Green Soup

Green Soup

Ingredients for 4 people

To cream:
400 gr. of spinach
200 gr. of savoy cabbage
200 gr. of endive
10-12 Brussels sprouts
1 big apple
1 potato
1 shallot
vegetable stock
fresh ginger
1 lemon not processed
extra virgin olive oil
salt
To garnish:

2 slices of speck (lightly smoked
cured ham)
100 gr. of ricotta chee (optional)
croutons (optional)

Preparation

Clean and wash all the vegetables.

Peel and dice the potato and the apple.

In a large and dip saucepan, sauté finely chopped shallots with 2 tablespoons
of oil and a teaspoon of grated fresh ginger.

Add the coarsely chopped vegetables and cook them stirring frequently.

Add the potato, apple and the vegetable stock (the quantity depends on how thick you’d like the soup), a pinch of salt and cook over low heat about 25 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked.

Blend the soup with an immersion blender and season. If the cream is to thick add some more vegetable stock or if it is too liquid let it reduce on high heat for a few minutes.

Sauté the diced speck with a drizzle of olive oil.

Grate the lemon zest and drain the ricotta cheese.

Dish up the soup, flavour with lemon zest, add the cooked speck, a spoonful of ricotta cheese and croutons.

Serve hot.

Orange soup

Orange soup

Ingredients for 4 people

500 gr. pumpkin flesh
250 gr. cannellini beans
1 radicchio from Treviso
1 onion
500 ml vegetable stock
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper


Preparation

Dice the pumpkin flesh.

In a saucepan fry the onion with some olive oil, add the pumpkin and sauté for a few minutes.

Pour in the vegetable stock and simmer over a low heat for about 20 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.

Add the beans and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

In a fry pan heat some olive oil, add sliced radicchio, season with salt and toss for a few minutes (has to stay crispy).

With a mixer blend the pumpkin and beans, divide into 4 portions and garnish with some crispy radicchio and a drizzle of olive oil.

Purple soup

Purple soup

Ingredients for 4 people

1 red cabbage
2 medium potatoes
1 litre vegetable stock
1 red onion
sage
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
pine nuts and almonds


Preparation

Peel and dice the potatoes. Slice the cabbage finely and wash it thoroughly.

Put the cabbage in a large pot with potatoes, onion and sage, cover with the vegetable
stock and simmer for 30 minutes.

Once cooked, blend it until smooth and season with salt. In a non-stick frying pan, toast the pine nuts and the sliced almonds.

Finally, pour the soup into a bowl and garnish with pine nuts, almonds, sage leaves, a sprinkle of pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Serve hot.

White soup

White soup

Ingredients for 4 people:

250 gr. leek
60 gr. flour
300 gr. potatoes
700 ml vegetable stock
40 gr. extra virgin olive oil
300 gr. fresh milk
grated parmesan cheese to taste
salt and pepper

Preparation

Slice finely the leek after removing the green leaves; peel and dice the potatoes.

In a saucepan heat up some olive oil and cook the potatoes and leek for a few minutes.

Add vegetable stock and cook, with a lid, until the vegetables are tender, approximately 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Whiz with a blender until smooth. Pour the soup into a pan; add the milk, parmesan cheese and flour.

Bring it to the boil, reduce the heat and cook for a few minutes.

If the soup it’s to thick, you could add some more hot vegetable stock.

Serve with crusted bread or with fennel seeds taralli.

Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup

Chinese Chicken Noodle Soup 
This hearty spoon and fork-style soup can be made in only 15 minutes. Makes 4 cups (1 L) for 2 to 3 servings. 

Ingredients
 

4 cups (1 L) chicken stock 

1 tsp (5 mL) minced gingerroot
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp (30 mL) light or medium soy sauce
3 fine egg noodle nests
1-1/2 cups (375 mL) frozen Asian-style vegetable blend
1 cup (250 mL) chopped, leftover cooked chicken (optional)
2 green onions, sliced on the diagonal
 

Preparation

Bring chicken stock to a boil in a deep pot set over medium-high heat. Add gingerroot, garlic and soy sauce, and return to boil. Drop in noodles and stir until noodles are no longer clumped. Boil for 5 minutes.

Place vegetables in a colander and run under cold running water until all the ice crystals are removed. Drain well. Add to soup and bring to a boil. Add chicken, if using. Stir in green onions and serve.

Spicy Sambar

Spicy Sambar 

Sambar (vegitable soup) is the star of all south Indian vegetarian dishes, and it can be served with  idly, dosa, rice and even chappathies..
 

