Soups

Stir Fry Leftovers Asian Noodle Soup Recipe

Quick Stir Fry Leftovers Chinese Noodle Soup

This is a follow up recipe to Long Chive Asian Noodles, but you can use it for basically any stir fry leftovers.

While stir fries are so so so good, the leftovers aren’t usually as appealing. Even when reheated, I find that they have just lost their zing. For awhile I have been interested in learning how to make some of those beautiful brothy Asian soups. I don’t have all of the traditional ingredients to make a proper Chinese noodle soup – but then lack is the mother of invention right! Or something like that…

Stir Fry Leftovers Asian Noodle Soup Recipe

If there are leftovers in the refrigerator from supper I often turn them into a sop for lunch. I love soups, they are so satisfying!

I have never thought of doing this with stir fries until I got to grips with how to make a basic chinese noodle soup. And it works! And it is delicious!

Note: A chinese person would probably be horrified at what I constitute as a Chinese soup. Did any of you see that movie where a girl moves to the East with her philandering idiot of a boyfriend and then starts working at a noodle shop? And how all of her food makes everybody cry? And the elderly man explains that to master the cooking she must heal her heart and then her food will make everybody happy? I always try to think of that when I am cooking. Making food is one of the basic acts of care and love. And people put it into their bodies, so if you make food with love in one’s heart, then your loved ones get to literally ingest your care for them.

Stir Fry Leftovers Asian Noodle Soup Recipe

Sorry, things got a bit woo woo there! hehe. But that is really how I think of it. : )

Should have called this soup Woo Woo Soup!

Stir Fry Leftovers Asian Noodle Soup Recipe

Quick Stir Fry Leftovers Chinese Noodle Soup

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Ingredients

Chicken or vegetable broth to cover veggies and noodles (if you do not have any stock - you can use water. The flavoring ingredients should still make it tasty)
1-2 cloves crushed garlic
1-2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
3-5 tablespoons soya sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon brown sugar
3 teaspoons gelatin

Instructions

In a pot, heat all ingredients together. If you have a large amount of stir fry leftovers, use the higher quantity of ingredients listed. If you have a small amount – say 2 to 3 cups of leftovers – then go with the smaller quantities.
Once the pot is simmering and the smells of the flavors start to develop, add in the left overs.
Allow this to reach heat, and then taste. If you feel that more flavor is needed, increase one or more of the ingredients.
Serve!

May 25, 2017 0 comment

Fast Healthy Meals Soups Vegan ♥ Dishes

Creamy Chayote Soup

written by Daniela Klein

In the southern hemisphere, chayotes have just come into season! On the farm, we are starting to have them coming out of our ears. Well, out of the garden to be more specific – but in such quantities that it is definitely time to make chayote soup. And more chayote soups… and maybe some chayote stir fries… and salads… you get the idea.

What Are Chayotes?

Chayotes are a fruit type vegetable which grow on a climbing vine. Chayotes, also know as Shu Shu’s and christophines, are indigenous to Mesoamerica. Commonly occurring in South American dishes, it is squash like in taste.

How are Chayotes Used?

Chayotes are commonly steamed, sauteed, and even used raw in the place of cucumber. The young ones are the most suited to raw use. Young chayotes can be used whole – skins and all. More mature fruit should be peeled, as they can start to develop small, soft spines on the skin.

Chayote Soup Recipe

What are Chayotes Like in Soup?

Chayotes make for a really great soup base. Their flavor is mild, and can carry the taste of spices and other ingredients well without overpowering the dish.

Is Chayote Soup Complicated?

No. Don’t be fooled by the exotic name. The chayote soup recipe I developed (you can hardly call it developed it so simple to make) is roughly as follows:

Steam potato and chayote pieces. Blend.

Add flavorings. Return onto stove top, add one whole chilli and raise temperature to serving heat – or until the desired amount of chilli flavor has permeated the soup. Serve.

I made this a vegan recipe, with olive oil to add the richness – but you can go crazy and add butter, cream or cheese if you are a non vegan.

Adding the Chilli

As mentioned above, once I return the soup to the heat after blending, I add a whole green chilli to the pot. This is a carribean method of flavoring pots with chilli….. And one of my favorite ways to extract the delicious umami flavor of green chillies – without bringing along too much of their burn!

