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You can make soup out of anything whether it be parsnip, carrot, stinging nettles, swede, tomatoes, meat etc

Now a question. In ye olde days without a blender how on earth did they make edible soup? Even mashing, adding lots of water and boiling seems to produce a sludge like mixture yet running this mixture through a blender sorts the problem out, easy.

Did people just eat this thick inconsistent sludge? Or am I doing something wrong when trying to make homemade soup?

That's something I'd like to know. I had to put my blender in store as it's too big to run off my inverter. I haven't been able to find one much under 300 watts, and my inverter is only 150 watts, and it seemed a good reason to find a manual alternative.

Does pushing it through a sieve help?

There may also have been hand-cranked blenders, like those cake-mixers you used to be able to buy 'til about 1980 (though perhaps they're back in fashion now?).

If you can't blend it, you have pieces of veg in a broth or thickened 'sauce'.

Although it may not look like soup, it can still taste good. I'd rather eat a well-prepared lumpy 'soup' than a uniform, blended but poorly prepared one.

What about an old fashioned meat grinder? We bought one, but don't use it much, being vegetarian...

Add fat/oil before your stew/pressure cook. This makes an emulsion that doesn't readily settle out to produce a liquid and sludge layer.

'course they could have just cooked it and cook it till everything fell apart anyway.

I suspect some kind of mortar and pestle or a variant thereof.

Interesting.

I make soup often (during gluts). The blender is a handy yoke alright. I don't use oil at all these days, though, mobbsey, but I don't find I get a 'liquid and sludge layer' with most soups. Some yes but I got that even when I did use oil.

My neighbour has just given me a portion of a glut of mange tout and it makes delicious soup, as well as being fine and dandy raw or steamed. Peas, again which tend to come all at once, make stunning soup with potato and mint.

Do a google search for a mouli (they sell them on DODGY TAX AVOIDERS). It makes really nice soup but still with a bit of texture

Adam1 wrote:I'd rather eat a well-prepared lumpy 'soup' than a uniform, blended but poorly prepared one.

Me too, and less chance of destroying the goodness by overcooking. Chunks of Meat, Veg and Pasta make a lovely winter soup. Mmmmm.

Catweazle wrote:

Adam1 wrote:I'd rather eat a well-prepared lumpy 'soup' than a uniform, blended but poorly prepared one.

Me too, and less chance of destroying the goodness by overcooking. Chunks of Meat, Veg and Pasta make a lovely winter soup. Mmmmm.

Access to good dental practices helps.

Skeptic's lazyboy unsustainable Mediterranean fish soup - an original recipe derived from sloth, trial and error.

1 liter carton of ready-to-use fish stock (Caldo) I prefer Mercadonna's own brand
1 glass dry white wine
1 400g packet of uncooked frozen fish soup mix (Sopa Marinera) from Mercadonna - flash frozen mussels cockels shrimp prawn whitefish, all nicely prepared, probably in Thailand.
teaspoon sweet paprika
pinch saffron.
small handful of fideua No5 (a fine Spanish pasta, like 1 inch lengths of skinny spaghetti. The slightly more expensive variety made with egg is best )

Chuck all the ingredients bar the fish and fideua into a saucpan.
Bring to the boil
stir in the fideua
simmer for ten minutes
stir in the frozen fish mix, bring back to the boil, then reduce to a low simmer.
cook for about another 5-10 ten minutes or until the fideua is done.
Taste, then season with a splash of tabasco sauce and/or a screw of pepper if thats what turns you on. You wont need to add any salt.

Serve with croutons, pan y allioli. a little allioli stirred into the soup in your bowl works wonders.

chris25 wrote:Now a question. In ye olde days without a blender how on earth did they make edible soup?

Did people just eat this thick inconsistent sludge? Or am I doing something wrong when trying to make homemade soup?

I have just checked in my grandmother's copy of Mrs Beeton, and there are frequent mentions of "passing through a fine sieve".

How about a manual food processor like this?
http://www.housecharm.co.uk/items/30-C1 ... essor.html

MaggieM wrote: I have just checked in my grandmother's copy of Mrs Beeton, and there are frequent mentions of "passing through a fine sieve".

absolutely necessary, if unlike me you are not lazy and wish to make your own stocks. this keeps back the bits - like bits and pieces of crustacean, mollusc shell, meat bone slivers, fine fish bones, woody bits of vegetable & herbs, etc - which you don't want to end up in the stock.
http://www.greenchronicle.com/basics/fish_stock.htm

Also useful for mashing well cooked veg up to make a smooth thick soup. Mash the veg through the sieve with the back of a large spoon.

maryb wrote:Do a google search for a mouli (they sell them on DODGY TAX AVOIDERS). It makes really nice soup but still with a bit of texture

Thanks Mary. I remember my mother having one when I was a kid. Perfect tool for the job. I'll be ordering one soon.

emordnilap wrote:

Catweazle wrote:

Adam1 wrote:I'd rather eat a well-prepared lumpy 'soup' than a uniform, blended but poorly prepared one.

Me too, and less chance of destroying the goodness by overcooking. Chunks of Meat, Veg and Pasta make a lovely winter soup. Mmmmm.

Access to good dental practices helps.

Or decent dental floss! Oh sh1t, peak dental floss!