Gather all your favorite vegetables and create the perfect soup by following these tips
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There is nothing better than a warm bowl of soup on a cold night.
The only thing that makes the soup more satisfying is when it is made from scratch.
Whether it's a cold day and you need some warmth, or you feel a sickness coming on, a homemade bowl of soup will be just what you need.
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If you've never whipped up a soup before, or your past soups haven't come out as well as you'd hoped, these tips will help you make the perfect soups that you'll continue making all chilly season.
Below are beginner tips for making soup, common mistakes that are made and inspiration for soups you can try.
Tomato soup is a great one for beginners to try. (Anjelika Gretskaia/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
- What is the main ingredient when making soup?
- What is the secret to making good soup?
- How should I season my soup?
- What are good soups to make in fall and winter months?
- How can I make my soup creamy?
1. What is the main ingredient when making soup?
The ingredients you pull together for your soup are going to depend on your preferences and the kind of broth you are using.
There are certain meats and vegetables that go better with darker broths like beef or tomato, while others pair better with a lighter broth, like a chicken broth or vegetable stock.
"When you're cooking with a beef broth, I like to personally stick with darker veg to keep that color consistent, like a black bean, or a green bell pepper really enhance that dark flavor and not overpower it with too much sweetness. Even a broccoli in a dark soup would be perfect to pair with that," Donte Regalbuto, seasoned sous chef in Cleveland, told Fox News Digital.
"As for the meat. I would definitely stick with fattier meats, like a beef chuck or even a ribeye, if you have a long time to really simmer it down, get all that fat out of that ribeye. Some lamb would also be fantastic," he also said.
Alternatively, when cooking with a chicken broth or vegetable stock, there are different vegetables and meats to consider.
Different vegetables go best with light broths versus darker ones. (Paolo Picciotto/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
"You want to keep it light because you're using a chicken broth or a vegetable stock. So I would highly recommend a cannellini bean. I think beans go perfectly with a soup especially when the weather starts getting much colder," Regalbuto said.
"Then corn, to add a little bit of texture to that soup. A nice bite. Cauliflower, again, keep that broth light. Keep it colorful."
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He added, "String beans are also another one. A lot of flavor, a lot of texture again. I think sausage would go perfectly in a light broth. It's got that fattiness, and it's not too dark of a meat where it will overpower the whole dish, but it would add a nice saltiness to that soup and a little bit of fattiness as well."
2. What is the secret to making good soup?
While there is no one secret to perfect soup, there are plenty of tips to follow. One is to make sure that you don't have too much, or too little broth.
"Every bite, you should have a nice spoonful of whatever's in the soup, not just the broth," Regalbuto said.
On the flip side, you don't want to have too little broth, or else your soup will quickly take on more qualities of a stew.
For some soups, you'll need to let them simmer for hours before it is ready to eat, but there are ways to cut down your cooking time for certain soups, like tomato.
Every bite of soup should have a perfect amount of broth and fixings included. (Craig Lee/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
"I think the most ideal way to do this would be to grab your favorite vegetables. If you're going to make a tomato soup, for example, you can grab a tomato, some fresh herbs like thyme and rosemary, a little garlic, a little onion, some roasted peppers, throw that all in a pan, a baking sheet. Line the pan with I'd say about a cup of your favorite broth and then roast that in the oven for about 30 to 45 minutes," Regalbuto said.
After blending your ingredients together when it's done, you'll have a soup made quickly.
3. How should I season my soup?
When it comes to seasoning a soup, what you choose to use is going to largely depend on the cooking time of your dish.
"Most ideal for soup, I think bay leaf because you're really going to get all that flavor from the bay leaf if you're going to cook soup for a long time," Regalbuto said.
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"Now with the shorter one, I would definitely recommend thyme and rosemary, because those flavors are going to pop much more in a short period of time," he continued.
Regalbuto noted that sage is another seasoning that brings "a nice, herby, salty flavor to any soup."
4. What are good soups to make in fall and winter months?
One beginner level soup to make is tomato, because the steps are not overly complicated and there aren't a lot of ingredients needed to make it.
Minestrone soup is a good one to make during fall. ( Dayna Smith/for the Washington Post)
"You either sauté those vegetables off and then add your stock. Or again, you roast them in the oven and then just blend it up. Quick, easy, perfect. Very fresh," Regalbuto said.
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Regalbuto pointed to minestrone soup as one that he personally makes every fall. For this one, make sure you have a lot of time on your hands, as it'll take five or six hours to make.
"You could get all your favorite vegetables, simmer them down in a nice pan with some olive oil and this is one where you got to cook it all day long, so you really want to get these vegetables nice and tender," Regalbuto said.
"Then, you want to add your favorite stock, water even. I personally use water because I think it brings out most of the flavor through all those vegetables, and they really come through. This is again one where you really want to simmer it down. All day long. This is five or six hours [for] soup," he noted.
5. How can I make my soup creamy?
If you want to get your soup to a nice, creamy texture, there are a few different things you could do. You could go with the well-known, effective, classic solution of adding some heavy whipping cream to your soup.
If you want to get a little more creative, adding potato or cheese into your soup will do the trick.
One trick to making your soup creamy is adding potatoes. (Harry Langer/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
"When the soup is cooking, it's about right when that broth in that soup starts to boil, you peel a potato. Depending how big your soup is, sometimes you'll need two or three. You peel the potato and drop the whole potato right in there and that potato is going to cook down into basically a mash. Then as you stir, the potatoes going to continuously break up into the soup and thicken it as you go," said Regalbuto.
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"Another one is you could do cheese as well to add a nice creamy flavor to it," he said.
"So a creamy cheese that would melt well while cooking over a long period of time is a mascarpone or a creamy gorgonzola cheese, those would work perfectly."
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
Ashlyn Messier is a writer for Fox News Digital.
