tomato basil soup

This homemade tomato and basil soup recipe is a very simple recipe to make a basic favourite, if you like to make your own soup now and then, rather than always opening a tin.

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets. Just bin garlic/onion/allium scraps (plus citrus and rhubarb) as the acids can harm compost creatures. 

You only need a few ingredients including fresh ripe tomatoes, onion, garlic, good veggie stock, fresh basil and balsamic vinegar (splurge on this for taste, you only need a little and it keeps well). The ‘creaminess’ comes from vegan cream, which you can then swirl on top as well.

Reusable Cubes to Freeze Homemade Soup

soupercubes

If you live alone or in a small household, treat yourself to a SouperCube freezer tray. Made from silicone, you can just pour leftover soup into the portioned sections, then just pop one out to heat up when you want.

The tray has a steel rim to make it stable to carry to the freezer, and you can stack one on top of the other. Dishwasher-safe too. You can then make oodles of soups, freeze them, and still enjoy a different flavour soup each day!

Each Souper Cube has fill lines to help you freeze perfect portions, and the trays are designed to freeze in various portions. The 1 and 2 cup trays have double the capacity of ice cube trays, and are designed to fit perfectly in standard freezers (they were created in the mind by a busy mother and designed by her engineer husband!)

Use to also freeze other goods like spaghetti sauce, bread or anything you like! After freezing small portions, just pop on the snug lid to keep out odours, then stack the tray in your freezer. When ready, just take them out and heat up your soup. Not just for freezers, you can also use them to bake foods, due to silicone being able to withstand high temperatures.

If you like making soup, invest in a stick blender, as it saves all the faffing around with washing jug blenders. When buying a new electrical appliance, UK says the store has to take the old one back. So take the dusty broken jug blender back to the store you buy a new one from, and it will be recycled on for you.

For days when you just want a tinned soup, Heinz now offer a plant-based cream of tomato soup. It’s sold in stores and (made with soy cream) it seriously tastes just the same. You would never know the difference.

For small cafes and hotels that prefer to support artisan home-grown companies, Suma sell multi-packs of canned soup online. This is not ‘creamy’ but just add a can of plant milk to each can you cook, to transform it into ‘creamy soup’ to serve.

A Recipe for Vegan Broccoli Cheese Soup

This vegan broccoli cheese soup (Ela Vegan) is a homemade version of one of England’s most popular soups. This soup fries carrot, potatoes and garlic with spices and good veggie broth, then adds steamed broccoli florets, before blending. You can stir in cashew butter and vegan grated cheese.

A Recipe for Vegan Leek & Potato Soup

homemade vegan leek and potato soup

This homemade vegan leek & potato soup (Broke Bank Vegan) is a US adaptation of one of England’s most loved soups, this one is free from dairy. This recipe fries the leeks and garlic in Flora vegan butter (no palm oil) and cooks up with veggie broth and Flora vegan double dream.

A Recipe for Vegan French Onion Soup

homemade vegan French onion soup

This vegan French onion soup (Ela Vegan) is a nice simple recipe to replace conventional French onion soup that usually contains beef stock. This cooks onions in vegan butter (Flora is free from palm oil) and adds lentils, good veggie broth, bay leaf and wine. Once cooked, remove the bay leaf, season and serve with grilled bread and vegan cheese.

This soup contains lentils, which give the soup lots of protein and calcium. Lentils are popular in Italian and Middle East cuisine, and very easy to cook. They are also cheap and filling. In fact, this plant-based French onion soup is way higher in protein than most watery tinned soups, which are not even vegetarian. Who said that vegans can’t get their protein?

Homemade Vegan Cream of Chicken Soup

vegan cream of chicken soup

Vegan Cream of Chicken Soup (A Pinch of Parsley) is the ultimate comfort food recipe, with childhood memories but none of the ‘not being friendly to chickens’. It’s ready in 15 minutes, and you can freeze leftovers, to heat later on.

This recipe is kind of a plant-based take on the old Campbells’ condensed cream of chicken soup. And the good news is that you only need one saucepan and a few easy-to-find ingredients.

Made with plant milk and oil (or Flora vegan butter), the base uses a no-chicken stock. Nine Meals of Anarchy makes good vegetable stock, just add some Steenbergs vegan chicken powder to turn it into ‘chicken stock’.

You can then go all traditional, and serve in a big crockpot with torn-up-bread chunks and grated vegan cheese. If you wish, you can omit the chicken part and replace with celery, to turn this into a ‘cream of celery’ soup.

vegan chicken noodle soup

This vegan chicken noodle soup (Veggie Desserts) uses plant-based chicken and mock chicken seasoning, and is ready in 30 minutes. Here’s another vegan chicken noodle soup recipe.

