Vegan Soup & Vegan Soup Recipes

How to Make Vegan Soup

As we have said, soup is such an easy thing to make. Given how flexible one can be with ingredients and that many of the most common inclusions are very cheap we feel just a little evangelical about soup. Many soups are cheap, filling and healthy, and with child poverty and obesity on the increase, making sure young people know how to make at least one quick, simple and tasty soup could help solve a lot of problems. Anyway, until we get #SoupSaves trending, here’s our basic guide to making a vegan soup.

Ingredients

You can put virtually any veg you want in a soup and that is partly why they are so cheap. If you happen to be in the supermarket late at night and see a bag of carrots for 8p and a bag of parsnips for 15p, you’ve got the basics for a huge amount of soup for just a few pence. Equally, if you see greens, be it kale, spring greens or broccoli, grab those too as not only are they perfect for soup, greens are, in simple and general terms, usually the healthiest veg you can find to eat.

Onions and potatoes are also great items to add to soup, the former generally for flavour and the latter providing texture and bulk. But you can also use items often viewed as salad ingredients in soup, such as lettuce and other leaves, tomatoes (of course), peppers, celery and even cucumber. This is another reason why soup is great – and cheap: you can use almost anything and because of the way you will be preparing the soup, items that are a bit past their best are still perfect.

If your tomatoes are a bit soft, your carrots are going a bit floppy or your lettuce is losing its crispness and turning brown, you may not want to use them in a salad. But they are still perfect for soup and that means that those reduced items which other people might be turning their noses up at are just fine for you.

Lentils, beans and different types of legumes are also brilliant for soup. They are excellent sources of vegan protein and also vitamins and minerals and tend to be very cheap too, especially when bought in bulk. Whether blitzed or left whole, they add nice texture too and generally work well in just about any soup.

As well as the core ingredients, a good quality veg stock will help bring a depth of flavour whilst seasonings, herbs, spices and ingredients like wine will also help bring real flavour to your soup. Many soups also include pasta or rice and these are also good ways to bulk out your soup and make more of a meal out of it.

Flavours

When it comes to flavours you can be really creative or you can keep things really simple. Carrots, celery and onions are the holy trinity and are used in classical European cuisine as the basic building blocks for any number of dishes. Ingredients like peppers and tomatoes also add bags of flavour and sweetness, especially when roasted, whilst the likes of parsnips also boast a great depth of flavour. A simple soup that tastes of nothing more than its ingredients can be a real delight, especially when it is well seasoned with pepper and definitely a bit of salt.

A good quality vegetable stock, even if it is just from a cube (make sure it is vegan though) will add flavour and seasoning so always add any extra salt at the end to avoid making a soup that is too salty. A little vegan wine also adds a nice balancing acidity and sweetness and again can be a good way to use up that last half glass you strangely decided to leave in the bottle.

In terms of bolder flavourings, you can use almost any herb or spice depending on what you like. Curry flavours work really well with earthier ingredients like potatoes, carrots, swede, squashes and parsnips, whilst soft and even woody herbs are brilliant in lighter soups. You could go for an Asian-style vegan soup and use coconut milk, as well as things like soy sauce, garlic and ginger.

Technique

There are lots of different ways to make soup and you can use a normal saucepan or stockpot, a slow cooker, a pressure cooker or a modern soup-making machine. We tend to use a large saucepan. Ultimately, all you need to do is make sure the vegetables and other ingredients are cooked and there is enough liquid to make it a soup.

There are different ways to go about this and roasting or frying (in just a tiny dash of healthy vegan cooking oil) veg like carrots, onions, peppers and celery at the start will help bring out their natural sweetness and add a real depth to the flavours. For a really simple soup, however, you can just add a little water to the pan, bring it to the boil and then add your veg and cover with a lid.

This technique is called pan steaming and will cook the veg quickly, which is convenient but also means fewer nutrients are lost. Harder vegetables and things like lentils, beans, pasta and rice will usually need longer to cook so should be added first (though you could pre-cook them too), whilst softer, leafier vegetables should be added towards the end, with soft herbs going in just before you serve.

Once your vegetables and other ingredients are cooked, essentially you have a soup. However, you can still alter the seasoning, flavours and textures but the simplest broths are really just cooked veg in a flavoured liquid.

Texture

When it comes to the texture, you have three main options: smooth, chunky or a mix of the two. For a smooth soup, you simply need to make sure the vegetables are cooked and then use a blender, liquidiser or stick blender to create the consistency you want. You can adjust the quantity of stock or water at this stage too, either by reducing the soup or adding more liquid, whilst a dash of vegan yoghurt or vegan cream can bring extra richness.

For a chunky soup, all you need to do is make sure that the vegetables are cut into small pieces before you start cooking them. Dice a potato, a carrot, an onion and a stick of celery, fry gently for 10 minutes and then add a good quality vegetable stock and simmer until the veg is all cooked. And, that is it. In less than 20 minutes you have a healthy, tasty, chunky vegan soup. You could add a few frozen peas or edamame beans (these will add a nice dose of soy protein too) towards the end of cooking too and whatever fresh (or dried) herbs you fancy.

To get the best of both worlds, a thicker, smoother soup that also has the additional texture variation provided by some chunky veg, just blend around half of the soup. Add this back to the cooked veg broth and you have a tasty hybrid soup that feels hearty due to its thicker consistency but also offers the texture and individual flavours of a chunkier soup. Another way to achieve a similar effect is to use red lentils in a standard chunky vegan soup. These will break down after about 20 minutes of cooking and provide that same comforting consistency.

Storage

Yet another great thing about vegan soup (well, any soup to be fair) is that it is very easy to cook a large batch. Aside from a bit of extra chopping, it is more or less as quick and easy to make eight servings as it is to make one. Just dig out your biggest pot and within an hour you have a whole week of delicious, healthy lunches.

Because the soup is plant-based and has been cooked at a high temperature, it keeps really well, so should easily last four or five days in the fridge, even if it was made with veg that was past its best in terms of freshness. However, if you want to extend it even further almost all soups will also freeze really well. The only caveat to that would be that some veg with a high water content may go a little mushy if they are frozen in bigger pieces. For this reason, if you intend to freeze a soup that contains potatoes, cauliflower or similar veg, make sure it is blended or at least cut into very small pieces.