sear the outsides and get them charred. Toss them in a non-reactive bowl and cover tightly till cool. The skins peel RIGHT off. When they were thrown into my crockpot and cooked on low all day, I had a lovely, chunky, tomato base. I ended up using it for chili, but it could just as easily have become soup or pasta sauce. Great way to use up tomatoes when your garden runs wild.

This is a great 'recipe'! I threw in some ginger to cook with the veggies. I set some veggies aside before I blended and then tossed them back in with some leftover egg noodles and cooked barley. Then I took a hint from Jaques Pepin and put a swirl of olive oil on top of each bowl when serving.

I figured this out when I wanted some mushroom soup years ago. I started out with mushrooms, sliced, sauteed in butter and seasoned with lemon juice. I added more liquid, thickened it and voila! Soup. I loved the idea that I could make soup out of anything!
Yum!
Jan