Everything you need to know to make great main-course worthy soup, every time

“Soup puts a warm glow around you,” says Michele Curtis, chef, author and owner of Henny’s Food Store in Melbourne’s Elwood, where she offers up to five different soups every winter’s day. “In summer, I’m salad-salad-salad, but in winter, I’m soup-soup-soup.”

We’ve also stirred the pot with cookbook author and chef Michael Rantissi, owner of Kepos Street Kitchen in Sydney’s Redfern. “Soup starts as a pot of water with stuff floating in it and it grows into a bowl of love,” he says.

So if soup is essential, what are the essentials of good soup?

The basics

Every culture and cuisine embraces soup and its comforts but there are some basic styles.

1. Chunky soups include minestrone, laksa and ash reshteh, a herb-rich Persian classic.
2. There are pureed soups, such as pumpkin, tomato, asparagus and leek and potato.
3. Many soups are based on stock, broth or consomme: think matzo ball soup, wonton soup, Korean gomtang, and Japanese miso soup.
4. There’s also a category of sturdy soups such as West African egusi soup, which is thickened with pumpkin seeds; red lentil soup, which grows hearty as the lentils soften; and Greek avgolemono, which gains its velvety texture from egg and rice.

“There are so many great options,” says Curtis. “Soup is usually a one-pot wonder: it’s easy to make and you can cook a whole lot and freeze it so you always have some ready to go.”

Rantissi is a chunky soup guy. “I like my soups hearty and complex, with structure and texture. There is more technique and a lot more joy.”

The stock

You can make soup with water but using stock or broth adds flavour and nutrition. “A good stock is the basis for a good soup,” says Curtis, who always has vegetable stock on the go. “You can use odds and ends,” she says. “Celery tops, leek tops, carrot peels, parsley stalks, all of that can go into your stock pot.” And don’t cook it too long. “It really only takes 30 to 40 minutes to make a good-flavoured vegie stock. If it cooks longer, it tends to be bitter and not as friendly.”

For chicken stock, cover bones (roasted if you want a deeper, darker stock) or a whole chicken with water, add roughly chopped onion, leek, carrot, celery, a bay leaf or two, maybe a few peppercorns.

You can also lean into Asian flavours by adding (or substituting) ginger, lemongrass, coriander stalks and galangal. “Bring it to the boil and simmer for around an hour,” says Curtis. Next, strain the stock, pick any chicken meat from the bones, and chop it up. You can reduce the stock further or freeze it for later.

But Michele, I forgot to make stock. Am I allowed to buy it? “Yes,” she says. “I always have a pack of chicken stock in the cupboard at home. In an ideal world, you keep bones, make stock, all of that, but it’s not always possible. You can buy good-quality stocks and bone broths these days. You’re still making a home-cooked meal, so be kind to yourself.”

The body

“Most of my soups are based on [a French stock classic] mirepoix: chopped onions, leeks, celery and carrot, cut roughly for a pureed soup, and a bit finer for a chunky one, because you’ll see the pieces in the finished soup,” says Curtis.

“I sweat the vegetables in olive oil then I might add ginger or garlic, depending on what type of soup I’m making. You don’t want it to burn; you don’t want it to get any colour. You just want it to soften.”

‘Soup starts as a pot of water with stuff floating in it and it grows into a bowl of love.’

Once the mirepoix is glossy and soft, add stock and other ingredients such as spices. “I’ll often toast coriander, cumin and fennel seeds then add them to the soup,” says Rantissi. “They add a beautiful fragrance and a pop of flavour.” But be careful not to overdo it. “Don’t exaggerate the spice notes because they’ll be three times stronger later on.”

Most grains and pulses can be added directly to the soup to cook, though chickpeas would generally be cooked separately first, and pasta is a real sponge. “Pasta should be cooked separately to sustain an al dente finish,” says Rantissi. Curtis tends to use small pasta such as risoni because it soaks up less liquid.