The way it works is like this: as some of your are probably more than aware, the heat of chillies lies in their seeds. Phewww!!! The flavor mostly resides in the outer flesh. By inserting them whole into a dish, the heat of the simmering pot pulls forth the flavor, while the super intense burn of the chillies remains locked inside them. If anyone out there has ever put too much white or black pepper in a soup – you will know how thoroughly a soup can spread and amplify the HEAT of pepper. Which makes this strategy perfect for flavoring soup with chilli, without burning the heck out of your family/guests.

Chayote Soup Recipe

Personally I am one of those crazy people who enjoy having beads of sweat rolling down my forehead when dining. So, in order to have my guests survive and still get my chilli fix, what I do is I dish up the soup (mildly flavored with green chilli) and then I offer (to general dissent) extra chilli. Once that formality is over with, I dish the green chilli up into my bowl, and play cat and mouse with it throughout my meal.

So, what I mean is that you can basically scale the level of spiciness up and down with this dish. What the caribbean people do, is they dish up the whole chilli onto a side plate. This is then passed around, and anyone who likes go bright red at table and take sucking breaths, is able to take extra chilli.

So, now that the important chilli ramble is over, I present you with…

Creamy Chayote Soup!

\ Chayote Soup Recipe

Creamy Chayote Soup

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Serves: 2-3 Prep Time: 30-40 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

2 large potatoes
2 large chayotes
1 green chilli
1/4 cup olive oil
4-6 cups water
2 teaspoons dried marjoram
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon coriander seed powder
3 1/2 + teaspoons of salt
Black pepper
3 + tablespoons apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Chop up the chayote and potato.
Combine the potato and 5 cups of water in a medium to large sized pot.
Cook until the potato is almost tender. Add the Chayote pieces.
Continue to cook until all is tender
Remove from the flame and blend. I use a stick blender, but a regular blender or food processor will do also get the job done.
Add any further water if you wish the soup to be less thick.
Return to the flame and add all other flavorings.
Lastly place the whole chilli in the center of the pot.
Simmer until the pot has reached serving temperature, or until the desired amount of chilli flavor / heat has spread through the pot.

Notes

If your chayotes are young you can probably cook them with their skin. However if the chayotes are more mature, they might have developed tiny spines on their skin. If this is the case, it is best to peel them. If you feel that the soup is lacking zing, add a little extra apple cider vinegar for more contrast in the flavor profile. But go slowly! White wine can also be substituted in place of the vinegar if desired.

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Creamy Chayote Soup Recipe

April 17, 2017 0 comment

Fast Healthy Meals Gluten Free Soups

Buttery Chicken & Pumpkin Soup

written by Daniela Klein

Happy Valentines Day everyone :).

Our morning started off on the comical note. Which is inevitable if it is Valentine’s Day and you live with a Troll (I say again, that is his name for himself – I am a sweet natured person who wouldn’t dare such an endearment. I enjoy using it all the same…)

I’ll start right at the beginning. I opened my eyes, and immediately realised what day it was. Not so much because of large plans, but more because when you are an aspiring food blogger one tends to be super aware what big food days are coming up.

So I sprouted out and said – with only mild trepidation – ‘Happy Valentines Day!’

To my surprise the Troll, albeit after a grunt, made some sweet reply in Troll language. However as he became more alert, and his aquarius brain kicked into gear, he stated loudly ‘I actually boycott Valentine’s day’.

To which I loyally replied that I sort of do too.

The stars must be lined up for his enjoyment today, because the next person we saw was Ma Elizabeth and she was upset. While that of course would not be a source of pleasure for anybody, the information she had to impart was just the type of anti-establishment variety to make an aquarius heart sing.

She and Pa Russy have plans to go an afternoon movie today. It’s so cool that they are going on a Valentine’s date! But upon waking up, there was a message on one of their whatsapp groups, stating in detail how Valentine’s Day allegedly is based on a pagan/Roman holiday which celebrated all sorts of awful things – incest and other sexual topics I don’t want to type or think about.

