Indian Curried Vegetable Soup

Guest Writer: Shirley Trudell

As I mentioned in my soupy solutions post I want to cover more ethnic and international soups for the site, where myself and guest writers test out new flavors and ingredients in order to diversify our soupy portfolio. One reader-Shirley Trudell recently tried out such a recipe, entitled Indian Curried Vegetable Soup that she was excited to share with Seriously Soupy. Although not a traditional Indian soup per-say, it is a creative twist utilizing a variety of flavors from crunchy to savory that is also versatile enough that it can be made your own (perhaps adding curry, subbing peas for spinach or even adding a protein such as tofu to mix). Either way the soup is a hearty and filing soup that I am excited to test out and with only 15 minutes of prep time there is no reason not to. Here's Shirley's tasty and easy Indian Curried Vegetable Soup recipe:

Indian Curried Vegetable Soup by Shirley Trudell

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of water (1 cup of water is used for the rice)
10oz package of Tasty Agra Peas and Greens with Cashews
1/2 can of mixed nuts
Peas (canned or frozen)
1/2 cup of Jasmin rice
1/4 cup of creamy yogurt (Greek)
dash of Himalayan salt
dash of garlic powder
dash of black pepper

Directions:

Open an already prepared Indian Peas and Greens with Cashews sauce meal and place it in a pot. Turn on the heat and add the mixed nuts (they were left whole), more peas, (canned were used, but frozen can be used as well), and some water (about 1 1/2 cups). Adjust the flavors with a little Himalayan salt, garlic powder, and black pepper, covered and put on simmer. Rinse 1/2 cup of Jasmin rice and place it in a pot with 1 cup of water for 10 minutes. When the rice is finished place it in a bowl, followed by the soup blend, and top it off with some creamy yogurt. Enjoy!

What are some variations of an Indian soup that you have created?

Seriously Soupy Serena

Hangover Soup—A New Year's Day Soupy Solution

Written by: Lonnie Feldman, Guest Writer

Happy New Year's everybody! Today is a day to reflect on the year that past, for what lies ahead, and of course (for some of us) that means nursing that serious hangover. So I decided to create a soup inspired by everyone's favorite hangover cure- the bloody mary. I have never made a tomato cream soup before, nor am I really a fan of the bloody mary, but I thought it would be interesting to create a cream-based tomato soup and enhance it with the ingredients found in a traditional bloody mary (sans alcohol, so kids eat up!).  For the tomato cream soup, I loosely followed a recipe by Michael Chiarello from foodnetwork.com.  This was followed with the traditional elements of a bloody mary: tobasco and worcestershire sauce and lemon juice, as well as fresh ginger (a natural hangover fighting food), and celery salt for an added tangy taste.  The result was a creamy tomato soup with a kick!

Ingredients:

1 28-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 stalk celery, diced

1 yellow onion, diced

1 cup chicken broth

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup heavy cream, optional

approx teaspoon minced ginger

celery salt to taste

1 tsp each of tabasco and worcestershire sauce

little less than 1/4 cup of lemon juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Servings: 2-4

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Strain and chop the canned tomatoes (the original recipe called for chopped tomatoes but I had a can of whole tomatoes already in the house and I made the mistake of NOT chopping the tomatoes before placing them in the oven; I had to chop afterwards and now have the burn marks on my arms showing this wasn't the wisest of moves), reserving the juices, and spread onto a baking sheet, season with salt and pepper, drizzle 1/4 cup of the olive oil, and roast until caramelized, about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat remaining olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the celery,onion, and ginger; cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add the roasted chopped canned tomatoes, reserved tomato juices, chicken broth, bay leaf and butter. Simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer to large pot, add basil and cream, if using. Puree with a hand held immersion blender until smooth.  Once smooth add the lemon juice, tobasco and worcestershire sauce, and celery salt to taste.  At this point you can add more fresh ginger as well.  Cook together for an additional 10-15 minutes.  In the bowl, garnish with celery stalk and basil leaf and serve!

P.S. It didn't come out as red as I would have liked it to; I am thinking the heavy-cream muted the color of the tomatoes so if you want to preserve the look of a bloody mary I would use less or even no heavy cream.  Michael Chiarello's original recipe called for a 14oz can of tomatoes, yielding 4 servings; I doubled the tomatoes because that was what was on hand and barely got 4 servings out of it, perhaps he used smaller bowls than myself?

Seriously Soupy Guest Writer Lonnie Feldman