I always roast a chicken on Sunday. Partly for three meals each for me and the cat, but also for the stock from the picked carcass which is usually enough to make six portions of soup. Every bit of the chicken that isn't eaten goes into a pan (break it down into smallest bits possible, even the main bit) with chopped carrots, onion, celery, garlic (I leave the skin on so the flavour doesn't dominate), some black peppercorns, a couple of chicken stock cubes, and two fresh bay leaves. Bring it to the boil and simmer for 1h 30m to 2h. Sieve the juice off and press down the solids with a wooden spoon to be sure you have all the juice out. I try to split it evenly into two jugs so I can make two different soups. The stock itself will freeze for later soupmaking, or it is good for three days under clingfilm in the fridge. Because the broth is so good, very often it's not necessary to fry onions and garlic as part of the soupmaking process. The stock gives sous such a good depth of flavour.
The easiest ones are root veg and squashes. Peel and chop the veg - my faves at the moment are celeriac or (edit: not together) red kabocha squash (orange with whiteish vertical lines) but all squashes soup well as do parsnips, carrot and turnip, beetroot, etc. Cook the chopped stuff directly in the stock (be sure not to remove any fat that settled to the top, this is flavour central and we'll emulsify it in later). I like to add a teaspoon of Swiss Vegan Bouillon Powder and some black pepper. When you stick a fork in and they are soft, get your stick or trad liquidizer and blitz until most of the veg is smushed. Add a generous knob of butter and blitz on high for another minute (this helps the stock fat to be incorporated too). Taste, adjust seasoning if required, then divvy up into three tupperwares, cool and freeze. If you start to get bored of the same soups, you can add smoked paprika, ginger, any curry spices or chilli to give it a twist.
Leek and potato is the same but without blitzing. I use white pepper instead of black. And I stir in lots of fresh parsley after it has cooled before it is frozzed. You can also use pulses like yellow split peas or red lentils, all the flavourings above apply here. Ham and marrowfat dried peas is great with chicken stock. It's a bit faffy cos you have to soak them with bicarb overnight. Worth it, though. Some veg don't blend in very well (cauliflower - which I'm currently trying to perfect) so I add in some peeled potato to 'carry' the less blendable veg. Cut the potatoes really small so they cook as quickly as the cauli. Blitz a bit longer. If in doubt, use more butter
Another soup that uses potato unexpectedly is tomato. Instead of cream, I use potato to thicken. Get a bunch of basil and pick the leaves off the stems. Chop the stems but leave the, err, leaves. Add lots of chopped fresh toms (seeds, skin, and all - different varieties if possible), black pepper, basil stems, salt, and some peeled spuds to the chicken stock and simmer for forty or more mins after the spuds are cooked with lots of stirring and squishing to get the flavour out of the toms. If the toms were on the vine, chuck the vine and green attachy top bits in for flavour. Sieve the soup and press the solids again so we don't waste any and some potato gets through to thicken. If too thin, add some tom puree, add more potato back in from the sieve and reduce over heat. Decant into tupperware, let it cool, stir in the freshly chopped basil leaves at the last minute and freeze.
I did mushroom for the first time this week, I'm still perfecting it. It tasted great but the texture wouldn't be to everyone's taste. I boiled the stock and let some dried mixed mushrooms stand in it (covered) for twenty mins. Meantime I chopped lots of button and chestnut mushrooms quite small, had two or three tablespoons of water in a pan, added the mushromms, put a lid on and cooked slowly on medium low heat. The steam collapses the mushroom pieces and they release their juice. I also fried a few of each type in butter, then added some fresh thyme. I then added the steamed mushroids and the juice. I separated the rehydrated ones from the stock (press out juice!!!) and added the stock to the rest. Then I chopped the rehydrated ones and added them. Blitz quite hard (rehydrated ones can be tough), add lots of creme fraiche (I used light) and blitz again. Cool, add parsley at last minute and freeze.
I want to try a minestrone, nettles (!!!), and sweetcorn (which has to go with chicken). Bake your own wholemeal or granary bread buns (which also freeze) to make a tasty and nutritious lunch.
TLDR: soup
