Stand Up for Soup
No one can claim to have invented it, but it’s always good
I’m a huge fan of soup, after associating it with illness and old people for most of my younger years. It’s not about it being easy to eat or digest, (although it is) it’s more that since I discovered just how very easy (and very cheap, and very quick) it is to make a good soup, I’m all over that gloopy bandwagon.
And, of course, soup fills you up more than solids. I saw a video about it, and that was it. I Have a lot of soup for lunch. Never as a starter, it’s too much food, and that’s just weird. Why fill yourself up with soup and then not have room for your main course? Foolish behaviour!
Despite my literal minutes of research, it quickly becomes apparent that no one can actually claim to have invented soup. (Just like hummous…cough cough).
An evolving recipe
If you think about it, the recipe for soup must have evolved just as humans did. Adding bits of leaves, herbs and spices to water and heating it makes a tasty meal rather than a mouth full of sadness.
Water, heat and edible stuff can go much further when combined, and it also becomes something softer, easier and more nourishing.
Especially if you’re me, and add random ingredients that bolster the nutrient quota (like acidophilus, chia, nuts and seeds, spirulina, turmeric and black pepper).
Claiming to invent soup is like believing the Earl of Sandwich invented the err….sandwich and that the game of Rugby was invented by some Rugby School oik who picked up a football and ran about with it a bit.
So yes, while no one invented soup in the “one genius, one recipe” sense, we know it appeared alongside early humans, especially after fragments of ancient cooking pots have been found littered across the world’s most remote places.
The first soup-maker was almost certainly a hunter-gatherer, not a chef. One of the best archaeological clues is ancient pottery from Xianrendong Cave in Jiangxi, China, dated to around 20,000–19,000 years before the present day. It had a TEMU barcode on it. Researchers believe such early vessels may have been used for cooking, long before farming began.
But I’ve read that people were (of course) boiling food even before proper pots existed, using animal skins, bark containers, pits, stomachs or baskets, then dropping in heated stones. That means soup could be even older than pottery and mother-in-law jokes; we just have fewer surviving clues.
I think maybe that’s why I, and we, as a species, find comfort in a good bowl of soup, it predates the modern era…and how wonderful to think that someone, possibly even Neanderthals or those Indonesian hobbits, had roots, greens, grains, and herbs. Someone else had water. Someone developed fire. And finally, in a scene akin to the monolith bit in Arthur C Clarke’s 2001, only with soup, someone thought, “fuck it, let’s boil it.”
And civilisation improved immeasurably. So, without further ado, I suggest you dig out your finest tureen, and get soup making…
Soup don’t make itself, people. I’d love you to support me in my quest to eat more liquified loveliness, by dropping £3 on a virtual coffee for me, over at ko-fi.com
THE RECIPES
Vietnamese-ish “Soup Powder Saves the Day” Noodle Soup
A fast, fragrant bowl built around your new best friend: Vietnamese soup powder. This is not pretending to be proper phở, it’s more akin to a brilliant 10-minute fridge-raid noodle soup. And the soup powder? Look for hạt nêm - seasoning granules/powder, or bột canh, which is salt, flavourings and lovely, lovely MSGeeeee.
Ingredients
1–2 tsp Vietnamese soup powder, to taste
1 nest rice noodles, or any cooked noodles
1 small carrot, thinly sliced or grated
A handful of greens, such as pak choi, spinach, cabbage or kale
Cooked tofu, mushrooms, edamame, leftover veg or beans
1 spring onion, sliced
Lime juice
Chilli oil, fresh chilli or sriracha
Fresh coriander, mint or basil, if available
500–600ml water
Preparation
Bring the water to a simmer in a pan. Stir in the Vietnamese soup powder.
Add the carrot, greens and any cooked veg, tofu or beans.
Add the noodles and simmer until soft, or just warm through if already cooked.
Finish with lime juice, chilli and fresh herbs.
Swaps and tips
DO check the soup powder ingredients - some contain chicken, fish or shrimp flavouring.
Add a splash of soy sauce if it needs more depth.
Stir in a spoonful of peanut butter to turn it into a creamy satay-style noodle soup.
Leftover rice works instead of noodles.
Classic South Indian Tomato-Pepper Rasam
Light, sharp, peppery, soupy and incredibly comforting. Rasam is perfect when you want something hot, fast and alive with flavour. This is boss-level soup, and has caused me to have some epic liquid meltdowns in many a restaurant. Too hot and I start leaking from every pore and hole on my face. It’s fun, very cleansing, but quite disgusting for other diners.
Ingredients
2 tomatoes, chopped, or ½ tin chopped tomatoes
500–700ml water
1–2 tsp tamarind paste, or lemon/lime juice
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp black pepper, crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds, crushed
½ tsp mustard seeds
8–10 curry leaves, if available
Pinch of asafoetida, optional
Salt, to taste
Fresh coriander
1 tsp oil
Optional: a few spoonfuls of cooked lentils or dal water
Preparation
Roughly crush the black pepper, cumin seeds and garlic together. You could put a bag with these in it on the road, and wait for a bus to drive over them, or crush them at home.
Heat the oil in a pan.
