Curried Butternut Squash Soup

This recipe is by Padma Lakshmi, of Top Chef fame, she has a cookbook of her own (despite looking like she's the 'Top Chef booth bunny', she has some cooking credentials). And this indeed tasted good, sweet and spicy and creamy. A thick soup. You can alter the heat by adding more or less of the red pepper flakes. It does take a while to cook, about 45 minutes plus prep time, but worth it.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup
adapated from a recipe from Padma Lakshmi
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup diced shallots
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup minced fresh peeled ginger
4 bay leaves
1/2 Tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks
1-1/3 tsp coarse salt
1 tsp curry powder
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
1-inch chunk palm sugar
One 15-ounce can low-fat coconut milk
Freshly chopped chives, for garnish
Fresh curry leaves, for garnish

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add shallots and cook, stirring, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, and continue to stir; add ginger. Continue cooking until shallots are soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add bay leaves and red pepper; continue cooking for 1 minute more. Stir in squash, salt, and curry powder; cook for 10 minutes.

Raise the heat to medium-high, and add vegetable stock. Cover, and bring to a boil. Immediately lower the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring and mashing every 5 minutes. Add the palm sugar and cook for 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk and continue cooking for 10 minutes.

Remove bay leaves from soup. If desired, use an immersion blender to purée until smooth.

Garnish with chives and/or curry leaves, and serve immediately.

Tanzanian Curried Chicken-Banana Soup

I have somewhat of an African heritage, from Tanzania, onetime Tanganyika, specifically my father was born there, though food-wise this heritage is sparse, and I've never really felt a need to discover the cuisine of that former German protectorate (my father is not a chef, my mother did the cooking, and she cooked mostly German and North American meals, so I was never exposed to that kind of food till much later). Really, the only African dish I remember my father regularly bringing to the table (mostly in the fall when the corn came out), is something he called ngati, which consisted of field or feed corn, with the tough kernels which are normally feed to livestock, you boil these for a long while, then add some red kidney beans and boil some more; what you get is something which I believe is designed to make you chew for a long while, then cleans out your system (or so I have memories of it, I haven't eaten it for a long while, but my father continued to enjoy it well into his 60's; he's almost 80 now, so it must have been good for something).

The curry powder I used for this soup is certainly not traditional, though there were a fair number of Indians living in Tanganyika and they had curries (which my father enjoyed as well, though the one that we made wasn't that spicy and the appeal of it, to my father, was the little side accompaniments); we used a Malaysian curry powder that we had on hand. Too, I used Ancho chili powder, sweeter and raisin-y in flavour, rather than a hot chile that would be used. I also used young coconut meat rather than the older water coconut meat, we had some frozen, and I just roughly chopped the meat up, though I think that the more traditional older coconut ground fine would have tasted better, and provided a sweet coconut base flavour to the soup. Lastly, we used sweet bananas, rather than what I would guess is used more traditionally, plantains, which are more starchy and less likely to fall apart when cooked. Still, the product of our labours was great tasting, and we used it more as a sauce than a soup, I first had it with rice, then we both enjoyed it with noodles. The result of our curry-chili mixture was not so spicy hot, feel free to up the temperature if you need to. My beautiful Bride wanted me to make this again, and soon, which is a testament to how good it tasted.

Tanzanian Curried Chicken-Banana Soup
4 Tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
4 chicken thighs, bone-in, or 3-lb. chicken, cut into pieces
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp dried red chile, ground to a powder
2 tsp black pepper
8 cups chicken stock
1 large tomato (or 4 canned tomatoes), peeled and chopped
1 cup fresh coconut, grated
2 ripe bananas, sliced into chunky quarter pieces

In a Dutch oven, brown the chicken pieces in the oil. Remove chicken, reserving, and add the onion and garlic to the pot. Sauté until soft, then stir in the powdered chile, the curry, and the black pepper and fry for 2 more minutes. Add the tomatoes, stock, chicken pieces, and coconut, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

When the chicken is done, remove, let cool, then strip away the meat and cut it into bite-sized chunks, discarding the skin and bones. Add it back into the pot with the banana chunks. Simmer 10 minutes.

