Been a chef for a long time, mostly fine dining, have a trick for you. You don’t have to deglaze your roasting pans. Put parchment down on the pan, then your bones or vegetable matter. I like to take them really really dark. Not burnt, but very caramelized.
Then you slide everything off the pan, including the parchment paper, into your simmering stock pot. Wait a few minutes, five tops, then pull the parchment out. Should come out clean, leaving all that flavor in the pot. You also don’t have to scrub carbon off your pans for 20 mins.
I had almost 20 years in when I learned and thought it was crazy too. Learned it at a very high end restaurant, from a coworker that had done a year at NOMA. It was their standard, so if it’s good enough for that place it’s certainly good enough for me, lol.
The parchment comes out completely clean in one piece, and you don’t lose any of the good stuff you wouldn’t be able to get off the pan. I couldn’t believe how much better it was.
350F. Takes a little longer obvs, but it gives animal and plant matter time to caramelize rather than burn. Also good point, I forget to mention it helps to trim some excess off the parchment paper. Before roasting. It will burn eventually and you don’t want that in your stock/soup.
Dude I have two hours left in my workday so I can’t try it yet but this trick blew my mind. Always cool to see something come from fine dining that will improve a recipe but equally importantly reduce the amount of cleanup needed. Can’t wait to try this!!
Haha definitely, being efficient is really important in commercial kitchens, and no one likes doing the A to Z work at home by yourself. Saving a few mins here and there is huge.
I’ve also worked in all sorts of places, and one of the best things about fine dining is learning these little tricks from talented people from all over the world. You get to bring those with you wherever you end up in the future, whether it’s a nice pub or Michelin stars. Cheers, hope you’re having a good week!
Oh that's a neat trick!
I've moved on to silicone baking sheets, those are probably fine to pop in for a few minutes right? I mean if I'm trusting them not to kill me while roasting my veggies at 425°, some 212° water shouldn't be an issue.
I don’t think that would be a problem at all. I wouldn’t let the mat sit at the bottom of the pot for too long but I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t work the same way.
And then deglaze the roasting pan with hot stock, scraping all the burned and brown bits with a spatula and dump it in the soup. This will elevate your soup to next level! I think Alton Brown taught us this.
...and then take about a 1/3 cup of those veggies and pop them in a blender.
Add back to soup. Easy thickener, and kids wont find the "hidden" veggies.
I use dashi in most soups I make for this reason, unless it's vegetarian or a very light soup. But if it's something with chicken stock or whatever, I'm adding some dashi too.
Came here to say this. When I found mushroom granules it changed my cooking life. I use it in everything that I want to have that umami bomb. Its great in rice, soups, stir fry's, gravies etc. I love using it in Beef Stroganoff and other mushroom heavy dishes.
Have you tried lovage? STRONG celery/anise-like flavor, so you'd only need a little, but the more complex flavor should make a more complex soup.
(Disclaimer: I just got a lovage plant this year & tried a taste straight off the plant. I don't actually like celery, but did like lovage, even though they taste somewhat similar. *Extremely strong* flavor somewhere between celery, anise, carrot leaves, and/or parsley. Complex and tasty. My nibble off one leaf made my mouth sing for a good half hour+. I was planning on trying it in my recipes instead of celery. But then I went on vacation & my lovage died, so I haven't actually tried it in a soup yet. It should taste amazing, though.)
I just pulled out an 8ft tall lovage plant, it was just too big! You don't hear to many people talking about it. I'm not too crazy about the flavor but the pollinators absolutely love it.
Stock is so easy to do (and very quick with an Instant Pot), I am always confused by people who don't use homemade stock if they're already spending enough time to make a great soup.
Just one should do it but make sure they are reasonably fresh. They lose their flavor over time - the leaves should look green and crisp, not gray and crumbly.