Ingredients

Toor Dal 1 cup
Tamarind 2-3 inch sized ball
Tomatoes (plum) 5
Onion 1
Bottle Gourd 6×6 inch piece
Green Chillies 3
Turmeric Powder 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Masala

Whole Dried Red Chiles 6-8Coriander Seeds 1 1/2 to 2 tbsps
Cloves 4
Cinnamon 1 inch stick

To Garnish

Fenugreek Seeds a pinch
Urad Dal 2 tsps
Mustard Seeds 2 tsps
Cumin Seeds 2 tsps
Broken Red Chiles 3
Curry Leaves 5
Hing a pinch
Oil 2 tbsps

Method 
Remove stems, wash and slit green chillies.
Peel and chop bottle gourd into small cubes.
Wash and chop 4 of the tomatoes into cubes.
Grind one tomato(coarsely chopped) into smooth paste using water if required.
Peel, cut in half and slice the onion.

Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of water and extract the pulp.
Wash and cook the dal in 2 1/4 cups of water for 3 whistles using pressure cooker.
Mash the cooked dal roughly and keep aside.

Finely grind the masala ingredients into fine powder using a blender.
(You can roast the masala ingredients before grinding.)

Heat oil in a deep vessel, add all talimpu ingredients in order.
Then add tamarind pulp, chopped bottle gourd, onion, tomatoes, green chillies, turmeric powder, salt and 2-3 cups of water.
Cook covered until all the vegetables are almost cooked. Leave a little crunch to the vegetables.

Add ground masala powder, mashed dal, pureed tomato and water (to attain required consistency).
Let it bubble on medium-low flame for 10-15 minutes.
Serve with idly, dosa, rice etc…

Notes: You can also grind few tbsps of grated coconut along with tomato and add to sambar.

Immune-Boost Soup

Immune-Boost Soup

Broccoli and garlic are a powerful combination, providing plenty of vitamins A and C, which boost immune function, sulphurophanes that aid in cancer prevention, and allicin, a compound in garlic that has antibacterial properties shown to be effective against colds and stomach viruses. Coriander has anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial activity.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic peeled and coarsely chopped

1⁄2 small onion peeled and diced

1 small carrot cut into rounds

1⁄2 tsp paprika preferably smoked

1⁄2 tsp ground coriander

1 small head broccoli (about 250g florets)

pinch of salt

freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

1. In a medium pan, heat the oil on medium. Fry the garlic, onion, carrot and spices for 3-5 minutes until soft.

2. Trim and coarsely chop the broccoli, add to the pan along with a litre of water and simmer, covered, on low, for 15 minutes (until broccoli is soft).

3.Uncover and cool for 5-10 minutes before blending. Place in a blender (reserve a few florets for decoration, if you wish) and purée until creamy, taking care to hold the lid on firmly. Season with salt and pepper and reheat as necessary.

SERVE with wheat-free bread drizzled with olive oil, or with a good salad, MAKES 4 SERVINGS

STORE leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days or freeze immediately for up to three months.

Courtesy: YOU Magazine, 31 January 2010

For more Healthy Food Recipes Click To download YOU

Chicken Soup With Matzo Balls

Chicken Soup With Matzo Balls

Ingredients

• 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts

• 2 large onions, peeled and quartered

• 4 carrots, peeled and each cut into 3 or 4 pieces

• 1 celery root, peeled and quartered

• 2 parsnips, peeled and each cut into 3 pieces

• 5 to 6 celery ribs, each cut into 4 pieces

• 14 cups water (3 quarts plus 2 cups)

• 2 teaspoons salt

• Matzo Balls (recipe given under)

Method

Place chicken and vegetables in a large pot with 14 cups water. Bring to a boil, skimming any foam that rises to the top.

Reduce heat and simmer 2 hours. Strain soup and refrigerate the broth overnight. (You can save the chicken, skin and debone it and use the meat for chicken salad.) Skim the fat off the broth, place broth in a large pot and heat over medium heat. Serve with Matzo Balls. Makes 12 cups soup.

To make Matzo Balls

• 2 cups plain matzo meal

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 2 cups boiling water plus water for cooking

• 1 / 4 cup vegetable oil

• 2 eggs

In a mixing bowl combine matzo meal, salt, 2 cups boiling water and oil. When thoroughly mixed, add eggs, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

With wet hands, gently form mixture into balls the size of pingpong balls. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Place balls in boiling water, reduce the heat to medium high and boil 20 minutes, until balls are cooked through. Makes 24 matzo balls.

