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Home › Making Soup › Homemade Vegetable SoupA homemade vegetable soup is a wonderful thing. It’s just so much better than anything you’d get in a can. For one thing, only ingredients that you like end up in the soup. Plus, you have the opportunity to make it much healthier. And, well, making something yourself is just more satisfying.

Making your own homemade vegetable soup is one of the easiest things in the world. And it’s just so versatile. There are a ton of different kinds of vegetable soups — like minestrone, cabbage soup, chicken noodle,beef barley… and so many more.

Vegetable soup is also a great way to empty your fridge before the next trip to the grocery store — you can put almost any vegetable in a good old fashioned vegetable soup.

But if you don’t know how to do it, you can end up with something less than spectacular… it’s not just vegetables boiled in some water and poured in a bowl!

In this article, I’ll go over how to make an awesome homemade vegetable soup. I’ll talk about the different elements that make up a vegetable soup and how they all fit together. Here they are!

 

The Broth

The broth is one of the most important parts in any homemade vegetable soup. In fact, for the most part, you can think of a vegetable soup as being made up of two parts: the broth, and all the rest of the stuff that goes in the broth.

So what exactly is broth? It’s the liquid part of the soup. If you look up a proper definition, it’s water in which vegetables, meat or fish have been simmered, until they give flavor to the water.

But for this article, I’ll use broth as the liquid part of the soup — it can be much more than just the standard definition of broth! It’s a combination of a whole lot of things: stock, flavoring liquids, and a mirepoix.

Stock

The most important part of the broth is stock. A stock is made from meat and bones simmered in water for a very long time. It can be chicken, beef or fish bones. For a vegetable stock, you just simmer some vegetables in the water.

• You can use any kind of stock in a vegetable soup.
• If you want a vegetarian soup, you’ll have to go with vegetable stock, but chicken, beef and fish stock add a lot more body to a soup. They contain gelatin, which helps the flavors blend better, and has a really nice texture.
• If you’re planning on adding meat to the soup, pick the corresponding stock — so beef stock for a beef and barley soup, chicken stock for chicken noodle, and so on.
• A homemade stock beats a canned stock any day of the week. Find out how to make some by checking out our article on making chicken stock.

Extra Flavors

A homemade vegetable soup broth can also have lots of other flavoring liquids in it. The stock is the main body; the flavoring liquids add a little extra something.

• You can add any kind of liquid to the broth to add flavor. If you think it’ll taste good, try it out! You can always test it in a small amount of stock to see if it’s good.
• Wine can be a nice addition. Just be sure to simmer it a little bit to give the alcohol a chance to boil off.
• Some soups have a tomato base. Just add a bit of tomato juice or even a vegetable juice like V8.

The Aromatic Mirepoix

The last element in a broth is a mirepoix. A mirepoix isn’t anything complicated — it’s just some chopped aromatic vegetables, sauteed in a bit of oil or butter.

• Just dice up some celery, carrots, onion, and maybe a little bit of garlic. Saute for a bit, and you have a mirepoix. The longer you saute, the more intense a flavor it’ll have.
• A mirepoix doesn’t just add flavor to a broth, it also helps enhance the broth’s flavor, and the flavor of your homemade vegetable soup.
• How much should you add? As much as you like. Even a single carrot and celery stalk can add a lot of flavor to a whole pot of soup, but you can easily use more without overwhelming other flavors. Just be sure to have plenty of room in your broth for the other ingredients in your soup.

Making the Broth

The only element I’d say is really necessary is a good stock, even better if it’s homemade. If you have that and you’re short on time, you can skip the rest. You’ll still end up with a great homemade vegetable soup.

Putting the various elements together isn’t hard. Here’s how you do it.

1. If desired, chop up some celery, carrots, onion and garlic, and saute them until the onion starts to get soft — this is your mirepoix.
2. If you’re adding wine to the soup, add it now. Let it simmer gently until it’s reduced by 1/4 or 1/2.
3. Add the stock and other flavoring liquids.

Meat, Poultry or Tofu

Even though it’s a vegetable soup, that doesn’t mean it has to only have vegetables. Some chicken pieces, chunks of beef, or even little squares of tofu can turn a light homemade vegetable soup into a very satisfying and wholesome meal.