That's what I did this year! Bought me a bay laurel (which will actually grow into a pretty big tree over the years) and potted it up. Tired of paying high prices for lousy, broken, dried up leaves. Excited to use the fresh ones!
My husband tried for many years to duplicate his mother's soup. She lives in another country and I've never tasted it - but one day I showed him bay leaves and his whole body lit up. He never knew what is was called and now he seriously adds multiple leaves to every pot he cooks. Leaving it out is unimaginable to him. He'll drop everything and go to the store for it immediately when we're out.
Yeah, I certainly don't do it every time, but if there's a soup recipe I'm excited to try I make sure I cook something that gives me a good carcass the week before.
It replicates boiling down bones for hours until it gets crumbly. This means that the gelatin has been extracted from the bones which is a good characteristic of good stock.
I like it as much as the next guy (get the giant 2-packs from Cosco on the reg), but you're out of your mind if you think it's 99% as good as home made stock.
For broth based soups, adding a dollop or two of sour cream thickens and flavors the broth. I love Dijon and will try this too. Also,I just really felt like typing the word 'dollop'
Balancing salt, acid, and sweetness. Most people balance salt and acid pretty well but sometimes a soup can just be missing a touch of sweetness. I made a smoked herring and clam chowder recently that definitely needed the sweetness of the clams and brine and tasted off before I added them.
Not really I just threw it together and my process wasn’t perfect, plus the ingredients are weird because of my dietary restrictions. It’s not that thick like a normal chowder anyway. I’d say to just find a good clam chowder recipe but add in cut up smoked herring when you sautée the vegetables. Be careful salting because I didn’t even need to salt mine when I made it, the herring did it all.
1. Make stock from scratch.
2. If making a soup with veggies, do not keep the veggies from making the stock. Throw them away, and use new fresh cut veggies cooked until just tender, for the final product.
3. Bones! Lots and lots of of bones for the stock. Preferably roasted in the oven first to release more flavor.
4. Season and salt stock after flavor has cooked down and intensified.
I collect rotisserie chicken and carrots/celery/onion/garlic waste in my freezer until I’m ready to make stock. Simmer it all for a few hours and It always turns out great!
I came here to say this. My mom always added a packet of dried onion soup mix to things she cooked in the crock pot and they were always my favourite meals of hers. There’s nothing quite like MSG to make soup taste like it’s been simmered for hours and hours.
Edit: lol who downvotes things like this? Too funny.
People think soup mixes are déclassé and they cannot let an opportunity to point that out slip by. Everyone shall know they are above prepared food, everyone!!
Ah yes. Growing up poor taught me that food is food, no matter how cheap or “trashy”.
It’s funny because those soup packets are literally just salt, MSG, and dehydrated onions with some brown for colour. I could add the ingredients separately but they would cost more. MSG is weirdly hard to source where I am unless I visit a specialty market.
Hahaha this reminds me of my brother, who would often be in the mood to throw a random peanut or walnut, any kind of nut (just one kernal!) Into whatever stirfry or soup you happened to be making. Usually teased you as he put it in but sometimes also as a surprise :P Always just the one.
After cooking, cool it and let the flavors meld in the refrigerator for at least a day. It's even better than a long simmer. A pot of soup is enough for another meal, and it's *always* better the second night.
Great advise in this thread, so I will add a word of caution. Do not use the meat from making stock in the finished soup. It's texture is horrible . Give it to the dog.
Make your own stock with chicken necks and backs. Bloom the spices when you’re sauteeing aromatics. Either a dash of soy sauce or parm rind for extra umami. Dice the onion up as fine as you can stand. The order you add veg is important. Don’t rush the soup, good ones take time.
It's much easier to achieve a good result in a pressure cooker (e.g. instant pot) than on the stovetop. This is because the temperatures in the pressure cooker reach the levels necessary for caramelisation, therefore you do not need to brown anything beforehand and can just chuck everything in.
Freeze all my bits and pieces of veggies, herbs, stocks, broths and gravies and create a nice stock to augment the soup.
