How to make good soup

Making stock
To make a good soup, it's essential to use good stock. It's fine to use stock cubes in a pinch but for the best-flavoured soups, it's best to make your own. Use fresh vegetable trimmings or frozen peelings - you can accumulate these in freezer bags and use them as needed.
Dried or fresh mushrooms, carrots, celery, pumpkins, corn cobs, meat bones, inexpensive cuts of meats or unused ingredients (such as chicken carcasses or shells from shellfish) make excellent bases for stock.

Bay leaves are practically a must, because they add a haunting background flavour
For flavouring the stock, herbs such as parsley and thyme add depth. Bay leaves are practically a must, because they add a haunting background flavour. Asian-style stocks can be made from miso paste, dried bonito fish flakes or seaweed and flavoured with fresh ginger and lemongrass.

Brassicas (the cabbage family, including broccoli and Brussels sprouts), spinach, artichokes, and asparagus can leave a bitter, metallic taste, so it's best to avoid using these as the basis for your stock. Likewise, onion skins and strongly flavoured herbs and spices will overwhelm. Vividly coloured ingredients such as beetroot, turmeric, saffron and soy sauce, while fine in a soup, are best left out of a stock.

For an extra depth of flavour, sauté or roast the vegetables or meat before use. Put the ingredients in cold water (half solids to half water is a good ratio), bring to boil, and simmer. Vegetable stocks take a half hour to one hour to cook, while chicken and meat stock take between one and five hours. Skim off the whitish foam that appears on the surface regularly, and strain as soon as possible after cooking.

Thickening soups
Once you've mastered the art of stock-making, you'll be making soup regularly. But what if your soup is too thin? The best remedy is to thicken the soup with the purée of a central ingredient you're using in the soup. Root vegetables, tomatoes, beans or lentils are particularly good for this.

Alternatively, you can use cornflour, arrowroot, rice, tapioca, semolina, cornmeal, bulgar wheat, breadcrumbs or crushed nuts. Egg yolks, milk, cream, yoghurt, crème fraîche or béchamel sauce are also suitable.

To avoid lumps or curdling, add your chosen ingredient first to a ladleful of soup in a bowl, amalgamate well, and then pour the mixture back into the soup pot.

Garnishes and accompaniments
In addition to using croutons, chopped fresh herbs or a swirl of cream, you can decorate soup with finely diced or shredded vegetables, deep-fried wafer-thin vegetable slices, deep-fried herbs, toasted nuts and seeds, cooked quail's egg, or a spoonful of caviar.

Serve your soup creations with crusty breads or elegant grissini, float croûtes (largish bread slices) on top, or serve with fritters or savoury biscuits and muffins. Most Asian soups are served with rice and pickles. As ever, experimentation is the key.