Soup is comfort, obviously. But its real virtue is that it has almost no rules.

Got some veg? Water or stock? A few spices in the cupboard, a tin of beans, the end of a loaf? That is a hearty soup waiting to happen. All you need is a handful of principles to hold it together.

The golden rules

Build a base first. Onion, and whatever else you have that belongs with it, cooked slowly in fat until soft and sweet. This is the step people rush, and it is the step that decides whether your soup tastes of anything.

Wake up your spices. Thirty seconds in the hot pan with the base, before any liquid goes in, and they will taste twice as strong.

Go easy on the liquid. You can always loosen a thick soup. Thinning a watery one is much harder.

Season in layers. A little salt with the base, more once it simmers, then a final check at the end when the flavours have settled.

Finish with acid. Lemon, vinegar, a spoonful of yoghurt. This is the difference between a soup that tastes flat and one that tastes finished.

Add texture at the last minute. Toasted seeds, crisp croutons, a swirl of chilli oil, torn herbs. Something to break up the smoothness.

Then improvise

Once the method is second nature, the cupboard becomes the recipe. Stale bread thickens a tomato soup into something substantial. A parmesan rind dropped into the pot adds savoury depth for free. Roasted grapes turn a squash soup unexpectedly sweet and jammy. A spoonful of peanut butter belongs in more soups than you would think, and a splash of coconut milk rescues almost anything that has gone too sharp.

Master the basics and you can create any soup recipe you put your mind to.