Soup Saves The World, and Money

Every snow cloud has a silver lining. While recent plunging temperatures have cost many businesses millions of lost man hours, there have been some benefits. Car washing, corner shop trade, pizza deliveries and supermarket soup sales are all up.

That last one had me wondering. Why not make your own soup? Cheaper, tastier, eco-friendly, and healthier, especially if you get the ingredients right. Here's the science bit ...

So, how do you make a good, healthy soup? First, you need a good stock. Instead of reaching for that foil wrapped salty cube, try this …

Rather than tossing scraps and odd bits of vegetables left over from cooking, throw them in a large freezer bag and keep the bag in the freezer. Every time you chop fresh herbs, peel an onion, tear up greens for a salad, peel carrots or potatoes, top’n’tail green beans, core a cabbage, decide broccoli stalks or the bottoms of asparagus are too woody, etc, don’t put the bits in the compost, add them to the bag. When it's full, time to make some stock.

Making Stock
Dump the bits of vegetables into a large soup pot. Add cold water, a little more than enough to cover the veg. Put the lid on the pot, and bring to the boil. Turn off the heat, leave the pot in place for an hour (longer if you like). Keeping on the lid means the heat doesn't escape and does the work for you. This passive cooking saves you even more pennies.

Let the mixture cool, then strain the broth. Vegetable stock can be frozen until you're ready.

And when you’re ready, here’s a recipe for Vegetable & Barley Soup. When you combine a grain with a legume you get all the proteins you need, it’s a source of complete protein [you don’t need meat].

Ingredients ...
a splash of olive oil
2 large carrots, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large leek, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
300g frozen peas or green beans (or mix)
basil, oregano, [chopped garlic if you like] to taste
1.5litres vegetable stock
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
100g dried pearl barley (more barley will make the broth thicker).

To Make ...
1. Heat the olive oil in the soup pot on a medium low heat.
2. Add carrot, onion and leek [and garlic]. Add a little salt. Cook until the vegetables are soft.
3. Add basil and oregano. Continue to cook for a few more minutes.
4. Add the remaining ingredients except frozen peas and/or beans, bring the soup to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and cover. Cook for at least an hour to allow the barley to expand and become soft.
6. Add the frozen peas and/or beans about 10 minutes before serving [to avoid them going getting mushy].

Adding other vegetables will enhance the flavor as well as the nutritional value [e.g. try adding sliced or shredded cabbage 10 minutes before serving].

For more tasty, cheap, healthy, green grub go to MunchLessMeat.co.uk