Trendy Health Soups
Cooking has become incredibly confusing for us self-anointed experts. I can’t begin to imagine how you all cope with the avalanche of alternative and health narrative-driven confusion recipes and post-modern industrial ingredients.
Once tofu was the go-to meat, fish, vegan protein alternative. Remember the days when you used to marinate tofu in some taste enhancer for days in the hope that it might absorb just a hint of a flavour, something recognisable, something tasty? So who eats tofu today? Maybe octogenarians stuck in a time warp who may still possess well fingered, stained and faded hippy cookbooks like the Moosewood cookbook from circa Woodstock.
The other big consumer of tofu and everything soya is of course the Chinese porcine industry (that’s pigs) who are fattened on soya extracts such as tofu, fattened so the Chinese can enjoy their pork and won tons or whatever they do with the unlucky pigs.
Today there are so many ‘Health’ ingredients available, all of them industrial and chemically put together in a factory. In my day health meant natural and if it wasn’t natural you didn’t eat it. The insatiable demand by the affluent and bored children of the affluent has created the crazy situation where there are twenty different milk substitutes, all manufactured from nuts, grains and pulses. Everyone in a home has their favourite. The end result will be bigger fridges with bigger fridge doors to accommodate all that’s weird and wonderful.
Once they only used to store and cool three per cent milk and then came the one and two per cent to keep the three per cent company. Now you have almond milk, soy milk, wheat milk, rice milk… where will it end?
After bitching and whining, I have to admit that most of the ‘trendy soups’ are actually very tasty, fusing unusual and disparate ingredients and flavours while providing healthy protein / carbohydrates along with a bounty of minerals and vitamins.
So make sure you have room in your tummy for this thick hearty winter delight.
This is a very successful recipe given to me to cook by one of my current employers. It comes from a Kosher cookbook called “Peas, Love and Carrots” written by Danielle Renov. I made a few changes to the recipe to accommodate my palate, halving the amount of turmeric as I found it too strong, and instead of discarding the porcini as is instructed, adding them to the soup.
Spicy Red Lentil and Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- Dry porcini mushrooms x ½ cup
- Boiling water x 4 cups
- Diced onion x 1
- Leek peeled, top and tailed, halved lengthwise and diced x 1
- Carrots peeled and diced x 3
- Celery stalks, peeled and diced x 2
- Jalapeño or chilli pepper, diced fine x 1
- Granulated salt x 2 tsp divided
- Ground black pepper x 1 tsp
- Crushed garlic x 4 teeth
- Grated ginger x a ½ inch piece
- Tumeric x ½ tsp
- Tomato Paste x 2 Tbsp
- Red lentils x ¾ cup
- Kohlrabi peeled cubed x 1
- Green zucchini cubed x 2
- Vegetable stock or water x 6 cups
- Grated parmesan heavy pinch for each serving
Method
Pour boiling water over dried mushrooms and leave to soak. Heat a medium large pot over high heat, add oil, onion, leek, carrot, celery, and hot pepper, ½ tsp salt and the pepper.
Fry, stirring for about 10-12 minutes or until some of the vegetables start to get colour, add garlic, ginger, turmeric and stir well to combine.
Add tomato paste, mix well, add lentils and stir until everything is coated.
Strain the mushroom liquid through paper towel, then add along with kohlrabi, zucchini and vegetable stock. Allow the soup to come to a boil, then cover the pot, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 35 minutes.
To serve, place a large pinch of grated parmigiana into each bowl, then add soup. If you don’t want the cheese, it’s just as tasty without.
Yallah alla kefak. What fun, enjoy.
Next week, going back to the Eastern Med for a filo pastry parcel, great for the vegetarians and people who like to eat with vegetarians.
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