Vegetarian soup is a liquid food that is prepared by boiling vegetables in water and then seasoning and sometimes thickening the liquid that is created. It is usually served as the first course of a dinner, but it is also often served as a light meal, such as luncheon, on its own.
Soup is an easily created, economical and when properly prepared from fresh, nutritious vegetables, very nourishing food.
Care should be taken to produce this food attractive enough to appeal to the appetite, so it ought not to be greasy nor bland in flavour, neither should it be served in large quantities nor without the proper accompaniment.
A small quantity of well-seasoned, attractively served vegetarian soup cannot fail to obtain approval when it is served as the first course of the meal. The purpose of this piece is to acquaint you with the details of making appetizing and nutritious vegetarian soup that is both wholesome and healthy.
The three main kinds of soup that can be made from wholly vegetarian (yet not necessarily vegan) ingredients are: broths, cream soups (contains dairy produce) and purees. The basis of these three sorts can be a vegetable stock prepared from either dried or fresh vegetables or both.
BROTHS have for their base a clear vegetarian stock. They are sometimes a thin soup, yet other times they are prepared quite thick with vegetables, rice or barley whenever they are served as a substantial 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.
If vegetables containing starch such as beans, peas, lentils or potatoes are used for this soup, it is unnecessary to thicken the soup with any additional starch, yet if watery vegetables are used, other thickening is required. To be right, a puree should be nearly as smooth as double cream and of the same consistency.
When preparing vegetarian soup always use soft water and be careful to measure the amount of water to that of the vegetables. A bit less than two pints of water to a pound of vegetables is a decent rule for ordinary soups. Rich soups, intended for guests, may have a smaller quantity of water.
Here is a puree type recipe for carrot soup:
CARROT SOUP
4 good-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 clean the vegetables; cut them up small; put them in a pan with 3 pints of water, the butter or margarine, breadcrumbs, and mace. Boil until the vegetables are quite 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.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on several topics, and is now involved with low carb vegetarian recipes. If you would like to know more, please visit our site at http://vegetariancasserolerecipes.com