A chef has revealed a simple way to elevate your soup, and the trick couldn’t have come at a better time. A bowl of soup is the perfect dish for a cold winter evening, and it is quite straightforward to prepare. If time is not on your side, you can easily pick up a ready-made soup and elevate it with your own ingredients.
Regardless of whether you enjoy a homemade bowl of soup or one that’s from the supermarket, there’s one simple ingredient that the chef claims will take your okay to irresistible.
Molly Adams wrote on Simply Recipes: “A small splash of acid, like vinegar, can be the difference between soup that tastes meh and really great soup you can’t stop scooping into your mouth.”
The chef learned of the game-changing tip during her time at culinary school, where she also started to notice that “almost every soup should be finished with a hit of vinegar before serving”. According to Ms Adams, one to two teaspoons of vinegar is enough for the entire pot.
She added: “Soup usually contains several ingredients and flavours, all competing to be the star of the show. Think of vinegar as the conductor of an orchestra.
“It can take a cacophony of flavours and sync them into perfect harmony. It both balances and awakens them. Plus, if you accidentally add too much salt to your soup, a little vinegar will tame the saltiness.”
Different vinegars work best for different soups. If you are going for a classic tomato soup, then Ms Adams recommends “a splash of aged balsamic vinegar” as the sweetness helps neutralise the acidity of the tomatoes, but also “awaken their deep umami notes”.
For lentil soup, opt for a touch of red wine vinegar. Sherry vinegar works best for a potato leek soup, and for a carrot ginger soup, a bit of rice wine vinegar will enhance the ginger notes.
Now for a butternut squash soup, which is a favourite for many, Ms Adam says a splash of apple cider vinegar will make the soup “anything but basic”.
She added: “It will pair well with the warm spices and will add much-needed savoury notes to this traditionally sweet soup.”
