It is easy to make great soup!
Are you looking to concoct a delicious soup in minutes, one that will nourish you and your loved ones and bring compliments from everyone that samples it? Broth Soup shows you how!
Homemade broth is the key
The first thing you should know is that the very best soup starts with a single magic ingredient that is surprisingly easy to prepare: homemade broth, also called stock. Once you make your first pot of broth, it becomes easy to continue making it, and the flavor it adds to food is unsurpassed! It can even be made in a crock pot, especially if you have to be away from home during the day. Go here to read the simple steps involved in making your own soup broth.
Once the stock is ready, it is hard to go wrong with the rest of it. Choose vegetables that you like, experiment with different combinations and spices as well as the classics like potato soup and chicken soup, and you can open up an entire world of flavor.
How to choose soup ingredients
1. The flavor of almost any soup is improved by using one or more of the following: onions, garlic, or leeks. That flavor is further enhanced when you saute one of these in butter or another healthy fat before adding the other ingredients.
2. If you hate Brussels sprouts or asparagus, by all means, don’t include them in your soup! Choose what you know you like.
3. Use homemade broth for the best results. Prepared bouillon bought at the store may have toxic ingredients, most notably MSG, which is a neurotoxin.
4. Don’t forget to add enough salt! Potato soup requires more salt than most other kinds, and it will taste very bland without it. Sea salt is a great choice for soup; you can even cut down the cost significantly by purchasing the large granules of Celtic Sea Salt
Homemade soup with broth is healthy soup
It has perhaps become a cliche by now, but chicken soup made with real homemade broth has been called “Jewish penicillin.” (Don’t forget the chicken feet!) I have been able to either prevent or shorten the duration of colds in my family by serving steaming mugs of soup as soon as symptoms show up. I once did battle with an oncoming cold for a whole day: the awful symptoms came on, I drank soup, the symptoms receded. Then a couple hours later, the symptoms returned, so I drank more soup. They went away again. This cycle repeated several times, and by the end of the day, I had won! The gelatin in broth soothes the lining of a person’s small intestine, which supports the immune system directly, as most of the immune system is located right there in the gut. This same gelatin also assists digestion, which makes regular soup consumption a must for those with significant digestive troubles or food allergies. (The hugely successful GAPS diet is based on such soups and I can attest to the fact that this way of eating heals many allergies.)
Those who are allergic to dairy and worry about calcium intake, such as our family, will find comfort in the fact that properly made broth contains minerals in a very absorbable form, especially if vinegar is added during cooking to draw the minerals out of the animal bones.
What if your kids won’t eat soup?
Just blend it! A stick blender is an inexpensive yet very handy kitchen item. My boys used to have texture issues; they would flat out refuse to eat soups that had “slimy pieces” in them. Once I started blending our soups, they would down a bowl as fast as they could and beg for more. The blending made all the difference.
Broth soup recipes
On the right, you can find recipes for some of our best soups.
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