Pumpkin Soup

I have made this soup 2 to 3 times. Pumpkin is generally inexpensive all year round and now being winter, having pumpkin soup with toasted, warm bread is one of the most comforting dinner you can have.

1.5kg pumpkin*, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 onion, roughly chopped

1L chicken or vegetable stock

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 cup of cream (optional)

black pepper and salt to taste

Place pumpkin, onion and stock in a large saucepan. Bring it to the boil and reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Allow mixture to cool slightly. Transfer mixture to a blender and puree in batches. Return the soup to saucepan**. Stir in cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper and cook until heated through. Serve with fresh crusty bread.

*Use Kent, Japanese pumpkin or butternut pumpkin (if you prefer a nutty and creamy soup)

**I used a stick blender and so I just blend it in the saucepan.

Hearty Beef Minestrone Soup

(contributed by Shteppi)
I love this soup as it is so hearty and packed with vegetables and other good foods! It’s an all-in-one-meal, perfect for those winter days. This is my modified version of a recipe from a Campbell’s Real Stock packet.

(Serves 4)
1 Tbsp oil
250g beef mince
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1 egg, lightly beaten
¼ cup dry breadcrumbs
2 rashers bacon, diced
2 Tbsp no added salt tomato paste
1 Litre Campbell’s Real Stock – Salt Reduced Beef
2 sticks celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 zucchinis, diced
1 cup of cooked small shell pasta
400g borlotti or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
Salt and pepper, to taste
Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Combine mince, garlic, breadcrumbs and egg in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Roll into small balls.

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook bacon until quite crisp. Remove from heat and set aside for the moment. If needed, add more oil to the pan, and cook meatballs until browned on all sides. Remove and set aside.

In a large pot, add the stock and bring to the boil. Stir in tomato paste, potatoes, carrots, and celery. Cook for 5 minutes on medium-high heat. Add zucchini and cook for another 10 minutes or until all the vegetables are cooked through.

Stir in the beans and cook until heated through. Add in the pasta, bacon and meatballs, and cook for a couple more minutes till these are heated through.

If desired, you can season the soup with a little salt and pepper to taste. Sometimes, I like to add in about a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce in order to add another layer of flavour. Serve the soup by itself, or with some bread.

Notes:
- If you don’t wish to make meatballs, you can also use diced beef. Just fry it up in a pan for a few minutes to seal each side – don’t worry if it’s not totally cooked through; you can just add it into the soup with enough time for it to cook through fully.
- If you don’t have tomato paste, you can also use ketchup or tomato sauce
- My personal preference is cannellini beans over borlotti, but you can also use other types of beans (e.g. kidney beans)

Creamy Seafood Chowder

Following the tomato version that I made last month, Tezerina shared a creamy version with me. Her hubby prefers this to the tomato version. I had planned to try it this week but our friend D cooked us a very similar version when we went to their place for dinner last week. Anyway, I thought I would still give it a go and I loved it!

Creamy seafood chowder with homemade crusty garlic bread (in the background)

(Adapted from Taste)
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 stick celery*, sliced
3 potatoes, peeled, roughly chopped
750ml chicken stock**
1 can corn kernels***
500g marinara mix****
200ml light thickened cream
half a handful of chopped fresh chives (dried chives is fine)
half a handful of chopped fresh flat-leafed parsley (dried parsley is fine)
bread of your choice - try something you have not eaten before

You can buy loose celery sticks that comes like that (in the photo). Buy how ever many you want, so you don't have to worry about having lots left over

Heat a large saucepan or soup pot. When the pot is hot, add a good drizzle of olive oil. (Take note NOT to add olive oil and allow it to heat up too long before you put in other ingredients. It is unlike asian cooking where you add the cooking oil and allow it to heat up) Add onion, carrot and celery and cook until fragrant. Add potatoes, water and chicken stock. Cover and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 10-15 mins until the veggies are tender. Cool the mixture slightly and blend (I used a convenient stick blender) until smooth. Return soup to the pot.

