MINESTRONE SOUP

MINESTRONE SOUP

 

 

 

 

Minestrone is a thick soup from Italy. It  is made with vegetables and pasta or rice. Italian say that there is not a set recipe yet. Ingredients depend on tradition and which vegetable are in season. Minestrone is a very good choose for cold days, very rich and healthy.

When I think about Minestrone soup, an Italian restaurant   comes to my mind which  was  in  Wolverhampton  -England. It was a small restaurant , running by a big, talkative Italian lady. She was a   marvelous  cook. Only lunch was  served .  They did not have many chooses  in the  menu  but all  were special and delicious. Minestrone soup was one of them. After tiring shopping me and  my dear friend( who we lost  two years ago) had lunch there many times. We always enjoyed.

 And then that Italian lady decided to retire and left the restaurant her son, went back to Italy.  Unfortunately after her  leaving, food was not the same. Her son could not be successful  as much as his mother and the restaurant closed.  All the good memories of my friend and the restaurant are still with me.


 

 

INGREDIENTS
2  tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, diced
2 celery sticks, sliced
2 medium potatoes, diced
2 zucchinis, chopped
150 g- 5 oz green beans, cut into short lengths
250g-8 oz  cabbage, shredded
2 cups chicken stock- broth
2 cups water
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 can 400g- 14 oz, diced tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato puree-paste
1 can 300g-10 oz  cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp. chopped parsley
1 tsp oregano
1 bay leave
1 cup small  pasta
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp. grated Parmesan chees

      Herbs are from my garden.















Top and tail beans and chop into small pieces, shred cabbage. Chop onions .  Slice celery stick. Peel and diced potatoes , zucchinis and carrots.
Heat the oil in a deep pan, add onion and garlic , cook until they are golden brown. Add carrots and celery stick, beans, zucchinis , cabbage, oregano and bay leave. Stir in water , chicken stock , tomato puree and tomatoes . Season with salt and pepper.  Bring to boil reduce heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes. Add pasta and cannellini beans cook further 15 minus or until soup is thick, vegetables are cooked and pasta is tender. Add parsley. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

POTATO SOUP

POTATO SOUP

 

 I like soups,specially at cold winter days.  This is  a classic and very easy  soup but delightful.

 

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS

500g potatoes, peeled and roughly sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

1 medium celery root - celeriac, peeled and  roughly sliced

1 cup chicken stock

300ml milk

1/2 sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

750ml water

 

FOR SAUCE

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon chili

1 teaspoon dry mint

 

 

Peel potatoes and celery root, cut into slice, slice onion. Place all vegetable into a deep pan. Add 750ml water. Bring to boil and simmer 25 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Mash with hand blender until smooth .  Add chicken stock , milk and salt. Bring to boil 10 minutes if it is too thick add more milk. And then add sour cream.

For sauce melt butter add chili and dry mint. Pour over  just before serve the soup.

 

 

 

 

 







 

MANTI-RAVIOLI AND CHICPEA SOUP

  

  

 

      MANTI (RAVIOLI)

 AND

 CHICPEA

SOUP

 

    

 

 

 

                 This soup is a warmy and very filling soup from Anatolia-Turkey. There are many different variations from different regions. Main ingredients in this soup is manti-ravioli-dumpling . Manti is a kind of dumpling-ravioli which is popular in Asia and Anatolia-Turkey.

Manti consist of ground  meat  in a dough wrapper; either boiled or steamed.

In Turkey it has been eaten boiled (some kind  bakes before boil), and serve with crush garlic mix yogurt, and on top red pepper and butter sauce.

 

INGREDIENTS

1 cup manti or ground beef ravioli

1 cup chickpeas, cooked

2 cups chicken stock

2 cups hot water

2 tablespoon tomato puree

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon dry mint

 

Optional

1 cup yogurt

1 tablespoon flour

 

On top

2 tablespoon butter, melted

1 teaspoon chili powder

 

Pour stock and water into a deep pan. Add tomato puree and salt. Bring to boil, add chickpeas. Simmer 10-15 minutes .Add manti -ravioli. Boil uncovered 20 minutes or until manti is tender.

