There’s nothing like a steaming pot of soup on a chilly day. Cosy, comforting and nourishing, soup also freezes and reheats beautifully and is wonderful to have on hand for an easy meal.

The key to a good soup is a good broth base, be it a golden vegetable stock or rich bone broth. Surprisingly, the most affordable option is to make your own, slowly simmering layers of lush flavour into your broth over time.

For the time-poor among us, use the best shop-bought broth you can afford, made with whole ingredients, as the difference in your final dish can be astounding.

Bone broth

Bone broth is one of the most nourishing things you can eat, but it surprises me how few people know how simple and affordable it is to make. This recipe contains enormous amounts of protein and collagen, which supposedly has the ability to improve skin elasticity and strengthen connective tissues. Impressive health claims aside, I love its rich, silky, almost creamy texture. It freezes well and is a fantastic soup base.

I recommend visiting your local market butcher to source the bones, and while you’re there, ask them to split the trotters for you. For a clear broth, blanch and rinse the bones, then simmer them slowly and gently. This process takes about four hours but requires little active cooking involvement. The longer you simmer it, the better the results.

When chilled overnight, the broth will set to a jelly with a thin layer of fat on the surface, which you can remove. In professional kitchens, jellied broths are the gold standard for flavour and texture. Here’s how to achieve the same result at home.

INGREDIENTS

• 2kg chicken feet
• 2 chicken carcasses
• 2 pork trotters, split in half
• 5 litres water
• salt to taste

METHOD

1. Place the chicken feet, chicken carcasses and trotters into a large stockpot and fill with water. Bring to the boil over high heat, and boil hard for 3-4 minutes.
2. Discard the water, rinse the pot and wash the blanched bones.
3. Return the clean bones to the pot and cover with five litres of water, then bring to a low boil over medium heat. Allow the water to boil for 10 minutes over medium heat, then reduce the heat to a slow simmer.
4. Simmer, partially covered, on the lowest possible heat for 3-4 hours, occasionally skimming off any scum that rises to the surface.
5. After several hours, strain the broth and allow it to stand. If you’re freezing or refrigerating the broth, allow it to cool to room temperature first. The broth will last for up to five days in the fridge, and two to three months in the freezer.

Makes 2 litres

Bone broth hotpot

I love the ceremony of eating this as a shared meal, but there’s no reason this can’t be scaled down to a nourishing meal for one. Here, we’re serving it hotpot-style, full of fresh ingredients.

“Hotpot-style” refers to the often communal style of dining where an array of fresh, quick-cook ingredients are dipped into a simmering broth to cook, one piece at a time. As each delicious morsel is cooked and fished out with chopsticks to enjoy, the broth becomes imbued with the essence of all the individual ingredients – meat, seafood and vegetables – resulting in a richly flavoured and delicious soup.

A camping stove set in the middle of the dining table is ideal, but a good Dutch oven or cast-iron pot could work, too, brought to the boil with the ingredients then transferred to the table so everyone can search for the delights within. You may need to pop it back on the stove occasionally to bring it back to a boil.

You can use any ingredient you like, as long as it cooks quickly. Firmer vegetables such as carrot, daikon or potato need to be sliced thinly, as do proteins. Frozen meat sliced for a hotpot is available at select butchers and Asian grocers, and seafood such as prawns, pipis or sliced white fish make wonderful additions, too.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 litres bone broth (plus more to top up, depending on the size of your pot)
• salt to taste
• 200-300g Asian mushrooms (enoki, oyster mushrooms, sliced shiitake)
• 2 bunches leafy greens (wombok cabbage, bok choy, spinach, etc), cut into 4cm lengths
• 1-2 small starchy vegetables (daikon, carrot, sweet potato, etc), thinly sliced
• 300-400g meat and seafood (shredded chicken, sliced leftover pork chops, etc), precooked or raw and thinly sliced
• 100g uncooked noodles or cooked rice
• 2 sliced red chillies in 1 tbsp soy sauce for dipping

METHOD

1. Bring the broth to a boil in a large pot or Dutch oven, and season with salt to taste.
2. If you’re eating this hotpot-style at the table, transfer the pot of hot broth to a camping stove set up on your dining table and keep the broth at a low simmer. Add ingredients one by one and eat them progressively as they cook. I love to eat this dish with a dipping sauce of sliced red chillies in soy sauce.
   If you’re using the stove, add some ingredients to the pot and remove the pot from the heat. Transfer the pot to a heatproof surface on the dining table and scoop the cooked ingredients from the pot. Reheat the broth on the stove as required to cook the remaining ingredients.
3. Add the uncooked noodles or cooked rice at the end to make a delicious soup, packed with flavour from all the ingredients you’ve been cooking in the broth.

