The White Hat Recipe for Seven Basic Soups

Soups are dead easy because there are only five basic steps.

1. When you get home chop some onions and garlic and throw them into a large saucepan with a little oil over a low heat. There may be some good soups out there that don’t benefit by starting with onions and garlic but we are yet to meet them.
2. Pour yourself a glass of wine and rehearse what you really should have said to the boss or that client today if you had time to think about it. That onion and garlic is starting to smell good.
3. Time to think about what sort of soup you are going to cook. The onion and garlic may be about brown – best to pour in that quarter glass of wine to slow the cooking process. Now, where were we? - yes – you glass is empty. Easily remedied. If there are some tired vegetables in the crisper chop them finely and allow them to sweat down.
4. Your boss and that client are starting to sink into their appropriate position in the world and the soup is smelling good. Time to add some stock and the main ingredients – and a half glass of wine would add to its flavour and your shoes are starting to feel a bit tight so take them off.
5. Put some crusty bread under the griller, pull out some croutons or parmesan cheese or fresh herbs for topping and serve up. Thank goodness the work function at the fancy restaurant was cancelled at the last minute.

Here is our first suggestion for a simple after-work soup.

No.1 – Indian Parsnip Soup

Follow steps one to three above then cut several large parsnips into discs and throw them in. After a short time add a good quantity of chook stock. Vegos can of course use vegetable stock but then you might need a thickening agent later on. Simmer for 20 or 30 minutes until the parsnip disks are tender then remove from heat and attack it with a stick blender. When it has become a puree you know you have beaten it into submission.

Fancy recipe books would then tell you how to prepare various Indian spices by roasting and grinding and husking etc. However, we prefer to cheat.

In recent years, Indian stores have started to stock small vacuum packed ready-to-heat Indian side dishes. They are typically in small (about half A4 size) thin brightly coloured cardboard packages with a foil pack inside. There is a large range and nearly all are intensely flavoured in the Indian tradition, In fact, too intensely flavoured for many an Australian palate. But not if added to your parsnip stock. Choose the flavours and ingredients to suit your taste from the packages on display at your local Indian store, add to your parsnip stock, heat through then serve with a garnish of fresh coriander and a wedge of lemon or lime and you have an authentic(ish) Indian Parsnip Soup.