Add corn kernels, marinara mix and cream. Stir without boiling for about 3 mins or until seafood is cooked. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir through chives and parsley. Serve immediately with toasted bread. (I love garlic bread)


*You may buy loose celery sticks from supermarkets. However, the most common ones are whole celery or half celery. I bought the loose ones since I hardly use celery (I don't like them unless they are soft, cooked and tasteless). I did not want to have lots left over and end up not using them. They cost me A$2.67/kg at Woolies.

**I used 2 tsp of Massel stock powder and 1 L of water. Alternatively, use store-bought liquid stock. Use fish stock if you can get hold of it.

***I didn't have any corn at home and I didn't want to pop by the supermarket just to buy a can of corn. I used a can of cannellini beans which I had in my pantry. I also decided to throw in some frozen peas at the last minute to boost my vegetable intake.

****Marinara mix was on sale at 50% off of $7+/kg at Woolies last week.

What we had last week at D's place. Her recipe is very similar except that hers is thicker. I think I added a bit too much water in mine :p

Garlic Bread

Garlic bread is one of the easiest things to make. It is not worthwhile to pay and buy frozen garlic bread when you can easily make your own.

dinner rolls (or any other bread that you like)
butter
minced garlic (I have readily minced garlic in a jar in my fridge)
dried parsley (optional)

Prepare the bread so that you will be able to spread the butter and garlic. I like to use wholemeal dinner rolls (slice deep into the centre, lengthwise of the roll) or sour dough crusty bread (sliced into 2 of each slice or leave it as whole slice).

Spread butter generously on the bread (if you use a dinner roll, spread butter on the inside walls of the sliced roll). Smear a small quantity of garlic on the buttered surface and sprinkle a tiny bit of dried parsley. Toast the bread in a 180C preheated oven for about 10 mins or until crisp-looking and golden brown.

Garlic bread is great to be eaten on its own, or served as a side, or served with soups, etc. Are you convinced to make your own garlic bread yet? They taste much better than the frozen ones :)

Also read "How to make garlic bread with a twist".

Cream of Carrot Soup

(The photo I took was not presentable enough to be posted.)

I am growing to like vegetable soups. I feel healthy just having a meal each week without any meat at all. Tasty vegetable soups served with bread helps to keep me away from the urge of wanting to eat meat. Especially during this time of the year when it is getting cooler, a hot soup at dinner is always welcomed and comforting :)

This recipe looked really yummy and since it was not too difficult to make, I thought I would try it. From preparation (cutting veggies, etc) to the table, including making the garlic bread, it took me about 40 mins in total.

My tweaked version of the recipe: (Serves 5)
40g butter
1 onion, peeled and roughly sliced
~680g carrots, peeled and cut into small chunks (I estimated that 6 out of 8 carrots from the 1kg bag would give me around 680g)
1 large potato, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 clove garlic, crushed
2.5 tsp Massel vegetable stock powder
enough water to just cover all the veggies
150ml light thickened cream
salt and pepper to taste
dried parsley

In a large saucepan, melt the butter on medium heat. Cook the onions, carrots, potato, and garlic in the butter for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add water and stock powder and bring the soup to a boil. Turn the heat down so that the soup is just barely bubbling. Cover the pot and cook the soup for 15 minutes, until the veggies have softened. Use a fork and prick the veggies and the fork should be able to go through easily.

Remove the soup from the heat and allow it to cool just enough so you can comfortably puree it using a blender. I used my stick blender and pureed the soup in the pot. If you use a normal blender, return the soup into the pot once it is pureed. Stir in thickened cream and season with salt and pepper. This is optional but I threw in some ground cumin too. Dish the soup into bowls and garnish with dried parsley. Serve with toasted bread of your choice. (I made some garlic dinner rolls)

Tomato Seafood Chowder

I brought my own lunch - marinara pasta - to Tezerina's place one day. She shared this seafood chowder recipe with me which she and her hubby loved.

As I have mentioned before, marinara is a mix of various seafood, usually prawn, mussel, squid, basa fillet, scallop, salmon. The type of fish in the mix varies, depending on whether it is the premium type or not.

A comparison of the prices of marinara mix in supermarkets:

Woolies - it can be as cheap as around A$8/kg (50% off) or just under A$10/kg on special.