Grapor Pla - Fish Maw Soup

Fish maw is an unusual food, to say the least, it the dried gas bladder of certain large sea fish. In Thailand, it is eaten as a soup, as here, or in a salad (Yam Grapor Pla). The texture is interesting, slightly chewy but with little flavour; it provides texture to the dish. We used large fish maw, there are smaller ones about 1/3 the size; the small ones are preferred in Thailand. We used half a bag of fish maw, about 15-20 fish maw, there would, of course, be far more with smaller ones. We also used about 1/3 of a roasted chicken we bought, feel free to use any leftover chicken you might have around. I suppose that this soup might even be good without the fish maw, but the fish maw gives it an added edge.

Grapor Pla - Fish Maw Soup
Dried fish maw
Shredded cooked chicken
3-4 shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water
slivered bamboo shoots
chicken broth
3-4 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
2 coriander roots
3 cloves of garlic
5 white peppercorn
cornstarch stir in water
sliced coriander and spring onion for garnish
chili sauce

Soak dried fish maw in cool water for 30 minutes, then blanch in boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Cut it into long slices.

Grind coriander roots, garlic, and white peppercorn together with mortar and pestle.

Slice softened mushrooms into thin long slices.

Blanch bamboo shoots; set aside.

Mix cornstarch with a little water.

Bring chicken broth to a boil, then add the coriander roots, white peppercorn and garlic. Add fish maw, shiitake mushrooms, sliced bamboo shoots and cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Add shredded chicken and season with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and ground white pepper. Add cornstarch in water and stir soup until thickened.

Garnish with sliced coriander and spring onion. Add chili sauce as desired.

Roast Squash, Onion and Garlic Soup

This is a good winter soup, the natural sweetness of the butternut squash is brought out by roasting. I definitely like the yellow colour of the finished soup. I also like roasted garlic; they become sweet and delicious. Put in a good chicken broth for even more flavour. Serve hot with a good hunk of bread.

Roast Squash, Onion and Garlic Soup
1 butternut squash (1/2 kg)
1 onion
1/3 bulb garlic
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves
1/4 tsp dried rosemary leaves, crumbled
pinch coarse sea salt and pepper
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth

Preheat oven to 190C/375F.

Peel skin from butternut squash, cut into half, then scoop out seeds and seed membranes from inside; cut into 2-inch chunks. Cut onion into wedges. Separate cloves of garlic (about 7-8), but do not remove skin.

In medium bowl, toss vegetables with oil, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper. Spread onto a large shallow roasting pan and roast for 40-45 minutes, or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven.

Squeeze roasted garlic cloves out of their skin. Remove any burned vegetables. Puree roasted vegetables with vegetable broth until smooth (or leave a little chunky for more texture). Heat in saucepan until bubbling and hot.

Gang Som Gung

This is a very healthy Thai soup, and tastes best if refrigerated overnight, allowing the flavours to develop to their potential. This soup, done well, produces the four tastes of Asia; hot, sour, salty and sweet. You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand, even leafy vegetables are good. We used the small dry chilis for this, they are hotter than the larger chilis.

Gang Som Gung
10 shrimp (deveined)
400 g fresh white fish flesh
1/4 cup tamarind water
1-2 Tbsp fish sauce
1-2 tsp palm sugar
4 cups water
1 boullion cube
2 eggs
mixed vegetables (long bean, cauliflower, green papaya, daikon, zucchini, etc.), cut into small pieces

Chop fish flesh and divide it into 2 portions. Boil one portion until done and blend together with the chili paste (see below for recipe).

Boil water and boullion cube together until boiling, then add the chili paste and fish from above. Once the water is boiling again, add the other portion of fish flesh and cook until done.

Add tamarind water, fish sauce and palm sugar. Taste the soup (It should taste hot, sour, salty and sweet; adjust as you like). Add shrimp and boil for another minute.

Leave overnight in fridge to allow flavours to develop (best), or use right away.

Beat the eggs and fry as an omelette; cut into pieces.

Finally add cut vegetables and omelette pieces; let boil for a minute or two, until vegetables are slightly cooked. Stir well to combine.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

Gang Som Chili paste:
10 dry small chili (seeded)
5 shallots
5 small garlic cloves
1 teaspoon kapi (Thai shrimp paste)
1 teaspoon salt

Soak dry chili until soft, then pat dry. Grind all ingredients together to make a paste.

