Is too much soup a good thing?

 
I love making soup as much as I love eating soup.
 
From looking at CTF's pictures I now wonder if there is too much soup in my creations.  Do you prefer more chew in your soup?
 
I start my soups on the stove and when I need more room to cook other things,  I finish them off in Crock pots.
 
These two soups started as one until I heard....  "You're making clam soup?  You know I don't eat clams!"
 
So I split my base between two pots, added different things to each and ended up with two disctinctly different soups.
 
 
The Manhattan Clam isn't finished in this picture.  If I remember correctly I added some more tomato sauce to this pot before it was finished.
 

 
Sudden Cabbage Soup
 


Should they have been thicker? 

I dunno, mar. The restaurant near me, Junie G's, makes soup from the previous day's leftovers (things like Reuben soup, spaghetti soup, etc), and usually it's kind of thin and really good. For myself I make it really hearty, very full. But that doesn't mean it is as good a soup as it could be.

Maybe it's the flavor that's just as important as the substance.
 
When I make lentil soup the spoon can stand straight up in the pot.

I like soups to be more soupy, a lot of things I put in it I blend down and add stock. I like a rich full flavor but not a lot of chew.

Too thick and it's stew, but I could live on soup forever!

I prefer more "brothy soups" with the exceptions of my bean soup and white clam chowder. Both your soups look awesome, Mar.

Both of the soups pictured look perfect to me.

The cabbage soup looks perfect for today in Ohio (cold, grey and rainy). I'll have a bucket full please.

(You cabbage soup looks perfect)
 
Hi Mar, This is a Cabbage & Hot Dog Soup (Nathans hot dogs) I'm showing you this so you could see how creamy it gets when you thicken a chicken stock with a Roux. I then sauteed Cabbage, onions and celery until tender then added it to the thickened broth. When you thicken the broth it comes out nice and smooth, this is a real easy soup and great for cool fall and winter days..........just an Idea..........Take care.......BillyB

Soup is a perfect meal--one tasty pot of nourishment...and your soups look perfect!

Your dishes look excellent.  They bear a remarkable resemblance to soup -- you know, the dish that makes one reach for a soup spoon rather than a trowel.

I definitely prefer less chew and more broth/liquid. That is, if it's supposed to be soup and not stew.  If you can eat 90% of it using just a fork, it ain't soup.
 
 

Funny you should mention. Today is soup-making day at our house,. My Bride made Onion soup this AM and I'm making Beef Vegetable this PM.
Density depends on the type of soup you're making. She makes Onion Soup with a lot of broth because she only eats the broth, never an onion crosses her lips! I make the Beef Veggie on the medium thick side. Her Onion soup is the best I've ever had. Here's her recipe:
 
GRAMMY’S FRENCH ONION SOUP
3 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons oil
6 cups thinly sliced yellow onions (2 lbs.)
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
7 (14 oz) cans of beef broth
1 cup red cooking wine
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon sage (dried)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Up to 1 Tablespoon instant beef bouillon granules if you want a stronger beefy taste
Choice of cheese – gruyere, provolone, parmesan, etc
Croutons or French bread slices
DIRECTIONS
Melt butter with oil in heavy 6 qt. pan.  Add onions & stir.
Cover pan & cook over moderately low heat for 15 –20
minutes, stirring occasionally until onions are tender & translucent.  Uncover pan, raise heat to moderately hot, stir in salt & sugar.  Cook 30minutes, stirring frequently until onions are rich brown color.  Do not let them burn.
Lower heat to moderate, stir in flour.  Add a bit more butter if flour doesn’t stir into a paste with the onions.  Cook slowly stirring constantly for 2 minutes to brown the flour lightly.
Slowly pour in about a cup of hot broth stirring to make sure it blends well.  Addremaining broth & wine, bay leaves, sage and bring to a simmer.  Simmer for 30  minutes. 
Season to taste with salt, pepper, and instant bouillon.
If not serving immediately, let uncovered & reheat when ready.  Cover to refrigerate.
Float bread & top with cheese.  Bake @ 350 until cheese bubbles & slightly brown (about 5-10 minutes).  Watch carefully so it doesn’t burn.
Another way to serve is to ladle it into oven proof bowls & add cheese.  Top with circle of puff pastry dough big enough to fit over the top of bowl.  Press the pastry down around the bowl to seal it tight. Cut 1 small slit in the top.  Bake @ 450 for 15 minutes – until top is puffed & golden brown.  Serve immediately.
 
