1. Boiling instead of simmering
You want a small bubble or two to rise to the surface of the liquid every few seconds. More than that and your meat and vegetables will come out dry and overcooked.
2. Not using enough salt
Nothing is as crucial as seasoning correctly. Taste as you go. While you can use a recipe as a guideline, learn to trust your own tastebuds.
3. Ignoring water
Think you can't make a delicious soup because you don't have broth? Just use water instead. Trust us on this one. In fact, you're better off using water than an inferior broth. Before you dump in a can or container of broth, taste it. If you wouldn't eat it as is, why would you want to add it your soup? You may even find you prefer soups made with water, which really let the ingredients shine. Just be aware that when you use water, it's particularly important to add the right amount of salt. A personal trick: Throw in a rind of Parmesan cheese to help flavor the soup as it simmers.
RELATED: 11 Common Cooking Disasters You Can Fix
4. Overcooking the vegetables
Let's say you're making white bean soup. Start by sautéing onions, garlic, maybe celery, then adding the water and beans, and simmering. Add the carrots in the last half hour or so or when the beans are close to tender. That way the carrots will come out cooked but not mushy. Ditto, for other veggies…add them according to how much time they need to cook.
5. Adding tomatoes at the beginning
The acid in tomatoes can keep beans and vegetables crunchy. Don't add the tomatoes until the final 20 minutes when all of the other ingredients are close to tender.
6. Neglecting to garnish
A handful of fresh herbs, freshly-ground pepper, a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, and crunchy croutons add the finishing touches in terms of both flavor and texture. When I make lentil or split pea soup, I like to add a splash of balsamic vinegar or squirt of fresh lemon juice to each bowl to brighten the flavor. Other good last minute add-ins: a dollop of yogurt or sour cream, toasted pumpkin seeds, or a spoonful of pesto.
7. Not trying a pressure cooker
If you're afraid of using a pressure cooker, it's time to get over it. With multiple safety features, today's models are fail-proof. Why use one, you ask? When your hubby calls to tell you he's coming down with a cold, if you pick up a chicken, you can have homemade soup on the table in under an hour. Check out our review of both stovetop and electric models before you make a purchase.
TELL US: What's your secret to the perfect soup?
NEXT: Cooking Tips You Need from Expert Chefs
Sharon Franke is the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances lab.
Photo: Jason Lugo/Getty Images
Up Next: 10 Simple Soups For The Chilliest Days
FAQs
Forgetting to add an acidic component
Failing to add an acidic component is perhaps the most common mistake everyone makes with homemade soup. To balance flavor and mouthfeel, each dish you create should have elements of fat, acid, sweetness, and salt. Often the fat comes from butter, oil, meat, or dairy.
What is a common mistake that cooks make when preparing soup? ›
Forgetting to add an acidic component
Failing to add an acidic component is perhaps the most common mistake everyone makes with homemade soup. To balance flavor and mouthfeel, each dish you create should have elements of fat, acid, sweetness, and salt. Often the fat comes from butter, oil, meat, or dairy.
What not to put in soup? ›
The Worst Things to Put in Your Soup
- By Sara Butler. If there's one good thing about fall and winter, it's soup. ...
- Heavy Cream. Heavy cream creates an inviting texture for soups but that's where its positive contributions end. ...
- Juice. ...
- Turkey Bacon. ...
- Cheese. ...
- Croutons.
To make sure that every spoonful of soup is richly flavored, with juicy meat and/or tender vegetables, follow these kitchen-tested tips.
- Use a Sturdy Pot. ...
- Sauté the Aromatics. ...
- Start with Good Broth. ...
- Cut Vegetables to the Right Size. ...
- Stagger the Addition of Vegetables. ...
- Keep Liquid at a Simmer. ...
- Season Just Before Serving.
Overcooking the vegetables:
Try to avoid overcooking vegetables, by adding them according to how much time they need to cook. Regardless of what people think, soup making is a gradual process. For more depth of flavor, add the vegetables that need to cook the longest first.
What gives soup the best flavor? ›
Foods that have a great deal of acidity, like lemon juice, vinegar, white wine, and tomato puree, can help liven up the flavor of bland-tasting bone and other broths. "The acidity of these ingredients works to complement and enhance the broth's flavors, not mask it.
What does adding butter to soup do? ›
A bit of fat, usually in the form of butter and olive oil, is essential to making a robust soup. Fat is also a vehicle for flavor, and helps to brown vegetables.
What is the secret ingredient in soup? ›
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.
What is the most important ingredient in soup? ›
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.
Why is soup bad for blood pressure? ›
3 Foods to avoid for high blood pressure
Avoid canned foods and soups as they tend to contain lots of sodium. Canned beans for example, can contain as much as 500mg of sodium per serving. However, there are some canned foods with lower sodium content. Look out for foods that come with the healthier choice logo.
A soup's quality is determined by its flavor, appearance and texture. A good soup should be full-flavored, with no off or sour tastes. Flavors from each of the soup's ingre- dients should blend and complement, with no one flavor overpowering another.
What are two principles of soup making? ›
The document provides 5 basic principles of preparing soup: 1) Starting with cold water. 2) Cutting vegetables to an appropriate size. 3) Selecting a protein such as beef, chicken, pork, or fish. 4) Simmering the soup for 4 hours.
When should you add celery to soup? ›
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.
What vegetables can you not put in soup? ›
Foods in the Brassica family, such as Bok Choy, are too strong for stock/broth and can impart a bitter taste. Foods in the Brassica family, such as broccoli, are too strong for stock/broth and can impart a bitter taste.
Why add tomatoes to soup? ›
While chili, minestrone, and vegetable soup wouldn't be much without the robust flavor and acidity natural to tomatoes, a quirk of culinary science is that lowering the pH of a dish can prevent the breaking down of beans and other tough veg.
What are the common mistakes we make while cooking food? ›
Take a look at our list of five common cooking mistakes to ensure you prepare your next dish properly and perfectly.
- Packing Your Pans to the Brim. ...
- Improper Preparation. ...
- Adding Food Too Early. ...
- Going Rogue. ...
- You Overcook or Undercook.
Food Safety Mistakes & Rules
- The 5 Most Common Food Safety Mistakes & How to Avoid Them.
- Mistake #1: Cross-Contamination of Raw and Cooked Foods.
- Mistake #2: Not Cooking Food Thoroughly.
- Mistake #3: Leaving Food Out at Room Temperature.
- Mistake #4: Improper Handwashing Practices.
- Mistake #5: Failing to Wash Vegetables.
At the surface, the warm soup spreads out and cools, becoming denser. Then, gravity pulls this cooler, denser soup back down to the bottom of the pot, where it is heated again. A constant flow begins as the cooler soup continually sinks to the bottom of the pot and the warmer soup rises.
What causes a soup to break? ›
A broken sauce is generally caused by the separation of sauces into two components: a watery liquid and an oily film on top. This happens when there's too much fat or liquid in the mixture. This can happen when there are not enough emulsifiers (which help keep your ingredients together).
