A Lovely Vegetable Soup Might as well give you another one.

[mrdee 1]

As a follow-up to my previous post, called "Maybe a day late, but....", I want to give you a recipe for a lovely vegetable soup, this time a soup with chunks of vegetables in it, where no mixing/blending the soup is involved.

 

It would be best to go through my initial explanation in the othe topic again, as there are two kinds of soups:

 

Soups that will be blended.

Soups that will not be blended.

This one here falls into the latter category, so, this time, instead of stewing the vegetables, we are going to boil them.

 

Since the soup is called "vegetable soup", it is obvious that vegetables should dominate the soup, so use lots of them and lots of different vegetables.

 

Another tip: Always chop your vegetables very fine for this kind of soup, because every single piece of vegetable releases its own taste, so, if, for example, you cut a carrot into big chunks, every chunk of carrot is going to give you the carrot taste from four sides of the chunk, while thin strips or little pieces will all release their tastes individually, also spreading them all over your soup.

 

OK, here we go:

 

Ingredients:

You basically have a choice of vegetables, but most of these should go into your soup:

 

An onion.

A potato.

A courgette.

Five carrots.

Four leeks.

A piece of celery.

A tomato.

Vegetable stock (two cubes or 1 dessert spoonful if using paste).

Chopped parsley.

Pepper and salt.

Two litres of water.

Vermicelli (optional).

Method:

 

Chop all your vegetables into small pieces.

(As in the other post, I always like to use a potato in soups for the extra taste and because it binds your soup nicely together).

A tip on chopping the carrot: cut a thin strip off, then put the rest onto the flat side you have made, it will be much easier and quicker to cut the carrot. Then cut the strips into small pieces.

 

When all the vegetables have been chopped (do NOT do the tomato yet), put them into 2 litres of water, add the vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then let simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.

 

Just before the soup is ready, cut the tomato into small pieces, but DO remove the seeds, as tomato seeds release a sour/bitter taste which would not be appropriate in this kind of soup.

 

The reason why you have to leave the tomato for last is because it would boil to pieces, and don't forget you taste with your eyes too.

 

When you have put in the tomaro, add the vermicelli (optional), vermicelli is small pieces of pasta, it gives that nice extra pasta taste in soups.

 

Then finish off your soup with chopped parsley, spice with pepper and salt, and, have a nice meal.

[velma 6]

Thank you for the wonderful recipe but I wanted to know if you could help me with a few things, firstly if I wanted to calabash(hopefully you are familiar with the taste), how would I go adding it, I also wanted to add spinach to it.. Also, do you know how to make a vegetable stock from scratch? I would love for a recipe on how to make vegetable stock.Keep the recipes coming

[mrdee 1]

Right then, Velma,

 

as for your first question, I am not 100% sure, as a musician, I obviously know a calabash or gourd, as the outside is often used for making instruments (Tanpura, Sitar, Vina, Cabassa and more), however, I cannot say I am familiar with its taste or culinary uses.

 

I have read, though, that they contain a lot of toxins, toxins of the nature that can cause stomach ulcers, and that have even even been known to kill people but I guess people in the regions where the calabashes are often used in cooking know what they are doing in order to keep those toxins at bay).

 

So, I'm afraid I will not be able to answer your question.

 

About the spinach: do add some by all means, but be careful with the amount, as we are still talking vegetable soup, and if the spinach becomes too dominant, it would begin to taste like spinach soup.

 

So, add a little bit of spinach, but chop it very thinly too.

 

About your question for vegetable stock, I shall post that in a minute in its own separate topic.

 

I will also, at your request, keep the recipes coming, but now nanna's hosting is up and running you will be able to find lots of yummy recipes on her blog, which can be found here, but I must say, it is only a beginning, it is still being worked on and will be expanding bit by bit.