Thai-spiced squash soup

Hi everyone,

soup time has arrived with the low temperatures. At least, we don't have any snow in Berlin yet, as in other parts of Germany! At this time of the year, I just like to cuddle up inside with a cozy blanket, a good book and a proper warming soup. I remembered, that a friend of mine made a thai squash soup last year, and I have found a recipe on BBC GoodFood as well. I though I give it a go as I have recently purchased a beautiful butternut squash at the market. As usual, I didn't stick to the recipe, but for anyone interested, here is the link: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775669/thai-pumpkin-soup
I found that the addition of fish sauce gives it just that slightly better thai flavour.

So, ingredients:

• 1 small or half a medium-size butternut squash, peeled and cut into rough chunks
• 1 can of coconut milk
• 500 mL of vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• some chili flakes to taste
• 3 or 4 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped if fresh or shredded if dried
• thai red curry paste (1 tbsp or less)
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp palm or brown sugar
• lime juice

And how I made it:

• place the squash chunks with some vegetable oil in a preheated oven at 175 °C
• bake until soft and slightly browned
• fry the ginger, the chili flakes and the lime leaves in some oil
• add the curry paste, stir and then the squash
• add the stock, followed by the coconut milk 
• simmer for ten minutes on a low heat, so all the flavours can develop
• add the fish sauce and the sugar
• simmer for another 2 mins
• take off the heat and blend everything, the texture should be not to liquidy but smooth, add more stock if needed
• serve into individual bowls and add lime juice to taste

Done!

Carrot & Ginger Soup

Man, it's cold! There is nothing more warming than a spiced soup these days. Here is my favorite winter soup, very simple and very quick, if you don't like ginger, you can replace it with chili or simply leave it out.
Here is what you need:

• 5 large carrots, roughly sliced
• 1 large white onion cut into rough chunks
• 2 cm knob peeled fresh ginger, cut into pieces
• 1 tbsp honey
• 500 mL (or more) vegetable stock
• soured cream for the finish (if wanted), thyme
• black pepper

How to make it:

• soften onions in a little bit of olive oil, add ginger and carrots and cover with a lid
• stir from time to time an fry for ca. 10 mins.
• add the honey, stir through and add stock
• simmer with a closed lid until carrots are soft
• blend until smooth, if needed, add more stock
• just before serving, top each individual portion with a dollop of soured cream and season with thyme and coarse ground black pepper and drizzle over a bit olive oil

Voilà!

Fun with Beetroots - Part 2: Beetroot soup

So, here is the second recipe with beetroots. It was a bit inspired by Borscht, but I didn't want to make such a complicated dish today. I was more thinking of something really quick and simple but warming, especially with nasty weather like this. I still had one cooked beetroot and a couple of potatoes from yesterdays dinner. So, this soup is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

• one cooked beetroot (medium size, two small ones otherwise)
• 2 boiled potatoes
• 1 leek, trimmed, only the white part
• 500 ml beef stock
• 100 ml cream
• 2 tbsp soured cream
• pepper

And how I made it:

• cut the beetroot and the potatoes into small chunks
• simmer in the stock for 15 mins, until soft
• now, blend everything (be careful with splashes, otherwise everything gets a nice pink colour!)
• with the cream, there are two options - easy one is, just add and stir through, second one is whip the cream and then add carefully to the soup, gives a lighter texture, more like a foam
• before serving add soured cream and pepper

That's it - simple as that. Believe me, the soup has a vivid pink colour, but the picture won't bring it out (due to the bad light from outside....)

Tom Yam Gai

So, some of you might know, that I am quite fond of Thai cuisine. Here is a warming and simple soup that is a standard in Thai kitchens and sold on the streets. There are many different versions of this and I am sure there might be better ones, but, this recipe works well for me.





Ingredients:

• 1 chicken breast (without skin)
• 1 L of chicken stock
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 2 stalks of lemongrass, cut into 2 cm long pieces and smashed with the knife to release the flavour
• 1 red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 Kaffir-lime leaves, fresh (frozen) or dried, both will do
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp of fish sauce
• 1 Tbsp of palm sugar (or really any sugar)
• juice of 1 lime (is sometimes use more, depends on the lime)
• fresh coriander

And here is how it goes:

• boil chicken in stock for 10-15 mins
• take out and add spring onions, lemongrass, lime leaves, garlic and chili to the stock and simmer for another 10 mins
• meanwhile, cut the chicken into thin slices
• add the chicken again, together with fish sauce and sugar (here it is really up to your taste how much you use), simmer for 5 mins
• turn the heat off and add lime juice, followed by chopped coriander (if you don't like coriander, try thai basil or even flatleave parsley)
• eat while piping hot, otherwise it isn't as tasty

I get most ingredients in an Asia shop, in UK I used to get most of the things from the supermarket, hence, it was a bit easier. I think everyone has to play around a bit with the ingredients, sometimes I also add mushrooms or sprouts. It is a hot&sour soup and how much of both really depends on your own tastebuds.

Also, I will put a picture up next time I make the soup, which is happening often enough during winter ;-)

Enjoy!