Asparagus Soup

When I think Asparagus, I think pasta. Somehow they go well together. Just saute them or grill them with some garlic, the fresh green sticks always serve as a perfect accompaniment for any type of pasta. I've even made a pizza with Asparagus – link here in case you have not noticed before.

So, this time I wanted to put this bunch that sat in my fridge to good use and make something different with it. And so was born my dinner of a green creamy soup. I quickly googled for a recipe and came across this and liked it. Not too many fancy ingredients – I had everything I needed in my pantry. So, off I went and started dinner preparation.

Wash the spears well and chop off the thick stalk at the bottom – about 1 inch. A good test here is to chop of where the asparagus snaps perfectly – that way the thick part is out and all you have is tender goodness. I usually just place them all on the cutting board and chop off the last 1 inch of the spears. Easy and done. Then, chop all the spears again into little pieces.

Add these chopped asparagus pieces to a pan of boiling water and cook for about 3-4 mins. These tend to cook pretty fast so make sure it does not become super mushy. They should be mash able with the back of a spoon.

Drain out the cooked asparagus and move directly to a blender. Save some of that water for blending and for the soup. You can actually save it all and use as veggies stock for everything else that you add water to while cooking.

Cool down the spears and blend into a smooth soup consistency. Set aside.

In a soup pan, heat up 2 tbsps of butter.  When the butter melts, add 1 tbsp of all purpose flour or maida and stir well so that no lumps are formed. When this paste comes together, add 1 cup of milk to and whisk immediately again so that no lumps are formed. Heat this for a couple of mins until the rawness of the flour cooks away.

Once the white sauce starts boiling, add the pureed asparagus in here and whisk well. Reduce the heat to low and cook this for about 5-8 mins. Add the stock water to thin down the soup if it seems too thick. 

Add salt to taste and also add some fresh ground black pepper.

Serve the soup hot and you can also add a little parmesan on top for added punch to the soup. And of course, don’t forget those croutons.

You can make this really thick instead of a soupy consistency and just use it directly as a sauce for pasta. That would taste really good as well. Everyone in the family loved the soup and TH actually took more than two servings – that says a lot about it. My little one of course cribbed about how the green was not pretty – she liked the taste but wished it was just red in color like tomato soup. Now I have to go hunt for some red asparagus.

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Ginger Carrot Soup

This is a quick, easy and flavorful soup. I usually buy the Carrot Ginger soup from Trader Joe's - love their version of it. So, the last time I was there, I picked up a carton and then looked at the ingredients - Onions, carrots, ginger, potato and a bunch of other things. But, those were the main veggies that went into it. And so I thought why not make this from scratch! And so I put back the carton in its place. But, don't worry Trader Joes - I picked up so many other things and made up for this! Really. I'm kind of addicted to your store!

So, here's my version of the carrot ginger soup. This tastes hearty and creamy - sure is hearty but there is no cream added at all to the soup. I made this for dinner along with some salad and Asparagus pizza. It was a perfect combo!

Chop onions roughly - you could use 1 big onion or a couple of medium sized ones. Add 1 tsp of oil to a pressure cooker or pan. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onions in here.

Add 1/4 cup of roughly chopped ginger to the onions that are getting basked in the heat.

Meanwhile, wash and peel about 5 medium sized carrots (these are american medium sized -I'm sure these are 5 large ones in India) and 1 potato.

Chop the carrots and potatoes roughly into small bits.

Now, to the onions and ginger, add some dried basil - you could just shake it a couple of times.

And then add some dried oregano. You could add any other spices that you'd like - be creative. 

Now add the chopped carrots and potatoes in here.

Add about 4-5 cups of vegetable broth or plain ol'water in here. Add regular salt or sea salt to taste. The ingredient list on the back of the soup carton lists honey and cane sugar. But, I skipped adding that as the carrot itself is sweet enough for me. I kind of like it more on the spicier side. Blame my indian genes!

Cover the pressure cooker and cook for about 3-4 whistles.

Once the veggies cool down a little bit, move it to your blender and blend well.

A small tip here - anytime you are cooking and want to blend something that is hot and don't really have the time to wait, add some ice cubes while blending - and that is if you don't mind the extra water. This works great for soups and some chutneys.

Move the blended soup back to the pressure cooker or pan, and heat for a few more mins. Add 1 heaped tsp of the healthy no hydrogenated fat version of butter or if you can afford that extra fat, add the real stuff for the ultimate flavor. Add some fresh ground black pepper to the soup. Heat for a few mins and you're done!

Serve hot.

Don't you just love the color of this? You should make this - you'll love the flavor too, just like us! Thank you Trader Joes for the inspiration!

