Purée of Carrot Soup with Curry and Ginger

There are a lot of things that I love about this soup.

First of all, its vibrant color. Just mere looking at it gives me energy.

Then there are the layers of taste – from the soothing and sweet taste of carrots to the funky ones of ginger and curry. They make this soup a true pleasure to eat.

And on top of that all, this soup is in fact a remedy. The carrots have a very high beta-carotene content. They are alkaline, clean acidic blood, and are considered an anti-cancer food. Onions and leek are healing for the lungs.

All-in-all, this lovely soup might come in handy after all the feasting that we’ll be enjoying soon.

 

Here’s the list of ingredients.
 
 

1. First, we need the carrots.
 
 

Dice ’em.
 
 

2. Then grab the onion (if you are a rebel you can use a shallot) and the leek and chop them.

 

3. Dice the potato.

 
 

4. Heat the olive oil over medium heat.

 

5. Throw in the onions, leek and the potato. Sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
 
 

6. Then add the ginger, curry, garlic, chopped parsley and bay leaf.
 
 

7. And cook for about two minutes.
 
 

8. Add the carrots and the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer for 30 minutes, until carrots are very tender.
 
 

9. Remove the soup from heat and discard the bay leaf (don’t be like me, please).
 

10. Puree the soup with a vertical blender until creamy.
 

11. Then taste and add more salt if needed.
 
 

Yum!

This soup is amazing.

Enjoy it, dear friends!

 

(This recipe was adapted from here. The recipe makes about 6 portions and takes about 1 hour to prepare.)
 

Read Full Post »

Lentil Soup with Indian Spices

Lentils are my favorite legumes.

My body loves them and craves them very often.

Well, sometimes my body cannot decide between legumes and eggnog. But all-in-all, I really love lentils.

 

I’ve made this particular soup for the first time in my life.

I make lentil soups quite often but not the Indian ones.

The thing is that I had been playing with the idea of making this kind of soup for some time and all I needed and was trying to find were the right Indian spices.

The day I saw Garam Masala and Turmeric in one magical shop my vision was finally free to turn into reality – the yummy Lentil Soup with Indian Spices.

So, here’s what I did and how I improvised…
 
 

These are the ingredients that I’ve used.
 
 

And here they are again.

Mmm, this looks promising.
 
 

1. Firstly, let’s get some chopping done – chop the onion and the chili pepper finely. Then dice up the tomato. And give the garlic cloves a nice fine chop as well.
 
 

2. Rinse the lentils under cold running water. Place them into a pot and cover with water (3 1/2 cups – 870 ml).
 

3. Cook the lentils until just almost ‘fully tender’. We need them to be almost done.

I was using halved red lentils and this process took only about 4 minutes. If you use whole red lentils it might take a little longer. To check how tender the lentils are just eat a few. Easy!

 
 

4. In the meantime, heat the oil in a larger pan or pot.

 

5. Add the mustard seeds and watch the magic happen – they will enjoy the warmth of the oil so much that they will start to pop with joy. As a result, they will taste sweet and nutty.

Let the seeds pop for about 20 seconds.

 

6. Then add the cumin seeds, turmeric and chopped onions.

Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
 
 

7. After that, add the garlic. Stir and cook together for about 1 minute.
 
 

8. Add the chopped tomato and chili pepper.

Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring every now and then.
 
 

9. Then add the lentils and their cooking water.

 

10. Add the garam masala powder and salt to taste (I used about 3/4 tsp).

 
 

11. Let come to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 5 more minutes.
 
 

And that’s it!

This is an unbelievably simple, delicious and quick-to-make soup.

Enjoy, dear friends!

It’s healthy, yummy and good for you.
 

(This recipe makes 3-4 portions and takes about 30 minutes to make.)

Source: Saboot Masoor Masala Dal from ItsLife.in.

Read Full Post »

Bean Soup

This soup is super yummy.

It’s one of my all-time favorites, actually. This one and a wonderful lentil soup that I am going to prepare for you soon as well.

The vivid and optimistic colors of this soup are a pleasure to look at and its high content of vitamins and fiber means that this gorgeous soup is a powerful health bomb.

Your body will be thankful if you make it.
 
 

These are the ingredients.

 

I’d like to let you know that if you don’t have or can’t find parsley root anywhere there’s no need to pull out your hair. You can replace it with about 3 tablespoons of chopped leaf parsley.

Also the celery root (celeriac) can be replaced with about 3-4 chopped celery stalks.

No problem at all.
 
 

1. To prepare your own delicious bean soup, first rinse the beans, place them in a large bowl and cover with four times their volume of water. Leave the beans to soak for at least 6-8 hours, overnight is even better.