So what kind of meat can you add? Just about anything!

Leftovers

Soup is great for leftovers. If you have some leftover meat, you can just toss it into the soup.

• I tend to make my soup from a homemade chicken stock made from the bones of a roasted chicken, so I usually have a few pieces of cooked chicken leftover to add in the soup.
• You can add any kind of meat you like — beef, lamb, etc… just avoid mixing different kinds, because that can taste kind of weird.

Cooking Meat

If you don’t have any leftovers, you can also cook the meat (or tofu) directly in your old-fashioned vegetable soup.

• If you want, you can just cut up the meat into pieces and toss it into the broth. You just have to make sure it simmers long enough to fully cook the meat.
• A better way to do it is to sear the meat before boiling it. It adds flavor, and it looks a lot more appealing.
• Before making the broth, sear the chunks of meat in your soup pot. Take them out, then make your broth, and toss them back in. They can finish cooking while the soup is simmering.
• This is the best way to add ground meat to a homemade vegetable soup.
• If you dredge your chunks of meat in a bit of flour, they’ll sear more evenly, and it’ll thicken the broth a little bit.

Notes

• You can add as much meat (or poultry, or tofu) to your soup as you like. It depends on what you feel like. The more you add, the more filling it’ll be, but then you won’t have as much room for nutrient-packed vegetables.
• It’s best to add small pieces of meat rather than big chunks.
  • First of all, you never want to have to cut anything in a soup with a knife and fork. You just need a spoon!
  • Second, it’s nice if the pieces are small enough that they’ll fit on a spoon with a few other veggies, too. An old fashioned vegetable soup is all about blending flavors!

Beans, Grains and Pasta

Just like a bit of meat, poultry, or tofu, beans, grains, or pasta can make your homemade vegetable soup a lot more filling. Beans and grains add a whole lot of nutrition, too. And of course, if you’re vegetarian, you can add as much as you like!

Beans, grains and pasta are a little bit trickier than meat though:

• Beans and grains can take a while to cook, especially if you’re starting from dry beans.
• Beans, grains and pasta absorb some water as they cook, making the soup thicker.

So here are a few tricks to making a great homemade vegetable soup with beans, grains or pasta:

• Try pre-cooking them, then adding them to the soup (discarding the cooking water). This is the simplest way, but for beans and grains it means throwing some nutrients down the drain with that cooking water.
• Start with more broth than you think you need to compensate for whatever will evaporate or be absorbed.
• Keep some extra stock on hand to add to the soup if you feel it gets too thick.
• Canned beans are already cooked/soaked, so they don’t mess up the liquid content of your soup.

Some beans and grains that work great in soup are barley, rice, chick peas, lentils, and quinoa. But you can try it with anything you like.

Vegetables

It wouldn’t be a homemade vegetable soup without some vegetables! But what kind of vegetables should you add? And how many? And how long should they cook?

Well, here are a few simple guidelines to follow when adding vegetables to your homemade vegetable soup.

• You can add any vegetable you like to a vegetable soup. But it’s a good idea to pick vegetables that go well together.
  • If you add some bitter vegetables, like broccoli, brussel sprouts, or turnips, try to balance it with sweet vegetables like sweet potato, carrots, or peas, and vice-versa. It’s not necessary though, if you’re going for a “sweet” soup.
• A lot of people don’t like overcooked vegetables. If you want to avoid overcooking vegetables, just figure out how long each vegetable needs to cook to be just right.
  • Add the veggies that need to cook longest first, letting them cook a bit before working your way to adding the vegetables that take the least time to cook.
  • Personally, I don’t mind overcooked vegetables in a soup one bit. If they’re soft, I’m happy. So if you don’t mind either, don’t be too fussed about cooking the vegetables for the exact amount of time.
• Be sure to cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
  • A soup is all about blended flavors. If you use smaller vegetable chunks, you can fit a few different kinds on a spoon and get a better taste experience!
  • Smaller vegetable pieces cook faster, too, so it cuts down on your dinner preparation time.
• The only rule to how much to add is that you should have enough broth to cover all your vegetables. Other than that, just do what you feel.
  • If you want a lighter soup, just add fewer veggies.
  • If you want a soup that’s more of a meal, pack it full of vegetables so that each spoonful is full of veggies.

