5 Great Soup Recipes for Students

When it’s cold and miserable outside, a steaming bowl of nutritious soup is exactly what you need. It’s warming, budget-friendly and super simple to make. From quick-and-easy miso to a hearty lentil, here are five great soup recipes to soothe those winter blues.

Don’t forget: Our student accommodation in Salford features well-equipped kitchens, giving you everything you need to create these soup sensations. 

1. Chicken noodle soup

Whenever you roast a chicken, make sure to make this nutritious soup with the leftovers the next day. Don’t worry if you don’t have all the ingredients – the beauty of this recipe is that you can more-or-less chuck anything into it!

Ingredients

• Leftover chicken carcass from Sunday’s roast (or a couple of uncooked chicken thighs, seasoned)
• 2 handfuls of sliced mixed vegetables, such as broccoli, green beans, spring greens and carrot
• 1 nest of noodles (egg, rice, udon, etc)
• 400ml chicken stock (made from boiling the chicken carcass or with a chicken stock cube)
• Carrot, onion and celery (if you’re making your own stock)
• Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger and a clove of garlic, thinly sliced
• Toasted sesame oil (or olive/vegetable oil)
• Soy sauce
• Fish sauce
• 1 lime
• Sliced fresh chilli, sliced spring onions and sesame seeds to garnish
  

Method

Pick off as much meat from the chicken carcass as you can, shred between two forks and set aside. Put the carcass into a large pan with an onion, stick of celery, carrot and some peppercorns if you have them. Cover with fresh cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for at least two hours, loosely covered, and then using a sieve, strain into a clean container. If you’re using chicken thighs, heat some oil in a pan, and cook them for a few minutes on each side until brown and slightly crispy, then remove.

Cook your noodles according to the packet instructions, drain them into your soup bowl and drizzle with a little sesame oil.

Pour a little oil into the pan and gently cook your garlic and ginger for a minute until fragrant. Pour in the stock, half a tablespoon of soy sauce and bring to a simmer. If you’re using chicken thighs, add them now and cook for around 15 minutes until there’s no pink meat left. Remove them with a slotted spoon and shred. (If you’re using leftover cooked chicken, you only need to heat it for around four minutes in the broth until piping hot.) 

Next, add your sliced veggies and cook for around two minutes more until they’re just cooked. Add a generous dash of fish sauce and taste your broth, adding more soy or fish sauce if you think it needs it. Transfer it all to your bowl with the noodles and top with a squeeze of fresh lime, the spring onions, chilli, sesame seeds or whatever you fancy!

2. Butternut squash soup

A wonderfully smooth and soothing vegetable soup, perked up with just a hint of spice.

Ingredients

• 1 medium butternut squash, cut lengthways into quarters
• 1 pint of vegetable or chicken stock
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes (or less if you don’t like heat)
• Olive or vegetable oil
• Natural yogurt
  

Method

Arrange the squash pieces onto a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle the squash with the chilli flakes, cumin seeds and plenty of salt and pepper and then roast in a 180° oven for around 45 minutes, until the squash is soft and slightly dark around the edges. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and then gently saute the onions until soft. Next add the garlic and cook for around three minutes. Pour in the stock and bring to a simmer. Peel the skin off the squash and chop the flesh into chunks. Pop them into the stock and simmer for around ten minutes. Blitz the soup to your desired consistency with a handheld blender or mixer, check the soup for seasoning and add a couple of drops of milk if it’s too thick. Serve with a drizzle of natural yogurt.

3. Red lentil and chickpea soup

With red lentils for slow-release energy, this will keep you going during those long studying sessions in your student accommodation in Salford.

Ingredients

• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp olive or vegetable oil
• Tin of chopped tomatoes
• Tin of chickpeas
• 100g red lentils, rinsed
• 400ml stock made with a vegetable or chicken stock cube
• 1 tbsp tomato puree1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander¼ tsp dried chilli (or more if you prefer things spicier)
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Natural yogurt
  

Method

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and gently cook the onion until soft, adding the garlic for the last couple of minutes. Stir in the spices and allow to cook for a minute until fragrant. Add the lentils, tomato puree, sugar and chilli flakes, then the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 30 minutes until the lentils are soft, adding more water if it’s too thick. Tip in the chickpeas to warm through and then taste and season. Squeeze in the lemon juice and serve with a swirl of natural yogurt if you like.

4. Miso soup

This super-nutrious soup is ready in a flash. Most dashi contains fish, so if you’re vegetarian, use a good-quality vegetable bouillon powder instead.

Ingredients

• Miso paste (white, yellow or red)
• 1 sachet of dashi (you can pick it up from Asian supermarkets or Amazon)
• 100g silken tofu, diced into bite-sized cubes
• 3-4 mushrooms, sliced
• Handful of greens, thinly sliced
• Thumb of ginger, finely sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, finely sliced
• Spring onions, finely sliced
  

Method

Mix the dashi or bouillon with 200ml of boiling water. Add the vegetables, ginger and garlic, simmer for a few minutes and then turn off the heat. In a soup bowl, whisk 1 tablespoon of miso paste with a small amount of the dashi broth. Once it’s fully amalgamated, pour in the rest of the broth. Add your diced tofu and spring onions and enjoy!

5. Smoked haddock and sweetcorn chowder

A deliciously thick and creamy soup that's the perfect antidote to the winter blues.

Ingredients

• Small knob of butter

• Olive oil

• 100g frozen sweetcorn

• 400g potatoes, peeled and diced

• 1 leek or onion, thinly sliced

• Two smoked haddock fillets

• 1 garlic clove, crushed

• ½ tsp dried thyme

• Milk

Method: 

Heat the butter in a pan along with a drizzle of olive oil. Gently cook the leeks or onion over a low heat until soft. Then, add the potato, sweetcorn and thyme. Add a little water to the pan and cover, cooking for around ten minutes until the potatoes are cooked. Keep an eye on it and add more water if needed.

Meanwhile, put the smoked haddock fillets into a shallow pan and pour in just enough milk to cover the fish. Bring to a simmer and cook for around eight minutes, until the fish turns opaque. Pour the poaching milk into the pan with the vegetables, along with the flaked fish. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for around three minutes. Taste, season and serve with some chopped parsley.

We hope our soup recipes have shown that you don’t need a big budget or fancy ingredients to eat well as a student. True student accommodation Salford has modern kitchens (either shared or private kitchenettes in our studios), plus warm and welcoming communal dining areas so you can enjoy that convivial vibe! Take a look to find out more: true student Salford