Making Mayo’s Recipes: How to make soup without a recipe

You can create a comforting pot of soup anytime, with ingredients that you have on hand. Raid your pantry and clean out your crisper drawer. Look for hearty vegetables that you can use to build a soup base — an onion or leek, a couple of carrots or celery stalks, maybe a bell pepper. Then, improvise the rest. Toss in seasonal vegetables, greens and herbs, or leftover proteins and grains. The toughest part? You have to decide whether to go for a broth-based bowl or a creamy cup.

If you're not a confident cook, the idea of going off-recipe may seem daunting. You can do it. Follow the soup-making strategy in this video, and you'll slurp up the final result.

Each week one of the 100+ tasty video recipes from the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program is featured on the Mayo Clinic News Network, just in time for you to try at the weekend. You can also have the recipes delivered via the Mayo Clinic App.

Created by the executive wellness chef and registered dietitians at the Mayo Clinic Healthy Living Program. Find more recipes and other healthy-living insights on the Mayo Clinic App.  

Watch: How to make soup without a recipe.

Journalists: The broadcast-quality video (1:23) is in the downloads.