I think that depends on the vegetable and whether or not it has already been cooked.  Cooked corn is fine to freeze as it's blanched before freezing anyhow.

I think i would make the soup with the veggies and freeze it.

Yes frozen vegetables are really good in soups   But personally, I am reluctant to use them because they're not fresh and also because of the numerous food additives.
I do my best to use as many fresh vegetables as possible and one tip would be to always mix the frozen vegetables (if you cannot find many fresh ones) with some which are fresh so that you get all the necessary nutrients...

My favourite soup is my mum's Lentil soup. It's usually made by eye and guesswork, but I'll try for a recipe (sorry for lack of quantities):

1 medium onion
1 large carrot
1 stick celery
four or five waxy potatoes
Stock (ham is best, but any will do, fresh or cubes - if you don't have any you can use water, but salt it really well).
Red lentils
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper


If you have a pressure cooker, use that and this will be done in half an hour; otherwise use a large saucepan and expect it to take an hour and a half.

Dice all the veg and fry gently until onion is transparent. How coarsely you chop it is a matter of taste. Mum leaves the carrots as discs. You can peel the tatties if you want, but I keep the skins on unless they're very scabby.

Add the stock and lentils. This is where it gets tricky as far as quantities are concerned - my Mum never measures anything, but does it by eye, and I do too. You want maybe a litre of stock, and you want to add enough lentils that when you stir it they rise up and look reasonably numerous, but sink invisibly when you let it settle. I realise this is completely unhelpful, but the thickness of it is also a matter of taste. For starters, try 250ml lentils and you can change it in future batches if it is too thick or thin.

Add pepper, and salt if you are using water or unseasoned stock. No point tasting it at this stage as it will not taste right until the lentils dissolve.

Now bring to the boil. If using a pressure cooker, seal the lid on, bring it to pressure and give it 10min at 15lb pressure. If no pressure cooker, let it boil furiously for 10min, then simmer gently for 50min.

The finished soup should be smooth, with the lentils turned yellow and largely dissolved, but the veggies still distinguishable. Taste it and adjust the seasoning. Best served sprinkled with grated strong cheddar, with crusty white bread and butter!

This stores and freezes really well, but so you don't get a fright, it turns solid when it cools, and gets thicker the longer you store it! Just water it down when you come to use it.

Last edited by hippytea (Mon 12 Sep 11 3:51am)

Just made a soup for later:

Golden Veg Soup

3 lg carrot
1 lg onion
1 stick celery
4 small potatoes (1 lg one)
2 cloves of garlic
salt
3 rashers of back bacon (or non-fatty equivalent)


Chop all the veg very finely, place in a large pan & sweat in olive oil until slightly soft.
Add boiling water to cover, add salt to taste (under-season slightly) lid on & simmer until soft.
Meanwhile grill or dry fry the bacon until very crispy, cool & then snip with scissors into shards.
Blitz 1/2 the soup to smooth in a blender, re-combine with soup in the pan, check seasoning, & serve.
Sprinkle bacon on the top of the soup.

It sounds wrong not to add a good stock, but this is such a gentle tasting soup nothing should overpower it.

Edit: With fresh bread, it will serve 4.
If another mouth turns up unexpectedly, just add a couple of handfuls of frozen peas/sweetcorn!!!

Last edited by minerva (Sun 18 Sep 11 11:56am)