Vegetable Soup

Vegetable Soup

Vegetable soup is the soup almost everyone makes, and also the one most people complain comes out “watery.” The reason is almost always the same: all the vegetables go into the pot together with the water at the start, and then there is no layer of flavor in it at all — just vegetables boiled in water.

The recipe here is built differently, in two stages that separate the vegetables whose job is to build a flavor base from the vegetables whose job is to be in the soup. It is completely vegan, relies on vegetables alone rather than soup powder, and comes to about 150 calories per bowl.

Prep time: 20 minutes · Cook time: 40 minutes · Total: about an hour · Yield: 8 servings · Difficulty: easy

Why vegetable soup comes out bland — and what fixes it

Vegetables lack what a bone has: gelatin and amino acids that are released slowly and give the liquid body and a lingering taste. A vegetable soup has to create that depth another way, and there are three proven levers for it:

• Caramelizing the base. Onion, carrot and celery that turned golden in oil for 8-10 minutes undergo the Maillard reaction and create flavor compounds that boiling in water does not create at all. This is the one stage in the recipe not worth cutting short.
• A source of umami. Tomato or tomato paste, dried mushrooms, a teaspoon of miso at the end or a Parmesan rind — each of them adds natural glutamate, which is exactly what soup powder tries to imitate.
• At least one starchy vegetable. Potato or sweet potato releases starch into the liquid and gives it body. Without them the soup stays water with vegetables, even if the taste is excellent.

Ingredients (for 8 servings)

For the base (goes in first):

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3 carrots, cut into rounds
• 3 stalks celery, cut
• 1 leek, cut into rings and washed well
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

For the body of the soup:

• 2 medium potatoes (about 350 grams), cubed
• 1 medium sweet potato (about 200 grams), cubed
• 200 grams pumpkin, cubed
• 2 ripe tomatoes, grated — or 200 grams canned crushed tomatoes
• 2.5 liters water
• 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• Salt — about 2 teaspoons, at the end

Goes in during the last ten minutes:

• 1 zucchini, cubed
• 100 grams green beans, cut
• A bunch of parsley and dill, chopped

Choosing ingredients and substitutes

You can replace the leek with another medium onion. Frozen green beans work in the same amount and go in without thawing toward the end of cooking. Instead of 200 grams of pumpkin you can use 200 grams of peeled butternut squash. Whatever vegetables are in season work here, as long as you keep a similar weight and add the soft vegetables at the end.

Method

1. Caramelize the base. Heat the olive oil in a large pot and fry the onion, carrot, celery and leek for 8-10 minutes over medium heat, until the onion is translucent and the edges turn golden. This is the step that decides the depth of flavor — vegetables that only “sweated” for two minutes won’t give the same result.
2. Add the garlic and paste. Add the garlic and tomato paste and stir for one minute. Briefly frying the paste brings out its sweetness and deepens the color.
3. Add the starchy vegetables and the liquid. Add the potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin, grated tomatoes, bay leaves, turmeric and pepper, and pour in the water. Bring to a boil and lower the heat immediately.
4. Cook for 25 minutes over low heat with the pot partially covered, until the potatoes are soft but still hold their shape.
5. Add the delicate vegetables. Add the zucchini and green beans and cook for only 8-10 minutes. Green vegetables cooked for 40 minutes lose color, texture and some of their vitamin C.
6. Thicken without flour (optional). Take out a ladleful of vegetables, blend it and return it to the pot. This gives a soup with body in which whole pieces remain.
7. Salt at the end and taste. Add the chopped parsley and dill off the heat, to preserve the aroma.

Nutrition facts and calorie estimate

The recommended serving is a bowl of about 350 ml, an eighth of the pot.

The two tablespoons of olive oil are about 240 calories divided among eight servings — about 30 calories per serving, and that is the good deal in the recipe: they supply the whole caramelized layer and also help absorb the carotenoids from the carrot and pumpkin, which are fat-soluble and poorly absorbed without them.

The weak side of this soup is protein: 4 grams per bowl is not a meal. Anyone who wants the soup to last until the next meal needs to add a legume — and that is exactly the difference between it and split pea soup or minestrone.

Variations and tips

• Turn it into a meal: half a cup of red lentils (about 100 grams) goes in with the water and breaks down completely. An addition of about 45 calories and 4 grams of protein per serving, and the soup also thickens by itself.
• A version with grain: half a cup of pearl barley adds about 45 calories and 1.5 grams of fiber per serving, and lengthens the cooking by 15 minutes.
• Pureed vegetable soup: blend everything with an immersion blender. The numbers don’t change, but the sense of fullness drops — chewing contributes more to satiety than drinking.
• No soup powder, with real umami: a teaspoon of miso dissolved at the end off the heat, or 10 grams of dried mushrooms added with the water, gives what soup powder provides — without the 800 mg of sodium per cup. A full comparison on the instant soup page.
• Making ahead: 5 days in the fridge, 3 months in the freezer. Potatoes turn slightly grainy after thawing, so if you plan to freeze, it’s worth replacing them with sweet potato or pumpkin.

Summary

A good vegetable soup is not a matter of a list of vegetables but of order: a caramelized base, a starchy vegetable that gives body, and green vegetables that go in at the end. About 150 calories per bowl with 5 grams of fiber — an excellent starter, which becomes a complete meal only when you add a legume. For more soups see Soups, and for the nutritional values of the vegetables themselves — nutritional pros and cons.