You can really add anything you like to a homemade vegetable soup. It’s a great time to empty out the fridge.

Try carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potato, peas, corn, brussel sprouts, tomatoes (canned or fresh), shredded cabbage, mushrooms, asparagus… anything, really!

You can even be adventurous and try adding some fruit like apple or pineapple.

My dad always added whole garlic cloves to the soup. Simmering for a long time made them pretty mild, and my brother and I always loved getting a whole clove, or an “eyeball” as we called it. And it’s so good for you, especially if you’re coming down with a cold!

Seasonings

The last thing that makes up a homemade vegetable soup is the seasoning you add in, the herbs and spices.

Again, you can add any kind of seasoning you like, but just be sure to pick something that goes well with your vegetables, meat, and grains.

Here are a few tips to adding seasoning:

• The broth in your soup will tend to reduce the longer you cook the soup. That means that any seasoning you add will get more intense as the soup cooks.
• However, some seasonings need time in the soup to really give some flavor, like fresh herbs, bay leaves, or star anise.

There are plenty of seasonings that go great in soup. Try ginger, rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, cilantro, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, cloves or cinnamon.

Really, you can try out any seasoning you like. If you’re not sure it’ll taste good, just try it out in a bit of broth before adding it to the pot.

My dad often adds a pinch of cinnamon to his chicken soup. He makes a thick soup with lots of vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and sweet potatoes, and the cinnamon gives it a special warm autumn meal feel. You never know what’ll be good!

And that’s really all there is to it. You can put as much or as little as you like into your homemade vegetable soup. The real key is to use these basics to experiment and find something that you truly enjoy!

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Home › Bridal Shower Menu › Guacamole DipGuacamole dip is one of those foods that once you make it yourself, you’ll wonder how you ever, ever bought it from a store. It’s super easy, takes about 5 minutes to make, and homemade guacamole tastes better than anything you can buy in a store.

Plus, when you know how to make guacamole, you basically have a thousand guacamole recipes in one. It’s super versatile – it can be chunky or smooth, hot or mild, and made with as much or as little seasoning as you like. You can make it just the way you like it.

And you have complete control over what goes into your guacamole dip. Guacamole is actually a really healthy snack, if you make it yourself. The main ingredient, avocados, are great for you – but some of the store-bought kind aren’t even made with real avocados!

So here’s how to make guacamole dip – easy, healthy, and delicious. In this article, we’ll go over the ingredients you’ll need, and how to make the dip.

 

Ingredients For Guacamole Dip

The first step to learning how to make guacamole dip is figuring out what ingredients you’ll need. Guacamole is so versatile. There are lots of ingredients to choose from to make a dip that’s just right for you. Make it as simple or as complicated as you like!

We’ll go over four categories: avocados, vegetables, seasonings, and texture-changers. Pretty much any ingredient you can add to a guacamole dip falls under of those.

Avocados

There are a lot of different ingredients you can use in a guacamole dip. But there’s just one ingredient that you absolutely must have: avocados. After all, guacamole is an avocado dip!

The most important thing you need to know about avocados is how to pick a good, ripe one, because an unripe avocado is really unpleasant – bitter, hard, and a real pain to peel.

• A ripe avocado has deep dark green skin, almost black.
• A ripe avocado is firm, but if you press it, it’ll yield just a bit.
  • If the avocado is very hard, it’s not ripe.
  • If the avocado is squishy when you press it, or it feels like there’s space between the peel and the flesh, the avocado is too ripe.
• The skin on a ripe avocado peels off really easily.
• If you can’t find any perfectly ripe avocados, you can get one that’s not ripe yet. It’ll ripen at room temperature in a few days. You can use it as soon as it ripens, or keep in it the fridge once it’s ripe.

If you’re planning on making guacamole dip, it’s a good idea to get your avocados ahead of time. Some grocery store carry ripe avocados, but some don’t – you have to buy them ahead of time to make sure they have time to ripen.

Notes

Just like apples, avocado goes brown really quickly once it’s peeled. Air causes it to oxidize. It’s not harmful, but it affects the taste a bit, and of course it doesn’t really look nice. So don’t prepare your avocado too far ahead of time.