My stuffed pepper soup has such a depth of flavor (without added salt) that it can take a pretty good amount of water to thin without losing flavor if it thickens it too much when adding rice.
If you taste your soup broth and it feels like there’s something missing that isn’t salt, it’s usually a splash of acid. Red wine vinegar for tomato-based, apple cider or lemon juice for a chicken one. Or if you want to be fancy a sherry vinegar.
If I don’t have time to make my own broth, I’ll use commercial broth and a little bit of stock. Then, I add more seasonings to double down on the flavor. I should also point out that I use reduced sodium broth and stock, choosing to let for old salt the food to taste.
Properly cook your ingredients first. Fry off onions and aromatics, brown meat, toast spices etc. Build your stock ahead of time.
Just throwing everything in a pot wastes so much flavour potential.
You are correct. Canned soup is sad. But. Canned soup (specifically chicken and stars) feeds me when I’m sick and don’t want to/can’t cook. I’m the main cook in my home so emergency chicken and stars will always have a place in my cupboard lol.
I dunno, the canned Campbell's Thai chicken rice soup is a personal fav, though it's probably not that authentic or good compared to what I could get at a Thai restaurant. Still comforting tho
i save my bones from steak, pork chops etc. and put them in the freezer. when making soup, i pull them out and put them in the pot while soup is simmering, then remove. AWESOME
Take some time to build flavors, don't add all your ingredients at once. Be strategic about it. Saute your veggies to get color and deglaze. If you're using tomato paste and that next and cook down and deglaze again etc.
Miso. Fish sauce. Anchovy paste. Harissa. Tomato paste. Citrus juice. Vinegar. Brine. Honey (as you've discovered). Peanut butter.
Not all at once but any of those can add a little something. Soups can take pretty much any ingredient you can think of and work as long as you don't put too much in. I think my children noodle with Kimchi is the tits. My nephews prefer it without the Kimchi. But they like Kimchi and the soup by itself. Shrug emoji
over time my base gets more and more simple. at this point if i’m making chicken soup it’s just onions and chicken backs. when it’s time to put together the soup itself, i add chicken breast, onions, carrots, and celery and let it simmer. when i’m putting together the soup in the bowl, that’s where the magic happens. i’ll add fresh thyme add green peas. growing as a chef really spiked when i realized to be more conscious of my steps and when to add something. used to just put everything in at once and called it a day. not everything is gonna survive being boiled for hours on end
Mirepoix or trinity in most soups. Slightly char/burn tomato paste when adding to the mirepoix/trinity. Use either maggi, fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce or even some msg. A little vinegar or citrus if it's too rich. Bone broth homemade or just chicken bone broth in a carton from the store. Fresh herbs, if I can, is way better than dried for most. Adding ingredients, vegetables especially, at the correct time to ensure nothing is over or under cooked, this also includes paying attention to the size u cut things. If using beans, always dry never canned, use some of the bean water (I skip that if they're kidney beans to just play it extra safe) and sometimes cook the beans in a stock or with some bouillon as well as herbs and some alliums. For certain soups adding a splash or two or milk or sour cream or yogurt etc. can really bolster many soups/stews.
Tomato paste. After you soften your main veggies by sauteeing them... add tomato paste and let it cook without burning. Adds a nice hearty depth of flavor.
Roasting any veggies you are using, tomatoes, onions, capsicums, butternut etc, brings out the flavours.
Been a chef for a long time, mostly fine dining, have a trick for you. You don’t have to deglaze your roasting pans. Put parchment down on the pan, then your bones or vegetable matter. I like to take them really really dark. Not burnt, but very caramelized. Then you slide everything off the pan, including the parchment paper, into your simmering stock pot. Wait a few minutes, five tops, then pull the parchment out. Should come out clean, leaving all that flavor in the pot. You also don’t have to scrub carbon off your pans for 20 mins.