Chinese Spaghetti Sauce Soup

Chinese spaghetti sauce a vegetarian sauce, we first encountered this dish when we went to the Buddhist Temple in Mississauga, we tried to near-duplicate their noodle-soup dish. The sauce is mostly soy and wheat gluten in oil with a little green bean, mushroom, sugar and spices. You can use it directly on spaghetti as a sauce, but it works well as a ingredient in soup.

You can use any kind of noodles in this dish, we had egg noodles on hand. To make it non-vegetarian, you can use heated chicken stock. To finish the soup, stir together so that the sauce permeates throughout the stock. Quite delicious.

Chinese Spaghetti Sauce Soup
egg noodles, enough for two
mushroom stock, made with boiling water
baby bok choy, a handful per person
julienned carrot, a handful per person
Chinese spaghetti sauce, 2 Tbsp per person

Cook the noodles until they are done. Place noodles in the bottom of a big soup bowl. Blanch the bok choy for 2 minutes, until they are slightly soft. Place a handful of bok choy leaves on top of the noodles. Place a handful of julienned carrots on top of the noodles. Carefully cover the soup ingredients with the stock. Place a couple of tablespoons of the Chinese spaghetti sauce on the side. Serve hot.

Yen Ta Fo

This is one of those assemble-your-own dishes, you can add as much or as little of the ingredients as you like. Prepare all the ingredients and place in separate dishes; guests can then assemble theirs the way they like it, adding more, or less, of each ingredient. The Yen Ta Fo sauce makes this dish (which you unfortunately can't quite see in the picture), the combination of the preserved bean curd and the preserved garlic give an intriguing salty vinegary taste; too, it is quite red, even redder when made in Thailand. If you like, and don't have a chicken carcass on hand, you can substitute either some chicken legs or thighs or breasts, or use chicken stock (just add the other ingredients and bring to a boil; cook for a few minutes for the flavours of the other ingredients to infuse the stock).

Yen Ta Fo
1/4 pkg Rice Flat noodle per person
1/2 lb morning glory
7 Shrimp per person
3-4 Fish ball per person
6 half pieces Puffy Fried Tofu per person
6 Fried wonton wrap per person
1 Tbsp Fried garlic per person
Sliced Coriander and Spring onion, as garnish
ground white pepper, to taste
1/4 lime per person
1/2 tsp sugar per person
1 bird's eye chili per person, sliced then crushed in a mortar and pestle
Yen Ta Fo Sauce (see below for recipe)
Chicken Soup (see below for recipe)

Blanch noodle and morning glory. Place in individual large soup bowls, the morning glory on the noodles.

Blanch shrimp 3-4 minutes, till red and cooked. Blanch fish balls and fried puffy tofu for 2-3 minutes, until warmed through. Arrange all on noodles. Add Yen Ta Fo Sauce on top of noodles, about 2-3 tablespoons.

Add, as desired, soup, fried garlic, sugar, sliced coriander, spring onion, white ground pepper, ground chili, lime juice and fried wonton wrap (to fry, fold wonton wrappers in half and fry in oil until golden brown).

Mix all together before eating.

Yen Ta Fo Sauce
3 pieces preserved bean curd
1/3 cup tomato sauce (not ketchup)
3 Tbsp preserved garlic water and crushed preserved garlic
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Grind preserved bean curd and mix together with the rest of the ingredients. It should taste salty; if not, add more salt.

Chicken Soup
Chicken carcass
big chunk of daikon
4-5 crushed garlic cloves
1/2 Tbsp fish sauce
1/2 Tbsp Golden Mountain seasoning sauce

Add water in the pot; heat on high. Wait until the water is boiling, then put in chicken carcass. Once the water is boiling again, add daikon, crushed garlic cloves and season with fish sauce and Golden Mountain seasoning sauce. Let it boil on medium heat (high heat will make the soup cloudy) for 45 minutes to one hour.

Corn Chowder

My beautiful Bride likes corn in all forms, this recipe that provides her with some of the Calcium that she needs on a daily basis for her growing baby. Again, we made some substitutions, we used mushroom stock instead of vegetable broth cubes, and yogurt instead of light cream. This one tastes pretty good. Sorry, no picture.

