Easy ways to make soup at home from Matt Preston - How To

Mar 25, 2025

Convenience is a trap. It has us falling for all manner of hidden nasties. But as Matt Preston writes, what really makes buying ‘convenient’ pre-made soups such a waste of money is that few things are as easy – or as cheap – to make at home as soup.

Put simply, your basic soup is no more than cooked seasonal vegetables in a flavoursome stock or broth. Leave it as a broth with bobbing bits, or blend it into something creamy; perhaps with the help of potato or milk.

Pumpkin soup

How to make pumpkin soup

Making a basic pumpkin soup – Australia’s most popular soup at this time of the year – is as easy as roasting halved and deseeded butternut pumpkin with a couple of halved red onions, then blending the scooped-out, soft-cooked centres with stock. Flavour with whatever you have sitting around, underutilised, in your fridge or pantry, like a spoonful of that Thai red curry paste from the almost-empty jar, or some curry powder and the last dollop of plain Greek yoghurt from the fridge.

These simple steps for pumpkin soup can be converted for other cheap seasonal veg, like parsnips or carrots.

Credit: Getty images / SimpleImages

How to make stock

Stock can be made at home cheaply from the leftover frame of a roast chicken, or from slowly cooking down clean vegetable trimmings with water. Add onion skins and a tablespoon of butter-toasted skimmed milk powder for depth of colour (ie, brownness) and more flavour.

Credit: Alan Jensen

Now, the question remains: is it ignorance or laziness that has me throwing a carton or can of soup in my trolley? In my case, it’s usually a lack of preparedness – making soup is a prescient commitment to your health as well as your budget, because not only is soup cheap to make, you also know exactly what you’re putting in there.

The other reward that homemade soup offers is that it’s as easy to make a lot as it is a little. This means you can deliver tonight’s dinner as well as having the convenience of a container of soup in the fridge or easily defrostable portions in the freezer, for hungry housemates or kids coming home from school – all for the same amount of effort.

So, make a commitment to making soup today. Tonight and on the weekend, whether you’re watching kids’ sport in the cold with your thermos or recharging after that long beach walk, everyone will thank you.

Related story: 11 easy peasy takes on the classic pea soup

Credit: Ben Dearnley

How to turn soup into a satisfying meal

Don’t be fooled into thinking that soups are unsubstantial or inconsequential. There are lots of ways you can bulk them up into hearty meals. The cucina povera, or ‘poor kitchen’ in Italian, is my usual starting point; making soup into dinner as cheaply as possible is solidly in the Italians’ wheelhouse.

You can add leftover cooked pasta shapes or beans to your chicken broth, or add any sensible combo of veg left in the crisper drawer as a take on minestrone. It can be simpler, like adding an egg to poach, or just a slice of toast. The silkiness of soaked stale bread (like in an Italian ribollita) is about the most luxurious transformation of something that you’d usually throw away. Flavour bombs, like parmesan rind or garlic, and crushed spices such as fennel seeds, can add a good boost in flavour, too.