Homemade Minestrone Soup Recipe

minestrone soup

Fed up of watery cans of minestrone in supermarkets? This homemade minestrone soup (Waitrose) is packed with fresh vegetables, a hearty meal that’s also super-tasty and affordable.

Fry your celery, garlic, leek and carrot with salt in oil. This will take around 10 minutes. Then add tomato puree, canned beans, good veggie stock and boiled water, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add some tiny pasta, then when almost cooked, stir in some fresh greens. Serve with black pepper and good bread.

Did you know that you can now buy home-grown pasta in paper packaging? Yorkshire Pasta and Northern Pasta are two good brands, both made using authentic methods, for pasta that picks up the sauce better!

Homemade Carrot & Ginger Soup Recipe

carrot ginger soup

Carrot ginger soup (ElaVegan) is easy to make with an immersion blender. After sauteeing onion, ginger, garlic, carrots and spices, you boil with veggie broth and chopped potato, then blend and add some coconut milk, salt and pepper. Serve with fresh herbs and optional pumpkin seeds.

A few people with hypothyroidism (or pollen allergies) may need to avoid carrots. 

A Recipe for Warming Parsnip Soup

curried parsnip soup

This curried parsnip soup (The Veg Space) is super warming, thanks to whole-roasted garlic and warming spices. An ideal autumn soup dish, with good bread.

Where to Buy Good Soup in Shops

suma vegan ham and pea soup

Look in stores for Suma canned soups. Just heat and serve in a bowl or pour into a flask. This is a brand set up by a health food wholesaler. You can find these also in NISA and Co-op supermarkets. Stock up and you’ll always have a quick, tasty and nutritious lunch, with good bread.

Suma organic soups

The soups come in conventional flavours like tomato and mushroom, but also you’ll find some comfort food blends like vegan pea and ham, and even a vegan chicken soup!

suma vegan chikn soup

Serve this with torn up bread and top with grated cheese, for childhood nostalgia!

Tideford organics lentil soup

Tideford Organics Soups are sold in stores in many flavours including Lentil & Spinach Dahl (with heaps of organic veggies).

These soups are sold in plastic tubs, but they are easy to recycle. Just give the pots a quick rinse then squash or stack, to save space in your recycling bin. In the rare event your council does not collect plastic pots, you can use them as freezer-proof storage pots for homemade soups and stews.

The pots have an opening tab on the rim, just pull it up with your thumb to break, then lift up the lid to open the pot. If you have mobility issues, use a kitchen multi-opener (which can be used for other pots. Once open, chill the rest and eat up within 24 hours.

organic green Thai vegetable soup

Also try Thai Green Vegetable Soup. This warming punchy soup is perfect for a quick lunch, and is made with plant-based organic ingredients. The ingredients are cooked (so you can eat it cold) but it’s better warm. Packed with kale, spinach and broccoli (one pot gives 2 of your 5 a day), it’s flavoured with a dash of lemon and chilli.

Tideford Organics has been cooking from Devon kitchens since 1996, making award-winning foods. This is an interesting company, as it had the courage to switch their entire range over to vegan soups, which has paid off.

80 Plant-Based Soup & Stew Recipes

soup club

Soup Club is a unique book that focuses on the healing benefits of both soup and community. After the author (a writer from Seattle) was diagnosed with brain cancer , she told friends she was craving homemade soup, and found soup on her doorstep each day for months. After being given a year to live, she has now been cancer-free for 5 years. And retains gratitude for both  community – and soup.#

So Caroline decided to start a weekly soup club, delivering her own original healthy soup recipes to her friends’ porches. Soon word spread, and the area morphed into a large community of soup enthusiasts, inspired by her story.

Unlike any other recipe book, this soup book includes artwork, photography and even short poems from her community, all in celebration of vegan soups! Each soup can be made on the hob or in an InstantPot, and all recipes are also gluten-free. Learn to make:

  1. Catalan chickpea stew with spinach
  2. Jamaican pumpkin & red pea soup
  3. Split pea soup with roasted kale
  4. West African vegetable stew
  5. Kale farinata
  6. Broccoli & rice soup
  7. Pumpkin coconut soup with curry leaves
  8. Teddy’s black bean soup

Caroline’s inspiring story that began with cancer and ended with community, compelled me to make soup for others. What better way to thank people for their kindness. And the recipes do work! Deborah Madison

Caroline Wright is a cookbook writer, former TV producer and veteran of Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Her terminal brain cancer diagnosis in 2017 shifted her career to focus on her health and young sons, leading her to write the book Lasting Love (about enduring love after death). She lives in Washington, USA.

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