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Home-made soup help, how much stock water?

Hey! So now I'm back at uni I figured it's about time I started cooking properly for myself :tongue: I'm a big soup fan so was thinking of experimenting around and make big loads of soup every now and then :smile:
Thing is, even though I've found some good recipes I kind of want to make some more tailored to what I like so was hoping to come up with my own recipes. I was just wondering if anybody could tell me like a basic amount of stock thats needed in soups? Im planning to make them fairly thin soups to get more portions out of it, but how much is needed say per serving? Or maybe for a soup for 6-8 servings? I know it'll probably depend on the other ingredients but is there no kind of standard amount?
As you may be able to tell, I'm not the greatest cook at the moment :redface:

Thanks :smile:
Reply 1
Original post by Pen Island
Hey! So now I'm back at uni I figured it's about time I started cooking properly for myself :tongue: I'm a big soup fan so was thinking of experimenting around and make big loads of soup every now and then :smile:
Thing is, even though I've found some good recipes I kind of want to make some more tailored to what I like so was hoping to come up with my own recipes. I was just wondering if anybody could tell me like a basic amount of stock thats needed in soups? Im planning to make them fairly thin soups to get more portions out of it, but how much is needed say per serving? Or maybe for a soup for 6-8 servings? I know it'll probably depend on the other ingredients but is there no kind of standard amount?
As you may be able to tell, I'm not the greatest cook at the moment :redface:

Thanks :smile:


i'd say you'd want several litres of stock, maybe 3? That would make you a few good soup bases.

May i recommend buying the stock powder 'bouillon' (its french in a green and orange pot) rather than cubes, it had a much stronger, nicer flavour :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by KAB1010101
i'd say you'd want several litres of stock, maybe 3? That would make you a few good soup bases.

May i recommend buying the stock powder 'bouillon' (its french in a green and orange pot) rather than cubes, it had a much stronger, nicer flavour :smile:


Awesome, thanks :biggrin:
Reply 3
When I'm making a soup for two I usually use two litres of stock and then chopped tomatoes or passata.
It's very difficult to say because some people like huge portions of soup while others like only a small amount. I personally always use the same pan to make my soups so I now know how far up the side of the pan the soup should be.

Another issue it's worth considering when making your own recipes is consistency. If you add a set amount of stock without considering how much you have of your other ingredients, you can easily end up with a soup which is too runny or too thick. To get round this, I would boil my vegetables (for example) in enough water that it just covers the vegetables and then crumble in two or three stock cubes to taste. It's also worth investing in cornflour until you have worked out the best way to get the thickness you want, as you're going to get a thicker soup if you are using root vegetables than if you were using tomatoes.

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