Vegetables And Aromatics

Technically, guacamole doesn’t need to be anything more than just mashed avocados. But you can add a ton of flavor with just a few vegetables. Here are some possibilities:

• • Tomatoes. You can dice tomatoes and mix them into the mashed avocado to add a bit of juicy freshness. Make the chunks as big as you like. If you like smaller pieces of tomato, try using cherry tomatoes.

• Onions add a ton of flavor, and make a really yummy guacamole. The best way to add onion is to mince is very finely, so that it blends in really well, and adds lots of flavor, without any overpowering chunks. If you’re using red onion, though, you might want to leave bigger pieces in, for color.
• Garlic is always great in guacamole. You don’t have to add it, but a bit of minced or crushed garlic goes a long way. I love garlic, so I always add about a cloves per avocado.
• Peppers. What kind? Pretty much any kind. Hot peppers like chile or jalapeno add a nice bit of heat if you prefer something spicy. But bell peppers can be a nice addition, too. They’re not spicy, but they’ll add color, crunch and flavor to your guacamole dip.

These are just a few things you can add. The fun part about learning how to make guacamole is experimenting and finding out what you like best! So don’t be afraid to try different veggies.

And don’t be afraid to try out different quantities. Start by adding a little bit of each vegetable, and then taste the dip. You can always add more if you need to. And the more you make guacamole dip, the easier it’ll be for you to figure out just how much to add.

Seasonings, Herbs And Spices

I find that avocados are delicious all on their own, so I generally go light on the seasonings. But it’s true that avocados are kind of mild flavored, and the right seasonings can really go a long way towards making your guacamole dip outstanding.

Wondering what to add? Here are some ideas.

• • Most guacamole dips have some lemon or lime juice in them. It doesn’t just add flavor – it helps prevent the avocado from oxidizing, so that your guacamole doesn’t turn brown as fast.
    • You can add anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon per avocado, depending on what you like.
    • Some people swear by lemon juice, others lime. It all comes down to peoples’ tastes, and you can’t argue with that! Try both out, and see what you like best. I prefer lime myself, but it’s delicious with lemon, too.
  • Salt doesn’t just add saltiness. It enhances all the other flavors in the dip. So you definitely want a bit of salt in the mix. The amount you need depends on the size of your avocados and how coarse your salt is, but a 1/4 teaspoon per avocado is a good guideline

• Cilantro is a really popular herb for guacamole. My husband and I can’t stand it, so it’s banned from our house, but if you like cilantro, it’s goes great in guacamole dip. Just chop some up and add it to the dip.
• Other herbs, spices or seasonings you can use are cumin, cayenne pepper, chile powder, black pepper, or hot sauce. But you can experiment with any seasoning you like. It’s always easy to make more guacamole!

Notes

When you’re adding a seasoning, remember that it’s always easy to add more, but it’s not always so easy to take it out of the dip. So start with a bit, mix it in the guacamole dip, and then add more only if you feel it needs more.

Texture

A lot of people like their guacamole to keep the nice texture of mashed avocados. But sometimes it’s nice to try something a little different. If you want a creamier guacamole, try adding sour cream, yogurt, or a bit of olive oil.

Just stir it into the mashed avocados a bit at a time until the taste and texture is right.

How To Make Guacamole Dip

Alright, now that we know what ingredients can go in the dip, it’s time to find out how to make guacamole. And it really couldn’t be any easier.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Slice the avocados in half and split them apart. Cut the half that still has the pit in half again – you should be able to pull the pit right out. Peel the avocados, or scoop out the flesh with a spoon.
2. Mash the avocados. You can do this in lots of different ways, depending on how chunky you like your guacamole dip.
   • Mashing with a fork lets you leave it chunky or smooth, depending on what you want.
   • A potato masher will give you pretty smooth results.
   • You can also use a food processor or a blender for the creamiest results. I find that it’s usually not worth the clean up, especially since I like a chunkier guacamole dip!
3. If you’re using olive oil, yogurt or sour cream, stir it into the guacamole until the texture is just right.
4. Mince, chop and dice your vegetables and seasonings, and add them to the guacamole.
5. Mix well, and you’re done!

