The next time you’re cleaning out your fridge, make a delicious, hearty soup with leftover groceries. It’s time for your weekly grocery trip, but you still have a few veggies hanging around that you don’t want to throw out. What can you do with them? Here are the steps to make a perfect soup with leftovers every time, so no more food goes to waste.

1. Choose Your Liquid

Liquid makes up the base of your soup, but it doesn’t have to be the most exciting ingredient. If you have vegetable, chicken, or beef broth on hand, use it for a flavourful base. If you’re making a creamy soup, you may choose an alternative milk as your base, such as full-fat coconut milk.

2. Sauté Your Veggies 

Now comes the fun part— cleaning out your fridge. There are no rules for making soup; you can use any veggies that you like. If your fridge is empty, you can also add canned or frozen veggies -- the options are endless. Before adding them to the broth, sauté any tough vegetables, such as bell peppers and carrots, in a pan with oil. You should also add all your spices and seasonings during this step. This will ensure that the veggies are nice and soft and that the spices have released their aromas and flavours.  

3. Add an Acidic Ingredient

Regardless of the soup you make, it needs an acidic ingredient, such as citrus juice or vinegar. Depending on what you have at home and what soup you’re making, you can use cooking wine, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, or whatever else you prefer. The acidity adds flavour to the soup and breaks up some of the sweetness from your veggies, especially if you use tomatoes. Add your acidic ingredient to the veggies and let them cook for a few minutes.  

4. Add a Source of Carbohydrates and Protein

Unless you want to make a light soup, adding protein and carbohydrates is necessary to make a filling meal. You can add rice, quinoa, barley, or potatoes as a source of complex carbohydrates. Beans and legumes, such as lentils or chickpeas, are affordable and healthy sources of plant-based proteins and carbohydrates. They are also full of fibre and have a long shelf-life, so you can always keep some in your pantry. If you’re adding meat, you may also put your cooked meat in the pot now.  

5. Add the Liquid 

Finally, add the liquid broth to your ingredients. Allow the soup to simmer until all your ingredients are cooked and the flavours have mixed. The timing will depend on the ingredients you use and the type of soup you’re making. It’s that simple! Now, enjoy, and feel proud that you used up all those leftovers.

If you need some inspiration to make soup with leftovers, here is the recipe for my Pumpkin & Bacon Soup and we as a family also love Jo Whitton's Chicken & Brown Rice Soup.

What's your favourite soup to make?