Sunday 3 January 2010

Easy Homemade Soups

Winter! Just the time for heatwarming soups. Being fed a soup makes you feel so well cared for. This post is inspired by my Sister-in-law. She mentioned that an easy way to make soups was to boil our choice of few veggies (carrots, peas, spinach, tomatoes, beans etc) and after it has cooled, blend it. No straining. That avoids loss of any fibre; though I am not sure if the process of blending itself contributes to any nutrition loss. I tried the same and it was super. Thick and tasty.
So very simple.
Here are a few I tried.

1. Mixed Vegetable Soup (for 2)
5 leaves of Spinach
1 cup of frozen mixed veggies-carrot,peas,corn,beans
1/2 capsicum (optional-as not everyone may enjoy its taste)
1 large tomato
2 cups water
Garnish:
Green onion and pepper

Add the above ingredients (except garnish) in any small pressure cooker with salt and black pepper. Give it 1 whitle. Strain the water, keep aside. Cool the boiled veggies and blend it just enough to make it a smooth paste. Add the water kept aside and adjust water consistency and salt . Heat a pan add ghee or butter. Add 1/4 tsp black pepper, roast for about 30 secs and add 2 tsp chopped green onion. One can skip the green onion and add only fried black pepper. Or if one is calorie conscious, we can skip the garnish all together. But fried black pepper does give it a special warm flavour.

2. Pumpkin and Peas Green Soup
5 leaves spinach
1 cup peas
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 tomato
Garnish -optional

Follow the same instruction above. Boil the veggies with salt and pepper for one whistle and blend to a paste.

3. Healthy Tomato Soup
Tomatoes with its high Lycopene content is widely accepted as a prime ingrediant in anti-aging.
2 large tomatoes
1 cup pumpkin
Garnish ingredients.

Boil the above veggies with salt and pepper for one whistle and blend to a paste. Garnish with green onion and butter roasted black pepper. This soup tastes better with garnish.

The above are just a few. There is no limit to the number of vegetable combinations that can be tried. To make the soup thicker, add some squash (eg pumpkin), peas or carrots. Adding tomatoes to the combinations will add a nice tangy taste. Try all different kinds and make your family feel well loved and cared for.
Happy Souping! Happy New Year!