{recipe} Clear vegetable soup

I like my soup to be chunky, dont like it completely smooth. And one soup I love is the clear vegetable soup. I remember having a version of this in Cascade years ago. Last month one day I stood staring into the veg tray for  a few minutes, shut the fridge and repeated the same once again.  I gave up! I had 2 carrots, a small piece of cabbage, 1 onion, 1 potato, handful of fresh peas, 1 tiny bit of zucchini, 1 tomato and a small piece of tofu. I broke my head for a while and finally a lightbulb moment happened. I decided to make the soup for dinner and have it with 2 slices of multi grain bread. 


Ingredients 
2 tsp olive oil
1/4 cup cabbage
1 onion 
2 carrots 
1 potato
1/4 cup peas 
1 tomato
1/4 zucchini
50-60 grams tofu 
1 liter water
Salt
Black pepper
2 cloves of Garlic
1 tsp vinegar

Method

1. Chop all the veggies into cubes and set aside. 
2. In a pan, add oil, saute the onions, garlic for a few minutes and then add the rest of the chopped veggies and saute them for 3-4 mins
3. Add water and allow it to come to a boil, cooking the veggies [if you want you can pre-cook the potato and peas]
4.  Once the vegetables are all cooked, take a tbsp of the same and puree. 
5. Add puree back to the boiling vegetables in water and let it simmer
6. Add salt and black pepper along with vinegar [this gives it a nice kick] and finally add the tofu. Let it boil for a minute and turn off stove

Your soup is now ready to be served!! 

Options:
You can add any vegetable you can get your hands on- cauliflower, broccoli, beans, zucchini, mushrooms,pumpkin, squash, boiled chickpeas etc etc
You can also add an egg at the end- crack open the egg and drizzle from a height, and stir-  this becomes an egg drop soup :D
You can infact add a few spinach leaves if you have them [ quite like the change in colour]
You can make the same with meat as well 
If you like it spicy and with heat, add few chopped red chillies 
To make it a better meal, you can toss in some boiled noodles/pasta/macarooni
Similarly, a bay leaf will boost the soup's flavour

As you can see, sky is the limit when it comes to soups!! 

{Recipe} Broccoli Soup

I could hear granpa yelling from the dining room, he had sat down near the fridge to sort through the stuff gramma and mom had bought. All I heard was "there is so much broccoli and you have bought some more... what are you going to do, they will all die and go to waste".. Gramma replied "No, dont worry, we will make something, I shall send some to mala[my mom]"... He mumbled some more and gave up! Then he came over to my room and repeated it all.. I went up to gramma and told her "Let us make broccoli soup today evening, what say?" and she agreed..

And this happened about 6 months ago... subsequent which granpa fell ill and now he cant eat most of the "green" veggies.. :/

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups broccoli florets
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped

salt and blackpepper [coarsely ground]
Cream, to use when serving
Walnuts or almonds- sliced/chopped up

The process:
1. In a pan, add some water and put the broccoli florets to cook. Dont let them get mushy, take them off before that stage. Maybe 10mins
2. In a pan add the oil, and saute the garlic wee bit [burnt garlic also tastes yumm in this soup], at this stage also add the nuts and let them roast for a few seconds
3. Puree the broccoli, I like to keep aside a few small pieces to add at the end.
4. Pour the puree into the pan and bring to boil
5. Add salt and pepper and drizzle some cream on top as you serve.

Option: 
You can sprinkle some Italian herbs when you serve the soup
You can also add a few pieces of fried bread[croutons]
The same recipe works for cauliflower as well, but again watch the veggie and don't let it cook all the way through
You can add potatoes, carrots, or any other veggie to add volume.
Add water if you like the soup to be light

{Recipe} Pumpkin Soup

A soup I fell in love with from the very 1st spoonful I took in Eden was the Pumpkin Soup... And I have made this over and over, and love it every single time...

Here is how I make it..

The ingredients:
2 cups  pumpkin [yellow pumpkin]
1 Carrot  [chop roughly and cook through]
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
Salt and pepper to season
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp roasted grounded peanuts [ I dont grind them fine]

The Process:

1. Once the pumpkin and carrots are cooked, puree them in a blender
2. In a pan add the oil/butter, pour in the puree, allow to come to boil, add milk and the seasoning.
Finally as you serve, sprinkle the peanuts and serve!

{recipe} Spinach Soup

It was one of those days when I had been sneezing all day, and there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. I got home, tired and cranky and all I wanted was a bowl of hot soup. Rummaged through the fridge and came out victorious. I had spotted a few interesting ingredients. This is what I whipped up..

Ingredients

2 Cups chopped spinach leaves
1 Onion chopped
2 cloves of Garlic [finely chopped]
2 Cups water [enough to boil spinach and dilute the soup]

1 tbsp milk 

1 tbsp Butter/olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

The Process:

1.  In a pan, boil the spinach and take it off the heat once cooked.
2. In another pan, add some oil/butter and saute the onion and garlic for a few seconds.
3. Puree the boiled spinach with the onion & garlic 
4. Add salt, pepper and milk when bringing it to a boil

Serve hot. You can add a few bits of roasted pounded almonds or peanuts

Bon Appetit!!

Broccoli & Zucchini Soup

Grandparents had attended a grand aunt's 80th birthday dinner few weeks ago. Upon returning, gramma couldn't stop raving about the simple food, especially the soup. She said it was Zucchini & Almonds soup. Today, finally i got around to making it. We decided to give it a bit of twist, and try the soup. Here is what we made,

Ingredients:

Zucchini - 1 medium- chopped roughly
Broccoli - 4-5 florets
Almonds - 5- 6
Olive oil/butter- 1 tsp
Water
Milk
Salt
Pepper
Oregano/Italian herbs

How you make it:-

1. In a pan, add a cup of water and cook the Broccoli
2. In Another pan, add some oil/butter, add the zucchini and saute till it gets cooked
3. Cool off the vegetables, add the almonds to the mixer  and blend into a fine puree
4. Pour into a pan/pot and let it boil, adding required amount of salt, pepper and herbs. After boiling a few minutes, add some milk as well.

Serve hot with some bread... Bon Apetit!