Free Recipe · Thermo Guides
The whatever-is-in-the-fridge soup my mum and I have been making for years. No shopping list, no fuss, and it works every single time.
This super-simple soup is a guide recipe rather than a fixed one: 800g of whatever veggies you have, 600g of liquid, and a couple of pantry seasonings. It cooks in the Thermomix in about 25 minutes and serves 3.
My weekends usually consist of at least one full day spent in my veggie garden tending to my chickens, alpacas and bees while also attempting to grow my own fruit and veggies. I have had success with a few crops (potatoes, garlic, zucchini, passionfruit, raspberries, rhubarb and tomatoes I am nailing), but still have not perfected the stone fruit, cabbages, pears or blueberries. But life is always striving never arriving!
Once I am in the garden, I tend to stay there, for about six hours at a time. So fuel is needed, and luckily my mum Janene often comes to help and brings with her a thermos full of steaming hot delicious and nutritious soup she made in the Thermomix that morning. It is never something we have shopped for, rather a collection of ingredients pulled together from whatever is in the fridge. I love this approach: it is easy, it is frugal, it is cheap and you are not wasting food. Oh, and the soup always hits the spot.
So I have written it up as a guide recipe, outlining how we do it, so you can do the same thing at home. It is not fancy or complicated, and you are not going to see it served in Michelin star restaurants. But this is real life, and this is a recipe you are going to cook often in real life. Your body and soul will thank you for it.
The one thing I have changed since I first wrote this recipe: I now use half the stock concentrate and make up the difference with two teaspoons of Flavour Bomb Salt. Same saltiness, far more flavour. It is the single easiest upgrade to a fridge-scraps soup I know of.
Homemade is always best, love alyce x
The Secret Weapon
Meet the product
A soup made from fridge scraps lives or dies on its seasoning. This is the shortcut.
Let's Cook
Super-Simple Soup Guide for the Thermomix
Serves 3 · Thermomix or thermo cooker · about 35 minutes
Ingredients
* Use less if your liquid component already contains salt.
** No salt blend in the cupboard? Use an extra 20g of stock concentrate instead (40g in total). It will still be a good soup, it just will not have the same depth.
The Tools
Method
To serve
Spoon over whichever extras you held back: a dollop of sour cream or crème fraîche, a scatter of herbs, or one last pinch of Instant Italian Salt or No-Bacon Bacon Salt. Then serve and enjoy. Or pour it into a thermos and take it into the garden, like mum and I do.
Come Cook With Us
A peek inside our kitchen
If you like these guide recipes, brilliant, because I love creating them. It really is how I cook at home most of the time, from pastas, risottos and frittatas to ice cream and green smoothies. So much so that I have included entire chapters on thermo guides in my last two cookbooks, Thermo Cooker Fresh Favourites and Everyday Thermo Cooking.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which vegetables work best in this soup?
Almost anything you have. Broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, parsnip and tomatoes all work, on their own or in any combination. You just need 800g in total, roughly chopped.
Can I make it vegan or dairy free?
Yes. Choose a plant-based oil rather than butter, use water, stock or coconut milk as your liquid rather than bone broth, and skip the dairy extras. All of my salt blends are vegan, so the seasoning is not a problem.
How much stock concentrate do I actually need?
20g, plus 2 teaspoons of a salt blend. If you do not have a salt blend, use 40g of stock concentrate instead. Either way, use less if your liquid component already contains salt.
Which salt blend should I use?
Flavour Bomb Salt is the safe all-rounder and works in any combination of veg. No-Chicken Chicken Salt is lovely with potato, pumpkin and sweet potato. No-Bacon Bacon Salt brings a smoky note that suits a creamy soup.
Does this work in machines other than a Thermomix?
Yes. The settings here are written for the Thermomix, but they translate to most thermo cookers with a heated bowl and variable speeds.
Want to get more out of your Thermomix?
A guide recipe like this one only needs one thing to go from fine to fantastic, and it is not more time at the bench. It is better seasoning doing the work for you.
Keep Cooking