 
 
 

Last week I was fighting a sinus infection and made three soups to warm me body and soul:
~ homemade chicken noodle with leftover baked chicken thighs, chicken broth, carrots/celery/onion, some diced potato, and really thin egg noodles = really good soup but a little thick since I did not measure the noodles
~ potato soup, my favorite recipe, onion sauteed in olive oil and butter, lots of diced potato, chicken broth and milk, simmered until potatoes were done, then buzzed with an immersion blender until silky smooth
~ beef, barley, and vegetable soup, diced beef from whatever I had on hand in the freezer, cooked with onion in oil then cooked 12 minutes in the pressure cooker in broth (chicken - no beef broth on hand), diced potatoes, carrots, barley, and some dried soup vegetables added and simmered until done.
   Monday we had a Soup Lunch fundraiser at work and I took a crock pot of butternut squash soup: onion and apple cooked in oil and butter, baked butternut squash, vegetable broth, marjoram, curry powder, white wine, and a bit of brown sugar, blend smooth. I made it vegetarian for a couple of people that work here; it's better with chicken broth.
   This weekend I hope to make my favorite Curried Chicken Noodle Soup - depending on what the weather is like. It was orginally made with chicken noodle Soup Starter, but that is no longer available. I plan to try to recreate it: a whole chicken cooked in water and some white wine, half the meat from said chicken chopped and added back into the soup; then, diced potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, curry powder, noodles and some of those dried soup vegetables. Finally an 8 oz. block of Velveeta cheese is cubed and added to melt. Baaad I know! But this is some good soup!
 
Yes.....too much soup is a good thing!

Soup needs pleanty of juice. Everything here looks, and sounds, great!
Joe

BillyB:
Thanks for that tip.  I like a little richer broth.
 
Foodbme:
I'm going to try your wife's French Onion Soup.  I make it often and have never added flour.  I am going to add some of that wistershersheershire sauce though.  Maybe after doing it her way.
 
I made some lentil soup two Thanksgivings ago with the turkey carcass and one leg that hadn't been eaten. It's the ongoing soup.  I keep adding to it, eating some and it never seems to get eaten up.
 
Maybe I'll start a new one this year and add the old one to it.  Can't hurt!
 
 

mar52


I'm going to try your wife's French Onion Soup.  I make it often and have never added flour. 

 
I make French Onion Soup a lot but I carmelize my onions with a half cup of sugar and just let the onions and sugar simmer for about an hour until the onions are golden brown. 

Mar52
 
As to the thickness of your wonderful looking soups, I truly believe the thickness of such creations depends on a person's likes or dislikes.
 
I love veggie soup with a thinner brothier look and taste also chicken noodle this way too.
 
I love chowders to be thicker and more stick to the ribs
 
Everyone is different and I have found very few soups I don't like (progresso soups ) but that is me.  I like to make a huge pot and eat for several days on it.
 
In fact for this weekend I am making a Ham & Bean Soup sort of medium thickness, liquid enough to let the corn bread soak into it but thick enough to stand alone too.
 
The second batch is Mexican Tortilla Soup it is a thin spicy soup which is great with the tortillas crushed.
 
 

I often end up doing an ongoing soup. Maybe also called Stone Soup. I just keep addin stuff each day or so. And bring it back to a good boil. I have heard some folks up north keep an ongoing pot on their wood stove all winter.
Joe

PapaJoe8


I often end up doing an ongoing soup. Maybe also called Stone Soup. I just keep addin stuff each day or so. And bring it back to a good boil. I have heard some folks up north keep an ongoing pot on their wood stove all winter.
Joe

PJ8 - I hate to be the one to tell you this but most of the "Folks up North" have replaced their Wood stoves with Gas or Electric ones. Some of them even have these new fangled things called Microwaves!

Foodbme

PapaJoe8


I often end up doing an ongoing soup. Maybe also called Stone Soup. I just keep addin stuff each day or so. And bring it back to a good boil. I have heard some folks up north keep an ongoing pot on their wood stove all winter.
Joe

PJ8 - I hate to be the one to tell you this but most of the "Folks up North" have replaced their Wood stoves with Gas or Electric ones. Some of them even have these new fangled things called Microwaves!

He's talking about West Virginia!

chewingthefat

Foodbme

PapaJoe8


I often end up doing an ongoing soup. Maybe also called Stone Soup. I just keep addin stuff each day or so. And bring it back to a good boil. I have heard some folks up north keep an ongoing pot on their wood stove all winter.
Joe

PJ8 - I hate to be the one to tell you this but most of the "Folks up North" have replaced their Wood stoves with Gas or Electric ones. Some of them even have these new fangled things called Microwaves!

He's talking about West Virginia!

 
You sure he wasn't talkin about Amarillo?

I think differente soups lend themselves better to different consistency levels. Like a chicken noodle soup should be pretty "soupy" while something like a chili is generally better when it's thicker. 

Well, anything in excess can be very harmful for a body as well as for our over all health. So consume foods in moderation. Soup is a healthy meal for our body. But in excess it can be harmful.

How can soup be harmfull???  My father and grandfather ate it every day for lunch and they both lived into their late 80s.

mar52


 
I love making soup as much as I love eating soup.

From looking at CTF's pictures I now wonder if there is too much soup in my creations.  Do you prefer more chew in your soup?

I start my soups on the stove and when I need more room to cook other things,  I finish them off in Crock pots.

