How To Make Vegetarian Soup
Thursday, September 8th, 2011Vegetarian soup is a liquid food that is made by boiling vegetables in water and then seasoning and occasionally thickening the liquid that is produced. It is usually served as the first course of a dinner, but it is also often served as a light meal, such as lunch, on its own.
Soup is an easily made, economical and when prepared in the correct manner from fresh, nutritious vegetables, very wholesome food.
Care should be taken to make this food attractive enough to appeal to the appetite, so it ought not to be greasy nor bland in flavour, neither ought it to be served in substantial quantities nor without the correct accompaniment.
A small quantity of well-flavoured, attractively served vegetarian soup cannot fail to find approval when it is served as the first course of the meal. The point of this piece is to acquaint you with the details of cooking appetizing and nourishing vegetarian soup that is both wholesome and healthy.
The three foremost types of soup that can be made from wholly vegetarian (but not necessarily vegan) ingredients are: broths, cream soups (contains dairy produce) and purees. The basis of these three sorts can be a vegetable stock made from either dried or fresh vegetables or both.
BROTHS have as their foundation a clear vegetarian stock. They are occasionally a thin soup, and other times they are made quite thick with vegetables, rice or barley when they are served as a large part of a meal.
CREAM SOUPS are extremely nutritious and there are many varieties. They have for their base a thin cream sauce, and to this are always added vegetables or grains.
PUREES are soups made thick in part or completely by the addition of some foodstuff obtained by boiling an article of food and then straining it to form a pulp.
When vegetables containing starch such as beans, peas, lentils or potatoes are used for this purpose, it is unnecessary to thicken the soup with any additional starch, yet when watery vegetables are used, other thickening is necessary. To be correct, a puree should be nearly as smooth as thick cream and of the same consistency.
When preparing vegetarian soup always use soft water but be careful to proportion the amount of water to that of the vegetables. Somewhat less than two pints of water to a pound of vegetables is a good rule for ordinary soups. Rich soups, meant for company, might have a smaller amount of water.
Here is a puree example recipe for carrot soup:
CARROT SOUP
4 decent-sized carrots, 1 small head of celery, 1 fair-sized onion, 1 turnip, 3 oz. of breadcrumbs, 1-1/2 oz. of butter or margarine, 1 blade of mace, pepper and salt to taste.
Scrape and wash the vegetables; cut them up small; place them in a pan with 3 pints of water, the butter or margarine, breadcrumbs, and mace. Boil until the vegetables are fairly tender; rub everything through a sieve and return the mixture to the saucepan.
Reheat; season with salt and pepper. If it is too thick add water. The soup ought to be as thick as cream; boil and serve with crusty bread.
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