Whatever you’re adding – vegetables, meats, pulses – be intentional and choose quality seasonal ingredients. “We shouldn’t think about soup as a way to clean out the fridge,” says Rantissi. “Good soup is not an afterthought. If you don’t put love in, you don’t get love back.”

Seasoning

“Add salt at the beginning of cooking because it brings out flavour, rather than just making the soup salty,” says Curtis. “When you season early, later seasoning is more like adjusting: you generally use less salt than if you left it all until the end.”

Think subtle: “You want the seasoning to complement the soup, not dominate it.” And stay cautious: “Under-seasoning is better than over-seasoning.”

Blending basics

Curtis has a trick for improving the texture of pureed soups. “I add a diced potato with the other veg,” she says. “When you blend it, it gives the soup a nice, creamy consistency.”

Chefs are forever passing soups through sieves but that’s not necessary at home. “I just use a stick blender,” says Curtis. “For everyday eating, give it a good blast, check the seasoning, and serve.” But be careful: soup burns can be awful. Angle the blender away from yourself and ensure the blades stay submerged.

Drizzles, sprinkles and splodges

For pureed soups, cream never goes astray. “It adds a nice finish and mouthfeel,” says Curtis. “I might go for creme fraiche if I’m feeling a little bit bougie.” She also loves infused oils: “We use Mount Zero lemon-infused olive oil a lot. It adds a fresh burst and I like the look of it on top of the soup, maybe with some chopped parsley.”

Colour matters. “For cauliflower soup, I add white pepper, because you don’t see it, whereas I actually like seeing flecks of black pepper in a minestrone,” says Curtis. There can never be too many herbs. “I add loads of herbs at the end of the cooking time to preserve their greenness.”

As well as simple chopped herbs, you can stir in pesto or add pangrattato, grated breadcrumbs crisped in olive oil with garlic, lemon zest and parsley. “That’s a nice way to jazz up a fairly simple soup,” says Curtis. Crunch might also be as simple as sprinkling over some crispy shallots, says Rantissi.

What are we forgetting?

Curtis points to winter vegetables such as Jerusalem artichokes, kohlrabi and parsnips. “I’ve been loving curried parsnip soup this winter,” she says.

Rantissi is keen on fancy serving ideas. “You can roast a baby pumpkin, pour a brothy soup into it, and scoop it and eat it like a meal,” he says. “There’s also a tradition to pour French onion soup inside a bowl-shaped bread loaf. Or you can cover a soup tureen in puff pastry and bake it in the oven.”

“Serve a toasted cheese sandwich with a soup: pick a nice local stretchy cheese and add hot English mustard to open the palate. People see soup as a lazy option but you can be as creative with soup as anything else.”

Some soups can transform into a stew the next day. “I did a tomato and bean soup recently, and the next day, I reduced it a bit more and had a fried egg with it,” says Rantissi. “It was like baked beans on toast.”

Is soup a meal?

Definitely. “A soup based on a bone broth, perhaps with chickpeas and shredded lamb, is a fully composed meal with protein, carb, veg,” says Rantissi. “It’s nutritious, healthy, filling, warming and comforting.”

Ensuring soup feels like a proper dinner can also be about creating a sense of occasion. “I always eat at the table with a beautiful bowl and table napkin,” says Rantissi. Curtis is strict on crockery and cutlery. “I like a proper soup spoon and a nice deep bowl, which keeps the soup warm for longer.”

Which soup is ready for a comeback?

Curtis reckons mulligatawny is overdue. The Raj-era British-Indian soup generally includes curry spices, lentils, rice, coconut milk and chicken, though there are countless variations, including some with apple. “It was a classic dish back in the ’80s,” says Curtis, who trained in England. “It’s lovely, wintry and warm.”

Rantissi is waiting for lentils to come back around. “Green lentils, red lentils, brown lentils, Puy lentils: we don’t see them as much as we used to,” he says. “But they are very good for you, and they work so well with winter root veg like parsnip and celeriac.”

They’re also easy to use in a soup. “You don’t have that danger zone of over-cooking them like you do for a salad. If they soften in a soup, it’s not the end of the world, it just makes your soup a bit thicker.”