Making soups from leftovers is ever so easy. Play around with flavour combinations, depending on what you have. Sweet-fleshed roots such as parsnips, carrots or sweet potatoes go well with leeks. Adding leftover blue cheese is a great way of perking up a soup.
For your base
Simply chop half an onion and gently fry it in a little butter or oil in a saucepan. If you have some herbs, all the better – add a bay leaf or a handful of chopped parsley to the pan, then pour in Knorr Stock – chicken, beef, vegetable or fish, depending on what type of soup you want to make.
Minestrone
For a chunky minestrone-style soup, gather a variety of chopped cooked vegetables –carrots, potatoes, peas, a handful of leftover cooked pasta and a squeeze of tomato paste. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat then simmer gently for 15 minutes.
Chicken Noodle Soup
For a chicken noodle soup, use Knorr Chicken Stock and add in finely-diced leftover chicken or turkey from your Christmas roast with a handful of broken-up noodles – spaghetti, vermicelli, whichever you like.
Smooth-style
For a smooth-textured soup, follow the recipe for the base then add in a generous amount of chopped cooked vegetables, simmer for 20 minutes and then blend.
Flavour
Play around with flavour combinations, depending on what you have. Sweet-fleshed roots such as parsnips, carrots or sweet potatoes go well with leeks.
Cheese
Adding leftover blue cheese is a great way of perking up a soup – simply crumble in around 75–100g blue cheese before simmering and blending – broccoli and Stilton soup, cauliflower and blue cheese, or potato and blue cheese are all good combinations.
Garnish
Dress up your soup with a swirl of leftover cream or a tablespoon of creme fraiche. Alternatively, you could use a sprinkling of chopped chives or parsley; or a scattering of croutons made from leftover bread, cubed and fried in oil or butter until golden-brown.
