Vegetarian soup is a liquid food that is made by boiling vegetables in water and then seasoning and occasionally thickening the liquid that is produced. It is usually served as the first course of a dinner, but it is also often served as a light meal, such as lunch, 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 make this food attractive enough to appeal to the appetite, so it ought not to be greasy nor insipid in flavour, neither should it be served in substantial quantities nor without the correct accompaniment.

A small quantity of well-seasoned, attractively presented vegetarian soup cannot fail to find approval when it is served as the first course of a meal. The point of this piece is to acquaint you with the details of cooking appetizing and nutritious vegetarian soup that is both wholesome and healthy.

The three foremost sorts 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 types can be a vegetable stock made from either dried or fresh vegetables or both.

BROTHS have as their base a clear vegetarian stock. They are occasionally a thin soup, and other times they are prepared fairly thick with vegetables, rice or barley whenever they are served as a substantial part of a meal.

CREAM SOUPS are highly nutritious and there are many varieties. They have for their base a thin cream sauce, but to this are always added vegetables or grains.

PUREES are soups made thick partly or completely by the addition of some foodstuff obtained from boiling an piece 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 purpose, it is unnecessary to thicken the soup with any additional starch, but when watery vegetables are used, additional thickening is required. To be right, a puree ought to be nearly as smooth as double cream and of the same texture.

When making vegetarian soup always use soft water but be careful to proportion the quantity of water to that of the vegetables. A bit less than a quart of water to a pound of vegetables is a decent rule for ordinary soups. Rich soups, intended for company, might have a smaller quantity of water.

Here is a puree example 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 wash the vegetables; cut them up small; place them in a pan with 3 pints of water, the butter or margarine, breadcrumbs, and mace. Boil until the vegetables are fairly 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 writer of this article, writes on a number of topics, and is now concerned with how to cook for diabetics. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Cookbooks For Diabetics.

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