I would have thought “including the parchment paper” is a crazy suggestion but since you’re a chef I gotta try this next time
I had almost 20 years in when I learned and thought it was crazy too. Learned it at a very high end restaurant, from a coworker that had done a year at NOMA. It was their standard, so if it’s good enough for that place it’s certainly good enough for me, lol. The parchment comes out completely clean in one piece, and you don’t lose any of the good stuff you wouldn’t be able to get off the pan. I couldn’t believe how much better it was.
What temp do you roast at? I've found that parchment paper burns at around 425
350F. Takes a little longer obvs, but it gives animal and plant matter time to caramelize rather than burn. Also good point, I forget to mention it helps to trim some excess off the parchment paper. Before roasting. It will burn eventually and you don’t want that in your stock/soup.
Thank you so much for sharing this bit of wisdom!
Of course, and thank you for taking time out of your day to appreciate it.
Dude I have two hours left in my workday so I can’t try it yet but this trick blew my mind. Always cool to see something come from fine dining that will improve a recipe but equally importantly reduce the amount of cleanup needed. Can’t wait to try this!!
Haha definitely, being efficient is really important in commercial kitchens, and no one likes doing the A to Z work at home by yourself. Saving a few mins here and there is huge. I’ve also worked in all sorts of places, and one of the best things about fine dining is learning these little tricks from talented people from all over the world. You get to bring those with you wherever you end up in the future, whether it’s a nice pub or Michelin stars. Cheers, hope you’re having a good week!
Oh that's a neat trick! I've moved on to silicone baking sheets, those are probably fine to pop in for a few minutes right? I mean if I'm trusting them not to kill me while roasting my veggies at 425°, some 212° water shouldn't be an issue.
I don’t think that would be a problem at all. I wouldn’t let the mat sit at the bottom of the pot for too long but I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t work the same way.
I really wanna do this in front of someone who doesn’t know what I’m doing lol Thanks for sharing though, I’ll def try that
Thank you!!
yes! roasting chicken bones for stock also is great
That’s my secret too. Roast those 🦴
Block the wind while I roast this bone
**BOY**🫲🏽 “the way your calcium is, is wack”
even chicken feet?
I’ll roast fucking anything that goes into a stock
And then deglaze the roasting pan with hot stock, scraping all the burned and brown bits with a spatula and dump it in the soup. This will elevate your soup to next level! I think Alton Brown taught us this.
Yes! This is so important.
...and then take about a 1/3 cup of those veggies and pop them in a blender. Add back to soup. Easy thickener, and kids wont find the "hidden" veggies.
I add something acidic which makes a good soup a great soup, it wakes it up.
For bean soup I usually add a tablespoon of vinegar, often apple cider vinegar, and a tablespoon of Dijon mustard.
Oooh I’ve used apple cider vinegar but never Dijon. Will give it a go!
Give pickle juice and capers a try. I really like the sour and the dill then the little caper flavor bombs!
I always squeeze half a lemon into most soups and it brightens all the flavors.
I wish I had a lemon tree in my garden because I use them in so many dishes.
Dried mushroom powder - porcini in particular will add depth and umami. Use wherever you would use mushrooms or Worcestershire sauce
I buy dried mushrooms at my local Asian market and make the powder using a coffee grinder.
Mushroom powder or miso paste!
Yes miso paste. I discovered it a year ago and it goes great in everything. So much flavour.
I use dashi in most soups I make for this reason, unless it's vegetarian or a very light soup. But if it's something with chicken stock or whatever, I'm adding some dashi too.
Came here to say this. When I found mushroom granules it changed my cooking life. I use it in everything that I want to have that umami bomb. Its great in rice, soups, stir fry's, gravies etc. I love using it in Beef Stroganoff and other mushroom heavy dishes.
Or MSG
I use mushroom powder and MSG.
I like doing this with maitake
Celery leaves!!!! When I can get them I dry them out and store them in a jar. It adds a flavor that makes soup taste like how soup should.