Corn Chowder
adapted from a recipe from The Everyday Calcium Cookbook by Helen Bishop MacDonald
2 cups mushroom stock (using boiling water)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup finely chopped onion (about 1/2 medium)
1/2 cup finely chopped celery (about 2 medium ribs)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/2 cup yogurt
3 cups frozen corn
2-1/2 cups shredded, peeled potatoes (about 1/2 lb.)
1 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper

Melt butter in a large saucepan, add onion and celery and saute until onion is transparent. Add flour and stir until well mixed. Continue stirring over low heat until mixture starts to turn brown. Add hot mushroom broth slowly, stirring constantly. Increase heat and bring to a boil.

Warm milk and yogurt in small pot, but do not boil, then add to soup mixture, along with shredded potatoes, corn, basil and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring often. Adjust seasoning.

Cheddary Cauliflower Soup

Being pregnant, it's important for my beautiful Bride to get Calcium in her diet, and she found this interesting recipe book, filled with recipes that provide lots of Calcium. We made some changes from the original, halving the ingredients, and using coriander instead of parsley. This soup goes great with pumpernickel bread.

Cheddary Cauliflower Soup
adapted from a recipe from The Everyday Calcium Cookbook by Helen Bishop MacDonald
1-1/2 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup chopped onion (about 1/2 medium)
2-1/2 cups coarsely chopped cauliflower
1-1/4 cup chicken broth
1/6 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups milk
1-1/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/8 cup chopped fresh coriander
salt and pepper

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Saute onion until tender.

Stir in cauliflower and chicken broth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 12 minutes, or until cauliflower is tender.

In a large bowl, gradually stir milk into flour until smooth. Add to saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils and thickens.

Remove from heat, add cheese and coriander and stir until cheese is melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Happiness Soup

This is a recipe that I knew would be good when I saw it, and, seeing yellow zucchini at the Farmer's Market last week, I decided it was finally time to make it. And, it turned out as good as it looked. The zesty lemon taste coupled with the turmeric along with the zucchini gives it a slightly sour flavour which is refreshing. I like the combination of the chewy rice and the slightly crunch zucchini. I would say that this soup could make me happy.

Happiness Soup
adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson
4 medium yellow zucchini
zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 litre vegetable stock
100 g brown basmati rice
salt and pepper

Finely dice the zucchini. Put them into a pan with the lemon zest and oil, stir to coat, then cook on medium low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they've slightly softened.

Stir in the turmeric and pour in the vegetable stock and lemon juice and then drop in the rice. Bring to boil, then cook, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes, or just until the zucchini and rice are tender.

Spicy-Sour Thai Chicken Coconut Soup (Tom kha gai)

This is an excellent Thai sour and spicy soup, one I've enjoyed many times at one of my favourite Viet-Thai restaurants. Add more chilies if you like it spicy. The cabbage gives it a little sweetness when cooked.

Spicy-Sour Thai Chicken Coconut Soup
100 gms chicken breast
100 ml water
150 ml coconut milk
1 inch galangal, sliced
2 lemon grass, sliced
5-6 fresh or frozen kaffir lime leaves
1 Sprig Coriander
2-3 bird's eye chili, crushed
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp fish sauce
5 cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup sliced Chinese cabbage

Put the water in pan and bring to the boil. When water is boiling, add the galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and salt. Add the chicken, fish sauce, lemon juice and coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes until the chicken is thoroughly cooked. Add chilies, cherry tomatoes, cabbage and coriander and simmer for a further 1 minute to let the flavours spread through the soup.

Hot and Sour Soup

Every good Chinese recipe has a good hot and sour soup recipe, it's one of those dishes that is common to all Chinese restaurants, and one can judge a restaurant on how tasty their soup recipe is, though I find the quality and flavour of the soups is variable. Most of the time it is thin, and I imagine quickly made with shortcuts. This original recipe, from Authentic Recipes from China by Kenneth Law, Lee Cheng Meng and Max Zhang, called for green peas, but we didn't have any, and I don't know that I have ever seen a Hot and Sour Soup with green peas as an ingredient in any restaurant. This recipe makes a much thicker soup that I am used to, with more chunks throughout, and tastes way better than the restaurant version. Some restaurant versions I have had are much spicier than this turned out, if you want it spicier, add the chili oil at the end, or even a little chili paste. The soup gets its sourness from the vinegar, but also from the tomato, so pick a good tasting tomato, and not a low-acid one.

