Vegan Minestrone - The Big Soup

The host Harini of Tongueticklers decided on Soups for this month's Monthly Mingle, started by Meeta. I must say a perfect theme for the cold of December. Right from my growing years, I have been a big fan of different types of soups. And still I cannot imagine even a week without one or two bowls of soup.
Soups can be as simple as possible. Yet they can be as complex as you want them to be, by mixing more or less ingredients. But they have a thing common and that is the great comforting factor along with oodles of warmth.  Packed with goodness and great flavour, Minestrone is one such soup from Italy. Best eaten in fall or winter months, minestrone makes a perfect light and healthy meal for lunch or dinner. Although there is a huge variety of minestrone recipes as many are the minestrone cooks. But almost all minestrone recipes have three basic vegetables to start with - onion, carrot and celery. One important feature of this soup is that vegetables are to be chopped very fine so that each remains its identity and doesn't blend.

The aroma is fabulous. When you will start making it, I can bet that your family members will start peeping into the kitchen to check what's special is going on. You can experiment with the flavors according to the taste of your family and the vegetables available at hand. This is a vegan version. But vegetable broth can be replaced with chicken stock another minestrone will be ready.

Ingredients
1 cup macroni boiled
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
½ cup onion chopped
1 or 2 cup chopped carrots, potato, celery with leaves, cabbage
½ cup garbanzo beans or green beans, or any beans of your choice
1 cup tomato puree
4 cups of vegetable broth or water
2 tbsp herbs (optional)
salt and pepper for taste
grated cheese for garnishing (optional)

Method

* Heat olive oil in a large pan or pot and saute chopped onions.
* When golden brown, add ginger garlic pastes followed by chopped carrots, celery, cabbage and salt accordint to taste.
* Saute the mixture till all the vegetables are tender.
* Add herbs, beans and tomato puree.
* Pour in the vegetable stock and macaroni after five minutes.
* Sprinkle black pepper powder according to your taste.
* Cover and cook for about half an hour .
* Season with grated cheese and serve hot in bowls.

Wonton Soup - A Recipe Of Warm Goodness

October is leaving making me feel guilty about how much less time I have given to my love my blog and my fellow food enthusiasts. At first it was festival fervor and then all the festivities had left me tired. But Diwali festivities were indeed a joy. A time which comes once in a year.

Visiting friends and having guests have made me gorge on so much of calories. I am sure each of the food lover must have put on a few kilos. Post the festivities, the time to shed those extra kilos has come. Being not an exercise person what max I can do is with food. That too cutting on the high calorie ingredients and opting for healthier ones. And now with cold winds and dropping temperatures winter is on its way. A time when we want to sleep a bit more in mornings, eat a bit more in meals and feel a bit more drowsy.

Light soups are a delight in this cold weather. Warming our souls and protecting us from the cold winds. And when it comes to soups, I have a special liking for Chinese soups. Hot n spicy balancing the coldness. Last night I decided on making Wonton soup keeping my dinner light and having a great morning ahead. Deriving its name from Cantonese (simplified Chinese), the name won ton means swallowing a cloud. The wontons floating in this popular soup of Chinese cuisine are thought to resemble clouds. The soup is served hot and makes a fulfilling meal in itself.

Ingredients

For Wontons

1 cup chicken minced
2 tbsp onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1-2 green chillies finely chopped
salt to taste
a package of wonton wrappers
water as required

For Soup

4 cup chicken broth
vegetables of your choice (broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, scallions etc)
1/2 cup noodles (optional)
salt to taste
pinch of black pepper

Method

* Mix all the wonton ingredients together properly to make the filling.
* Then moisten the edges of the wonton wrapper with water.
* Place a big teaspoon of the filling in the center and fold the edges giving desired shape.
* Take care in closing the edges so that the won tons do not open while boiling.
* In a large pan boil water add the won tons made.
* Let them cook for 10 minutes and they come up in the pot.
* Remove them from the pan and set aside.
* Boil chicken broth in another pan with salt and pepper according to your taste.
* Add broccoli, scallions and won tons to it.
* Bring it to a boil.

Note: No need to add all the won tons made. You can use a few as per your requirement and freeze the rest. For almost 2 months you can use them for making wonton soup.