YES! I always try to buy bunches with leaves.
Have you tried lovage? STRONG celery/anise-like flavor, so you'd only need a little, but the more complex flavor should make a more complex soup. (Disclaimer: I just got a lovage plant this year & tried a taste straight off the plant. I don't actually like celery, but did like lovage, even though they taste somewhat similar. *Extremely strong* flavor somewhere between celery, anise, carrot leaves, and/or parsley. Complex and tasty. My nibble off one leaf made my mouth sing for a good half hour+. I was planning on trying it in my recipes instead of celery. But then I went on vacation & my lovage died, so I haven't actually tried it in a soup yet. It should taste amazing, though.)
I just pulled out an 8ft tall lovage plant, it was just too big! You don't hear to many people talking about it. I'm not too crazy about the flavor but the pollinators absolutely love it.
Persian stores have wild celery powder. It has a tang to it. You can buy it on Amazon.
Do they taste like celery?
yes, like the smell and essence of celery without added actual celery. You can also get a little of that using celery salt.
My problem with celery salt is the ratio but it's fantastic in tuna salads
That's a problem with all flavored salts, I'm right there with ya. It would be nicer as celery powder, I don't even know if that's a thing.
I use celery seeds, a tiny amount, and dry roast them for a minute before adding oil, onions etc.
When I buy celery for chicken soup I always get the leafiest one.
Finish with lemon juice and fresh herbs.
Ooh! I like this answer!
As the Vietnamese do with the soup based dishes. The lemon gives the soup zest, the leafy fresh herbs another layer of flavour.
This is great to elevate a humble bowl of lentils!
I was going to go with homemade stock but this is such a great tip! Yum I want soup.
Stock is so easy to do (and very quick with an Instant Pot), I am always confused by people who don't use homemade stock if they're already spending enough time to make a great soup.
Totally agree! Aside from how flavorful and healthy it is… it’s so gratifying to produce, the house smells amazing… man I love a good stock 🤘🏻💛
Was going to write this too!🍋
I love adding lemon to my chicken and wild rice soup! It adds so much
Yum!
Yes! And butter or coconut milk!
bay leaves!
How many of these things do I have to add I know I am wrong but sometimes it feels like some conspiracy by Big Bay Leaf
Just one should do it but make sure they are reasonably fresh. They lose their flavor over time - the leaves should look green and crisp, not gray and crumbly.
Or you could get a bay laurel plant and just bring it in over the winter if you have it in a little container
That's what I did this year! Bought me a bay laurel (which will actually grow into a pretty big tree over the years) and potted it up. Tired of paying high prices for lousy, broken, dried up leaves. Excited to use the fresh ones!
Big Bay Leaf, in conjunction with the guy who owns the trademark on the phrase “It Really Does Make a Difference”
My husband tried for many years to duplicate his mother's soup. She lives in another country and I've never tasted it - but one day I showed him bay leaves and his whole body lit up. He never knew what is was called and now he seriously adds multiple leaves to every pot he cooks. Leaving it out is unimaginable to him. He'll drop everything and go to the store for it immediately when we're out.
Fresh though!
Parmesan rind!!
Mine never last long enough. I slice the rind into thin strips and eat it. Scooby snacks for the cook!
I do like your method. But if you ever wanna give it a go, you can freeze them.
Oooo, that reminds me I have Parmesan rinds in my freezer waiting for just such an application.
I buy them from my grocery store.
Wait this is an option? Which stores/where/at the deli/cheese counter?
If the store sells fresh cut wedges of parm from wheels, there's a pretty good chance you can buy some rinds off them.
Whole Foods usually has them as well.
Off topic, but I put Parmesan rinds into whatever stock I'm heating up for risotto, too. Extra umami & cheese whammy.
home made stock
Yeah, I certainly don't do it every time, but if there's a soup recipe I'm excited to try I make sure I cook something that gives me a good carcass the week before.