So instead of offering comforting words, the Troll proceeded to inform Ma Elizabeth how this information could very probably be correct. Using his vast store of miscellaneous knowledge to see how likely the chances are of this controversial bit of info being based in truth.

Sigh. Needless to say Ma Elizabeth and I commiserated and cheered ourselves up, with the Troll slowly realising that not everyone shared his dispassionate interest in conspiracies.

So, hopefully if your Valentine’s day is not postcard style, you have had a giggle at a glimpse into ours. Life often has a way of diverging energetically away from postcard style – and isn’t that great actually!

Anyway, my point here is pumpkin soup.

Last week I did a fun recipe, which I called The Pumpkin Party Pot! It basically consists of stuffing a pumpkin with quick cooking ingredients, and baking it. I did a low energy twist on the recipe, and steamed the whole thing to make the oven roasting short and sweet. It is actually an easy recipe to put together, with very little hands on time. If you want something unusual for the next do, or feel like having some plant based cooking fun, go check it out.

This is what it looks like. : )

Pumpkin Pot Recipe

I realised that it is likely that one will have quite a lot of leftover pumpkin…. which is just a recipe for pumpkin soup waiting to happen. And I was right – after eating the stuffing along with some spooned out pumpkin, we had tons of leftover pumpkin!

And so I decided to try one another easy peasy thick soup recipe.

First I simmered two chicken breasts in water. Once this was done, I removed the breasts, added the pumpkin, creamed it with my stick blender, and added the chicken (shredded), milk, onions and spicing ingredients.

The chicken flavor really came through into the soup, even though it was enough to feed five people and I only used two breasts. I was also please with the onion texture. I always thought that one has to fry the onion before adding the other soup ingredients. I went out on a limb with this one, and I can now safely say that sometimes simply chucking in the onion to simmer is perfect.

Time Saving Hack: If you do not have any pumpkin leftovers, and are starting with raw pumpkin, then do the following. Chop the pumpkin into small-ish pieces. Set it to simmer until it begins to tender. Then add the chicken breasts to this. Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the pot and proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Buttery Chicken & Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Thick and Buttery Chicken & Pumpkin Soup

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Serves: 4-5 Prep Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

8 cups of cooked pumpkin
2 chicken breasts
2 onions (if you are not big on onions you can use 1)
1/2 butter
1/4 olive oil
1 cup milk
3 cups water
Salt & pepper
Pinch of white pepper
1/4 apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Combine the water and the chicken breasts into a large pot.
Set to simmer.
Once the chicken is done (white right through) remove from the pot onto a plate to cool.
Add your pumpkin.
Note: If you do not have already cooked pumpkin leftovers, chop up your raw pumpkin and set it to simmer in the large pot before anything else. Once it starts to tender, add the chicken and cook until the chicken is white right through. Then remove the chicken and proceed to Step 5.
Using a stick blender (you can also use an electric beater but the soup will be less smooth) blender up the pumpkin.
Chop the onions and add them to the pot.
Shred the chicken by hand into stringy strips and add these to the pot as well.
Then add the milk, butter, olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper. Be easy on the white pepper – it can be very spicy!
Stir until all is combined.
Have taste and decided if it needs any more salt. Add if neccesary.
You might want to put the pot briefly onto the flame once more the regain any heat that was lost while prepping.

Notes

If you find that the flavor is lacking, you can try adding in a little more vinegar. I am always amazed a how much vinegar I can put into a soup - with the flavor just going up and no 'oh this tastes like vinegar' thoughts appearing. From what I have gathered reading about vinegar, it was used in pre-artificial flavoring times to add the umami flavor to dishes. This seems to be true, because illogically I find that vinegar makes savory things taste more savory. : )

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Buttery Chicken and Pumpkin Soup Recipe

February 14, 2017 1 comment

Fast Healthy Meals Soups

Vegan Vichyssoise

written by Daniela Klein

If you are busy asking ‘What the heck is Vichyssoise?’ it is actually a pompous way to say potato soup.

Traditionally Vichyssoise is made with potatoes, leeks and chicken stock. Usually served cold it can also be eaten hot. If any of you have seen Batman Returns, there is a scene where the Butler brings in a bowl of Vichyssoise. Upon Bruce Wayne’s complaints about it being cold, Alfred patiently explains that “it is supposed to be cold sir.”

