A Guide To Fancy Soups

From the classic homemade Minestrone soup, Potato soup and Chicken noodle soup to Mulligatawny from India and Gazpacho from Spain, we all have that one favourite soup.

But the confusion arises when we see a conglomeration of them in the menu and we are in a puzzlement.

Here is a classification of soups to help you get rid of that doubt. Let's begin!

Broth

A Broth is a savory liquid made of water in which bones, meat, fish, or vegetables have been simmered. Commercially prepared liquid broths are available for making the soup bases.

Consommé

( Pronounced as : kon-suh-mey)
Aclearsoupmadebyboilingmeatorchicken, bones or vegetables. It is clarified using egg whites.

Puree

Puree soup are thick soups made by cooking and then pureeing vegetables or ingredients used in the soup.

Veloutè

A soup made out of chicken, veal, or fish stock and cream, thickened with butter and flour (blonde roux).

Cream

A cream soup is a passed thick soup. It may be vegetable based or even meat based, but most commonly vegetables are used to prepare cream soups.

Bisque

It is a shellfish-based soup, which is passed and is garnished with dices of seafood used. It is thickened with rice and finished with cream.

Chowder

Chowders are not strained and traditionally they are seafood-based soups thickened with potatoes and finished with cream or milk.

Cold Soups

As the name suggests, these soups are served cold but not chilled. Chilling would dull the flavours and soup would taste bland. They do not form a separate classification, as they may again be thin or thick, passed or unpassed.

International Soups

These again do not form a separate classification as they represent the region of origin like, French onion soup from France or Green turtle soup from England.

So, which one is your favourite? Do let me know in the comments section below!

(Source: Food Production by P.S. Bali)