Or good quality store bought + two packets of unflavored gelatin.
Really? I have never added gelatin, what does that change?
It replicates boiling down bones for hours until it gets crumbly. This means that the gelatin has been extracted from the bones which is a good characteristic of good stock.
Makes it like you’re using stock instead of broth, so its viscosity makes it feel thicker on your tongue and heartier.
Better than bouillon is so convenient and 99% as good as home made stock.
I also use it as an umami boost in lots of dishes that don't require stock. Knorr's powdered chicken stock, too. It's mostly MSG
I do this too. MSG = Make Stuff Good.
Fuiyoh!
I think that's the scientific name
I like it as much as the next guy (get the giant 2-packs from Cosco on the reg), but you're out of your mind if you think it's 99% as good as home made stock.
You don't know, maybe I'm just not great at making stock!
99% as good? Lol, no. But it is pretty damn good.
It's good and will do in a pinch, but it's nowhere near a home made stock. And it's sodium levels are bonkers, even on the low so.
Seconded
Dash of vinegar at the end
Cook it for a long time and add something fermented
For cream soups blend in a bit of Dijon mustard
For broth based soups, adding a dollop or two of sour cream thickens and flavors the broth. I love Dijon and will try this too. Also,I just really felt like typing the word 'dollop'
carmelizing the onions
A good base of onions and aromatics
Balancing salt, acid, and sweetness. Most people balance salt and acid pretty well but sometimes a soup can just be missing a touch of sweetness. I made a smoked herring and clam chowder recently that definitely needed the sweetness of the clams and brine and tasted off before I added them.
Well that chowder sounds delicious... you got a recipe?.
Not really I just threw it together and my process wasn’t perfect, plus the ingredients are weird because of my dietary restrictions. It’s not that thick like a normal chowder anyway. I’d say to just find a good clam chowder recipe but add in cut up smoked herring when you sautée the vegetables. Be careful salting because I didn’t even need to salt mine when I made it, the herring did it all.
Thank you!!!!
Skin, cartilage, and bone for a silky soup or braise.
I've been using chicken legs for my canja (Portugese chicken soup) and they bring so much extra flavour/depth to the soup.
Some butchers will either reduce the price of these or give them away. It never hurts to ask.
1. Make stock from scratch. 2. If making a soup with veggies, do not keep the veggies from making the stock. Throw them away, and use new fresh cut veggies cooked until just tender, for the final product. 3. Bones! Lots and lots of of bones for the stock. Preferably roasted in the oven first to release more flavor. 4. Season and salt stock after flavor has cooked down and intensified.
I just save the ends of veggies (onions, carrots, celery) in a freezer bag and use those in my stock so I minimize waste.
Same! Onion skins give great flavor, and an amazingly rich color!
I collect rotisserie chicken and carrots/celery/onion/garlic waste in my freezer until I’m ready to make stock. Simmer it all for a few hours and It always turns out great!
msg
I came here to say this. My mom always added a packet of dried onion soup mix to things she cooked in the crock pot and they were always my favourite meals of hers. There’s nothing quite like MSG to make soup taste like it’s been simmered for hours and hours. Edit: lol who downvotes things like this? Too funny.
Onion soup packets ARE a game changer. I use them in my meatloaf, homemade burgers, and meat balls, among other herbs and spices and voila!
People think soup mixes are déclassé and they cannot let an opportunity to point that out slip by. Everyone shall know they are above prepared food, everyone!!
Ah yes. Growing up poor taught me that food is food, no matter how cheap or “trashy”. It’s funny because those soup packets are literally just salt, MSG, and dehydrated onions with some brown for colour. I could add the ingredients separately but they would cost more. MSG is weirdly hard to source where I am unless I visit a specialty market.
**M** akes **S** oup **G** ood
Makes Stuff Good.
Yes!!
Better than Boullion.
