How to rescue a boring soup (plus how to make a great one)

So you’ve made your soup, and it’s really nice, but it’s just soup. Or perhaps you’ve defrosted a frozen soup, and you can’t even remember what’s in it, even when you taste it. (Note to self: stick a label on it next time).

What you need right now is sizzle; something that makes it sing. Think of your soup as the bed, a foundation on which you build in extra flavour and excitement.

• One thing that will fix almost any soup, any time, is a hit of caramelised onions. Slice up two large onions and slow-fry in oil for 30 minutes until soft, then add a slug of balsamic vinegar and another of maple syrup, and cook for 5 to 10 minutes until sticky-sweet and caramelised. Instant umami.
• Add popcorn. Why not? It’s just crisp and crunchy popped corn, slathered in butter and salt. Pile on top of a thick vegie soup (or chicken and sweetcorn soup) and people will immediately sit up and notice. Then they’ll have to get stuck into it before the popcorn sinks to the bottom, and before you know it, the bowl will be empty.
• Send your soup on holidays. Let’s say you have a perfectly pleasant (yawn) pumpkin soup. You roasted the pumpkin, you sizzled the garlic, you snipped the chives, and it’s still good ol’ pumpkin soup. So send it to Mexico for a holiday. Hit it with lime juice and coriander, dollop sour cream and a spoonful of hot chilli salsa on top, and shower it with corn chips. Or maybe Mumbai is beckoning? Sizzle up some spices and curry leaves in oil and swirl through the soup, and serve with toasty roti bread oozing with cheese and chilli. No passport required.

• Extra greens add instant freshness and vibrancy. Add a handful of baby spinach and let it wilt into the soup for a minute or two. Also good: finely sliced kale or silverbeet leaves. Think back to what went in to your soup in the first place, then do a second final layer of the same thing; that always works.
• Spike it with acidity. The palate gets bored with one flavour, and needs contrast and surprise. A dash of lime or lemon juice adds instant brightness. A swirl of black rice vinegar into a thick bean soup, hot and sour soup or lentil soup brings it all together beautifully. Even a tablespoon of finely diced tomatoes strewn on top give a little tang to each spoonful.
• Build in more heft and textural contrast with a can of cannellini beans or lentils, pearl barley or noodles. Or get your nonna on with a ladleful of ravioli or gnocchi, then bury them under a shower of grated parmesan or pecorino.

• Sizzle up chorizo or Italian pork sausage, slice and strew over the top with roughly chopped parsley. And need we remind you that crisp bacon will cover a multitude of sins?
• Nooch it. Nutritional yeast (eg. Bragg’s) is the vegan’s best friend; a savoury plant-based seasoning that adds cheesiness without cheese. Cook it into your soup, and toss kale chips in it to throw on top for another level of flavour. Japanese miso (fermented soybean paste) will do a similar job of bringing rich savouriness to the table.
• Creme fraiche, yoghurt and sour cream have a built-in sourness and twang that adds complexity as well as creaminess. Extra points for dusting smoked paprika on top.

• Just before serving, add a swirl of extra virgin olive oil or pesto to your soup if it’s Italian, a little butter if it’s French, or sambal oelek if it’s south-east Asian.
• Don’t over-salt. Most of us just add more salt if our food is blah, which can have the effect of making it both blah and salty. If you have over-salted a soup, add a little white wine vinegar to defuse the salt and correct the balance.
• Now that you’ve fixed the soup, fix the sides as well. Buttery grilled English muffins topped with melting cheese, pan-scorched tortilla stuffed with refried beans, or a zhoozhed-up slice of pizza will turn any soup into a meal.

Back to the basics

The basic steps towards soup security are simple: start with stock, then saute and simmer.

1. Stock

Making your own stock is relatively easy, whether you simmer chicken and vegetables for a shimmering chicken noodle soup, or ham bones for a hearty pea and ham soup. To make vegetable stock, cover a few chopped onions, carrots and dried mushrooms with cold water, simmer for an hour, then strain. For instant stock, Marigold Organic Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder tastes fresh and carroty.

2. Saute

For a classic, comfort-food vegetable soup, create a base of flavour with aromatics such as leeks, celery and carrots, then add whatever you have – parsnip, potato, pumpkin. Softer vegetables such as zucchini and leafy greens should be added later.

Chop or slice each vegetable into same-sized pieces so that they cook in the same time, taking their shape into account. For example, slice the leeks and celery and chop the root vegetables.

Heat one tablespoon each of butter and oil, and cook the veg until softened but not coloured, tossing well.

You’ll need about 1.5 litres of stock for 750 grams of vegetables. As for bay leaves, I have no idea what they actually do, but couldn’t possibly cook soup without two or three of them.

3. Simmer

Here’s a trick I learned years ago from the great French chef Paul Bocuse. When you add your stock to the vegetables in the pan, make sure it’s boiling hot. That one simple move captures their essence and flavour like nothing else.

Add sea salt and pepper, partly cover and simmer with just a gentle bubble for 30 minutes, until everything is tender but not mushy.

Tip: Soup freezes well, so always make enough to feed yourself several times over. If you’re just starting out on this cooking caper, invest in a good, heavy stockpot of 8 to 10 litres, and you’ll have soup for life.