Enjoy. Peace out!

Vegetable Soup - Made with 10 kinds of veggies!!

My friend Sandhya had this request on the blog's facebook page - "hey need help... i need to make vegetable soup with no veggies visible. if i grind the veggies it tastes yuck what do i do?"

I promised her I'll make it soon and blog about it. So, here it is Sandy - hope this helps. Do try it and I hope little Sanjay will like his soup!

Before I go on to the recipe, I just wanted to quickly bring up something. I watched this program  - Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on TV last night and I'm totally stumped by what I saw. The program talks about eating habits in America - and the focus is on Huntington, West Virginia. This town is the most unhealthiest town in America - and when you watch it, you know why. Kids in school are fed pizza for breakfast! Yeah..You heard it right. Pizza for breakfast and mashed potatoes made out of completely processed potato pearls! There is no fresh food served at school and they pride themselves in having a system that works and follows regulations!

I think every parent with kids in American schools should watch this program and make sure they talk to their school cafeterias about what is served. I also think that you should watch this with your kids so they understand what's good and what's bad. Kids are our future and we better teach them to respect their own bodies. Please check this link for the video - http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution you might be able to view the video for a week or so. Catch the series on ABC if possible. Go Jamie Oliver for starting this wonderful revolution!

Now, moving on to the recipe. This is a simple and wonderful soup with 10 different kinds of veggies.  You could add more veggies if you like too. The more the better!

Here I have all of my veggies. Clockwise starting from bottom left - Tomato, Green Beans, Fresh Spinach, Carrots, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Green Bell Pepper, Onions and Beetroots and Green Peas in the center.

Chop all the veggies roughly. Cut a couple of small beetroots and wash multiple times in water - this helps dilute some of the color. Do not add too much beetroot or the soup will be purple. If you're in the US, using canned stewed tomatoes will give a wonderful color to the soup - but this is not available everywhere in India. So, I wanted to just go with the fresh tomatoes. But, fresh tomatoes with so many other veggies will not give a good red color - hence the beets to add in some color to the soup. And if the soup is red, its easier to pass it on as tomato soup to the kids! They don't have to know about the other 9 veggies!

In a pressure cooker, add about 1 tbsp of oil. When the oil it hot, add 1 tsp of Jeera and about 10-12 whole black pepper. This adds flavor and some spice to the soup. You can skip this and instead add pepper powder on top while serving if you prefer that.

Next, add some chopped ginger and about 2-3 green chillies. Fry everything for a min. You could also add chopped garlic for added flavor.

Next, add the chopped onions and fry for a min. When they become translucent, add the bell peppers and fry for another min.

Next, add the chopped cabbage and stir well quickly. The cabbage leaves will start losing its moisture and reduce in volume.

When you see the cabbage leaves wilting, throw in the fresh spinach and fry a little bit until that blends in. 

Then, add the rest of the chopped veggies.

Now is the time to add spices. There are only 3 seasoning I added here - Salt, turmeric and red chilli powder. How simple is that? You do not need any extra masala - just keep it simple. The veggies have so much flavor in them, that is more than sufficient. Add the salt and red chilli powder as per your taste. As for the turmeric, add about 1 tsp. This turmeric also helps in the color and mixes in with the purple of the beets and controls the soup from becoming purpilicious! And the wonderful benefits of turmeric are an added bonus!

Mix all the veggies and spices together well. Make sure that all veggies get a good coating of the spices.

Now, add about 4-5 cups of water to this. You could add vegetable broth - but really, you're making it in the process - so water should just be fine.

Make sure that all the veggies are completely covered and you have maybe a half an inch extra water on top.

Pressure cook the veggies for about 4-5 whistles.

Once the steam settles, open the cooker - voila - look at that beautiful color - can you see the red in here now?

When the soup has cooled down a bit, move it to a blender and blend until really smooth.

Look at that color now - pour the blended soup back to the pan and set the stove to simmer. Let this boil for a few mins. Check the salt and add more if needed. Also, check the consistency - if its too thick, add some water to thin it down. If its too thin - well..just drink it like that!

Add 1 tbsp of butter to the soup to add a little bit of richness and a whole lot of flavor to the soup. This will also help cut down the spice of the black peppers - especially for kids.

Be proud of yourselves for making such a healthy and wonderful soup for your family. Now, I like chunky vegetable soup - so I just poured myself a bowl before blending the soup. I love the bite I get in every spoonful of soup. So, if you like chunky soup too - forget the whole blending workout and just soup it up like that!