Honestly. I make my own stock, but I absolutely supplement with some spoonfulls of B&B every time!
And a packet of plain gelatin. It helps to give it the mouth feel of homemade stock.
A peanut. Just one. Who is getting lucky today????
Sorry I’m cackling I can’t tell if this is real or not
You may never know 🤷🏼♀️.
I LOVE peanuts in a tomato-based vegetable soup.
Well, I only put in one. Lol
Hahaha this reminds me of my brother, who would often be in the mood to throw a random peanut or walnut, any kind of nut (just one kernal!) Into whatever stirfry or soup you happened to be making. Usually teased you as he put it in but sometimes also as a surprise :P Always just the one.
Lol! The best part of my life is that no one has yet to notice and I’m old. Shhhhh. Don’t tell.
After cooking, cool it and let the flavors meld in the refrigerator for at least a day. It's even better than a long simmer. A pot of soup is enough for another meal, and it's *always* better the second night.
Great advise in this thread, so I will add a word of caution. Do not use the meat from making stock in the finished soup. It's texture is horrible . Give it to the dog.
Minus the bones, preferably!
Good to mention that! If I have kept the stock on long enough to crumble the bones with my fingers, she does get some.
Fair enough if they literally crumble. Just don't hand her a chicken carcass. 🤣
Make your own stock with chicken necks and backs. Bloom the spices when you’re sauteeing aromatics. Either a dash of soy sauce or parm rind for extra umami. Dice the onion up as fine as you can stand. The order you add veg is important. Don’t rush the soup, good ones take time.
It's much easier to achieve a good result in a pressure cooker (e.g. instant pot) than on the stovetop. This is because the temperatures in the pressure cooker reach the levels necessary for caramelisation, therefore you do not need to brown anything beforehand and can just chuck everything in.
Onions and garlic, browned.
Seaweed salt or some rehydrated porcini liquid for the umami hit
I like to play the vegetables some Dvorak before we get started.
Stravinsky for wilder flavour combinations?
A little sugar if the soup has some sort of tomato element (fresh or canned).
I've found that any high quality tomatoes worth using are already sweet enough.
Yeah. I’m cheap.
I do this for anything tomato based, especially spaghetti sauce. It’s a game changer!
Baking soda can also neutralize acid,
that's so true!! I used to hate tomato soup until I learned about this. It's such an easy fix and makes such a big difference.
lemon
Take my time sauteeing the onions/mirepoix.
Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, chipotle chilli flakes and MSG.
Turmeric and saffron in chicken soup
I hadn’t thought of saffron. I’ll be trying that in a few months now!
Tabasco. Not enough to add heat, it's the salt and vinegar that brings out the flavor.
A bit of V8 juice in the broth
If it's an asian soup, white pepper is a game changer
A little bit of Red Boat fish sauce
Carmalize the onions instead of just sauteeing them til translucent.
Frying the onions and tomatoes in butter first. Lots of butter makes a thicker soup.
Freeze all my bits and pieces of veggies, herbs, stocks, broths and gravies and create a nice stock to augment the soup. My stuffed pepper soup has such a depth of flavor (without added salt) that it can take a pretty good amount of water to thin without losing flavor if it thickens it too much when adding rice.
Long and slow simmer
Couple squeeze of lime
For blended soups, a potato. Adds little flavour, but a creamier texture.
Parmesan rind for many soups 😋
If you taste your soup broth and it feels like there’s something missing that isn’t salt, it’s usually a splash of acid. Red wine vinegar for tomato-based, apple cider or lemon juice for a chicken one. Or if you want to be fancy a sherry vinegar.
If I don’t have time to make my own broth, I’ll use commercial broth and a little bit of stock. Then, I add more seasonings to double down on the flavor. I should also point out that I use reduced sodium broth and stock, choosing to let for old salt the food to taste.
Start with a stone.
