- Water is a perfectly fine choice if the other options
aren’t available.Whatever liquid you choose, don’t use too much. Use just
enough to cover your ingredients by an inch or so. You can
always thin a thick soup out after blending, but reducing a
pureed soup that’s too thin is a much more difficult thing to
do (if you don’t want to risk burning it to the bottom of the
pot).
After adding your liquid and main ingredient, bring the
soup to a simmer and let it cook until the vegetables are just
cooked through; you want them to be just tender enough to
pierce with a knife with no resistance. For things like
carrots, parsnips, and other root vegetables, you have a bit
of leeway. Overcooking won’t be the end of the world. But
for bright green vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, peas,
string beans, or leafy greens, you want to make sure to stop
cooking them before they start turning a drab green color—
if a brightly colored soup is something you care about, that
is.
Step 6: Puree and Emulsify
Here’s the fun part: pureeing. The smoothness of your final
soup will depend on the tool you use.
- A blender will give you the smoothest result, due to
its high speed and vortex action. When blending hot
liquids, always hold the lid down with a kitchen towel,
start the blender on low speed, and slowly bring it up to