Tom Yum Gai - A Delightful Thai Chicken Soup

My foodie friends, I am back after a short break from blogging. At first weekend party hit me. I fell ill. I had to take a day off from work. Then at work lots of things got piled up (Its something with the Bosses, whenever employees take an off, things start going haywire.) I was dying to get back to cooking and blogging again. Although I made quite a few things in the last few days but couldn't get them posted. From curries to fritters, I made everything and ended up having simmering soups with light recipes.

Festival time is just round the corner. On the weekend, I bought lots of spices, herbs, condiments and other ingredients, making sure my kitchen is fully decked up for all the festival culinary delights. Festivals, holidays and guest all together invoke all the creativity inside me. Experimenting with the taste buds of guest can be tricky. So my poor hubby was the ultimate sufferer of my culinary experiments. But to my delight in my first shot I got my first recipe just right, with loads of praises from him.

Tom Yum Gai or Chicken in lemon grass soup is a popular soup of Thai cuisine, characterized by its distinct hot and sour flavors, with heavenly aroma of herbs. The basic broth is made of vegetable or chicken stock with fresh ingredients such as lemon grass, lime leaves, galangal, shallots, lime juice, fish sauce, tamarind, slices of ginger and crushed chili peppers. Because of its health benefits, tom yum soup acts as a natural remedy for cold and flu. It has been in my TO DO list from a lon long time, since I had tasted in my sister's home. I made it her way. The only difference was that she used prawns (Tom Yum Goong) and I used chicken making it Tom Yum Gai. The soup is quick if you can get all the ingredients ready made like tom yum paste. The basic paste can be stored for future use.

Ingredients

For Paste (basic Thai flavoring)

1 tbsp whole black pepper (roasted)
3-4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp salt
1 cup cilantro leaves (chopped)

For Soup

6-7 chicken drumsticks
1 tbsp garlic paste
6-7 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup shallots chopped
2 stems lemon grass;
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp lime juice
2 red chillies
1 tbsp pepper and cilantro paste
2 galangal/ginger sliced
2 small round tomatoes sliced
3-4 baby corns
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
fresh cilantro for garnish
salt to taste

Method

* Make a paste combining whole black pepper, garlic cloves, lemon juice, salt and cilantro leaves, in a blender.
* Marinate the chicken pieces with 1-2 tbsp of this paste and leave for 15-20 minutes.
* In a large pot, add chicken stock, lime leaves, ginger, chopped garlic, lemon grass, tomatoes, baby corn, salt to taste and chicken. Cook for 30 minutes or till the chicken pieces are tender.
* Add fish sauce, soy sauce and lemon juice. Mix well.
* Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and sliced fresh green chillies.
* Serve hot

Note: This soup is hot and spicy, perfect for cold weather and people suffering from cold. If you like it less or more spicy then adjust the flavor according to your taste.

Aromatic Garlic Vegetable Soup

Adding a number of aromatic ingredients, vegetables and some other nick knacks, you could make a variety of soups matching your mood and weather. Any type of soup would make you feel your life has sprung up again and the aroma would make your thoughts wander to faraway lands. Such is the energy in soups. In summers, usually I don't make soups. But with the rains making a welcomed appearance since morning, the day was just perfect for the lovely dinner to start with large bowls of soups. And that is the reason why I decided on hot vegetable soup. The warmth from the hot liquid brought about a comfort like no other to my guests, just the way I wanted. Slurping the warm liquid in the misty evenings with joyful conversations really make great dinners.

The garlic vegetable soup is full of health with the assortment of vegetables in it. You can chose to add any of the vegetables according to the season or availability. The soup I made was thin and watery. If you want you can blend the vegetables in a blender to thicken the consistency. So bring out the pot, make a soup and let the aroma and warmth recharge your spirits.



Ingredients

1 cup assorted vegetables (carrots, French beans, broccoli, baby corn), chopped
4 garlic cloves(chopped)
¼ cup finely chopped onions
2 tbsp quick cooking rolled oats
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp cream
3 cup water
salt and pepper to taste

Method

* In a pan heat oil. Add garlic and onion.
* Saute till the onions are golden brown.
* Add all the vegetables, mix and close the lid. Cook for few minutes.
* Add 3 cups of water followed by salt and pepper, stirring continuously.
* Cook till the vegetables are tender and water comes to a boil.
* Lower the heat, add oats and let it simmer for few more minutes.
* Mix the cream and serve hot in large soup bowls.