There is some uncertainty as to whether vichyssoise originally comes from America or France. One of the more recent and trackable variations come from a famous chef who used to cook for the Ritz. He apparently rendered it into the menu of the Ritz Hotel from a memory of eating it as a child at his Mother’s and Grandmother’s tables.

So now that we have been suitably impressed with the antiquity of good old potato soup. Let me explain myself. Because I have some explaining to do. In my variation of vegan style vichyssoise, I discarded the leeks… Chucked out the stock completely, and replaced those ‘elements’ with cucumber!

But hold on, I am not a loony: ). I did some RESEARCH and it turns out that other people more qualified than I have done the same. I am not surprised, because this variation of vichyssoise is damn good.

The day I stumbled upon my rebel vichyssoise recipe, it was scorching hot and I was cleaning out the fridge. To my dismay I found that somehow between my mother’s garden and the store, I had accumulated about 4 large cucumbers. Now if my companion had been a raw veg crunching girl determined to lose 20 pounds in two weeks, there would have been no problem in consuming them. But I had a troll on my hands to feed. And personally, as much as I like a good bit of cucumber, I could not see myself eating all four.

The solution? This recipe. Or the original prototype. We ate it cold, seeing as there was no way we could face hot soup. Only later did I find out that was the way we were supposed to be having our vichyssoise hehe. Guidance comes in the strangest forms.

Vegan Vichyssoise Soup With Potato and Cucumber Recipe

Before we get into the recipe let me run you through the steps quickly, just so you can see how quick and easy this soup is!

Firstly, chop up a few potatoes. If you have some leftover potatoes from another meal you can use those, but if not you will need to simmer up a couple. I stick a bay leaf into the water with the potatoes while they are cooking.

Once the potatoes are cooked, remove the bay leaf, chop up a decent sized cucumber. Put it into the pot with some olive oil or some coconut oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice and herbs.

Whizz this up with a stick blender (gosh, I should become an affiliate for some high end blender stick company the amount of times I mention mine) or food processor. And Voilà! Vichyssoise a la concombre. (That means cucumber in french according to Google).

Update: I did it! Rebel’s Kitchen now has affiliate links to Amazon! : D If you click on the highlights, it will take you to Amazon’s stick blender page. Enjoy!

Vegan Vichyssoise Soup With Potato and Cucumber Recipe

Vegan Vichyssoise

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Serves: 2-3 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

3 medium to large potatoes
1 large cucumber or 2 smaller ones
1/3 cup olive oil or coconut oil or avocado oil (you can also use coconut milk if you want the white creamy look)
Sprig fresh basil
2 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon dried coriander
Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice from 1 lemon, or 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Chop up the potatoes. I do them pretty fine because then they cook extra fast.
Place in a pot with 1 cup of water and set to simmer.
While you wait for the potatoes you can dice up the cucumber. Cucumber blends very easily, so you can cut big rounds.
Once the potatoes are done turn off the heat and remove the bay leaf.
Add in all the other ingredients; cucumber rounds, garlic, herbs, olive oil or coconut cream, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Just reserve a couple basil leaves for garnish.
Blend the whole lot together. If you wish to have the basil bits visible in the soup, add them into the blending at the end.
Chill, garnish and serve! Remember you can also eat this soup hot, it does not HAVE to be cold.

Notes

If you are on a low carb kick, then you can adjust the potato to cucumber ratio. Once when I was making this soup for just myself, no Troll, I did mostly cucumber and it was great! If your eating partner is not interested in a 70% cucumber soup you can do two different batches, one potato heavy and one cucumber heavy.

Vegan Vichyssoise Soup With Potato and Cucumber Recipe

January 17, 2017 0 comment

Fast Healthy Meals Soups Vegan ♥ Dishes

Carrot & Coriander Soup

written by Daniela Klein

Carrot Soup! I proudly declare this carrotty recipe entirely my own idea. I am sure that there are lots of carrot soup recipes on our physical plane, but I thought of this one all by my self. : P

I have a sort of unsure relationship with carrots. I like raw carrots, and I like cooked rounds of carrots in stews, but I do not really like plain cooked carrots. There, I said it.

