7-Veg Soup (Instant Pot + Stovetop Versions)
Soup weather has set in with a vengeance here. Is it the same for you? When lunch rolls round, there is only one thing I feel like eating most days. Leftovers do me well, sandwiches are still ok occasionally (ideally toasted), but some days, only soup will do.
At this time of year, I like to make big batches of soup at the weekend for the week ahead, and regularly make veg, chicken or beef stock to keep in my fridge and freezer for speedy soups made from wilted or leftover vegetables that I don’t get to as quickly as I’d like.
I believe homemade soup is one of the most nourishing, simple and affordable changes you can make in your diet to make a big impact. It tastes far better than the shop-bought stuff, is infinitely adaptable, and can use up all the bits of veg that might otherwise end up in the bin, saving you from excessive food waste.
The basic recipe is incredibly simple: veg + stock. You can add herbs, spices, miso paste and other flavourings; you can add meat or legumes if you want to; you can thicken it with potatoes or keep it unblended and use some wholewheat or spelt pasta or other wholegrains for a little comforting starch. You can adapt it to suit what you have on hand so easily, soup is very forgiving.
The one thing I always make sure I use for a truly nourishing soup is homemade stock. The cubes you buy in the supermarket are high in salt and sometimes even sugar, and nearly always contain questionable preservatives and additives. Honestly, if I haven’t had the ingredients or time to make stock (rare given how easy it is), I would rather just use water and add some herbs and spices for flavour than use stock cubes.
At home, I just hold back some carrot or leek ends, a peeled onion, and chop off the base of a bunch of celery and chuck them in a pot with enough water to cover, fennel seeds, a bay leaf, a few peppercorns and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Most of the time I add the leftover bones we have from an on-the-bone chicken dinner, or the carcass leftover from a meat roast. Sometimes I will go to the butchers and ask him for beef marrow bones for stock, which he sells for £1. Then I simmer it for 4-6 hours on a low heat, covered, or stick it in the Instant Pot for 2 hours or the slow cooker for 12-24 hours. If you are vegan or vegetarian, Wallflower Kitchen’s gut-healing vegetable broth is the closest stock nutritionally to bone broth I’ve found.
And, in a (slightly more expensive) pinch, in many shops these days you can buy ready-to-use good-quality stocks in chilled aisles (just check the ingredients before buying).
Once you have a great, nutritious and delicious stock, then all you have to do is soften some veg and pour it over the top, simmer for a while until everything is soft, then blitz (if you want to) until smooth and enjoy a warming bowl – or mug – of goodness. Bliss.
You can adapt any soup recipe to use whatever veg you have on hand, but I love the blend in this one. It came about from having to use up lots of veg in my fridge one day (as many of the best soups do, in my opinion). It’s creamy, smooth, sweet and packed with flavour as well as nutrition. Keep it plant-based by using veg stock or ramp up the nutrition a little further and use some good old-fashioned bone broth to keep the winter flus and colds at bay. Either way, it’ll be yummy. 🙂
A delicious and nutritious soup that will keep the winter bugs at bay and still taste yummy. Super simple and easy to adapt. Instant Pot and stovetop instructions. Vegan, gluten and sugar free.
- 2 carrots*, finely diced
- 1 courgette (zucchini), finely diced
- 1 onion, red or white, finely diced
- 1/2 head of cauliflower, roughly chopped
- 1 large sweet potato, finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 150 g (1 cup) frozen peas
- several handfuls of fresh spinach, chard or kale, roughly chopped
- enough stock (veg or bone broth) to cover (about 3-4 cups/750ml-1l)**
- 1 tablespoon garam masala or mild curry powder***
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Bung everything in the Instant Pot (making sure that it doesn't go over the MAX line) and put on "Soup" or "Manual"/"Pressure Cook" setting for 20 minutes. Move valve to venting for quick release of pressure, then blitz and serve hot on its own or with some crusty bread and chunks of cheese.
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For the stove top version, soften all the veg except the peas, spinach and garlic in a little olive or coconut oil in a large stock pot or deep pan for about 10 minutes, then add the garlic for 1 minute. Stir through the garam masala then pour over the stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 45 minutes or until all of the veg is soft. Add the peas and spinach and cook for another 2-3 minutes, then take off the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender (or very carefully blend in batches in a food processor or blender - be really carefully with the soup if doing this while it's hot). Serve as above.
* No carrots? Try parsnips or more sweet potato. No onion? Try a leek. No cauliflower? Broccoli will do. No sweet potato? How about some squash or pumpkin? No peas - why not skip them or use some cooked white beans?
**If the soup is too thick at the end of cooking and blitzing, thin with more stock. It's better to start with less stock and add more at the end, but if you find it's too thin at the end of cooking and blitzing, there are ways to thicken it. The simplest is just to return the soup to the stove with 1-2 peeled and chopped white potatoes and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through, then blitzing. It naturally thickens the soup. In a pinch if you are in a hurry, you can always mix 1-2 tablespoons of the soup in a small bowl with 1 tablespoon of arrowroot powder or cornflour (cornstarch), mix to a paste, then return to the pot of soup and simmer until thick.
***Not a curry flavour fan? Try using 1 tablespoon of brown miso paste in its place.
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