 

2. When the beans are soaked, drain the soaking water and rinse them.
 
 

3. Place the beans into a large pot and add 5 cups (1.25 l) water.
 
 

4. Then add 2 bay leaves and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

 

5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a low simmer, cover and let cook for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until beans are tender.

The length of this process also depends on the variety of beans you are using. The larger the beans the longer the cooking time. I was using large red beans and they needed about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

 

6. When the beans are cooked remove the bay leaves.
 
 

7. In the meantime (while the beans are cooking), you can prepare your vegetables.

What we have here is the celery root, onion (I am using shallots here because life gets interesting sometimes and you might not find onions in your fridge but you don’t give up on your dream anyway), parsley root, carrot, potato and garlic cloves.
 
 

8. Here are the vegetables again. This time nicely cleaned and sliced, chopped and diced.

The celery and the potato were diced.

The carrot and parsley root were cut in half lengthwise and then sliced into little crescents.

The garlic was sliced and the shallots were chopped finely.

Nice.
 
 

9. Now pour the olive oil into a large pot and heat it until hot.
 
 

10. Add the vegetables (except the garlic).

 

11. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and cook your vegetable mixture over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
 
 

12. Add the ground cumin, chile powder and garlic. Cook for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
 
 

13. Then add the beans along with their cooking liquid, …

 
 

14. … the chicken stock …
 
 

15. … and the lemon juice.

 

16. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes or until all vegetables are soft.
 
 

And serve.

I like to eat this soup as is or with slices of fresh bread.

It’s so good!

Enjoy, dear friends!

 

(This soup makes 8 cups/2 l and serves 6 hungry people.)
 

Read Full Post »

Potato Soup with Celery and Basil

When summer comes to an end and the first signs of fall start to show I begin to think differently.

All that my brain is able to come up with is dreaming about large, comfy sofas, soft, cuddly blankets, great books to read, heart-touching movies to watch and – AND – warm cups of soup to eat.

(And, pssst, mulled wine, too.)

For me, that is perfection.

And because I’m not only a hermit but also a photography freak, I’ll be showing you all the yummy soups and all the other comfort dishes that this magical season inspires me to prepare.

Please don’t you get scared by the words ‘hermit’ and ‘freak’ that I’ve just used in the previous sentence.

I don’t really mean them literally.

Hm.

But you know what?

I think I do…

I think I do mean them literally.
 
 

These are the ingredients that I’ve gathered to prepare this wonderful soup.

The soup is thick, flavorful, comforting, soul-warming and satisfying – who on Earth would be able to say no to that?

I ask.
 

Would you like to see how I made it?

Well, come and have a look – I’ll be more than happy to show you!
 
 

1. First, peel, wash and dice up the potatoes.

To dice the potatoes, cut them in half, then place each half face down on your cutting board and slice it into half again horizontally. Continue and cut it into strips lengthwise and, holding the strip together, slice across them to achieve these cute little dices.
 
 

2. Throw the potato dices into a pot.
 
 

3. Wash and slice the celery stalks.

Please, please, don’t omit these. You’ll be amazed by how much flavor they add to the soup. They pretty much make up for the homely feeling that this soup delivers.

And if you happen to buy celery stalks along with the root, just like I did, then you can use the root in this delicious Tuna Sandwich.
 
 

4. Grab the onion, peel it and chop it finely.

Chop, chop, chop.

A yellow nail polish is not necessary in the whole process, though it might help a little. I just don’t now how yet.
 
 

5. Add the onions and the celery to the pot.
 
 

6. Peel the garlic cloves and press them into the pot.
 
 

…
 
 

7. These are basil leaves.

I’ve bought a basil plant recently and can’t get enough of it.

There’s nothing like the smell of fresh basil – it is strong and sweet and bright. And that brightness exactly works perfectly in thick soups to ‘lift’ and balance the taste.
 
 

8. Finally, add the chicken broth and place the pot over medium heat.

Let cook until all the ingredients are soft – this process should take about 15 minutes.
 
 

9. In the meantime, in a saucepan or a pan, melt the butter.
 
 

10. When the melted butter starts to sizzle, stir in the flour to make a roux.

Cook the roux for a minute or two, stirring every few seconds so it doesn’t brown.
 
 

11. Pour in milk at once while stirring.

Continue to heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or a whisk, until the milk mixture is thick and bubbly.
 
 

12. Using an immersion blender, carefully process the potato-vegetable mixture in the pot until the mixture is smooth.
 
 

13. Pour thickened milk mixture into the potato mixture.
 
 

14. And give it all one more stir.

If the mixture is very thick, add additional broth till desired consistency is reached.

Taste for seasonings and add salt and pepper to adjust.
 
 

This is beyond delicious.

Try it, you’ll be happy.

Enjoy, dear friends.

Love,

Petra

(This recipe was adapted from Eat Real.)
 

Read Full Post »