Storing Your Guacamole Dip

Guacamole is an awesome snack, but it doesn’t keep very well. Any contact with air will make the avocados turn brown after a few hours. It won’t taste quite the same, and it won’t look nearly as nice, either.

Since it’s so easy to make, the best thing to do is to make your guacamole dip right before you plan on serving it, but if you really need to make it ahead of time, here are a few tricks.

• If you’re not serving it right away, keep the guacamole in the fridge. If you don’t like cold guacamole, you can let it warm up to room temperature before you eat it.
• Minimize the guacamole’s exposure to air. You can cover it with plastic wrap (if the wrap touches the surface of the dip, it’s even better), place it in a Tupperware, or even in a Ziploc bag with the air pushed out.
• Lemon and lime juice help slow down oxidation. So the more you add, the longer it’ll take for the dip to get brown. Obviously you don’t want to affect the flavor too much, but even a bit of citrus juice will keep the guacamole green for a few hours.

Guacamole dip really is super fast and easy to make. It doesn’t take much more than 5 minutes, and doesn’t need a whole lot of cleanup. A perfect, healthy snack!

Home › Cooking Vegetables › Glazed CarrotsThink you’re tired of cooked carrots? Before you give up on them, try braised or glazed carrots. You might be surprised when you taste a vegetable side dish that outshines the rest of the meal.

Braising is a cooking technique where you cook food by partially immersing it in liquid. Depending on the liquid you use, you’ll get different results. And with different herbs and spices, you have an almost infinite number of possibilities.

Glazed carrots are just braised carrots, but with the cooking liquid reduced to a delicious glaze.

Braising is an especially nice way to cook carrots – sweet liquids add to the carrots’ natural sweetness, and savory liquids make a nice contrast.

In this article, I’ll talk about how to make braised and glazed carrots. First, I’ll go over preparing the carrots, seasonings and cooking liquids. Then, I’ll talk about how to braise the carrots. Finally, I’ll show how to turn the cooking liquid into a yummy glaze.

Here we go!

 

Preparing The Ingredients

When you’re cooking vegetables, the first step is always to prepare the vegetables. But when you’re making braised or glazed carrots, you also need to gather your seasonings and your cooking liquid.

Preparing The Carrots

The first thing you need to do is wash the carrots. No matter where you get them from, there might be dirt, chemicals, or micro-organisms left on them, and a bit of lukewarm water will help get that off. Just scrub them gently.

You can also peel the carrots if you like. Sometimes it’s better not to, though, since carrots have a lot of flavor and nutrients right up near the surface – you don’t want to peel that away! But if you feel your carrots need a good peel, go for it.

The last step is to cut up the carrots. Here are a few things to keep in mind.

• Smaller pieces cook faster.
  • If you don’t have a lot of time, small, diagonal slices will cook very quickly.
  • If you prefer bigger pieces, you can do that too. They’ll cook just as well and won’t burn or anything, but it’ll take longer. Whole carrots can take really long, unless they’re baby carrots, so it’s best to cut them up a little!
• Smaller pieces have more surface area. That means that they’ll caramelize more if you decide to sear them, and they’ll absorb more flavors from the sauce or glaze.
• Some cooking methods, like boiling, leech out nutrients and flavors from the carrots. The smaller the pieces, the more they lose. But when you’re braising, you can use the cooking liquid, so there’s really hardly any loss at all.

Once the carrots are cut up and ready, you can look at seasonings.

Picking Seasonings

The seasonings are what’ll make your braised and glazed carrots really stand out. With just a few herbs and spices, you can turn carrots into something really amazing.

There are a few different ways to use seasonings.

• Sauté them while you sear the carrots. This works best with aromatics like onions, shallots, or garlic, but it can also bring out the flavors of certain herbs and spices. Rosemary and thyme are wonderful when you heat them up a little!
• And them to the cooking liquid. This works wonderfully for most herbs and spices. It releases their flavor in a gentler way than sautéing. You can also add other seasonings like mustard, honey, sugar, salt, or pepper to the cooking liquid.
• Sprinkle them on top of the cooked carrots. This works best for fresh, chopped herbs like chives, parsley, chervil or dill. You get a nice fresh flavor that contrasts with the warm, braised carrot taste. You can also sprinkle some coarse sea salt on top of the carrots for a bit of crunchiness.

