In professional kitchens, soup is used as a way to mitigate waste. Vegetables that are close to spoiling, are used to make soup. Leftover roast beef from yesterday's prime rib is used to make soup. Extra leeks came in, make soup. It's tomato season and you've got a pile of fresh tomatoes, make soup! The point is that knowing the absolute basics of how to make soup will allow you to cut waste in your own kitchen while still creating something delicious and nutritious that you and your family will want to eat.

Soup can be almost anything. Whatever you have lying around that needs to get used up can be thrown into a soup. You don't need a recipe. You just need ingredients and a basic understanding of the fundamentals.

What is soup? That seems like a stupid question, but is it? I mean think about it. How would you define soup? It can be so many different things. According to Wikipedia soup is a primarily liquid food usually served hot and made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables with stock, broth or water. Make sense?