Add the mustard seeds and let them pop. Beware.
Add the curry leaves and asafoetida, if using. Add the garlic, pepper and cumin mix. Add the tomatoes, turmeric and salt.
Cook for 3–4 minutes, until the tomatoes soften.
Add the water and tamarind. Simmer for 8–10 minutes.
Finish with fresh coriander.
Drink as a broth or pour over rice. If over rice, you must eat it with your hands. The feeling of rasam trickling into your armpit as you wield a hearty fingertipped-clump of wet rice into your mouth is a rite of passage, ok?
Swaps and tips
Lemon or lime works if you don’t have tamarind. Bu get tamarind.
Add cooked lentils to make it more filling.
Rasam powder makes this even faster.
Great with leftover rice, roast potatoes, chickpeas or a chapati/ paratha and pickle on the side.
Mexican Black Bean, Lime and Smoky Chilli Soup
Cheap, filling and punchy. This is ideal with tinned beans, leftover rice, cooked sweetcorn or tired veg from the fridge. I just read a post on Reddit where a bloke worked for a major hotel chain in the US and got away with pretending he could speak Spanish for EIGHT months. Hilarious. The Spanish-speaking guests thought he was a pisstaker, or deranged. This soup might make Mexicans feel the same way, but it’s good, and I make no claims towards authenticity. And I write that as someone who just ate air fried broccoli, potato and carrot tacos for lunch.
Ingredients
1 tin black beans, drained but not heavily rinsed
½ onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp chilli powder or chipotle paste
500ml water or stock
½ tin tomatoes, or 1 chopped fresh tomato
Sweetcorn, optional
Lime juice
Salt, to taste
Fresh coriander, if available
Tortilla chips, stale wraps, rice or bread, to serve
Preparation
Fry the onion and garlic for 3–4 minutes. I go for 7—8, over a low heat.
Add the smoked paprika, cumin and chilli.
Cook for 30 seconds.
Add the beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn and water or stock. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Mash some of the beans in the pan to thicken the soup.
Finish with lime juice and coriander.
Swaps and tips
Kidney beans or pinto beans work fine as well.
Add leftover rice directly into the bowl.
Cut a stale wrap (or Tortilla) into strips, toast it in a dry pan and chuck it on top.
A spoonful of peanut butter sounds odd but makes it richer.
West African-Inspired Peanut, Sweet Potato and Greens Soup
Creamy, spicy, savoury and deeply satisfying, yet still cheap and quick. It works beautifully with leftover cooked sweet potato, squash, carrots or greens. Again, apologies for the broad brush stroke assumptions in calling something ‘West African’. To claim this soup is universally slurped by the 475 million people who live in a part of the world 25 times the size of the entire UK (or three-quarters the size of the lower 48 states) is insane reductivism. But hey ho, it’s just soup, right? Anyway…
Ingredients
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp grated ginger, or ½ tsp ground ginger
1–2 tbsp peanut butter
1 small cooked sweet potato, cubed, or cooked squash/carrot
500–600ml water or stock
½ tin tomatoes, or 1 tbsp tomato paste
Chilli flakes or hot sauce
Handful of spinach, kale or cabbage
Salt, to taste
Lime or lemon juice
Preparation
Fry the onion, garlic and ginger for 3–4 minutes.Add the tomato paste or tomatoes. Cook for another minute.
Stir the peanut butter with a little hot water to loosen it. Add the loosened peanut butter to the pan.
Add the sweet potato and water or stock.
Simmer for 8–10 minutes.
Add the greens at the end and cook until wilted.
Finish with citrus and chilli.
Swaps and tips
Great with leftover rice stirred in.
Use chickpeas instead of sweet potato for more protein.
Tahini works if you don’t have peanut butter, although the flavour changes.
A dash of soy sauce adds depth.
Korean-Style Kimchi, Tofu and Noodle Soup
A fiery, sour, savoury soup that tastes like much more effort than it is. Brilliant for using up noodles, rice, tofu, mushrooms or half-dead greens from the back of the fridge.
Ingredients
½ cup vegan kimchi, chopped
1–2 tsp gochujang, or chilli paste, to taste
1 to 800 garlic cloves, chopped (to taste 😊)
500–600ml water or stock
Tofu, cubed (while I wouldn’t go with a whole block, a generous chunk is good)
Mushrooms, optional
Greens, such as spinach, cabbage, pak choi or kale
Cooked noodles or rice
Soy sauce, to taste
Sesame oil, optional
Spring onion, optional
Preparation
Fry the kimchi and garlic for 2–3 minutes.
Add the gochujang and stir, then add the water or stock, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the tofu, mushrooms and greens.
Add cooked noodles or rice and warm through at a simmer for 5-10 minutes.
Finish with soy sauce, sesame oil and spring onion.
Swaps and tips
Make sure the kimchi is vegan — traditional versions often contain fish sauce or shrimp.
No gochujang? Use chilli flakes, sriracha or any hot sauce.
Add a spoonful of miso at the end for extra depth, but don’t boil it hard after adding.
Works brilliantly with leftover roast veg, as do I.
I love soup too 😁. All of these sound so good. Will try making them.