Hot and Sour Soup
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 Tbsp grated ginger
1 large tomato, diced
8 oz (250 g) soft tofu, diced
4 large fresh shiitake mushrooms, diced, or 4 dried black Chinese mushrooms, soaked in warm water, stems discarded and caps diced
2 dried wood ear mushrooms, soaked in water and thinly sliced
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp black vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns
2 eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp cornstarch blended with 2 Tbsp water
4 spring onions, diced
pinch of ground white pepper
chili oil, to serve
black vinegar, to serve

Bring the stock to a boil in a large pot. Add the salt, sugar, ginger, tomato, tofu and mushrooms. Return to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes.

Add the soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, black pepper and Sichuan peppercorns; stir to mix. Slowly add the beaten eggs into the soup, drizzling over the surface; let sit for 1 minute; do not stir.

Stir the cornstarch mixture, then pour slowly into the simmering soup while stirring gently. Keep on stirring until the soup thickens. Simmer for 1 minute more, then turn off the heat.

Serve hot, garnished with spring onions and white pepper. Add a few drops of chili oil and black vinegar, if desired.

Rachel Ray's Stoup

We made several changes to the recipe that Rachel Ray makes Chicken Cacciatore Stoup; Stoup because it is thicker than a Stew, and thinner than a Soup. We replaced the chicken breasts (about one pound) with mock chicken, we used Yukon Gold (yellow-fleshed) potatoes rather than russet, we didn't add the 4 ribs celery hearts (because we didn't have any), we used Ontario Merlot rather than dry Italian red wine (it was what we had on hand), we used regular crushed tomatoes rather than the fire-roasted ones it calls for (does anyone know where one can find fire-roasted tomatoes?), and we used vegetable stock rather than the chicken stock it calls for. Basically, we made a vegetarian version of her recipe. It still tasted quite good. We had it alone, with rice and with noodles as a spaghetti sauce. All worked well.

Rachel Ray's Stoup
Adapted from a recipe by Rachel Ray
1 package mock chicken, 270 g
Coarse salt and black pepper
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1-inch squares
4 portobello mushroom caps or 16 crimini mushrooms, sliced or chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered lengthwise, then thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and quartered lengthwise, then thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup Ontario Merlot red wine (eyeball it)
1 can diced tomatoes (15 ounces)
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 ounces)
2 cups vegetable stock
3 tablespoons fresh rosemary (3-4 sprigs), finely chopped
1 cup basil or arugula or baby spinach leaves, shredded or torn

Heat a deep skillet or a medium soup pot over medium-high heat. Add two tablespoons olive oil and the chicken. Season it with coarse salt and pepper.

While the chicken cooks, chop up the veggies.

When the chicken is evenly and lightly browned all over, about 3-4 minutes, remove it to a plate and reserve.

Add another tablespoon of olive oil. Add the potatoes to the pan. Cook a couple of minutes, then add in the mushrooms and onion and cook another couple of minutes. Add in the peppers and garlic and cook another 1-2 minutes. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper.

Add chicken back to the pan. Toss it with the vegetables. Add red wine to the pan and deglaze it, picking up drippings. Add tomatoes and stock to the stoup and stir to combine. Stir in rosemary and reduce heat to low. Cover and cook, 8-10 minutes.

Turn off stoup and ladle into shallow bowls. Top with basil (for a sweet finish and to balance the spice in the soup) or arugula (for a peppery finish) or with spinach (for a woodsy finish). At the table, pass grated cheese for sprinkling on top of the stoup and bread for mopping up the bowl.

Corn and Ham Egg Drop Soup

My beautiful Bride loves hot soup, and also corn, when she saw this recipe in a Taiwanese cookbook, she knew she had to make it. We used mock ham, I am sure that you could use regular meat ham. It tasted quite delicious, something like Egg Drop soup (there's an art to making that soup, I would say, she just whisked the egg into the hot water) together with the sweetness of corn.

Corn and Ham Egg Drop Soup
1 can creamed corn (15 oz.)
1 quart vegetable stock
1 Tbsp rice wine
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup minced ham
1-1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger
2-1/2 Tbsp cornstarch
3 Tbsp cold water

Add creamed corn, vegetable stock, rice wine and salt and pepper to a large pot, then bring to boil.

