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 made, economical and when properly prepared from fresh, nutritious vegetables, very wholesome 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 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 main types of soup that can be cooked from wholly vegetarian (but not necessarily vegan) ingredients are: broths, cream soups (contains dairy produce) and purees. The basis of these three kinds 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 fairly thick with vegetables, rice or barley when they are served as a large part of a meal.
CREAM SOUPS are highly nutritious and there are lots of varieties. They have for their foundation a thin cream sauce, and 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 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 but be careful to proportion the amount of water to that of the vegetables. Somewhat less than two pints of water to a pound of vegetables is a good rule for ordinary soups. Rich soups, meant for company, might have a smaller amount 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; place 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.
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