Coles - around A$10/kg for the premium marinara mix. There is salmon in this premium mix.

(Serves 4) Adapted from Recipezaar

4 slices short cut bacon, chopped

500g marinara mix

1 tsp olive oil

1 cup celery, finely sliced

1 cup onion, chopped

2 cups water

2 tsp Massel chicken stock powder

2 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 cup carrot, finely sliced

1 large can 800ml tomato juice (I used Coles home brand)

2 cups angel's hair pasta (I bought the broken ones. You may use any other short pasta that you like)

salt and black pepper to taste

In a heated large saucepan, add olive oil, bacon, celery and onions. Cook until the bacon is brown and the celery and onions are tender and soft.

Add water, chicken stock powder, tomato juice, carrots, and potatoes. When the mixture comes to a boil, add pasta. Cover and simmer for around 15-20 mins or until potatoes and pasta are cooked.

Add marinara mix and cook until the prawns and fish are cooked. If you do not add pasta in the cooking, add corn flour (mixed with some water) to get your desired thickness. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the soup is just starting to bubble away, turn off the heat and serve. Best served with warm bread.

It is autumn now and we are approaching winter. Any seafood lover will enjoy this nice warm soup to round up the day :) I will try out a creamy version of this another time.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Colour of soup looked a bit green but really it was a cream-like colour with brown bits (pureed mushrooms)

I made this soup a number of times and always loved it. It is so simple to make! This is best served with bread and butter.

(serves 4)
500g white mushrooms, sliced
300ml thickened cream (use light ones if you like)
1 onion, sliced
1L chicken stock (I used Massel chicken stock powder with appropriate amount of water)
salt and pepper to taste
50g butter

Place butter into a heated saucepan. As soon as the butter melts, add onions and saute until they are soft and lightly brown. Add mushrooms and cook about 10 mins until they have softened. Add stock and cream and bring it to the boil. Allow it to simmer for about 3 mins.

Cool the soup slightly before using your blender (I used a handheld stick blender) to blend the soup. Place the contents back into the same saucepan. Add salt and pepper to taste and bring it up to the boil again. Turn off heat and serve with bread. Enjoy!

Winter is coming soon... Having soups for your meals will be really comforting :)

Pumpkin, Carrot & Spinach Soup

Dwjl has made this soup a couple of times. I tried this tonight and had it with toasted bread (and butter spread). I agree that it is really simple, tasty and healthy (there is no oil in the cooking!)

(contributed by Dwjl but I tweaked it a bit)
(serves 4)

1/4 cut pumpkin (Jap, Kent or Butternut) - I think I used almost 1kg of pumpkin!

3 carrots, sliced
1 onion - halved and quarterd

4 cloves (sections) garlic 

3 chunks of frozen spinach (depending on how much you like)

2 tsp of Massel vegetable stock powder (or any other brand)
2 tsp (or to your taste) of salt (you will probably need to put more if you did not add stock powder)

1. In medium saucepan, add carrots with about 1L of water*. 
2. Remove seeds and cut the pumpkin into 1" thick chunks - this will help you mash it later.  Some people don't like the skin but I leave it on as it has lots of nutrition and fibre, and it's yummy!
3. As water boils, add pumpkin, spinach, onions and garlic.
4. As pumpkin softens, turn heat down to a simmer and cover.
5. Simmer for about 10-15mins.
6. Turn heat off and mash the pumpkin in the pot. If you have a stick blender or blender, it will help in the job :)
7. Add salt / pepper to taste.  Nice with bread.  For a creamy pumpkin soup, try adding some cream or milk!

Preparation time: 15mins, total cooking time: 30mins

Cost: $3 or 50c per bowl 

*If you have ready chicken stock or vegetable stock to use, go ahead and use it as a substitute. I reckon it will be more flavoursome.

Further comments from Dwjl: I am going to start a new "tradition" of having soup day aka "detox day" for one day a week.  It will be the day of the week where I eat no meat, no msg, no take-away, no refined flour, etc.  You know how usually you cannot avoid these things when you dine out or on weekends, when you go to parties and are tempted by yummy cakes, etc? Wednesday is my new detox soup day!  It was good!  Only cost around $3 to feed me for a whole day and my fellow college mate got some too!  Pumpkin is low in GI and gives great energy!