Add beaten egg to soup base, and whisk quickly, so that egg does not cook in one large lump.

Add ham and ginger and stir to combine.

Mix cornstarch with cold water, then stir into soup base to thicken.

Continue to cook until warmed through, one or two minutes.

Sweet Red Bean Soup

When we came across this recipe on the 'Net, my beautiful Thai Bride knew she had to make it. It is quite easy to make, and tastes very good, the red beans sweetened with the contrast of the tangerine and dried lily bulbs, is very interesting. We used light muscovado sugar and azuki beans. Dried tangerine peel and dried lily bulbs can be found in any good Chinese supermarket. This is the fast method, using a pressure cooker (I christened my pressure cooker with this dish, my first succesful meal made by myself, though my brother-in-law used it several times succesfully), if you don't have a pressure cooker, just simmer on the stove for 2-3 hours, making sure that there is enough water to cover the beans at all times, and stir occasionally to prevent the beans from burning. We found that the beans absorbed the water in the pressure cooker, so add some more at the last cooking stage. This ended up being very thick, so add some more water till you get the right consistency.

Sweet Red Bean Soup
225 g red beans (azuki or other small red beans)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
small handful dried tangerine peel
1/2 cup light brown sugar (according to taste)
a handful of dried lily bulbs

Soak the tangerine peel and the lily bulbs; when soft, remove the pith from the tangerine peel.

Wash and soak red beans in cold water with the bicarbonate of soda for 2 hours. Drain.

Boil the red beans in enough water to cover. Drain.

In the pressure cooker, put the red beans, water and tangerine peel; cook for 30 minutes on high pressure. When pressure is released, remove lid, add the soaked lily bulbs and enough water to cover and bring back to the boil. Cook until the lily bulbs are soft.

Take off heat, add sugar and stir in until dissolved. Add more water to bring to desired consistency, if necessary.

A Chinese Soup

I decided to try this package of healthy soup ingredients from T&T the other day, there were several different ones, each with a different set of ingredients, giving a different effect based on the ingredients, and I made it finally. According to the package, this soup is designed to strengthen spleen and stomach. What you got in the package, was an amount of meat (2 lbs. maybe), which was pork shank with bones, a large carrot sliced in thick coins, a quantity (3 large pieces) of mountain gobo (burdock root), two honey dates, and about a half-cup of Job's Tears seeds (Chinese pearl barley). Throw it all in a pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, then simmer for two hours, and you get a delicious tasting soup. As easy as that. I removed most of the bones from the meat, there were a few left, I discovered, but it was quite tasty. The mountain gobo is a white starchy root that, similar to carrot, became kind of mushy after two hours of cooking and thickened the soup. The Job's Tears seeds, according to my research on the Internet, are used in Chinese medicine, the seeds strengthen the spleen and counteract "damp heat", and are used for edema, diarrhea, rheumatoid arthritis and difficult urination. They can also be roasted and used as a coffee substitute, or brewed into beer, and can be used as part of a macrobiotic diet. I found them okay, a little crunchy still, which I didn't expect after the long cooking time.

Miracle Soup

This recipe made the round of the women, and some of the men, in the office where I work, I was intrigued, not because I really wanted to lose weight, but whether it was true that you could lose weight with it. According to the recipe information, This soup can be eaten as often and as much as you wish. Whenever you feel hungry, just eat as much soup as possible. This soup produces no calories. The more you eat, the faster you lose weight. It didn't help me, or really anyone at the office, lose weight, really, how could it produce no calories, that would mean that you wouldn't get the nutrition necessary to live, you'd starve to death!, and most of those concerned about the extra pounds, graduated to the next miracle diet, namely the high protein, low carb diet, which, while good for immediate gain, is not good over a long while, it is hard on the body to consume lots of protein. Now, I think this recipe tastes pretty good on its own, a good cabbage soup, so enjoy it for that, at least. If it helps in getting more vegetables in your diet, that's also good.

Miracle Soup
6 large onions
3 cans tomatoes (28 oz.)
1 medium cabbage
2 envelopes onion soup mix
1 celery stalk
2 green peppers
4 carrots
season to taste (salt, pepper, dried herbs in bouquet garni)

Cut vegetables into pieces and then place vegetables into boiling water for one hour. Add soya sauce if you wish.