When you have a variety of vegetables bursting with colour on your plate, you know that there is a load of nutrition going down. Essentially, eating simple is key, as well as choosing foods that are in themselves the source of everything you need to have energy, a good mood and a healthy feeling about life.
Think about it this way. Vegetables for the most part are there for you in the supermarket, ready to be eaten. There is seldom a reason for them to be sorted and pre-packaged. They are already wrapped by nature, most of them having edible skins that store within excellent sources of protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals and water. Vegetables are cheaper than most everything else on the supermarket aisles and preparing them for a meal is pretty much straight forward. It is nice to know that you can make the choice to eat something that is not more than a couple of days old, hu-hum: vegetables, they what they are fresh. This is mostly not what is sitting in colourful, packaged, and processed supermarket food aisles, just beside the vegetable department.
This curry coconut milk vegetable soup can be made in the flare of the moment. I used the veg that I had in the fridge. You can vary to what you have or what inspires you in the market.
Curry coconut vegetable soup
Ingredients
2 small to medium courgettes, cut lengthwise in half, then quarters and sliced diagonally
2 sweet red peppers cut into medium to large chunks
1 bunch of medium carrots, or 2 large carrots thinly sliced diagonally
8 ripe cherry tomatoes cut in halves
4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
3-4 cm long piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 green onions sliced diagonally, keep the white parts and the green parts separate
5 sun-dried tomatoes thinly sliced
2 loose handfuls of spinach
2 tsp of turmeric
3 tsp of cumin
6 cardamom pods finely ground
1 big pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
2 big pinches of sea salt
10 fresh basil leaves
1 tin of coconut milk
2-3 Tbsp of coconut oil or olive oil
Method
Clean, cut and prepare all of the ingredients. Warm a large skillet or wok evenly over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the oil and start by cooking the garlic and ginger, swirling it around frequently for about 2 minutes. Add the peppers and carrot and cook, swirling often, for another 5-7 minutes. Add the curry spices: turmeric, cumin, cardamom, cayenne pepper and salt and again swirl around to make sure they coat everything that is already in the pan. Add the coconut milk, the white part of the green onions and the sun-dried tomatoes. Bring the soup to a delicate simmer for 5 minutes before adding the courgette and the tomatoes. Let the soup simmer for another 5 minutes and then fold in the whole spinach leaves. The leaves will wilt quickly, so make sure to turn the heat off as soon as they look bright deep dark green. This takes only a couple of minutes.
Serve into bowls and garnish with basil leaves, the sliced greens of the green onions and roasted nuts if you have some available.
I added a couple of spoonfuls of white and red quinoa to this soup. You can also try it with rice, couscous or potatoes, they all work very well.
Herd & Ofen 