And for all those people in your house who don't want spinach getting in between their teeth or having to bite down a piece of black pepper - serve them this wonderful smooth 10 vegetable soup!

And what's a great soup like this worth without a great side kick! Just like every successful man had a successful side kick with him (think Goundamani and Sendhil) this soup has my wonderful panini sandwich to go to town with!

To make the panini sandwich, I just used whole wheat bread. Cut off the sides. Add a few leaves of fresh spinach on either side. Add a couple of slices of tomatoes and then a few small pieces of onions. Top off with just a little bit of shredded mozzarella cheese (Ricotta works great too).

Fold the slices together and grill in a panini maker or a sandwich maker.

Serve hot soup with a side of grilled paninis!

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Vegetarian Curry Mee Laksa!

Laksa is traditionally a Malaysian dish - a kind of a noodle soup with coconut milk base but usually made with shrimp paste and with seafood in the soup. Its quite tough to find a vegetarian version of this - at least here in the US. But, we do love laksa when we find it. This used to be our order always at Tropika, a wonderful malaysian restaurant close by, until they decided to close down! Why? Why people why? There is another malaysian restaurant now in its place - and I'm yet to go there. But, my craving for Laksa could not wait until then. So, I made it! Yeah..take that you suckers! LOL!

You do need a couple of unique ingredients to get that laksa flavor. I could not find all - but still managed to get a good tasting laksa. I realized that I could have added more spice to it - this was not too spicy so add more spice if you want it hot!

To begin with, let's make a laksa paste. This is available ready made in the markets but always carries shrimp paste in it - so, if you want a vegetarian version, make it yourself!

Here are the ingredients required for Laksa paste -

Onions - about 1/2 an onion - or a few shallots.
Ginger - originally galangal is used, but I could not find it and hence used ginger, its cousin! Hoping some common DNA would still be available.
Garlic - 2-3 cloves
Coriander Seeds - 1 full tablespoon - this is what adds a lot of flavor to the dish.
Red Chillies - about 10-12 - yeah..trust me. that was not enough!
Lemongrass - I found a fresh stalk at my grocers - if you do too, peel the outer covers and chop up about a tbsp of lemongrass pieces. This is a very strong flavor - so don't add too much or else this will overpower the dish.
Turmeric - 1 full tsp
Salt - to taste

 

There's my stalk of lemongrass that I picked up from Albertsons. I checked so many stores and no one had lemongrass! It was hard to find. Albertsons also had a tube with lemongrass paste similar to a concentrate. But, that was 4 bucks and this fresh stalk was like 19 cents! So, you do the math - and always fresh is better. And you just need about a tsp of this - so why buy a big tube and let it spend the winter in your fridge!

  

Fry all together for a min and then move to a blender to make a fine paste. Add oil to blend well - do not add water.

  

This paste is not too fine- you can still see a few coriander seeds and chilli flakes - this is pretty good consistency for the paste. 

  

Now, fry the paste in about 2 tbsp of oil. Yeah..2 tbsp - I told you this was a tasty dish - not a healthy one! Cook this until the paste comes together and becomes a little thick. This is laksa paste. 

  

Meanwhile, boil some regular noodles in hot water until done and wash with cold water to stop cooking. Now, you could use rice noodles for the dish. But I could not find any thick rice noodles. So, I just used the regular wheat noodles similar to egg noodles. The packet did say that this was a good noodle for soups!

  

Chop up your veggies ready. I used mushrooms, snow peas and broccoli. I bought fried tofu from the store and cut that into long pieces. Also, keep some bean sprouts ready - we will add that at the end for the crunch! And chop up some cilantro too finely.

  

In a wide pan, add a little bit of oil. Throw in the mushrooms, snow peas and tofu in here and fry for a couple of mins. 

  

Add all of the laksa paste now and mix together well. 

  

It smells wonderful ...wish you could all smell it!

  

Now, add about 2 cans of coconut milk and 1 1/2 cans of water to the veggies. I was being kind and considerate to my body and hence went with light coconut milk from trader joes! You can cheat if you want...I won't tell. Or you could place a table lamp while cooking and pretend that is was Light coconut milk! I won't tell again!

  

Now, just let this cook for like 10 mins. Until the soup boils well. 

  

When its boiling and you are ready to switch off the stove, add the broccoli in here. Switch off the stove. The existing heat is enough to cook the broccoli. You still want them to be crunchy. That's it - you're done!

  

To serve, place noodles in a bowl. 

  

Add some soup on top to completely immerse the noodles and a little more. 

  

  Top off with crunchy bean sprouts and some cilantro. Enjoy hot! And thank me! LOL!

  

Enjoy! Peace Out!