Tag: soup

Autumn colors spicy soup

The autumn vegetables are all over the place: matsutake, all the mushrooms, sweet potato and kabocha! These little pumpkins are so versatile, it’s really easy to cook them. They are good fried, steamed, boiled, simmered, in tempura, puréed… And in soup with carrots, they are perfect! I’m still largely inspired by that American cooking magazine I bought in Chicago and decided to try to make a spicy-tasty soup for our guests for dinner.  For 4, I used 3 carrots, 1/3 kabocha, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper and salt. I boiled the veggies and blended them with the spices (to your taste) and served. Surper simple, delicious and vegan!

The simplest Japanese dinner!

Sometimes ingredients just come perfectly together at the farmers market and there is nothing else to do than prepare them in the simplest manner. The summer is soon to ginish but not quite yet and fresh little cucumbers are excellent, crispy, juicy and refreshing. The new rice has just been harvested in Isumi and perfectly cooked it’s crazily delicious, slightly softer and more white and transparent than normal rice. Myoga has started to grow here and there in the woods (our neighbor K. San went to pick some just in the hill back our house and you can find plenty at the farmers market) and the taste of fresh myoga just sliced in a simple miso soup is a little astringent. And to finish a piece of fresh wild snapper filet, simply grilled and topping the rice that goes perfectly with K. San’s fresh umeboshi. I’m starving writing this post and dying for an other meal like that!!!!

Corn soup

May be because I come from the south of France, a region where they don’t grow corn, I never been much use to fresh corn. Only when traveling to the US as a teenager did I discover whole corn grilled with butter and salt, and more recently in Japan corn soup. I must say that Japanese do really have something with corn soup. Something that at first kind of refrained me from trying: they sell corn soup or drink in can in self vending machines!!!! Yes, just like water, coke, tea and coffee… But sometimes in cafe and restaurants they serve some real soup and I actually really enjoy its sweetness. It is often added with cream or some bouillon to make it tastier and creamier.

The other day I bought some corns and decided to try to make some. I boiled the corns, then removed the hard parts and blended the soft ones. I added a bit of water until obtaining the consistency I was expecting because it was more of a purée but you can add milk, soy milk, cream… As you like.  And simply served with salt and pepper. It kept the granulous texture of the corn grains skin which I kind a like bit makes the soup rather rustic, so for a more elegant soup I recommend to filter it. Enjoy warm or cold!

Summer vegetable soup

The summer is chilly so far and the rainy season is surprisingly not yet finished. It is very nice to eat a warm dinner at night and summer vegetables soup is always a good pick. Ready in less than 15min, full of delicious vegetables, warm and tasty with infinite variety, it is really easy to prepare. For the bouillon I use a veggie bouillon base when I don’t cook leek or onion. As for the veggies: whatever I find at the farmers market. This time green beans, flat beans and tomatoes. While the bouillon is heating up I wash and prepare the beans, cut them in small pieces and add them to the bouillon. I also add the tomato (peeled) cut in two halves. When it is boiling I add some optional little pasta (here Sicilian little soup pasta) and cook until the pasta are ready: about 11min. Serve directly and add for those who like, some gratted parmegiano. That’s it!

Salmon soup

With the leftovers of the salmon filet and the Swiss chard I prepared a soup for our dinner tonight. Simply by boiling some little pasta (some Sicilian pasta for soup I had left from our trip to Italy last December) in salted water and adding the cooked fish and Swiss chard 3minutes before serving. Added olive oil and black pepper and served hot.

Bamboo shoot in red miso soup

Spring means greens, but also fresh bamboo shoots. Fresh bamboo is so delicious that I never miss the season and always prepare some. This year I have several ideas of recipe I wanted to try with bamboo shoots, so there might be a dew posts using bamboo shoots. The first one is a red miso soup with simply boiled bamboo shoot sliced and mitsuba. For the dashi I used only katsuobushi. It’s a very simple delicious dish that accomadtes perfectly rice and grilled chicken or grilled fish. 

Radish top soup

Super fresh radish with beautiful green tops call for a simple vegan soup, simply boiling and then blending the tops in water, adding salt pepper and soya milk. Ready and delicious. 

Quinoa soup

What if suddenly the temperature drops again and it feels like winter again?
Nothing as simple as a making a quinoa soup! I’ve spotted the recipe the very first time I was browsing my vegetarian cookbook received for Xmas, and didn’t had a chance to make it before: no quinoa, not the proper veggies, to warm… But last night was perfect. The recipe is extremely simple, and it takes very little time to prepare because quinoa cooks really quick, so that makes a perfect option for days at work. Of course I slightly changed the original recipe because I didn’t have potatoes and i found anyway that potatoes+quinoa was a little to much, so I replaced the potatoes by lotus root. 
For this quinoa soup for a full dinner for 2 you need: 90g of quinoa; 1 tomato; 1 little leek or half onion; a handful of fresh spinach; 2 potatoes or the equivalent of lotus root; salt, pepper.
In a pan heat a bit of oil, chop the onion or the leek and throw them in the pan, add the tomato diced, then the spinach washed and roughly cut and finally the potato or lotus root, cut in big chunks. Finish with the quinoa. add water to cover the whole ingredients and add an other 2cm. Add a bit of salt and pepper, and cook for 20min under cover.
Serve while hot. I thought about adding an egg at the end of the cooking, but then realized that it was already well enough energetic, so finally didn’t.

Saturday alone in Tokyo = soup day

A. had a company outing so I spent part of the week end alone in Tokyo. A cold and grey weekend so I went only for a long walk, did some shopping and took the opportunity to prepare our apartment for the arrival of a new sofa in our living room, just the third one!!! I also add a party with students and former students, but usually I just have one drink a these kind of parties and don’t touch the food. I found it was a perfect time to have a little monodiet for the day and made some super simple fresh veggies soup with one leek and three little carrots diced thinely and only boiled in water (no stock, no broth, nothing) to which I added, for the energy, a few little Sicilian pasta. Just added a bit of thyme and a drop of olive oil. It was both lunch and dinner and After eating out so often it was perfect!!!

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