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Dear Foodies,

Mixed vegetable & Orzo Soup

This one is an extension of my previous post of Orzo Salad. I was on a mission to use my orzo and so came up with easy ways of doing it. I have never eaten a recipe that uses orzo and was in no mood of searching for few. I was just enjoying the experimentation session !! Even on the night I made this soup I wanted to have something light for dinner that would use up some orzo. It was really cold outside and a warm soup was the only thing on my mind.

I got my pack of Maggi tomato soup and suddenly had this idea of making soup from scratch. I had fresh vegetables that in themselves have a lot of flavor and I did not want to put them in a ready made soup powder. And my inspiration came from Saffron's lovely Minestrone soup.

The only other soup I made from scratch was Saffron Hut's Cream of broccoli soup. And that was when my love affair with broccoli started. The soup beautiful brought out all the flavor in the broccoli and placed it at a level you cannot avoid loving.


Ingredients:

• 1 cup : Orzo/any pasta, cooked
  
• 2 cups: finely diced vegetables, I used carrots, green peppers and tomatoes
  
• 2 Tbsp : Red onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup: Garbanzo beans/chick peas, soaked&cooked till soft or canned
• 2 nos : Garlic cloves, finely chopped
  
• 1/2 tsp : Ginger, finely chopped
• 2-3 Tbsp : Coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp : Coriander powder
  
• Salt n Pepper for seasoning
• Coriander leaves for garnish, I also used carrot leaves.
• 1 Tbsp : Olive Oil

Procedure:

1. Cook the pasta al dente as per the instructions on the pack. I added a little salt and a few drops of olive oil to the water.
2. In a saucepan, heat the olive oil and when hot add the finely chopped ginger and garlic.
3. Add the chopped onions in about 30secs. Saute till translucent and add the green pepper. Cover and cook for a few minutes till the peppers turn a little soft.
4. Next add the tomatoes and carrots, cook covered for 2-3 minutes till the tomatoes loose shape and the carrots get soft.
5. Now I added 1/2 tsp of coriander powder for some extra heat. This addition is upto you. You can add any dry herbs instead.
6. I used fresh tender carrots that came with their leaves and so I added them too. The leaves to had a the nice carroty flavor which I really liked.
7. Once the leaves wilt, add 2 cups of water, coconut milk and salt. Allow it to boil for a few minutes.
8. Add the cooked pasta and coriander leaves and simmer for a few minutes. If you want to thicken it, you can mix a tsp of corn flour/corn starch in cold water and add it now.
9. Season with crushed pepper and taste for salt.

This was one of the best soups I've had. The addition of coconut milk gave it a flavor of Thai food which was yumm. I would strongly recommend this addition when you make minestrone soup or any other veggie soup for that matter. The coconut milk gives a nice rich n creamy texture to the soup. The orzo paired really well with the veggies and was a nice mouthful. I have only now begun to realize how well garlic and coconut pair, and this soup was a strong proof to that. I felt that orzo takes a little longer to cook than regular pasta and so cooked them separately.


I had the soup with half a bun toasted on a pan with some olive oil. This combo was purrrrfect for the cold outside. The warmth from the pepper, ginger and coriander powder paired with the soft veggies was ultra satisfying !

I am sending this soup bowl to Alanna, check her page for more soup ideas !! The cold can never get to you now :-)

Oven Roasted Potatoes

Dear Foodies,

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Since the time I discovered that we had ovens in our kitchens, I have been trying to use it when ever I can. Well, I think I'll have to explain a bit, though its common knowledge to many of you that almost all US kitchens come with a oven by default, me n my roomies never realized that for many months. Through the first year of a our stay, we used it as a rack for storing vessels !!! And I guess it wasn't in working conditions either, and well we weren't in the mood to explore the kitchen while there was a whole new world outside to explore !! :-) Only after we moved to a bigger apt, implying a one bedroom apt with an an extra dining room added to the kitchen-living-bedroom apt we had before, and should I mention 3 gals share it !! :-), did we start using the oven for purposes other than storage !! And need I also mention we were barely cooking the first few months, and trying hard to cook the basic dals and curries that go with rice, so you can imagine that we never found the need to look for a oven in the first place, we were blissfully happy to find a neat storage place though :-D !!

Well, so lately, I have used it for making guiltless chips out of green plantains, bitter gourd and potatoes. When I saw Nabeela's roast potatoes that she made along with her chicken, I wanted to try making it separately too. She also has a separate recipe for it here.

Click on image to enlarge

I used a different mix of spices, I basically added those that I had with me. I cubed 2 potatoes, tossed them in some oil, a mix of olive oil and vegetable oil, roughly 1 tsp of each. Added some salt, red chilli powder, corinder powder and turmeric. I baked them in the oven, pre-heated to 350F, for about 20 mins, then increased the temp to about 400F-450F for another 10-15mins till they turned golden crisp. Instead of being part of our meal, we finished it off as a snack :-P ..hehe

The best part of using the oven for making this dish or the chips is, I found them to stay crisp for a longer time when compared to frying them in oil on a stove-top. This way of cooking also reduces the amount of oil drastically and there are no hassles of bubbling hot oil in the kitchen, just leave them in the oven and peacefully forget about them for awhile !!

I am going to send this platter to Pooja, for her 'Vegetable of the Week' event !!