Serves 4

Thai pork omelette soup

This humble Thai dish is both delicious and nourishing and can be whipped up with minimal effort. With clouds of omelette, aromatics and some rough pork meatballs simmered together with stock, you end up with a gorgeously rich soup brightened by fish sauce and Chinese celery. It’s perfect on its own or with a bowl of steamed rice, and is something kids will love.

INGREDIENTS

Pork meatballs

• 400g pork mince
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 spring onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp white pepper

Omelette

• ¼ cup cooking oil
• 6 eggs, whisked

Soup

• ¼ cup cooking oil
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tsp minced ginger
• 2 litres chicken or pork stock
• ½ bunch Chinese celery, roughly chopped
• 2 bird’s eye chillies, sliced (optional)

METHOD

1. Begin by making the meatball mixture, combining the pork mince, fish sauce, oyster sauce, spring onions and white pepper in a medium bowl and stirring for 3-4 minutes until smooth. Set aside to marinate while you make the soup.
2. Heat ¼ cup of oil over medium heat in a large heavy-bottom pan – the same one you will use to make the soup – and pour in the eggs. Push the sides of the omelette in and swirl the pot to make a large omelette. Allow the omelette to brown a little, then remove it from the pan and set aside.
3. In the same pan, heat another ¼ cup of cooking oil over medium heat and add the minced ginger and garlic. Fry, stirring constantly, until fragrant, then add the stock. Slowly bring to a simmer over medium heat.
4. When the soup is simmering, use two teaspoons to scoop up rough balls of the meatball mixture and drop them into the simmering broth, taking care not to overcrowd the pot. Continue until you have used all the mixture.
5. Roughly break up the omelette into smaller pieces and drop them back into the broth. Allow the soup to return to a simmer for 4-5 minutes until the omelette pieces are puffy and floating on the surface, then add a handful of Chinese celery and bird’s eye chillies, if using. Season the broth to taste and serve.

Serves 4

Hot and sour soup

Hot and sour soup is a classic for a reason. Its glossy stock base is packed with silky egg ribbons, julienned carrot, tofu and mushrooms – all seasoned with delightfully piquant vinegar and white pepper. You can make it as sour and as spicy as you like, adding fiery chilli oil to shake off that winter chill. This version is vegetarian but you could add shredded chicken, thinly sliced pork or even shellfish for extra oomph.

INGREDIENTS

• 3 eggs
• 3 tbsp cornflour
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 dried chillies
• 50g carrot, julienned
• 100g enoki mushroom, cut into 3cm lengths
• 4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly
• 2 spring onions, sliced into rounds and divided into whites and greens
• 2 litres soup stock (vegetable, chicken or pork)
• 1 block semi-firm tofu, cut into 1cm cubes

To season

• 1 tsp ground white pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp light soy
• 1 tbsp dark soy
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• sesame oil, to taste
• chilli oil, to taste (optional)

METHOD

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl, whisk thoroughly and set aside. In a separate bowl, stir the cornflour and water together to make a slurry, and set that aside as well.
2. Heat the oil in a large wok or pot over high heat. When it’s shimmering, add the dried chillies and the white part of the spring onion and stir-fry until fragrant – 10-20 seconds. Add the carrots, enoki mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms and stir-fry for another 30 seconds.
3. Add the soup stock and bring to a boil, then add the white pepper, salt, sugar and soy sauces. Cover and simmer for 4-5 minutes and taste. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, then add the vinegar. Stir the cornflour slurry again and pour into the boiling soup to thicken, stirring continuously to ensure it thickens evenly. Add the tofu, allow the soup to boil for another 2-3 minutes, then turn the heat off. Taste and adjust the seasoning at this point, adding more white pepper or vinegar if required.
4. Pour the whisked eggs over the surface of the hot soup in a circular motion and allow it to sit for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir gently, then ladle into bowls. Garnish with the spring onion greens, a drizzle of sesame oil, and chilli oil, if using.

Serves 4