Part two of our Healthy Winter Soup Recipes pick…
Asian Noodle Soup
This recipe is from the book ‘Honestly Healthy Cleanse’ and is their go-to Sunday night recipe that oozes fragrance and taste from the East.
Ingredients
1 tbsp coconut oil
½ white onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, grated
5cm piece of root ginger, sliced
3g cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 tsp coriander seeds
6 tbsp cold water
1 tbsp tamari
10g Chinese celery, roughly chopped
3g sweet Thai basil
720ml boiling water
1 tbsp bouillon powder
50g mangetout
100g pak choi
60g shiitake
mushrooms, sliced
5g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
50g rice noodles
juice of 1 lime
50g tempeh, cut into strips, to garnish
6 thin slices of red
chilli, sliced at an angle (optional)
Instructions
1. If you’re in need of a fix of Asian flavours, then this delicious and aromatic dish will hit the mark; it’s both warming and cleansing. Here, the cinnamon and star anise provide the mouthwatering base flavours as well as supplying their nurturing and antiviral properties. The soup is amazing for your immune system and tastes wonderful too
2. Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan and add the onion, garlic, ginger, cinnamon, star anise and coriander seeds. Leave to sauté on a medium heat for 2 minutes.
3. Add the cold water (not the measured boiling water) and the tamari and leave to simmer for a further minute. Stir in the Chinese celery and sweet basil.
4. Meanwhile, chop the mangetout on the diagonal and slice the root off the pak choi so that the leaves are released. Add to the pan along with the shiitake and half of the chopped coriander. After 1 minute add the rice noodles and cook for a further 3–4 minutes until they are done.
5. Finish off by squeezing the lime juice over the top and stir through with the tempeh, the remaining coriander and the sliced chilli if you want a kick of spice.Add the boiling water to the pan along with the bouillon, stir and leave until the liquid has reached boiling point again.
Creamless Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
This recipe combines two of the best seasonal ingredients of the moment, (roasted) butternut squash and apple (sauce). Paired with some protein-packed red lentils as well as spicy ginger and cumin, these seasonal goodies turn into the tastiest and creamiest soup ever. Super easy to prepare too.
Ingredients
Serves 1
1/2 medium butternut squash
1dl red lentils (measure uncooked)
1dl unsweetened applesauce, mine is pink made of sweet-tart apples
1 small red onion
1tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cumin
Himalayan salt to taste
Yogurt and herbs for serving (optional)
Method
1. Pre-heat your oven to 225c.
2. Wash your butternut squash and then cut it lengthwise so you have two halves. Place one of the halves into the oven on top of parchment paper and roast for around 35 minutes until soft and slightly browned. Ignore the other half.
3. While your butternut squash is in the oven, chop your onion, then rinse your lentils and cook them with the chopped onion, ginger and cumin according to package instructions (around 20 minutes).
4. When your lentils are cooked, remove them from the heat and wait until the squash is ready.
5. When your squash is slightly browned, take it out of the oven, peel it and cut it into rough pieces. Add the squash into the lentils. If there is a lot of excess cooking water, pour it away until almost no water at all remains.
6. Add the applesauce to the other ingredients and process with a stick blender until smooth.
7. Add salt to taste and serve with for example yogurt and fresh parsley or coriander + bread. Enjoy!
Spiced Lentil Soup
James Walters, co-founder of Arabica Bar & Kitchen has developed a healthy yet tasty and hearty spiced lentil soup recipe. Coming in at just 150 calories per bowl it’s bonus all-round. And of course if you are on the go and fancy grabbing yourself a bowl of soup rather than making it, it can also be enjoyed at the Arabica Bar & Kitchen, throughout January 2016 where James Walters will be donating £3 per bowl sold to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR to help provide urgently needed food relief for Syrian refugees.
Note: The soup will be served at the restaurant from 1st – 31st January.
Serves 4 generously
Ingredients
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 small onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp. Ras el Hanout
½ tsp. Urfa chilli flakes
1 bay leaf
2 tsp. tomato paste
200g red lentils
3 tsp. pomegranate molasses
1200ml hot water
Sea salt, to taste
Black pepper
To finish
Fresh thyme leaves
Sumac
Fried onions or shallots (Available from any oriental supermarket)
Black pepper
Method
1. Peel and finely dice the onion.
2. Heat the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan, add the onions and cook on a low heat until they soften, become translucent and give off there natural sweetness.
3. Add the garlic, bay leaf, Ras el Hanout spices and continue to cook on a low heat for further minute stirring continuously.
4. Add the tomato paste, red lentils and slowly add the 1 litre of boiling water mixing as you go. Finally add the pomegranate molasses. Bring to the boil. Skim the surface if necessary. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 30 minutes or till the lentils are fully cooked and begin to break down.
5. Blend the soup to a smooth consistency and season with salt to taste. If the soup is too thick add more water.
6. To serve ladle into deep soup bowls, drizzle with olive oil, liberally sprinkle with crispy onions, a pinch of cracked black pepper, a few fresh thyme leaves and a tiny pinch of citrusy sumac.
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