However, I want to cook with them! There is something so classic and earthy about the humble carrot. In addition, my mom’s garden seems to yield an unending supply of the freshest most gorgeous carrots you can imagine. So, setting out with dreams of simmering up the perfect carrot honoring dish, I arrived at this soup.

At first my idea was to make a soup solely from carrots. But when I started to ponder the merits of its siblings, potato and onion, I decided to include these two vegetables in moderation as well. I had the feeling that if some potato did not go in, then the soup would lack thickness and creaminess. And then it seemed unfair to exclude the honourable onion.

To give this soup a good punch of flavor I planned to add in a hefty amount of fresh herbs, and a spray of dried coriander seeds.

How to Make Carrot Soup

To start off with I peeled the carrots. Unfortunately the day that I decided to do this recipe, was a non-carrot day on the farm, one where the last patch had just been harvested and the next one had a handful of days to go. Mom the carrot lover she is had used up her whole supply in the fridge and had bought a huge bag of what is termed on the farm as “animal carrots”. They are actually perfectly good for human consumption, but are store bought and “in-organic”.

So to avoid whatever I have been told hides in the skin of inorganic carrots, I dutifully peeled mine. Usually I would skip that step: P.

Then I peeled and chopped the onions and grated the potatoes. Potatoes have the annoying tendency to often just not cook properly, or if they do cook then very retardedly, if combined with other things in the pot. Strange creatures. Anyway, grating can often help with this. I also peeled a astonishingly large clove of garlic to add in.

I then banged the vegetables into the pot with some water and set it to simmer along with my dried coriander and some thyme. Once all was nicely steamed I grabbed my ever faithful stick blender. Which by the way I inherited from my grandfather! If you want to know more about his cooking adventures, check out About.

Adding a generous dollop of coconut oil, and some additional water I blended away until all was smooth and creamy. I then put the parsley in and blended shortly until that was chopped into the soup. Salt, pepper and a dash of apple cider vinegar.. And done!

Usually I taste and tinker away throughout whatever I am making, trying to get to the mecca of flavor that all cooks covert. However in the case of my Carrot Soup, I was working under time constraints. So once all was done I grabbed a spoon expecting to discover the some serious tinkering still needed to be done – but it was great! Really delicious if I might say so myself. And I can’t really take much credit, as I did not do anything fancy. I think the simple process perhaps allowed the vegetables, in particular the carrots, to show off their unique flavors.

Troll’s Verdict: Very good. So if you do not trust me, that’s a troll review for backup. : )

How to Make Carrot Soup

Carrot & Coriander Soup

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Serves: 4 Prep Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time: +-30 minutes

Ingredients

8 large carrots
1 onion
2 medium sized potatoes
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 green pepper for garnishing
Dried thyme
Fresh Parsley
Dried coriander seeds 1 teaspoon if powdered, 2 teaspoons if whole
1/3 cup coconut oil
+- 1 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
3 cups water
Dash of apple cider vinegar

Instructions

Peel and chop up the carrots, onions and garlic.
Grate the potato.
Place all the vegetables in a fair sized pot with 2 cups water.
Set to simmer until all the vegetables are lightly cooked. While you are waiting for the veggies to cook tender, you can julienne (cut very fine, or use a julienne peeler) the green pepper for garnishing.
Remove the pot from the heat and add the coconut oil, coriander, apple cider vinegar and salt and pepper.
Using a stick blender or food processor, blend the soup until it is smooth and creamy. You can add the other cup of water if you find it is too thick. If it is still too thick for your liking add a little more water.
Add in the parsley and thyme, and give the soup a last quick blend to chop up the herbs into it.
Reheat gently on the stove top if the soup has lost heat during processing.
Dish, garnish and serve!

If you have leftovers you can either freeze them or keep in the refrigerator for a few days.

Notes

My leftovers were not quite enough for a whole meal, so I added some cooked lentils I had in the fridge - good combination and worked great to bulk up the soup.

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Carrot Soup Recipe

January 17, 2017 0 comment