Make Soups At Home For Wonderful Family Meals
Soup. A humble word tied to meanings and memories for every person on the globe and that goes back to the days before we can even remember or imagine, and in my opinion, the most wholesome, versatile dish ever created. The possibilities are endless, they can be as simple or as complex as you wish, and they all result in a bowl filled with flavors that touch the soul.
I can remember (queue the cheesy music) back when I was a kid and, growing up in a single-parent household with grandmother pulling up the rear end, walking home from school in the dead of winter. Jack Frost had certainly been a best friend of mine and my brothers and there is hardly a day I can think of where we didn’t open the front door as 2 frozen ice-cubes.
This is where granny came to the rescue, and don’t they always. The smell hit you the second the door opened, the meatiness if we were lucky, the tomato and vegetables bubbling away on the stove, and two bowls ready to be filled once we had dropped our bags and washed our hands.
I would close my eyes as the first slurp burned down my throat and I didn’t care, the heat stretching to all ends of our bodies and before we knew it we were warm and toasty.
A simple dish that never ceases to bring a smile to our faces, and I am not alone in this that is for sure, take a minute to read this compelling story and take your trip back in time, even if just for a moment.
I do know however that, like with all things, life gets busier and we seem to have less time to do the simple things we used to, even the wallflower of soup has efficiently evolved. What do I mean, well let’s take a brief look into how things have changed.
The days where we would prepare all the vegetable and meat hours ahead of time are no more, it is all about convenience and ticking off the boxes on our schedule of the 9-5 workweek. Pots are exchanged with slow cookers who do all the work while you’re away and the process is completed as you walk in the door.
Then there’s the new kid on the block and one that I am blessed to own is a soup maker. It essentially does what it says on the tin minus all the hassle, perfect for those ‘on the constant move’ moms taxing one of the kids to some extra-curricular activity, and it’s easy for the whole family to use.
Simply pop your vegetables into the maker, size dependent on whether you like a creamy smooth finish (smaller cubes) or a hearty chunk when you slurp and bite into your soup (larger chunks), it heats and cooks the food to your requirements and with a quick press of the function button it blending away, doing its thing while you bath the kids before dinner.
Sounds like that extra pair of hands you could use around the house right?
To guide you on the path for a stress-free-dinner-option future, get some ideas here and once you have made your decision based on the needs of your family dynamics, be ready for that big sigh of relief you have been holding in all this time.
Life does not need to be as complicated as people like to make it, we all enjoy adding to the pressure and for what, technological advances are there for our taking, we need to embrace them and move with the times.
Soup creations.
I can open our fridge at home, or anyone’s for that matter, and make a hearty soup for dinner or lunch. This is a classic dish that is served to everyone around the world no matter their status, or social media following, or if they have been brought up with a silver spoon in their mouth. It is more than likely that spoon had soup on it, I’d bet on it.
It brings people together, innovation, expression, and excitement can be created in one basic dish, and it works every time. That and the fact that I am a qualified silver-service chef, but we’ll leave that for another day over a cup of tea and biscuits. Yes, please.
If you are new to the whole adult lifestyle living, having just finished your bachelor’s degree and wondering how to survive in the world without your head in a book, then you’re in luck, check out this link for quick and easy recipes to try out and before you know it you’ll be a soup-making aficionado.
3 Features of a great soup.
It won’t matter if you’ve made it in a pot, on the fire, or in a soup maker, having the foundations correct and using quality ingredients, you can’t go wrong.
- Ingredients. The base ingredients in the majority of soups known to man are what we call the ‘aromatics,’ onion, garlic for sure, celery, and our trusty friend the carrot. When these come together the world is a better place. Unless the recipe is a specific flavor profile choosing the best of these will set you up on the right foot.
- Seasoning. Life has no meaning without this, how people think this is not a necessity blows my mind. I can distinguish within a split second if a dish has been seasoned or not, and if done well. There is a misconception that salt overpowers a dish, this couldn’t be further from the truth but does the opposite, it blossoms the flavors you already have.
- Companionship. This, of course, is not something you can buy but it is a key component in enjoyment. Food among friends is the essence of life, eat together.
It doesn’t have to be Michelin grade soup or the most watered-down option on earth if it’s made with love that’s all the ingredient you’ll ever need.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
