[Elanor]

A French friend of mine has made the most gorgeous vegetable soup for years. It's over 20 years since I first had it, and over the years she has tried to teach me to make it, but it has never ever worked. Recently I saw her again for the first time in ages, and she served soup - I ate LOADS and wrote out detailed ingredient lists.

This week I tried again, and it just isn't the same, not even close. Her soup contains some things I can't really get hold of (nettles, something called 'chou-rave' which my dictionary tells me is a cabbage-turnip!) but she also says she makes it slightly differently every time and just adds whatever vegetables are ripe in her garden - maybe that's where I'm going wrong!

Anyway, I made a big batch of vegetable soup according to her instructions. Carrots, swede, turnip, parsnips, lots of leeks, a couple of potatoes... and it's fine, but it's very sweet and carrotty. I suppose the balance was wrong and there were too many carrots compared to the other things. Is there something I can do to make it less carrotty? I've already added salt (which my French friend NEVER does, she would be horrified) but it's still very sweet...

Any suggestions, other than throwing out the batch? It's really too carrotty to eat the whole batch.

[Beau_Soir]

Chilli? Potatoes?

[Welsh-lad]

Dilute it and use as stock?

[not_orange]

No salt in soup - that's ridiculous! As ANY decent chef and they will say saly is essential in any soup.

[Menoetius]

Parsnips are really sweet too.

I don't mind sweet soup, as long as it's tempered with salt and lots of black pepper.

Thought about adding some ham? assuming you're not a veggie.

[Rab64]

In future go easy on the Swedes and Parsnips Plus add some Parsley and Celery

[Utopian Girl]

Tin of chopped tomatoes?
A vegetable stock cube (or two)?
Some herbs you like?

[big_hard_lad]

Quote:

Originally Posted by not_orange

No salt in soup - that's ridiculous! As ANY decent chef and they will say saly is essential in any soup.

Salt is an essential ingredient in pretty much everything...IMO.

[dosanjh1]

You have a lot of sweet veg in there, not just carrots. you could add the celery as already suggested, but what I would try to do is add something that will cook well in the ambient temperature of the reheated soup, perhaps pak Choi and maybe sliced fennel. you could even chuck in some cumin seeds

[Espresso]

Rework it. Freeze half of it and using the the remaining half, make the soup again and use fewer sweet veg.

Or use some sour cream and fresh coriander to drown out the sweetness. Don't boil it though, as the cream will separate.

[K's Kitchen]

I make a lovely carroty soup with lots of garlic and if its a big pot - 3 bay leaves - I dont know what would happen if you had to simmer up the soup again with these in it for a wee half hour - you would need to eat right away cos you cant reheat once heated

[K's Kitchen]

Oh - forgot to mention - dont add anymore potatoes - a chefs tip to reduce salt in soup is to add potatoes!

[K's Kitchen]

Sorry - theres no garlic in it - I do that for another soup - heres the carroty soup I make
http://kscookinginthekitchen.wordpre...ot-onion-soup/

[Elanor]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I was amazed about the salt too, but my friend was insistent about it, and her soup tastes absolutely amazing and definitely doesn't need salt.

I have a very large batch, so I might separate it and freeze some as suggested, and rework eatch batch with something different. Celery is definitely something that she used sometimes in hers, so I'll try that. But lots of good ideas, thank you! K, I really like the look of your carrot soup.

[farmhand]

Surely the way to counteract too much sweetness is to balance with sours? That is probably what you are missing. Try a head of chicory or two, or a bit of sorrel (very bitter) to replace the nettles. Can't think of many other bitter veg atm but there must be many more.

Failing that try some lemon and I agree with those who say add a bit of celery. It's sublime aromatics lighten any broth.

You could also introduce neutralish savoury elements to dilute it in a different way like barley, red lentils, rice or a tin of mashed beans...canellini etc.

[burton07]

Sometimes a soup made with less variety of vegetables is tastier then putting loads of different flavours in. My best soups are often just onions, carrots, potatoes and maybe a couple of soft tomatoes. On Tuesday I made a very tasty soup with chicken stock, onions, 2 carrots, potatoes, 2 sticks celery and two tomatoes.

[Annie1fortennis]

Chou rave is kohlrabi

[amyawake]

Try balancing the sweetness (of the carrots) with the saltiness of pre-fried pancetta/lardons and/or tabasco will jazz it up.

[pugamo]

Remember to throw in a handful of parsley to freshen it up.

[stud u like]

Nettles are everywhere.

[Elanor]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stud u like

Nettles are everywhere.

True - but is it ok to just pick any old nettles and add them to soup? I don't fancy the ones from near a road, or the ones in my garden that might have cat pee on, even if I did wash them.

In the end I split the soup into three, froze two thirds to do stuff with later, and used a third the other day. I fried off some finely chopped onion, added in a load of lardons and fried those, then added the soup, watered it down a bit and ate it with a big dollop of sour cream. It was lovely!

[norbitonite]

Bit late, I know, but you could add some lemom juice to cut the sweetness. Should work well with the carrot.

[anneliese]

Sour cream and chives