Don’t be afraid to be creative with your seasonings. The worst that can happen is you have a dish you don’t love… but you may also discover something amazing!

Notes

• If you want to make glazed carrots, you’ll need to have some kind of sugar in the sauce. You can add honey or sugar, or just use fruit juices as the cooking liquid. It’ll help the sauce boil down to a nice glaze-y consistency.

Picking A Cooking Liquid

One of the great thing about braised carrots is the different blend of flavors you can end up with. Seasonings give some variety, but the cooking liquid you pick also makes a huge difference. And it’s the base for your sauce or glaze, so it really influences the taste of your glazed carrots.

Some liquids that go especially nicely with carrots are orange juice, vegetable or chicken stock, white wine or a bit of melted honey. And you can combine them, or add a bit of balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice or chili sauce for a little extra kick.

Again, never be afraid to try out different things. For example, there are lots of different fruit juices you can try out, and you may end up with a really nice surprise if you experiment. Orange juice will give you wonderful orange carrots, and a delicious blend of flavors.

How To Make Braised Carrots

Once you’ve gathered and prepared your ingredients, you’re ready to start cooking and make braised carrots.

Here’s how you do it.

1. Heat a bit of butter in a pan over medium high heat.
   • You can also use oil or a combination of oil and butter to prevent burning, but butter gives a nicer flavor in a sauce.
   • Try to use a pan that can fit all your carrots in a single layer. Braised carrots are much tastier if more of the carrots are immersed in the sauce!
2. Add the carrots and seasonings you want to sauté to the pan, and sauté them until they’re browned to your liking.
   • You don’t have to sear the vegetables at all. If you don’t like the caramelized flavor, then don’t worry about this step!
   • The goal is to just get the surface to cook, not the inside. You want the carrots to finish cooking in the liquid so that they get more flavorful.
3. Add the cooking liquid and other seasonings, and bring it to a boil.
4. Place a fitted lid over the pan. You want the steam to stay trapped so that it can help cook the carrots. Lower the temperature a bit so that you have a light simmer.
5. Cook the carrots until they’re as tender as you like them, then remove them from the liquid. I find a slotted spoon is the best tool!
6. Set the carrots aside. We’ll go over making the sauce or glaze in the next section.

And now you have some braised carrots! Read on to find out how to turn them into delicious glazed carrots.

Making A Sauce Or Glaze

Braised carrots are pretty delicious all on their own. They get really yummy and flavorful from the cooking liquid and seasonings. But you can make them even more outstanding with a sauce. Or, you can even turn that sauce into a glaze and make amazing glazed carrots.

After removing the carrots, you’ll find you have some cooking liquid left. That’ll be the base for your sauce. It’s full of great flavors, and any nutrients the carrots might have lost ended up in the liquid. It’s perfect!

Here’s what you do.

1. Taste the cooking liquid. If you find it needs a little extra something, go ahead and add it.
   • You can try a bit of vinegar or soy sauce, some fruit juice, spices, anything you like. Or don’t add anything at all.
   • Go easy on the seasonings. As the sauce reduces, the flavors will get more intense, so it’s best to start with something that’s not too strong tasting.
2. Bring the liquid to a boil. Let it boil down until it starts to thicken.
   • If your sauce has lots of gelatin (from a good chicken stock), or lots of sugar (from honey or just sugar added to it), the sauce should thicken on its own.
3. If the sauce doesn’t thicken, mix about a teaspoon of flour or cornstarch with a bit of water. Mix it really really well, and then add it to the sauce. Stir it in well. As the sauce boils it’ll thicken.
   • You can use more or less flour as needed, but remember, it’s better to start with less and add more, because once it’s in the sauce, you can’t take it back out!
   • If your cooking liquid has enough sugar in it, it’ll turn into a glaze. Otherwise it’ll be more of a sauce. Either way, it’ll be delicious!
4. Spoon the sauce over the carrots, or place the carrots back in the sauce or glaze, toss to get them coated, and simmer them a few minutes.
5. Serve, and enjoy!

And that’s how to make braised carrots, and take it one step further to make glazed carrots. You’ll love it!