My favourite easy to make everyday vegetable soup without stock or broth. This soup is delicious and filling on its own or you can serve it with crusty homemade bread and herb butter.
Why make this recipe?
- Great recipe for no stock vegetable soup made from scratch
- Flexible recipe – use any kind of vegetable you have
- Make more and freeze for later to save time
What makes this recipe work
We are going to sort of make our own vegetable stock by cooking first the firmer vegetables, then blending them (optional) and adding the rest of the ingredients. This makes the soup full of flavour and it also makes the soup creamy.
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My favourite tip
Use whatever vegetables you have to make this soup. If you don’t have a particular vegetable on my recipe lists, use a different one. This is really versatile recipe and I don’t want you to feel like you can’t make this soup if you are missing one or two ingredients on the list.
Any specialist equipment needed?
This is optional, but if you want your soup base to be creamy, it’s a good idea to blend it half way through the process (or even at the end, if you want your soup to be completely smooth).
Allergies & dietary requirements
This soup is vegetarian and if you use vegetable oil, it’s also vegan and dairy free. It’s naturally gluten-free and nut free.
Notes on Ingredients & Possible Substitutions
This soup recipe is very versatile – if you don’t have one of these vegetables, just add more of another or use a different vegetable altogether.
Any kind of potatoes will work with this recipe, including more unusual types of potatoes such as Yukon Gold Potatoes (or any substitutions for Yukon Gold).
Onion and garlic are there to give a lot of flavours, especially as we are going to slightly brown them at the beginning.
There are a lot of different spices you can use with this soup and my caraway seeds, sweet paprika and mild chilli powder is only a suggestion. You are welcome to add any other spices or leave them out if you don’t like them.
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or sunflower oil or butter
- 1/2 celery root (celeriac)
- 2 medium carrots sliced
- 1 medium onion chopped up
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup mushrooms or more if you like
- 1 parsnip
- 1 potato peeled and diced into 1 cm cubes
- 1 large leek or 2 small ones
- 1 litre water or more if needed
- 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds optional or other spices
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sweet paprika powder
- 1/4 teaspoon mild chilli powder optional
- salt and ground pepper to season
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves or other leafy herbs
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How to make vegetable soup without stock
In the first part of my recipe, we will be making our own vegetable stock, but leaving it in the soup. This is why this recipe has quite a lot of different root vegetables. The more different types of vegetables you add, the more developed flavour you’ll get.
In a large saucepan or a stockpot heat the oil or butter over medium-high heat.
Chop the onion and garlic into very small pieces and set aside.
Chop the celeriac celery root) and parsnip into very small pieces – the smaller the better as they will cook quicker)
Chop the rest of the vegetables into 1 cm (or so) cubes or pieces. You can leave the potatoes and leek slightly bigger as you don’t want these to disintegrate into the soup.
Add the chopped up onion, garlic, celery root, parsnip, chopped mushrooms to the melted oil or butter and cook until the onion is slightly see-through and softened. This will take about 3-5 minutes.
Add water, bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes or so.
If you’d like a smooth creamy soup, blend the soup now (with a handheld blender stick or put into a food processor). Be careful as the soup will be very hot.
Bring the soup back to boiling point and add the potatoes and carrots.
When the carrots and potatoes are nearly cooked through add the leeks.
Add your choice of spices, herbs and season with salt and pepper.
Reduce it to a simmer, cover with a lid and simmer for another 5 minutes or until the leeks (and the rest of the vegetables) are done.
Serve with fresh herbs and homemade crusty bread with butter.
How else you can make this recipe?
Every time you make this soup, you’ll probably use a different type of vegetables, which will make it interesting and your family will never be bored of the same soup.
If you want your soup to be extra creamy, add cream or dairy free cream.
How to serve vegetable soup recipe
This vegetable soup without stock is perfect as it is, but it’s also great with buttered crusty bread or a roll.
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Recipe size
This soup recipe makes a large pot for 4 people (adults). If you have a smaller appetite, you can stretch this recipe to 6 portions and serve with homemade bread.
Can I scale up or down this recipe?
You can half all the ingredients to make a smaller amount of this soup. It will take about the same time to prepare and cook.
If you are cooking for a large crowd or you want to make more to freeze for later, you can double up all the ingredients and make more. Make sure that you have a suitably large saucepan or tall pot.
How long will my soup last?
If kept in the fridge, the soup should be fine for 2-3 days. If you need the soup to last longer, I would strongly suggest freezing it on the same day. Your soup should be fine for 1-3 months in the freezer.
Can this recipe be made in advance?
Soups are always great the next day as they develop their flavour, which means that you can easily make this vegetable soup without stock 24 hrs before you need it.
How to store this recipe
Soups are best kept in the fridge (with the lid on or moved to a suitable container).
Can I freeze vegetable soup?
Yes, this vegetable soup can be frozen, proving you have used fresh vegetables. It’s not a good idea to freeze again any food, including vegetables that have been previously frozen.
To freeze your soup, leave it out first to cool down completely at room temperature and then transfer to a freezer suitable container.
I prefer to divide the soup into 1-2 portions so that I can have them ready any time I want and can only pull out 1 or 2 portions at a time.
How to re-heat homemade vegetable soup
It’s best not to re-heat the soup more than once, so unless you are going to finish the soup after you re-heat it, I’d suggest that you re-heat only what you are going to eat. I find it easier to just take out one portion at a time and re-heat it in the microwave.
You can of course re-heat the soup in a hob. Bring gently to a simmering point and stir to make sure the soup doesn’t burn. If the soup looks very thick, add a little bit more water.
Homemade Vegetable Soup (no stock, no broth)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil or sunflower oil or butter
- 1/2 celery root (celeriac)
- 2 medium carrots sliced
- 1 medium onion chopped up
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup mushrooms or more if you like
- 1 parsnip
- 1 potato peeled and diced into 1 cm cubes
- 1 large leek or 2 small ones
- 1 litre water or more if needed
- 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds optional or other spices
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sweet paprika powder
- 1/4 teaspoon mild chilli powder optional
- salt and ground pepper to season
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves or other leafy herbs
Instructions
- In a large sauceapan or a stock pot heat the oil or butter over medium-high heat.
- Chop the onion and garlic into very small pieces and set aside.
- Chop the celeriac celery root) and parsnip into very small pieces – the smaller the better as they will cook quicker)
- Chop the rest of the vegetables into 1 cm (or so) cubes or pieces. You can leave the potatoes and leak slightly bigger as you don't want these to disintegrate into the soup.
- Add the chopped up onion, garlic, celery root, parsnip, chopped mushrooms to the melted oil or butter and cook until the onion is slightly see through and softened. This will take about 3-5 minutes.
- Add water, bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes or so.
- If you'd like a smooth creamy soup, blend the soup now (with handheld blender stick or put into a food processor). Be careful as the soup will be very hot.
- Bring the soup back to the boiling point and add the potatoes and carrots.
- When the carrots and potatoes are nearly cooked through add the leeks.
- Add your choice of spices, herbs and season with salt and pepper.
- Reduce it to a simmer, cover with a lid and simmer for another 5 minutes or until the leaks (and the rest of the vegetables) are done.
- Serve with fresh herbs and homemade crusty bread with butter.
Notes
Nutrition
This blog post was originally written on 14 February 2022 and last updated on 2 April 2023
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Everyone was happy with Saturday lunch – your vegetable soup with no broth and served with homemade bread rolls. It was so tasty and we had plenty of leftovers for the next day.