A white soup plate of clear golden vegetable broth with slices of carrot, celery and turnip, beside a dark toasted crust of bread on gray stone. — Strained vegetable soup with sliced carrot, celery and turnip.

Vegetable Soup with a Toasted Crust (1806)

Name: Vegetable Soup with a Toasted Crust
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 2 h 30 min
Total time: 2 h 55 min
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 8 tbsp butter; 3 large onions; 3 medium potatoes; 3 medium carrots; 2 medium turnips; 2 quarts boiling water; 1 thick crust of bread, from the end of a loaf; 2 celery stalks; 4 sprigs thyme; 4 sprigs parsley; 1 bay leaf; ½ tsp ground white pepper; 1½ tsp salt, plus more to taste; 1 small carrot, for the finish; 1 celery stalk, for the finish; ½ small turnip, for the finish; 1 anchovy fillet (optional); 1 tbsp mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce (optional)

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Maria Rundell’s meatless vegetable soup with a toasted crust, 1806: onions, potatoes, carrots and turnips fried in butter, stewed with celery, herbs and a crust toasted hard, then strained.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 28, 2026

Recipe makes: About 7 cups, 6 servings
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 2 hr 30 min
Total: 2 hr 55 min

Rundell stews the vegetables for four hours. Two hours, covered, at a gentle simmer gives a full-flavored broth from half her quantities.

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Strained vegetable soup with sliced carrot, celery and turnip.

The story behind the recipe

No meat at all: onions, potatoes, carrots and turnips fried brown in butter, stewed for hours with celery, herbs and a crust of bread toasted “as brown and hard as possible,” then strained into a clear, savory broth. Maria Eliza Rundell printed it in 1806 as “Another Vegetable Soup,” a household soup for any day.

Why the toasted crust?

For color and flavor. A crust toasted dark gives the broth a brown color and a roasted taste, the way browned bones do in a meat stock, and Rundell warns not to burn it, which would make it bitter. Count Rumford, writing four years earlier about soup for the poor, called bread the one ingredient the soups furnished to the poor should never be without, as What Was in London’s Penny Soup in 1799? tells.

Was this a soup for the poor?

Not in Rundell’s book, where it sits among the family’s soups. It answers one line of Rumford’s, that “some of the most savoury and most nourishing soups are made without any meat,” though half a pound of butter is a cost Rumford’s soups were meant to avoid. Make it beside the soup house’s Spitalfields Meat Soup (1799) to taste both sides of the argument.

Making it today

Slice the vegetables thin so they brown evenly in the butter. Rundell strains the soup through a coarse cloth and then cooks fresh sliced carrot, celery and turnip in it until tender, so the finished bowl is a clear broth with a few tender vegetables. Her anchovy and spoonful of “catsup,” mushroom ketchup in her day, are optional seasonings; leave them out and the soup is vegetarian.

Peel and slice six large onions, six potatoes, six carrots, and four turnips; fry them in half a pound of butter, pour on them four quarts of boiling water, and toast a crust of bread as brown and hard as possible, but do not burn it; put that, some celery, sweet herbs, white pepper and salt, to the above; stew gently four hours, strain through a coarse cloth; have ready sliced carrot, celery, and a little turnip, and add to your liking; and stew them tender in the soup. If approved, you may add an anchovy, and a spoonful of catsup.

Maria Eliza RundellA New System of Domestic Cookery (London: J. Murray and J. Harding, 1806), Another Vegetable Soup, p. 98

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Ingredients

For about 7 cups, 6 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for about 7 cups, 6 servings.

Butter8 tbsp
Large onions3
Medium potatoes3
Medium carrots3
Medium turnips2
Boiling water2 quart
Thick crust of bread, from the end of a loaf1
Celery2 stalks
Thyme4 sprigs
Parsley4 sprigs
Bay leaf1
Ground white pepper1/2 tsp
Salt, plus more to taste1 1/2 tsp
Small carrot, for the finish1
Celery, for the finish1 stalk
Small turnip, for the finish1/2
Anchovy fillet (optional)1
Mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce (optional)1 tbsp

Ingredients as written here

8 tbsp butter
3 large onions
3 medium potatoes
3 medium carrots
2 medium turnips
2 quarts boiling water
1 thick crust of bread, from the end of a loaf
2 celery stalks
4 sprigs thyme
4 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
½ tsp ground white pepper
1½ tsp salt, plus more to taste
1 small carrot, for the finish
1 celery stalk, for the finish
½ small turnip, for the finish
1 anchovy fillet (optional)
1 tbsp mushroom ketchup or Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Equipment

Large heavy pot, about 6 quarts, with a lid
Kettle
Colander and a fine sieve or a cloth-lined colander
Large bowl

Instructions

Peel and thinly slice the onions, potatoes, carrots and turnips.
Melt the butter in the pot over medium heat. Add the sliced vegetables and fry, stirring often, for 20 to 25 minutes, until they are soft and golden brown at the edges.
Meanwhile, toast the crust of bread under the broiler or in a dry pan until it is deep brown and hard all over, without letting it blacken.
Pour the boiling water over the vegetables. Add the toasted crust, the celery stalks cut in pieces, the thyme, parsley, bay leaf, white pepper and salt.
Bring it back to a boil, then cover and simmer gently for 2 hours.
Set the colander over the bowl and pour the soup through it, pressing lightly on the vegetables. Strain the broth again through the fine sieve or cloth. Discard the solids and rinse the pot.
Thinly slice the carrot, celery stalk and turnip for the finish. Return the broth to the pot, add them and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until just tender.
If using, mash the anchovy fillet with a little broth and stir it in with the mushroom ketchup. Taste, add more salt if needed, and serve hot.

Nutrition

170calories per serving

Recipe makes: About 7 cups, 6 servings
Servings: 6

Estimated per serving (6) from USDA FoodData Central values for butter, onions, potatoes, carrots and turnips, assuming about half the butter and a quarter of the stewed vegetables stay in the strained broth.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

This is half of Rundell’s soup, which took six each of onions, potatoes and carrots, four turnips, half a pound of butter and four quarts of water.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

This is half of Rundell’s quantities, and the stewing time is cut from her four hours to two for the smaller pot. She leaves the celery, herbs, white pepper, salt and finishing vegetables unmeasured, so those amounts are our estimates, and thyme, parsley and bay are our reading of her “sweet herbs.” A fine sieve can stand in for her coarse cloth. Mushroom ketchup is the closest modern match for her “catsup”; Worcestershire sauce is a substitute. The broth keeps up to 4 days in the refrigerator; chill it within 2 hours. Contains milk (butter) and wheat (bread crust); the optional anchovy is fish.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.