Winter Vegetable Soup: An Easy Soup Recipe

If you are a fan of using seasonal ingredients in your cooking, you will love this winter vegetable soup. It makes the most of the vegetables available during the winter season, and it is a warming and hearty soup that is perfect for this time of year.

Many of the ingredients of this soup are root vegetables, which are cheap ingredients to use that are perfect for those on a budget. Root vegetables also have the ideal texture for soup, as they are smooth when blended but can retain their texture when cooked if you prefer a chunky soup.

I prefer to blend half this soup. Doing so means there is a thick and delicious liquid, but you retain chunks of vegetables that give the soup substance and texture. It also means that each spoonful of the vegetable soup tastes different depending on which pieces of vegetable are on your spoon. However, you can completely blend this soup, or you can choose not to blend it at all. Your decision is a matter of personal preference.

This soup recipe is so easy to make that even a kitchen novice can make a tasty vegetable soup for the family. It is simply a case of chopping the vegetables, leaving them to cook, then serving into bowls. You will need to add the vegetables to the pan in stages, as they have different cooking times.

Here is how to make an easy winter vegetable soup.

Ingredients for Winter Vegetable Soup

• 2 medium white potatoes
• 2 large carrots
• 1 large parsnip
• 1 leek, finely sliced
• 2 sticks celery, sliced
• ¼ savoy cabbage
• 1 medium swede
• 1-litre vegetable stock
• 2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

How to Make Winter Vegetable Soup

1. Wash, peel, and finely slice the leek, and slice the celery.
2. Peel and finely dice the carrots, parsnip, swede, and potatoes.
3. Cut one-quarter of a savoy cabbage, remove the heart and outer leaves, then finely shred.
4. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat on the hob.
5. Add the leeks, celery, and crushed garlic to the pan and cook for five minutes until the leeks and celery begin to soften.
6. Next, add the diced carrots and swede to the pan, then saute for a further five minutes.
7. Add the vegetable stock, bay leaves, and parsley to the pan, and simmer for 10 minutes.
8. Then, add the diced potatoes and parsnips. Simmer for a further 10 minutes.
9. Add the shredded cabbage and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the cabbage is cooked through and the other vegetables are tender.
10. Stir through the tomato puree and season the soup with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
11. Remove the bay leaves from the pan.
12. If you want a smooth soup, transfer all the ingredients to a food processor and blend, or use a stick blender to create a smooth consistency.
13. For a thick soup with hearty chunks, transfer half the ingredients and liquid to a food processor and blitz before returning to the pan. Or, just give the ingredients a quick blitz with a hand blender, so that you retain whole pieces of the vegetables.
14. After blending, simmer for few minutes before serving your winter vegetable soup.

Additional Tips

• Experiment with the quantities and types of vegetables you use. If there is a vegetable you do not like in this recipe, interchange it for one that appeals to you.
• If you like vegetable soups with a little spice, then try our vegetable mulligatawny recipe.
• You can make this soup in a soup maker, and it is suitable for serving from a catering soup kettle.
• You can use a finely chopped, medium white onion rather than a leek if you prefer.
• The garlic, bay leaves, and parsley are optional ingredients to add flavour to the soup.
• If you do not intend to blend the winter vegetable soup, add a tablespoon of cornflour during the sauteing process as this will act as a thickener for the liquid.
• This winter vegetable soup is excellent served with dumplings, and this will transform the soup into a hearty meal. You will find our dumpling recipes here.
• You can also serve this soup with the bread of your choice or croutons.