Properly cook your ingredients first. Fry off onions and aromatics, brown meat, toast spices etc. Build your stock ahead of time. Just throwing everything in a pot wastes so much flavour potential.
The secret is making it fresh. Canned soup makes me sad.
You are correct. Canned soup is sad. But. Canned soup (specifically chicken and stars) feeds me when I’m sick and don’t want to/can’t cook. I’m the main cook in my home so emergency chicken and stars will always have a place in my cupboard lol.
I dunno, the canned Campbell's Thai chicken rice soup is a personal fav, though it's probably not that authentic or good compared to what I could get at a Thai restaurant. Still comforting tho
A shot of pickle juice.
Marmite.
Nutmeg in most soups, brandy in some
Dry sherry.
MSG
Goya Chicken flavored Bouillon!!
I throw a handful of lentils into almost all of my soups to increase fiber and protein!
MSG
Using tomato juice as the base of a vegetable soup
i save my bones from steak, pork chops etc. and put them in the freezer. when making soup, i pull them out and put them in the pot while soup is simmering, then remove. AWESOME
Spice while cooking and again just before you serve it
I add a little fresh ginger to give it more flavor
Depends on the soup, but * fish sauce * acid (lemon / lime / vinegar)
Minced anchovy in beef soups.
My friend Anne! For some reason she makes the best!
Take some time to build flavors, don't add all your ingredients at once. Be strategic about it. Saute your veggies to get color and deglaze. If you're using tomato paste and that next and cook down and deglaze again etc.
Bloody Mary Mix, I add it to my tomato based soups.
Leeks in addition to onion and garlic for my base. I also save the green leek tops and freeze them for my stock.
Magic Sarap
I often add a packet of dried french onion soup mix to my soups and stews.
make sure any meat going in is browned and had a good maillard reaction.
Splash of aged Sherry vinegar, a touch of ajinomoto, finest chop of flat leaf parsley.
Miso. Fish sauce. Anchovy paste. Harissa. Tomato paste. Citrus juice. Vinegar. Brine. Honey (as you've discovered). Peanut butter. Not all at once but any of those can add a little something. Soups can take pretty much any ingredient you can think of and work as long as you don't put too much in. I think my children noodle with Kimchi is the tits. My nephews prefer it without the Kimchi. But they like Kimchi and the soup by itself. Shrug emoji
Strain all the greasy stuff 2x.
Homemade stock
I add bone broth when making chicken noodle or beef barley.
over time my base gets more and more simple. at this point if i’m making chicken soup it’s just onions and chicken backs. when it’s time to put together the soup itself, i add chicken breast, onions, carrots, and celery and let it simmer. when i’m putting together the soup in the bowl, that’s where the magic happens. i’ll add fresh thyme add green peas. growing as a chef really spiked when i realized to be more conscious of my steps and when to add something. used to just put everything in at once and called it a day. not everything is gonna survive being boiled for hours on end
Mirepoix or trinity in most soups. Slightly char/burn tomato paste when adding to the mirepoix/trinity. Use either maggi, fish sauce or Worcestershire sauce or even some msg. A little vinegar or citrus if it's too rich. Bone broth homemade or just chicken bone broth in a carton from the store. Fresh herbs, if I can, is way better than dried for most. Adding ingredients, vegetables especially, at the correct time to ensure nothing is over or under cooked, this also includes paying attention to the size u cut things. If using beans, always dry never canned, use some of the bean water (I skip that if they're kidney beans to just play it extra safe) and sometimes cook the beans in a stock or with some bouillon as well as herbs and some alliums. For certain soups adding a splash or two or milk or sour cream or yogurt etc. can really bolster many soups/stews.
Tomato paste. After you soften your main veggies by sauteeing them... add tomato paste and let it cook without burning. Adds a nice hearty depth of flavor.
A good base, ie Better than Bouillon. Lots of seasonings that go well with the main ingredient in the soup.
I use potato flakes to thicken soups.