Carrot Soup with Yoghurt and Rosemary

Having a week off in winter is perfect weather to stay indoors, pop Vitamin D pills and trawl the internet for recipes. (Yes, I’m living the high life…). This carrot soup came from a site dedicated to carrots and was promoted as healthy, despite having heavy cream and butter. As I didn’t think half a kilo of carrots was enough to counteract all that fat, here’s my attempt to make this ‘Creamy Carrot Soup’ a bit more ‘healthy’. Also the original recipe had ginger, but I prefer garlic with rosemary so made that substitution as well. If you’d like to see the original version, go to www.carrotrecipes.net.

What I used:

1 large onion, sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

500g carrots, sliced

1 large potato, peeled and chopped

2 cups stock

2 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole

1 cup yoghurt mixed with 1 cup milk (used full fat - still lighter than heavy cream!)

½ - ¾ tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

½  tsp salt

¼  tsp fresh ground black pepper

What I did:

Heated oil, added onions and fried until golden brown. Next added carrots, potatoes, chopped rosemary and garlic. Stir-fried for a few minutes, then added stock. Covered and cooked until vegetables are tender, about half an hour.

Turned off heat; added yoghurt, milk, salt and pepper. The yoghurt curdled (aargh!) but pureeing the mixture solved the problem (phew!) and the soup was creamy, ‘healthy’ and yum-licious.

Creamed Fennel Soup

Warning: This is not a low fat soup, but it’s delicious and perfect for cold, rainy winter days like today (in the southern hemisphere). It’s also super easy to make - which is what I like. So here's the adapted version from the Sensational Vegetable Recipes by Bay Books. 

What you’ll need:

*2 potatoes (used medium-sized)

*1 medium fennel bulb (had a rather large one)

*60g butter (added half that with a couple of tablespoons of oil)

*500ml (2 cups) stock - added an extra cup of vegetable stock to make the soup less thick

*125g cream cheese

*1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped (didn’t use)

*1 tablespoon lemon juice (haven’t used)

*Pepper to taste

*Salt if needed (usually don’t)

My variation: 2-3 raw garlic cloves

What to do:

Fennel bulb

The recipe calls for chopped fennel bulb to be cooked in melted butter over low heat. I lightly brown the potatoes in butter and oil, then add sliced fennel into the pan over the potatoes, cover and cook for 10-15 minutes. Then add stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer until vegetables are cooked. Leave to cool a bit . Then add cream cheese and raw garlic and blend until smooth. And it’s good to go.

No-Ham Pea Soup

Living in Australia has introduced me to many strange and wonderful dishes, including Pea and Ham soup. Since a couple of my family members are vegetarian, leaving out the ham would mean leaving out the flavour, so it was a relief to find this recipe which relies on spices to provide a healthier and still-flavourful alternative. From The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook by Murdoch Books, this recipe has been adapted from the ‘Green Pea Soup’.

What you’ll need:

* 1 ½ cup green split peas

* 2 tablespoons oil

* 1 medium onion, peeled and halved

 * 1 medium carrot, cut into chunks to fit into pot

* 1 celery stalk, cut same as the carrot

* 1 tablespoon cumin powder

* 1 tablespoon coriander powder

* 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger

* 5 cups vegetable stock

* 2 cups frozen green peas

* Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

* 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or half that dried.

* 4 tablespoons plain yoghurt or sour cream (optional - as in I didn’t use this)

Green Split Peas

What to do:

Soak green peas for a couple of hours. Drain. Leave aside.

Heat oil in a pot (to make the soup), add onion, celery and carrot. I cooked this covered (with a couple of occasional stirs) until the onion softened and started separating layers. Stir in cumin, coriander and ginger. Cook until spices are fragrant.

Add split peas and stock (and dried mint, if using). Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until peas are cooked and carrot chunks can be pierced with a knife tip. The books says this should take 1 ½ hours but the soup is usually done in less than an hour. Take off fire.

Then add frozen peas. Wait until the peas ‘defrost’ in the heat of the soup, then slender-blend. Season with salt and pepper and stir in mint. Serve with swirl of yoghurt or sour cream (or not).

