Soup Mix Soup

I had some dried split pea's in a packet, I thought they were a soup mix. I bought a more general soup mix packet to start making soups as its cooling down a bit.

I followed the directioons on the packet and got one cup of soup mix and soaked it overnight in 3 cups of water.

Next day I drained the water and then added 2 cups of stock (I think its chicken, that I'd made before and frozen) and a cup of water. I added a few small bits of cured meat that I had in the freezer to it and once it was boiling in a pot let it simmer for about 30 minutes.

I was having some french onion soup I'd made before for luch so didn't try it out until the next day.

The legumes had swelled and there was no fluid in the pot. I air fried 2 slices of acon and put them in a bowl with the soupl and microwaved for about 4 minutes. It was warm but not scalding.

I had it with toast.

Verdict

A bowl was very filling, and the bacon gave it some flavour. The texture of the mix was ok, the legumes were soft after all the soaking.

Roasted Mushroom soup & French Onion Soup

 Winter is coming and something quick and warm is required. So I thought I'd make a few soups. I'd already made some leek and potato soups, so I thought I'd try something different.

 The first recipe is Creamy Roasted Mushroom Soup.

I hadn't thought about roasting the mushrooms with Garlic & Thyme, but having the air fryer made that quite easy. 

It asks for about 900g mushrooms so I had to do the roasting in 2 batches. About 10-15 minutes each.
The roasting really gave the soup a lovely flavour.
For stock I used a gelatinous concentrate that went with 2 cups of water. It was fine for the soup.
After roasting and letting mushrooms cool down I sliced them as I wanted a chunky soup, not a cream. 
I froze 3 batches for later, having about 2 cups per ziplock bag and freezing them flat so they are easy to store and thaw. I didn't add cream to the freezing bags. If I have it I'll add cream when I thaw it.
The soup definitely had a lot of flavour. As it was chicken stock the mushroom and garlic flavours stood out. I am very please with this soup and will use the recipe again.

The 2nd recipe is French Onion Soup. 

The french restaurant in Kaiwharawhara does a mean french onion soup. Very warm and hearty.
This one I sliced quite a few onions, I think I had about 10-12 cups rather than 8. I used the mandolin to slice them up.
I put 8 cups of stock in (4 gelatinous concentrate packs) but it didn't really have a beefy kick to it. There is more than enough onion, in fact, I run out of soup and have lots of residual onion in the bowl.
I used Mozzarella cheese rather than Gruyere (There was only one brand in Pak'n'Save and it was expensive), so I got stringiness but little flavour with it. I do find the olives in a pizza offset the blandness of the Mozzarella.
I ended up with 4 freezer bags worth of the French onion soup.
The ciabatta goes well with the soup as I don't have baguettes.

Nice, but not the best. I will try another recipe I think for the French Onion soup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne2hhWeLSS4

So for the moment well stocked with soups. I just had a snack with the residual dregs that were too small for freezer bags.

Leak and potato soup

The weather is turning, autumn through to winter. Time for some hot food.

Soups are easy to heat up, are warm and filling. I'm rather partial to some Seafood chowder, French Onion soup (only since I was in Ireland and grew some onions) & tinned Campbell Mushroom soup was always a mainstay from my childhood.
Appearing at the markets at the moment are leaks. They are in season, so I thought I'd try stocking up on some soups in the freezer. So I went to Mr YouTube and these video's seemed to show the way of making a simple soup:

Both recipes seem to be similar, so I charged ahead and put all the ingredients into a pot, potatoes, leeks, chicken stock, garlic and a dab of butter:

The result is very nice. Not exactly the most exotic of ingredients but fills you up and keeps you warm. 

A front is just coming in, and after I walked the dog I made heated up some of the soup. 

Quantities:

I used 3 leaks, cut them up then washed them, 1L chicken stock, and about the same volume of potatoes as the uncut leaks (about 5-6 medium potatoes). 

I had some panceta in the fridge (cured ham, I think I've spelt it wrong. This is thicker stuff from Moore Wilson) , so wrapped some in a paper towel and microwaved it for about 45 sec. It shrunk a lot. I chopped it up, with some wild parsley that I've been picking on my walk and sprinkled that over the top. Also toasted and buttered Ciabatta. 

You can add cream, and I bought some for the soup, but I didn't use it. I will add it for the next meal.

I intend to freeze the rest. Will try laying bags down flat so thin (so will thaw more quickly). Then I'll put them in the Freezer App I've been building.

I was a bit concerned about the cream, I didn't want that in the soup when I froze it. In fact its quite creamy without cream. The Bar Mixer does a good job of smoothing it out.