If you want to 'detox' like Dwjl, please do not use chicken stock. Massel stock powder has no msg or trans fat.

Pork Soup

Shteppi made this for me (with love). It was really tasty and comforting :)

(contributed by Shteppi)

Pork soup is healthy. We like to eat it when we feel run-down and this is something you can make mass amount and freeze (but note that potatoes do not do well when frozen; best to not include potatoes in the batches that you're freezing).

Buy pork ribs or other cuts of pork, cut into pieces. (In the photo above, Shteppi added some chicken wings too) Cut chunks of potatoes and carrots. Put all into a big pot of lots of water (enough to more than cover all the ingredients). Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer. Add dried red dates and goji berries (from Asian grocery stores – a bag of each will last you a while). All up, it will take about 1hr (or more) for the flavours to come out and everything to get soft (depending on how much you cook). Add salt or soya sauce to taste.

Eat with rice in it, or can cook Chinese noodles and have it as a noodle soup. Or can have it on its own!

Bean Mix

Canned beans such as this is great for adding them into your western soups or pasta sauce. You may not like beans... but think about it, they are really healthy for source of protein and it keeps you full for longer.

You may use other beans like chick peas, lentils, kidney beans, broad beans. They come in cans and are inexpensive to boost the nutrients of your dish.

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup

I had sweet corn in my fridge to use up... and some frozen bread rolls to eat up. Hence I thought of sweet corn and chicken soup! The version I ended up cooking is a different to the original recipe, only because I added real corn and thickened cream and not creamed can corn. I think I added too much thickened cream that it looked whiter than what the soup should be - light yellow.

Original recipe is found here. I have substituted creamed corn with real corn kernels of 3 half cobs and thickened cream. Add 200ml of cream will do. If you don't like cream, add in 1-2 lightly beaten egg and it will become an asian style corn and chicken soup. Remember to add some salt and pepper (black if western style and white if asian style) to taste!

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup

Soups are always great comfort food for me, winter or not. Aussies love their soups in winter. I reckon that will really warm us up. But hey, I still like my soup anytime! :)

Recipe can be found here.

Basic Chicken Soup/Stock

(Donna Hay Jun/Jul 2009)

This is the recipe for basic chicken soup. You can use this basic recipe to come up with other soups.

Stock
1.5kg whole chicken
1 brown onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
4 bay leaves
1 tsp black peppercorns
2.5L water or enough to cover

2 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 cup small pasta
salt and papper
chopped flat-leaf parsley to serve

Place chicken, onion, garlic, celery, carrot, bay leaves, peppercorns and water in a large saucepan over high heat. Bring to the boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 1 hour or until chicken is cooked through*. Occasionally skim foam from the surface*. Remove chicken from stock and allow to cool slightly. Remove skin and discard. Shred chicken meat from the bones and set aside. Stain the stock, discarding veggies.

Return stock to the pan with celery, carrot, pasta, shredded chicken and salt and pepper. Cook over high heat for 10-15 mins or until veggies are tender. Top with parsley to serve. Serves 6.

*Skimming the foam from the surface removes impurities so it will have a cleaner, sweeter flavour and look clear instead of cloudy.
To check if chicken is cooked through, remove chicken from pot and insert a small knife in between the leg and breast. If juices run clear, then chicken is ready.

Tips
1. Freezer the strained chicken stock for up to 6 months and use in soups. Make sure you cool the stock completely before you place in the freezer.
2. Measure out the stock to exact quantities for freezing so all you need to do is defrost and use. Freeze any leftover amount in ice-cube trays and use to thicken sauces and flavour stir-fries.
3. Freeze the stock with shredded chicken meat up to 2 months. Just defrost, heat up and add veggies for an instant comforting dinner.
4. For an Asian flavour, add white peppercorns instead of black, a knob of peeled ginger and washed coriander root, parsely stalks and omit the bay leaves when making the stock.


This may seem a bit tedious with quite a few ingredients but the result is worth it! Real stock cooked from scratch is so different to those store-bought ones.