DIY Cup-a-soup

When I was little, on a cold day, we’d drink stock. Beef stock back then, from cubes. Then someone invented cup-a-soup which I thought was genius for a while. I liked the idea of a soup you could drink in a cup, a warm, savoury liquid, something to have with toast when your hungry and cold. They all tasted the same, and not very nice. Remembering my childhood, I started making my own.

My favourite stock cube for DIY cup-a-soup is Kallø’s mushroom. Half a cube makes a satisfyingly flavoured half-pint of stock. With a teaspoon of nutritional yeast, some sage or parsley, a bit of soy sauce, it makes a very nice cup.

Makes: 1 mug. Prep: 3 minutes. Cooking time: 0 minutes.
Stores: Not at all. Make and consume.

Ingredients

• Water
• Nutritional yeast (optional)
• 0.5 stock cube
• Fresh herbs (optional)
• Soya sauce (optional)
• Lemon juice (optional)

Tools

• Kettle
• Mug
• Teaspoon
• Chopping board
• Knife

Method

1. Fill the kettle with the amount of water you need.
2. Put the stock in the mug, with the nutritional yeast if using.
3. Pour in water and stir until the stock has dissolved.
4. Add soy sauce and lemon juice to taste.
5. Finely chop a small amount of fresh herbs and add.
6. Stir. Drink.

Variations

This is all about variations.

• Peas: A small handful of frozen peas cooks in the hot water.
• Onions: A finely sliced spring onion adds nice flavour and crunch.
• Heat: Finely chopped chilli warms you up even more.
• Noodles: If you have some instant noodles, crumble a small handful into the cup before pouring in the water. I wouldn’t, because I don’t like instant noodles, but that’s just me.
• Marmite: A small amount of Marmite adds umami. You don’t want too much, unless you’re a huge fan, but a tad (which is a lot less than a teaspoon) does interesting things to, for example, heated tomato juice.