Simple Cooking Ideas

Archive for the ‘Soup’ Category

Try this nourishing soup which is quick to prepare. It is good to have soup for every meal in a Chinese family. You can boil fast soup of your choice. Some soups take longer to boil. Here is one you can prepare in a short while using cod or sole or any other fish fillet of your choice which you can find in wet markets and shopping malls.

Ingredients:

300 gm fish fillet, cut into cubes
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 big onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped into cubes
1 leek, cut into half inch
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
2 potatoes, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon parsley
2 tablespoon white wine (optional)
1/4 cup yogurt (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat oil in the pot. Fry garlic and onion for a second and add in carrots, potatoes,leeks and tomatoes. Put in 1 litre of water. Cover lid and bring to boil until potatoes and carrot are soft. Add in fish cubes and simmer for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add wine and yogurt and reheat without boiling. Serve hot in individual soup bowls. Garnish with parsley.

A pumpkin is very rich in beta-carotene, as study says may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and offers protection against heart disease. It is suitable to all people, young and old. Here I have prepared the pumpkin soup for the kids.

Ingredients:

500 gm pumpkin, peeled, remove seeds, cut into cubes
1 stalk leek sliced thinly, only the white part
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon cooking oil
1 liter water
2 tablespoon mushroom stock granules
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon finely slice parsley and spring onion

Method:

Steam pumpkin in a steamer until soft. Mash pumpkin finely. In a pot, fry garlic and leek until fragrant. Add water and bring to boil. Put in the mashed pumkin and stir to mix. Add mushroom stock granules, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and spring onion. Serve immediately.

Here is wintermelon soup that is simple to prepare and quick to remove to the dinning table. This soup is cooling to the body and is just suitable on a hot sunny day.

Ingredients:

500 gm wintermelon, removed seeds and cut into cubes
100gm lean meat or chicken breast, cut into cubes
2 slices ginger
1 tin button mushrooms
1 tablespoon parsley and spring onion to garnish
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Peel winter melon and dice. marinate meat salt and pepper and add a teaspoon of cornflour. Put a side for 30 minutes. Meanwhile open acan of Botton mushrooms. Pour 4 cups of water into a pot and bring to boil. Add meat , ginger, wintermelon and button mushrooms. Bring to boil and simmer for half an hour. Add salt and pepper to taste and a few dash of sesame oil. Serve on a soup bowl and garnish with parsley and spring onions.

Here is a simple sea-food soup to try. After coming home from work, you can prepare thisfast and nuitritous soup for your family. You need some dry mushrooms which must be soaked and washed clean the day before. Frozen squid must be thawed below the compartment in the fridge. Celery, big onions and tomatoes are added to this soup.

Ingredients:serve 4

300 gm clean squid, defrost
1 stalk celery. cut slant-wise
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 big onion cut into wedges
6 meduim sized Chinese mushrooms, soaked and cleaned
1 litre fresh chicken stock, prepared earlier
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Chopped pasley to garnish

Method:

Bring water to boil in a pot. Blanch squids and mushrooms. Cut the squids into rings and slice the mushrooms. Put aside . Blanch the rest of the vegetables. Pour away the hot water and add chicken stock to boil. Put in all the ingredients except the squids and bring to boil for 15 minutes. Put the squids in and bring to boil. Add sesame oil, salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with parsley and serve.

This is a Thai dish which is popular in Thailand. It is basically ‘chilli hot’with the addition of locally grown aromatic herbs and grass. Here is a quick home-cooked tom yam for those who like a spicy taste of the soup.

Ingredients: serves 6

6 large fresh prawns, shelled and deveined, leaving the tail intact
2 stalk lemon grass
5 shallots
5 chill padi, seeded and cut into half
3 kaffir leaves or limau perut leaves
2 tablespoon oil
30 gm ready bought sambal belacan
freshly chopped coriander leaves
2 litres water

Method:

Shelled and deveined the prawns, leaving the tail intact. retain the heads. Cut the lemon grass into short lengths and pound alittle with the back of a knife. Cut the onions finely. Half the chilli padi. Heat the oil in a pot and stir-fry the onions, lemon grass, prawn heads for about 3 to 4 mins and add the water. Add in the limau perut leaves and sambal. Cover pot and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the prawns and cook till tender but still firm. Pour in the lime juice and add salt to taste. Throw in the chopped coriander leaves and serve immediately.

This soup is common in the Chinese family. The Chinese is so used to having soup with their meals. Especially when richly stewed soup is nourishing for health. Here are the eight types of Chinese herbs to boil with chicken bones or pork ribs.

Ingredients:

20 gm lotus seeds
15 gm dried longans
15 gm Huai Shan
15 gm Dang Sum
15 gm Yuk Chuk
10 gm Qi Zi
10 gm Fook Sun
10 red dates
600 gm chicken carcass or pork ribs
salt to taste

Method:

Wash all herbs and put in soup pot and add enough water to boil. Scald chicken bones or pork ribs in boiling water before putting in the pot to boil together with the herbs. Bring to boil over high heat. Turn to low heat and continue to boil for 2 to 3 hours. Season with salt and serve.