Spice up your Life with some Homemade Spicy Courgette Soup
With many household budgets being stretched to the limit, food is something that we cannot afford to waste, nor should we tolerate it! This is one in a series of recipes provide by our soup dragon here in Frugaldom - it can cost less than 5p per serving to make and can easily be frozen in recycled margarine tubs for later use.
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SOUP MAKING IS MONEY SAVING AND WINS BROWNIE POINTS
Courgettes (zucchinis) are really versatile and can easily be grown either in a patch of garden or in wide tubs. They provide a good return on investment from seed-sowing to harvesting your crop. I find one plant per member of the household is sufficient to try them baked, fried, stewed, in soups and even baked into cakes. They are the obvious choice for so many reasons!
SOUP INGREDIENTS - Adjust according to QUANTITY AVAILABLE
- 3 litres chicken (or vegetable) stock
- 1 large onion, chopped
- Approx 500g chopped carrots
- 5 large courgettes, chopped
- Coriander
- Teaspoon salt
- Teaspoon ground pepper
- Teaspoon turmeric
At the moment I am using turmeric but I am hoping to eventually to use home grown saffron, IF my Saffron crocus bulbs ever produce any flowers. Frugal gourmet needn't cost the earth, it simply needs the earth in order for us to grow such fine delicacies.
I cook all my soup in the slow cooker, simmering it for about 4 hours and then leave it overnight to cool. Once cooled, I blend it using a stick blender before splitting it into lunchtime sized portions. My stick blender is one of those kitchen gadgets I could not do without. It was an absolute bargain for me, costing less than £10 several years ago.
From the above soup recipe, I easily get 10 adult portions from ingredients that amount to less than 50p when using home grown vegetables and homemade stock made from the leftovers of a roast chicken. Even if you had to buy stock cubes and vegetables, soup remains one of the cheapest meals to make, especially if you are prepared to mix and match your ingredients.
Spicy courgette soup is nourishing, very warming on a chilly day, handy for serving in a mug as a tasty snack and, most of all, you get a lovely hot kick from it, depending on how much of the spices you use.
Try it for yourself, adapt the recipe to suit your own taste buds, thicken it with lentils if you prefer, and make the most of what you've got in stock. This is a seasonal soup and it freezes well.
If you are living on a shoestring budget, I highly recommend that you learn to make and love soup! It's also a very handy skill to have when it comes to impressing others with your kitchen skills and a great excuse for playing with your veggies!
Feel free to join us at www.frugalforums.co.uk where we share our soup recipes and compare money saving tips. What is your favourite homemade soup?