Optionally ; mix yogurt and flour in a bowl, add 1 cup  liquid of soup. Pour this mixture into soup slowly , stir and let it boil 5 minutes. 

Melt butter add chili powder.  Pour over the soup.

 

 

 

 

RED LENTİL SOUP

 

 

 

RED LENTIL

SOUP

 

 

 

Lentil soup is one of the classic Turkish dish. This delicious , spicy soup is full of iron . It is low fat and ideal for vegetarians.

People have this soup for breakfast at villages in Turkey. When you are traveling by coach city to city ,  drivers stop off at the small restaurants for eat something and  visit restrooms  in Turkey. All restaurants have lentil soup on their menu.

  Lentil soup is lovely as a winter warmer . I am going to cook it today. Weather is cold and snowing  again. It has been snowing time to time   since January in Istanbul.  It seems it is going to be a long winter. I am not complain . I am  a cold weather person.

INGREDIENTS:

1cup red lentil, washed and drained

1 onion, chopped

5 cups hot water

1 can chicken broth (101/2 oz-300g)

2 tablespoons tomato puree

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon dry mint

PREPARATION:

Place lentil in a large saucepan. Add hot water , chopped onion and tomato puree. Bring to boil, reduce heat. Cook 15min or until lentil is soft. Blend or  process  lentil until  smooth. Add chicken broth if it needs add more hot water. Bring to the boil 4-5 min.

Melt butter add chili and dry mint. Pour over the soup. Serve with croutons .

COOK'S TIP

1 medium potato, cubed

1 medium root celery (celeriac), cubed

1 medium carrot, cubed

1 teaspoon ground cumin

Add potato and root celery and carrot when you are cooking lentil. They will give more taste to your soup.

LENTIL AND PASTA SOUP

                                            LENTIL AND PASTA
                                    SOUP

Today is a very dark and windy day in Istanbul. Winter is at our door. I live in one of Istanbul suburbs. I feel myself lucky to live here because it has gardens, trees and lot of greens. Everywhere is cover with yellow to red leaves. I love spring and fall.
I guess everybody enjoys eating a delicious bowl of good soup on a day like this.
I learned this recipe is my fathers mother's. She was from middle of Turkey , Burdur. This region is a wheat barn for Turkey. There are many recipes with fresh home made pasta. This recipe is so good with home made pasta if you can't find any you can use pasta.... Another ingredient is yogurt. We use yogurt for cooking lot. If you don't like yogurt you can use lemon juice instead of it.
The name of soup is LENTILS AND PASTA SOUP

INGREDİENTS Serves 6-8
1 cup green lentils
4 cups (1 Lt) water and a can of chicken broth (10 1/2 OZ-300g9)I prefer low salt
OR 5 cups water and 1 chichen broth cube
1 can tomatoes puree (250g)
1/2 cup fresh home made pasta or ricori-rice shaped pasta or any short pasta
1 cup yogurt(150g)
2 table spoon flour
1 garlic clove crashed (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 table spoon butter
1 teaspoon dry mint
1/2 teaspoon paprika or  chili powder



Put the green lentil in a saucepan, cover with hot water and boil 5 minutes. Drain well. Place it in a saucepan add 4cups water and chicken broth and tomato puree and salt. Let it boil and cook 15 minutes until lentil is tender.
Add pasta, cook 10 minutes more or until pasta is cooked. Meanwhile mix well yogurt, flour and garlic in a bowl. Add some hot soup in to it to lukewarm the yogurt. Otherwise yogurt gets set. Pour it very slowly in to the soup. Continue to stirring until it boils.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan add dry mint and paprika. Just before serving pour over the soup.
Other option... if you don't want to use yogurt, Mix 2 table spoon lemon juice, flour , and garlic in a bowl . Add this in to the soup.


As you see this soup has very low fat (just melted butter as a sauce on it) and lot of protein because of lentils and yogurt.
AFIYET OLSUN.....(Bone appetite in Turkish)