Dulse seaweed. Use one strand and cut into small pieces.
Carrots, cut in julienne strips
Potatoes, diced in small chunks onion, diced in small pieces other vegetables as desired.
Please seaweed and vegetables in 4-6 cups of water. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Dulse is a purple seaweed with lots of iron. Putting seaweed in soups provides lot of minerals.
Mix 1-2 tbs of miso (light or dark) in 3/4 cup of water. Mix well. Then add to soup and heat until desired temperature. Do not boil miso since it will kill healthy bacteria. Miso has lots of minerals and healthy bacteria, so this is very good for someone who is sick.
A more simple soup to serve with Japanese dishes, is to make a stock with the seaweed only, and then to stir in light miso that has been mixed with water. Serve with chopped scallions, and a few pieces of small cubed tofu.
1 onion finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic pressed through a garlic press
1-2 tsp of basil (this is a great spice to put in anything)
1 tsp oregano (always essential for Italian dishes)
3 tbs olive oil (another essential for Italian dishes)
pepper and salt to taste
1-2 celery stalks chopped finely
Sauté spices slowly and gently in oil. (If you get the oil too hot the garlic will burn, and this tastes terrible). When onion is translucent add additional following ingredients and simmer 1-2 hours.
1 large can of peeled tomatoes, put through blender. (Supposedly using tomatoes instead of tomato paste or tomato sauce, makes the sauce sweeter. Adding half a small can of tomato paste will make a thicker soup, though.)
1-2 carrots chopped and diced
2-3 potatoes diced
3/4 cup green beans chopped in small pieces
1 can of small white beans, drained
Cover liberally with water and simmer, until it gets to the desired consistency. Serve with parmesan or grated cheese, foccacia and a salad. I have been told or read that traditional minestrone does not have meat or meat stock, but I’ve have also been told the opposite, so who knows? The Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas, is one of the best vegetarian cookbooks I know, and she teaches you to make soups or sauces by sautéing the onions, garlic and spices in the oil before adding tomato sauce or water. Experiment with this technique to see if it works.
3/4 cup lentils or split peas for dahl
1/4 cup of barley
1 large can of peeled tomatoes blended
1 onion diced finely
2-3 carrots chopped in small pieces
pepper, basil and salt to taste
Cover generously with water and simmer 1-2 hours. If you want to put an East Indian flavor to it, try this before you add all the ingredients. You can heat 3 tbs of oil, and when hot drop in 1-2 tsp cumin seed or cumin power (if you can't find seed), 1 tsp of tumeric, a pinch of cayenne and a pinch of cinnamon. Let the spices sizzle a minute and then pour into the soup and mix in. Serve with biscuits. Basically you are making a masala. In real Indian cooking, you don’t use curry power, you make your own by mixing the spices and heating them in the oil. If you use this approach you are basically making a dahl, which is the protein source in Indian food. When you combine a legume like lentils or split peas with a grain like rice, then you are getting the 8 essential amino acids in protein that humans need.
This is a fall and winter favorite
2 tbs safflower oil
1/2 tsp cayenne (more or less depending on how hot you want it)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 onion finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press
1 tsp cumin
1 1/2 cup of pintos (pressured cooked for 40-50 minutes) or can of pintos drained
1 large can of peeled tomatoes blended
1 large can of hominy drained
1 can of diced green chilies drained
water to make thin consistency so that it can be cooked down
Sauté spices, garlic and onion in oil. When onion is translucent, add remainder of ingredients and simmer until soup consistency (i.e. 30 minutes). Serve with grated cheese and tortillas.