  

Red Pepper Soup

A bag of peppers were going cheap at the Asian Veg shop in Dandenong, so I did a web-search and found a couple of recipes that are worth a try. But, as sometimes happens from printer to kitchen counter – I then remembered this recipe from my collection of Margaret Fulton’s mini cookbooks and thought I’d give it a go instead. Inspired by the Sweet Pepper Soup from Margaret’s book of Soups and Starters, this is my version of a creamy red pepper soup without the cream:

I used:

* 45g butter

* 1 large onion, quartered

* 4 cloves, garlic, peeled and left whole (the book recommends 1)

* ¼ cup plain flour

* 4 cups vegetable stock

* 500g red peppers, quartered

* 1 dried red chilli, whole

* 1 teaspoon chopped thyme (fresh, or ½ teaspoon dried)

* 1 spring onion, chopped fine (optional, i.e. it’s not in the book)

* Salt and black pepper (pepper is optional)

What I did:

Added butter and onions into a pan all at once (this way, I don’t have to worry about the butter burning while I multi-task in the kitchen). Fry until onions are softened. Add two of the garlic cloves. Fry for a couple of minutes. Then add flour and cook for a further 2 minutes. Gradually add stock, stirring constantly and bring to a boil.

Add red peppers, chilli, tomatoes and thyme (as well as black pepper). Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until vegetables are cooked. Turn off heat. Then add last two garlic cloves (yes, raw!) and the sliced up spring onion and slender blend. Add salt to taste.

This soup might have more of a punch if the red peppers are roasted, but that’s another soup for another day.

Sweetcorn and Egg Soup

After Chandra Dissanayake, my second must-have cookbook author would have to be Madhur Jaffrey. Thanks to her I’ve learnt to make some family favourites, including this Chinese soup which always disappears with second and third helpings. It’s from her World of the East Vegetarian Cooking.

What you’ll need as a minimum quantity:

* 4 cups of vegetable stock ( I make this with stock powder or cubes according to the directions on the package. Then add 2 cloves garlic, a sliver of ginger, half a stick of celery sliced, 1-2 finely sliced cabbage leaves, ¼ teaspoon sugar).

* 2 teaspoons cornflour

* 2 teaspoons sesame oil

* 2 small eggs or 1 large egg

* 1 cup creamed sweetcorn (or corn kernels – slender blended)

* 1/3 to ½ teaspoon salt

* 1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper (or black pepper)

* ¾ teaspoon thin soy sauce

* 2 teaspoons finely sliced spring/green onions

What to do:

Mix ¼ cup of the stock (cooled) in a measuring jug along with the cornflour and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. Set aside.

Sliced spring/green onions

Lightly beat the eggs with 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and set aside. (I just stir the eggs and oil with a fork). I do this in a separate measuring jug.

Heat the stock (with the optional ingredients). Cook 20-30 minutes. Then add corn, salt, pepper and soy sauce. Simmer.

Then in a thin stream, add the cornflour mixture. (The spout of the measuring jug helps the pouring process). Stir until the soup thickens slightly.  At this point, slender-blend the corn (if not creamed), along with the optional ingredients (I don’t throw them out).

Then Ms Jaffrey recommends taking off fire and pouring the egg in a steady stream to cover the surface of the soup. I take off fire and stir in the eggs (poured in a thin, steady stream from a measuring jug) with an egg whisk (or spoon if too many egg bits stuck in the whisk), then add the sliced spring onions.

Orange Alert

 

From left: Sweet potato (kumara), carrot and red lentils

Summer in Melbourne this year has been cold enough for us to keep making soup well into December. Not that I’m complaining. Soup is pretty easy to make and always gets finished with second and third helpings. Especially soups from my favourite ‘soup book’ though it’s really a complete meal book called ‘Very Easy Vegetarian Cookbook’ by Alison and Simon Holst.

So this is what I made when the only things readily available in the kitchen were carrots, sweet potato and red lentils.

Soup before being blended

What you need:

* 1 large onion

* 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter

* 1 teaspoon (1-2 cloves) garlic, minced (I keep them whole but peeled)

* ¼- ½ teaspoon minced red chilli (or 2 teaspoons, as we like it hot!)

* 2 teaspoons cumin

* 1 teaspoon turmeric, optional

* 4 cups vegetable stock, or 4 teaspoons stock powder in 4 cups water

* 3/4 to 1 cup lentils

* 2 medium-sized carrots

* 2 stalks celery

* 1 large kumara (orange sweet potato); or 2-3 plain white potatoes

* ¼ - ½ cup cream, optional (and I’ve never added this)

* Salt and freshly ground black pepper

* Basil pesto (Have never added this, as we like the flavour of the soup as is)

What I did:

Soup is served!

Halved onions; kept garlic whole; washed and drained lentils; chopped celery stalks; also chopped the peeled carrots and sweet potato into large chunks.

Then heated oil, fried onion and garlic for a few minutes (usually until the onion turns translucent). Then added chilli, turmeric, cumin and fried for few minutes more, until spices were fragrant.

Added lentils and stock, along with chopped vegetables.

Cooked for 15-20 minutes (as recommended), until vegetables were done (when the tip of a knife goes through the chunkiest part of a carrot or sweet potato).Then pureed the whole lot with a slender blender.