V8 Vegetable Soup Recipe - Diner Style - Julias Simply Southern (2024)

FAQs

What can I add to my vegetable soup to give it more flavor? ›

Dried herbs and seasonings: homemade seasoned salt, black pepper, Italian seasoning, and dried bay leaves lend flavor to the soup.

Tips for Flavorful Vegetable Soup

Flavor the base: We add Italian seasoning and tomato paste to the aromatics and warm them up to bring the seasonings back to life. You could use fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary, or even add a Parmesan rind for more flavor.

For clear, brothy soups, stock is your most important ingredient. If you want to make a good soup, you need to use an excellently flavored stock — otherwise, the entire pot could be tasteless.

Brown or Sear the Meat

If you are adding meat to a soup, sear or brown it in a sauté pan before you add it to the soup. This adds a deeper savory flavor to the whole soup. This trick is especially useful for things like chicken and sausage, which can sometimes get bland and rubbery while floating in a brothy soup.

Add flour or cornflour

Put a tablespoon of either into a small bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp of the soup until you have a smooth mixture. Stir this back into the soup and bring it to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes to allow the starch granules to burst to thicken, and to cook out any flour flavour.

It may sound a bit strange and unusual for some, but vinegar is a common ingredient in some soup recipes, and there is a good reason for it. If you think about it, vinegar is really a flavor-enhancer (umami). That's why it is so often used in cooking, sauces, and salad dressings. The same is true with soups.

Depending on your taste pallet, you can boost your soup in a variety of directions. Onion powder, garlic powder, garlic salt, Italian seasonings, Mexican seasonings (or any other cultures). Don't overcook your vegetables, either. They lose their flavor and turn to mush if cooked too long.

Smooth vegetable soups always welcome some extra veg at the end, Mendes says – he suggests finely dicing some more of the veg you used as the base for the soup, then mix it with fresh herbs and lemon zest and spoon on top. “Or blitz raw cauliflower or broccoli into 'couscous', season and add herbs,” he adds.

What makes homemade soup taste better? ›

Go Bold. A punch of flavor at the end of cooking can make your soup a standout. Mix herbs like parsley, thyme, and oregano, or spices such as cumin, coriander, and cardamom, into some olive oil, and let it infuse for at least an hour or two. Pour it over soup just before serving.

"If your broth is lacking in savory richness, try adding roasted onion, tomato paste, mushrooms, seaweed, soy sauce, or miso. These ingredients add umami flavor and depth to broth," she says. The choice of ingredient depends on the recipe, though.

Sinigang is the world's best soup.

Start with the firm, hearty vegetables with the longest cook time. For most vegetable soup recipes, this means the carrots, onions, and celery.

But once those vegetables are exhausted, they're strained and switched out for a fresh set of thinly sliced celery and carrot. These are added for the final 4–5 minutes of cooking so that they're tender but nowhere near mushy. You get the sweet luxury of long-cooked vegetables and the freshness of crisp-tender ones.

You can extract a clean, strong broth from a combination of water and several pantry ingredients. It's all about layering powerful flavor-enhancers that you probably already have on hand—bacon, tomato paste, herbs, peppercorns, a Parmesan rind, and, of course, kosher salt.

Finishing touches can provide a big flavor boost. “We often add finishing touches to salads and pastas, like some grated parmesan. You can also sprinkle sesame seeds or fresh herbs, drip on garlic-infused vinegar, or spritz some lemon on your cooked veggies,” Gerber suggests.