The great thing about soup is that once you know the basic principles you can improvise every time. I don't use a recipe book for soup. I learned the principles from watching my mother, and most of the time I get it right.
In case you were wondering, I got it right on this occasion :-)
4 litres of Vegetable Soup for how much?
That would be £1.64. I know! Brilliant isn't it. That's enough for two meals in our house with 4 of us eating it, which makes it £0.82 per meal for all of us. Here's how it works.
Equipment
- Vegetable knife for cutting and peeling
- Big saucepan, enough to hold 4 litres with stirring room (I use the pressure cooker as a saucepan for this one)
- Measuring jug, to hold at least 1 litre, or something of that ilk
- Wooden spoon, for stirring
- Ladle or mug for serving
- Eaty implements, you know, bowls, mugs, spoons, however you eat soup
- Kettle or something to boil water in
Ingredients
I think ingredients come in two categories, the essentials, and the nice-to-haves. The essentials are the bits that keep you alive, give you a balanced diet, feed and nourish the body. The nice-to-have's improve the flavour, the eating experience, and the relish to which you look forward to eating, and feed and nourish the mind and soul :-).
If you can get both, do. If not, it's up to you, but I don't recommend skipping any essentials in favour of a nice-to-have. The soup will still be good and still taste good :-). To business... for this soup you will need...
Essentials
- £0.10 | Cooking oil (enough to cover the bottom of your saucepan - we use own brand sunflower oil)
- £0.25 | 2 medium onions
- £0.14 | 4 small potatoes (or equivalent to about 0.5kg)
- £0.50 | 650g Frozen Mixed Vegetables (we based this on 2/3rds of a 1kg packet of Morrisons Value frozen mixed veg costing just £0.75)
- £0.30 | 1 tin baked beans
- 2.5 litres of water
Nice-to-haves
- £0.05 | 1/2 tbsp of mixed herbs (we use cheapest own brand value herbs in the little white plastic tubs)
- £0.08 | 1/4 cup of ketchup
- £0.05 | 1/2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- £0.02 | 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- £0.15 | 4 tsp Bouillion powder (or a vegetable OXO, or similar)
Method to the madness
- Add the oil to the pan and heat on full temperature for speed. When hot enough to fry turn down to half temperature.
- Peel and chop the onions small. Add to hot oil and stir. Be careful it may spit oil when you pop the chopped onion in.
- Add the mixed herbs and black pepper at this stage. The frying brings the flavour of the herbs out.
- Thoroughly scrub the potatoes clean. Then dice the potatoes and add to the pan. Stir into the hot oil, leave to soften, while you prepare other things keep returning to stir the pan to make sure it doesn't burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Once the onions are soft and beginning to brown, ad 1.5 litres of cold water and bring to the boil.
- Add the ketchup and the Worcestershire sauce at this point.
- Pour the frozen mixed vegetables into your measuring jug. Boil the kettle, then add the boiling water to the jug. Leave for a few minutes to defrost the vegetables. When the vegetables have thawed strain off the water, then add the vegetables to the soup pan.
- If you are using Bouillion (or similar) boil the kettle and make it up in your measuring jug using 1 litre of boiling water. Then add to the soup pan.
- Finally open your tin of baked beans and add the entire contents to the soup pan.
- When boiling turn the heat down and simmer until the potatoes are soft all the way through.
- Then you're done.
Dishing up
If your kids are like mine they won't appreciate the fine delicacy that is "big soup" and they will say their soup 'has bits in'. Yes, I know it 'has bits in' those 'bits' (so called) are the soup. Perhaps you feel the same, after all, not everyone is a "big soup" fan. To overcome this hurdle we use our hand blender to 'whizz' theirs into 'bit' free smooth soup in their bowl. It stills tastes yummy. You can also smooth it in a normal blender.
We use breakfast bowls for soup, and a good bowl full is about half a litre. A decent serving. By all means have with bread (though it will increase your meal cost), but we didn't bother tonight.
There is enough left for us all to have tomorrow. And if you don't fancy it two days in a row, when it's cooled you can freeze it and have it later in the week.
Cheaper to make it yourself
The ingredient cost of making this meal was just £1.64, and because it makes 4 litres it covers 2 meals for 4 people. Thats only £0.82 per meal and less than £0.21 per person per meal. I can't even buy 1 tin of the cheapest of cheap value brands for that, let alone half a litre... it is cheaper to make it yourself, yummier, and better for you.
That's good living for less.
Slurp :-P
