There are many reasons why you’d want to make your soup at home. It’s not just easier, it also tastes better and is healthier than canned soup.
Compared to that, ready-made soup (canned) is often disappointing. It has high sodium levels, bland taste, and isn’t really a healthy option.
Plus you can control the ingredients based on your taste and family’s preferences. You also control calories and sodium, which could otherwise mess up any diet plan you follow.
You can make a big batch of soup and store it easily, either in the fridge for quick use or freeze it for long-term use.
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First: start with the broth
Broth is the base for your other ingredients. There are many common broths like chicken, beef, and vegetable. Homemade broth tastes best and isn’t hard to make. Just add ingredients to a pot of water and cook. Then strain out the solids and use the broth as your soup base. You can also keep it in the fridge or freeze it to use later.
Ready-made broth (canned) is an option, but it might not taste as good as homemade and usually has a lot of sodium.
If you're following a soup recipe it tells you how much broth to use, but if you're not you can start with 6 to 8 cups of broth in a big pot and let it cook with the extras. You can add more broth later too.
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Second:- Healthy ingredients
A good balanced soup has a lean protein source, lots of colorful veggies, sometimes carbs, plus vitamins and minerals.
You can add beans for a good fiber boost. With some basic healthy stuff like veggies, leftover meat bits from your meal, or some grains and homemade or canned broth, you can make a tasty soup even without a recipe.
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Third:- Preparing the protein
The goal is to cut all ingredients into bite-size pieces so they're easy to eat. Some should be prepped ahead. There's a bit of prep work but it's worth it.
For the protein prep, cut meat into small pieces and brown it in a pan with olive oil before adding to the soup. This gets rid of some extra fat and makes your soup leaner. You can use seafood like oysters or any other kind you like. You might not need much protein since you want to leave room for veggies.
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Fourth:- Adding the vegetables
Pick your favorite veggies or whatever's in season and chop them up small to add to the soup. There's endless options like carrot, cabbage, celery, broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, tomatoes. For aromatic veggies like onion, garlic, celery, and carrot, it's better to lightly sauté them in olive oil first. That’ll make your soup tastier. When adding multiple veggies, think about how long each takes to cook. For example, if you add carrots and peas, add the peas later since they cook faster.
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Fifth: Add starches
You can prepare starchy potatoes just like other veggies. Red potatoes are better than white because they're thicker. If you use white potatoes, be careful so they don’t fall apart in the soup. You can also pick barley, pasta, and rice as starch sources but watch the amounts because they expand when cooked.
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Sixth: Add spices
Your soup might taste a bit bland at first, but adding your favorite spices usually makes it better. You can cook the soup fully then add spices at the end.
