Soup from Leftover Vegetables, Easy Recipe
Soup from Leftovers
Mamta Gupta
This is the soup I make when I have a few bits of vegetables left in the fridge, the day before I go for my weekly shopping. I mostly use stock granules/cubes/pots for seasoning. However, you can make your own stock. When I make a roast chicken or lamb or any other meat on bone, I keep the carcass/bones in a bag/container and store them in the freezer. They make great stock. Simply pressure cook the carcass/bones with 2-3 cups of water, a chopped up onion-skin included, a couple of bay leaves and any vegetable peeling you may have. Strain and your stock is ready. In pictures here, I have used vegetable stock pots for flavouring. Serves 4.
Recipe rewritten February 2019
Ingredients
1-2 cups of leftover vegetables, cleaned and chopped. Pictures here show broccoli and it stem, spring onion and its greens, tomatoes and a few leaves of leftover lettuce.
1 small onion or a couple of spring onions, including their greens, peeled and chopped roughly
1 inch root ginger, peeled and chopped roughly (optional)
1-2 tomatoes, chopped up. Or use a tbsp. tomato puree or a cup of tinned tomatoes
1 tbsp. cooking oil of your choice
3-4 cups water
A couple of stock pots
1/2 tsp. or a large pinch of black pepper
A good dash of chilli sauce (optional). You can add a green chilli, along with other vegetables.
1/2 tsp. coarsely ground cumin seeds (optional)
Parsley or coriander leaves for garnish (optional)
Instructions
Chop all vegetables roughly.
Heat oil in a pan.
Add onion and ginger, stir-fry for 2-3 minutes.
Add all the vegetables, stir-fry for further 3-4 minutes. Cover and cook for 5-6 minutes, until vegetables are softened.
Add water, bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Turn heat off. Place the pan in the sink and blend it with a stick blender.
Sieve it to remove and fibres or seeds.
Transfer back to a pan, bring to boil. Turn heat down.
Add stock cubes/granules/pots and any other seasoning you may like. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Serve hot, garnished with parsley or coriander leaves or croutons.
Also see Soup Selection.
Notes
While travelling through South Carolina years ago, I was once told by a restaurant chef that the secret of his excellent stock (we had ordered a clear soup of some sort) was that he never threw away any vegetable peelings, meat/chicken bones/fish bones, fish heads, fins etc. away. He washed them all thoroughly and put them in the stock pot, which was always on the simmer in his kitchen.
If you are not able to make the stock the next day, put the bones in a freezer bag and freeze for another time. It is much easier than making a stock and then freezing it.