Beefy French Onion Soup

Beefy French Onion Soup

Ingredients:

Stock:

4 Carrots

1 Head Garlic, chopped in half

4 Stalks of Celery

3 Bay Leaves

1 TB Black Peppercorns

1 Onion, quartered

3 springs fresh thyme

4 back ribs

2 oxtails

Water to cover

Soup:

2 quarts beef stock

About 1.5 cups reserved beef, shredded

1/2 cups dry white wine

3 TB brandy

1 TB fresh thyme

2 sweet onions

3 shallots

1 white onion

Gruyere Cheese, shredded

Baguette, sliced

Method

In a pressure cooker over medium-high heat, brown the back ribs and oxtail and reserve.

Add the meat back into the pressure cooker along with the vegetables and herbs.

Cover with water, bring to a boil and lid the cooker.

Cook until weldone

Once completed, steam off the pressure, pull out the meat and reserve.

Strain and refrigerate the stock.

Once the meat is at a manageable temperature using your hands remove the bits of meat from the fat and shred. It should be extremely tender and pull away from the fat effortlessly.

Once the stock's temperature has come down, you'll notice a lot of fat has congealed on top. Remove and discard this.

Caramelize the onions and shallots.

Add the stock, thyme, shredded beef and white wine, and simmer ~30 minutes on low heat.

5 minutes prior to serving the Beefy French Onion Soup, add the brandy.

Top the sliced baguette with the gruyere cheese and broil until melted.

To plate the Beefy French Onion Soup, ladle the soup into a bowl and top with 2-3 gruyere toasts.

Servers about 6 as part of a meal or 3 as a meal itself.

Spicy Potato Soup

Spicy Potato Soup

Ingredients:

6 small/medium sized Potatoes

5 small carrots (or fewer big ones)

2 Capsicums

1 Serrano chilli

chicken stock

pinch of paprika

salt and pepper to taste

oil

water

I didn't use - but would recommend - an onion and some Soy sauce as well.

If you are using onions chop them up with everything else and fry them a little before chucking the other veggies in the pot, but not for too long because you don't want burned onion.

Method

Start by peeling the potatoes and carrots (you may not have to if they are clean and fresh and depending on what you like).

Then cut the Potatoes into cubes - the size doesn't matter as long as you are consistent. Usually chunky is good but smaller may be handy if dinner needs to be done more quickly.

Slice the carrot into fairly thick slices and dice up your capsicum. I cut my capsicum very finely because I don't like eating large chunks of it but capsicum lovers would probably prefer larger bits.

Finally cut the chilli very finely - you may want to consider wearing gloves to do this or otherwise your hands will be very spicy for quite a while afterwards which could becomes unpleasant if you get itchy eyes or something.

Having cut everything up it should look somewhat like this (note that there's capsicum in my photo this time).

Now on to the actual cooking.

Find a fairly large, preferably non-stick, pot and chuck some oil into the bottom of it. Then pop your potatoes and carrots in there and fry them up a little on high until they get some colour. If you have decided to have quite large chunks of capsicum you may want to add it at this stage - otherwise leave it till later. This will probably need a fair bit of stirring so don't go wandering off at this stage - there will be plenty of time for that later.

Now add water to completely cover your veggies - add all the other ingredients as well. Essentially you want to use enough stock, soy sauce, salt and pepper to give a nice flavour. This will depend a lot on how much water you use. You can always add more later if the flavour isn't quite right so don't worry too much.

If someone you're serving doesn't like things too spicy don't use all of the chilli or they will complain alot which may spoil the meal.

Stir everything up and then stick a lid on the pot and leave everything to cook. Check in occasionally - it's done once your potatoes and carrots are soft. Make sure you've added enough water or add some extra if too much is evaporating - it is meant to be soup after all.

Once things have been cooking for a while it is also a good time to check the flavour. Add whatever is missing (in my case it was mostly salt).

This is also a good time to go away and have a beer or to wash some of the dishes you used while chopping things up - or both.

Depending on the size of your veggies it should take around 10-15 minutes until your soup to be done cooking.

Serve

Sweetened Rice (Vishukanji)

Sweetened Rice (Vishukanji)

Ingredients:

red rice - 3 cups

raw rice - 1 cup

jaggery - 1 cup

grated coconut - 1 no

water - 20cups

salt to taste

Method

1. Heat jaggery with some water.

2. Strain the content and keep aside.

3. Boil rice with 20 cups of water and cook well.

4. When it is done, add salt and jaggery solution.

5. Allow the content to thicken.

6. Add grated coconut.

7. Boil for about 5 minutes and remove from fire.