With the winter season here, there can be nothing more satisfying than a bowl of hot soup after a long day at work. Whether you are down with a cold or need something to warm up after coming back from work, a hot bowl of soup is very comforting.
This warm tasty meal is also an ideal way to help the whole family boost their health as it’s packed with vegetables, easy and budget-friendly to produce. They can be made and enjoyed as a midweek meal during hurried days or as a delicious starter for a dinner party. You can even freeze and save some for another day.
Tangy Thai tomato soup. Picture: Supplied
Tangy Thai tomato soup
Ingredients
Good quality olive oil
Approximately 1.5kg mixed cocktail, Roma, cherry and vine tomatoes
3 red onions, quartered
Half a butternut, skin off and roughly chopped into small chunks
2 sweet potatoes, roughly chopped into small chunks
2 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
2 chillies, seeded and chopped
1 piece of garlic, crushed
½ cup of coconut milk
2 limes, zest, and juice
Salt and pepper
Method
Combine all the roughly chopped vegetables along with the chilli, garlic, and ginger, and coat with olive oil, coconut or palm sugar, salt, and pepper, and spread evenly onto a roasting tray. Roast in the oven for about an hour at 180’C making sure to toss the veggies now and then to ensure even roasting.
Pour all the contents of the roasting tray( veggies and juices) into a big pot and add the stock, coconut milk, lemon zest and juice, and season with salt and pepper. Bring the soup to boil so that the flavours can come together.
Use a stick blender to blitz the soup until a smooth consistency is reached. Adjust the flavour if necessary but add more salt, pepper, and/or a touch more coconut or palm sugar.
Top with a couple of torn basil leaves and enjoy with some tasty bread.
Recipe by chef Gia Kramer of Gia’s Kitchen.
Vegetable soup. Picture: Supplied
Tasty vegetable soup
This recipe is provided by Yebo Fresh. Below, is how you can make it.
Sauté chopped onions or sliced leeks in a bit of oil until they are slightly yellow and look see-through. For a good-sized pot of soup, use at least one large onion or two sliced leeks. (Leeks must be washed very thoroughly before use as there is often sand caught in their green leaves.)
Add enough water to cover all the vegetables you will now add to the pot. Peel two or three carrots - you can either cut them into small pieces or leave them whole and then mash them with a fork once they are soft. Put the carrots into the pot, together with any other vegetables like turnips (peeled and cut into smaller pieces), beans, broccoli, cauliflower, baby marrows, tomatoes, cabbage, or celery - all must be washed and cut up before going into the pot.
Do not use potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut, or pumpkin for this sort of soup - they can be used to make other kinds of soups.
Bring the vegetables to the boil. Turn the heat down and let the soup simmer until all the vegetables are soft. Add two stock cubes (vegetable, beef, or chicken cubes are fine) and a packet or tin of tomato paste. Add more water - the amount of water depends on how thick or thin you would like your soup to be. Add salt and pepper to taste. Taste the soup before serving - if you think it should be stronger, add the stock cube.
For variations, this could become a bean soup if you add a tin of baked beans or butter beans. Or add some lentils or pasta. (Note that the dry beans and dry lentils may be more cost-effective than the tinned items.) Using these ideas will give you several different types of soup to make throughout the cold season.