Fat Free Vegetable Soups General Recipe
Fat Free Vegetable Soups
Mamta Gupta
In these days of overindulgence, we all seem to be on weight reducing diets for half our lives! Soups can be thick and filling, without being creamy and full of calories. I will give a few ideas here, but you can make soups out of almost any vegetables that you have. Experiment with different combinations. For thickening, add 1/2-1 potato to the vegetable mix while boiling. Flavour them with either fresh or dry herbs of choice. Spice soups up with green chillies, curry powder. Add garlic, ginger, green chillies, coriander leaves for an Eastern flavour. Use vegetable, meat or chicken stock or stock granules or simply some water and salt and pepper. To give it a creamier taste, use half water and half skimmed milk, instead of double cream. Vegetable soup never tastes the same in our house because it depends on what vegetables I happen to have in the fridge at the time.
Serves 4-6, depending upon how thick you make it
Ingredients
500 gm. mixed vegetables - see below**
1/2 piece ginger peeled
250 ml. vegetable stock
250 ml. water (you can use milk)
Salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Chopped herbs like parsley, basil, coriander or chives for garnish
Some suggestions:
Bottle Gourd, potato, onion, 1 green chilli, couple of tomatoes
Cauliflower or Broccoli, 1 onion, 1 green/red chilli, couple of tomatoes, potatoes to thicken it, ginger and garlic). A little Stilton or St. Augur type of cheese, crumbled and stirred in at the end make it very tasty.
Courgette (tori or turai), potato, onion, 1/2 inch piece ginger, 1 green chilli, 2 tomatoes.
Leek soup or Leek and potato soup: 3-4 leeks, 2 medium potatoes
Lentil Soup: 150 gm. lentil, 1 small onion, 1/4 tsp. turmeric, a handful of green coriander leave and Tarka ingredients*.
Vegetable soup with rice: mix whatever vegetables you want; like onion, carrots, fresh tomatoes (or tinned), couple of green beans, a few cauliflower florets, green chilli, capsicum, some lettuce that has gone past it ‘eat by’ date and 1 tbsp. rice
Moong/mung Dal & Brussels Sprout Soup; 2 tbsp. moong/mung dal-with or without skin, 1 1/2 cup Brussels sprouts, stalks removed and thinly shredded, like cabbage, 1/2 medium onion, 1/2 inch root ginger, peeled, 1 green chilli
Peanut Soup: 2 tbsp. uncooked, shelled peanuts, 1/2 tbsp. rice, 1/2 onion peeled and chopped, 1 small carrot or any vegetables you have lying around in the fridge, 1 small potato. Blend this soup, leaving peanuts a bit 'grainy' and not smooth.
Tomato Soup: a few ripe tomatoes, 1 medium onion, 1 red pepper, fresh basil (tulsi) or coriander leaves for garnish
Instructions
Prepare all vegetables.
Place vegetables, ginger and water in a pressure cooker and cook on high for 3-4 minutes. If you do not have a pressure cooker, boil in a pan until vegetables are cooked.
Blend cooked vegetables. I use a hand held blender, but you can use any method you like.
Strain through a sieve, to remove any skins, fibre and pips.
Add salt/stock/milk to get right consistency. If you are using stock cubes, you will not need to add salt.
Add any other seasoning you like.
Add fresh herbs of choice now. If you add herbs before, most of them are lost in straining. I love coriander leaves.
Blend until smooth again.
Heat through (do not boil).
Taste and adjust seasoning.
Add garnish and serve hot. Garnish can be one of the fresh herbs that you have used during blending. A swirl of 1 teaspoon of Yoghurt/Cream/or a little bit of crumbled Stilton or Danish Blue or St. Augur cheese.
Soups can also be tempered with cumin, Indian style: heat 1/2 tsp. oil in a ladle, add 1 tsp. cumin seeds. When the seeds splutter, add to the soup and cover with the lid for a few minutes.
Stir and serve hot. This is the Indian way of serving soups.
For a buffet party, serve soups in small mugs or cups.
Also see Soup Selection.
Notes
I was given a recipe to make vegetable stock by a chef in New Orleans a long time ago. He said that he washed all his vegetables well before peeling, including onions. He added all the skins and peels to a pot that was always on the simmer. He also added any left over bones to the pot.
If you like the soup to be thicker, dissolve 1 tbs. of corn flour or plain flour (maida) in cold water and add to the simmering soup, a little at a time & stirring all the time, until desired consistency is reached.
