A one pot hearty ten bean soup/stew with spinach and potatoes and flavored with curry powder.
There is a slight nip in the air when we go for swimming in the morning these days. The onset of winters is here and while the cold does bring with it its own cons, I am excited to cover my extra flab with long coats, scarves and layers of sweaters. It means you can eat that piece of donut and only worry about it when spring arrives! Well, it never works like that, but yes winters can be a little more accommodating when it comes to added calories.
Fall/winter season also means apples, and squashes are back in the market. There are so many pies to be made- I have an apple pie recipe that I love and somehow whenever I make it I never get a chance to photograph it- it gets polished off way too quickly. But I promise this season I will post the recipe, because it is really good.
Another about this season is that soups become a thing again. So much yes for that and this ten lentil soup will be the perfect thing to cozy up with during the coming cold months. You wont even have to worry about added calories; your summer clothes wont curse your winter choices.
Most days I cook because we need food on the table, but some days I cook to forget everything else. Today was one such day.
I have mentioned before (and even though I run a food blog) cooking is not my first love. Baking is. But today was just the kind of day when I wanted to be in the kitchen. The kitchen- its my me place. Where I can just let go. So I baked and cooked and cooked some more.
Its getting cold here. Like really cold (well, at least for Arizona standards). Friday it rained the whole day and the rain brought with it a cold wave. Temperatures dropped to below zero Celsius (still not used to reading temperature in Farenheit) and its just beginning November.
Cold also means that its time to take the soup bowls out. Besides the heater, blankets, jackets, scarves and boots!
Sopas traditionally consists of boiling chicken or pork bones with salt and pepper. Once you get good tasting broth flavor, elbow macaroni is added which you cook till al dente. When the pasta is almost done, vegetables are added usually chopped carrots and cabbage. Once done, season with salt and pepper to taste and add a cup of milk to make it really creamy, and it is ready to serve.
I did tweak the recipe to what I had on hand and since it is the Indian festival season and V’s family doesn’t eat meat on certain days during the festival of Diwali, I made it completely vegetarian. I used vegetarian broth instead of chicken broth and since I had some mushrooms that and some frozen mixed vegetables is what I added to the sopas. And since I was out of elbow macroni, I added broken pieces of lasagna sheets (as that was the only pasta I had in my kitchen).
Traditional or not, both V and I really liked the sopas and I loved how easy it was to put together. Do give it a try.
This recipe is adapted from Gay's blog: A Scientist in the Kitchen. I have written the changes I made in brackets.
Cuisine: Filipino
Serves: 2
Ingredients
meat broth-chicken, beef, pork (I used a can of vegetable broth)
elbow macaroni (I used 4 sheets of lasagna broken into small pieces)
chopped vegetables- carrots, cabbage, mushroom, asparagus… anything goes ( I used mushrooms and few mixed frozen vegetables)
salt and pepper to taste
a cup of milk ( I used ¼ cup of milk)
Herbs- oregano, basil and celery salt
Instructions
In a saucepan, heat a little oil. Add the mushrooms and stir fry on high. When soft, add the broth and bring to a boil. Add the elbow macaroni (other pasta shapes will do like farfalle, rigatoni and penne – but this would not really be a Filipino dish). Add dried herbs such as oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary).
The elbow macaroni is cooked till al dente. Just taste the macaroni a few minutes after boiling. When macaroni is almost done, added the chopped vegetables. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