These two soups started as one until I heard....  "You're making clam soup?  You know I don't eat clams!"

So I split my base between two pots, added different things to each and ended up with two disctinctly different soups.


The Manhattan Clam isn't finished in this picture.  If I remember correctly I added some more tomato sauce to this pot before it was finished.



Sudden Cabbage Soup



Should they have been thicker? 

I love Manhattan style clam chowder!

Although your soup looks good and tasty, my preference for any soup is that you can eat the whole pot with a fork...No Spoon Needed...Stan...

gary1212

Well, anything in excess can be very harmful for a body as well as for our over all health. So consume foods in moderation. Soup is a healthy meal for our body. But in excess it can be harmful.

You're kidding, right???
I never heard of anyone dying from an overdose of soup!!!

I Gotta admit....my soups tend to be heavy on ingredients, light on "broth" I definitel want stuff "sticking up" outta the wet.  Admittedly I could add more liquids to make them go further, but over the years, we have gravitated to the "thick"  (not necessarily the liquid!) type
 
One thing I do with leftover chicken bones and bits of breasts...after simmering them in chicken broth/stock, picking off the residual meat and adding veg, rice, whatever....I add 1-2 TBS of peanut butter per serving. It gives the whole thing a mellow lustrous texture with a hint of "what is it I taste?" panache.
 
Oh.and my Clam Chowder has never seen a To-Mah-to.  Growing up on Cape Cod, that was known as Tomatoe soup with clams.  But I do divert from the Chowder purists by adding bacon........or linguica sausage if I can get it (heaven!) I've also been known to add a bit of Garlic.  And..although this would bar me from ever getting across the bridges to the Cape again if folks found out, I sometimes like a Rhode Island type Clam Chowder..clear, but i add a mix of chicken broth and clam juice

I am more of a broth person. My chicken soup is initially made with lots of ingredients, but ends up more like broth with chicken and dumplings. My bean soup is quite thick, but I water down my own servings...

I'm definitely a "less broth" person.  I like lots of "stuff" in my soup.  I had a pleasant surprise a while ago in Rochester, PA.  Michael was going to the Brighton Hot Dog Shop for a couple of dogs and he brought me back some of their wedding soup.  I'm thinking "this is probably right out of a can".  It wasn't.  It was in-house made.  Loaded with escarole, chicken and meatballs.  Delicious!!  We were in Rochester 3 days last week and I had it every day for lunch, that's how good it is.
Can't wait for the 90 degree days to end so I can make some soup at home!

I like a well made clear stock, using real roasted beef bones and degreased as it simmers. A good broth comes in handy for a lot of soups, gravies and entrees that pop up during the month. I really don't car if its a think or thin soup, as long as the stock that was used has a good quality flavor, that in turn, makes a great tasting soup..........................pnwc

My Bride and I are like Jack Sprat and wife. She likes the broth, I eat what's left!

pnwchef,
You are indeed correct about the stock.  That is the key to a great soup.  I haven't made veal or beef stock since I left the restaurant biz.  I still do the chicken stock from scratch. 

lleechef
How can soup be harmfull???  My father and grandfather ate it every day for lunch and they both lived into their late 80s.

You can fall into a vat of it and drown.
 
Bart

bartl

lleechef
How can soup be harmfull???  My father and grandfather ate it every day for lunch and they both lived into their late 80s.

You can fall into a vat of it and drown.

Bart

I seriously doubt it!

llechef-,my Dad ate soup for lunch everyday, as well! No matter at home, or eating in a restaurant, he ate soup.

lleechef

bartl

lleechef
How can soup be harmfull???  My father and grandfather ate it every day for lunch and they both lived into their late 80s.

You can fall into a vat of it and drown.

Bart

I seriously doubt it!

Reminds me of the old joke about Mrs. Murphy's husband, who drowned in a vat at the Guinness brewery.  "I don't think so...he got out twice to go to the bathroom!"

I do prefer more chew in my soups.  Thanks for creating this thread here at  

I finally got Mr. Hoffman to eat his veggies in making broccoli cheddar soup recently.  He ate two bowls (I did too).  It was delicious!

I love a good broccoli cheddar soup.  I love most all soup!

I agree, mar, I love all soup!  Just nothing out of a can.......bleech!  It has to be homemade......preferably by me!

Ahhh, but you haven't tasted my soup.
 
Canned soup just doesn't do it.  Don't you hate it when you go to a restaurant, order the soup of the day only to find out it came right from a can?

I like a lot of broth in my soup. Vietnamese soups with their plethora of veggies and meat appeal but i still like broth best.

All type of soups are perfect to me. But, please boil it properly and unboiled soup makes the vegetable uneatable. Please share more recipes.
I want to try more different types of soups.

I love all soups. Never got anything worth eating while in the Navy since the navy cooks have a hard time boiling water. But over the years I have come to love all amnner of soups. Specifically, split pea soup, beef vegetable and potato leek are among my favorites. Even the worst vietnamese noodle soup is good in my book.