Tag Archives: Soup

Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

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Hot and spicy, tangy soup with wonderful garlic and ginger infusion making this soup a wonderful accompaniment to any Chinese meal

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients:

450 ml boiling water
1 vegetarian stock cube
240 grams / 8 oz mixed vegetables, carrots, beans, peas, sweet corn finely diced
2 small button mushrooms finely diced
One handful bean sprouts
60g/2 oz finely shredded white cabbage
1/2 teaspoon garlic paste
1/2 teaspoon ginger paste
60 g / 2 oz uncooked noodles
1 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon garlic chilli sauce
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 red chilli finely sliced
2 spring onions thinly sliced on the slant
1 teaspoon cornflour

Method:

1. In a jug add the boiling water and add the stock cube to it. Stir until dissolved.

2. In a pan add the olive oil, when it is hot add the garlic and ginger and sauté until raw taste is gone.

3. Add all the vegetables except the bean sprouts and mushrooms and sauté for 3-4 minutes.

4. Add the vegetable stock and simmer the soup for 5 minutes until vegetables are almost tender.

5. Add the diced mushrooms, bean sprouts and the noodles, simmer the soup for a further 3 minutes until noodles are almost cooked.

6. Mix the cornflour with 2 tablespoons water to make a paste, add this to the soup and simmer for 2 more minutes.

7. Add the salt, soya sauce, chilli sauce and the white wine vinegar. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

8. Transfer to serving bowls and garnish with sliced chillies and spring onions.

Serve hot.

Soup – A Miracle for Fat Loss

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Fiona Kirk_Fat in the City_HeaderSome people tell me they don’t like soup. I say ‘what’s not to love?’ I call it a ‘miracle in a bowl’ for a host of very good reasons and spend copious hours endeavouring to convince non-believers!

My closest friend (and soup supremo), Jean Barr and I have been on a mission for many years to bring soup into everyone’s lives because we believe that once you become a soupaholic, you remain a soupaholic!

I have been devising diets for more years than I care to count and writing articles and books on the subject of fat loss. Anyone who is familiar with my scribblings will know that soup always plays a major role in my recommendations for waistline-whittling. Copious studies plus my personal experience with dieters reveal that when we are trying to follow any kind of prescriptive weight loss programme religiously, the usual stumbling blocks are hunger, cravings and feelings of deprivation which can make it horribly-hard to ‘stick it’ for long. Regular soup-supping can seriously remove those frustrations. Why?

  • Soup targets fat loss fast and cuts calories.
  • Soup fills you up and controls hunger and cravings.
  • Soup is quick, nutritious and cheap.
  • Soup reduces water retention and boosts metabolism.
  • Soups feeds bones, brain, skin and hormones.
  • Soup promotes good blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
  • Soup controls inflammation and fights viruses.

Having just a handful of soup recipes up your sleeve which you can quickly throw together or make in bulk and freeze in portions to grab and go or sup when hunger and cravings invade are nothing short of a ‘fat loss saviour’ and worth their nutritional weight in gold.

For all the above reasons, we devised our Soup Can Make You Thin diet; a 10 day flab-fighting diet, in a bid to encourage dieters to get the apron on and the blender out and make soup. Such has been the enthusiasm for both the diet and Jean’s recipes that we have now been goaded/badgered/encouraged to produce a full colour cookbook with lots more SuperSkinny, Skinny and FatBustForever soup recipes with, we hope, something for every soup fan out there!

I make no excuse for encouraging you to have a look at our books because we want you to embrace ‘the power of soup’ for fat loss but also through our website, we encourage you to seek out other inspirational soup food bloggers, soup sites and soup cookbooks whose passions we share.

NB: Slim people eat soup, slim people make soup, slim people regularly choose soup over other meal and snack choices. Why? Because there is nothing like a bowl of soup to nourish, energise, fill you up, create that warm, fuzzy feeling and keep you lean. It is simply the best way of getting maximum nourishment into a fairly small and convenient space and there are so many ways of doing it that you can eat soup daily and shed pounds fast without diet boredom ever being an issue.

Have a look at our soup website, www.souperydupery.com and don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with us through our soup forum or sign up to our newsletter. We look forward to hearing from you……..

Carrot & Coriander Soup

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My New Year’s resolution this year is to have more leisure time for myself and therefore,  I am hoping that most of the food I cook will be quick and easy to make without losing any of the taste.   Here’s my first quick and easy dish for this year.

It’s winter time in UK so it’s nice to be able to cook something warm and tasty that everyone can enjoy.   This dish is lovely to have on it’s own as a lunchtime snack or can even be served as a starter with some lovely garlic rolls – a recipe I hope to post for you next week.

Ingredients for 4 Servings:
Cooking time 30 minutes

2 tablespoons of melted butter
5-6 medium sized carrots
1 mediumonion
3-4 cloves of Garlic
1 litre of vegetable stock ( I used a Knorr cube)
3 tablespoons of rice ( I used American easy to cook rice)
Small bunch of fresh coriander
2-3 tablespoons of cream or fresh yogurt (I used Yogurt)

 

Method

1. Wash and soak the rice in cold water whilst you prepare the vegetables.

2. Wash and peel the carrots and chop or grate them.

3. Chop or grate the onions and garlic too.

4. Melt butter and add the garlic to it. (I love the smell of butter and garlic cooking!!)

5. Add the carrots, onions, coriander and stir.

6. Add boiling water to the vegetable stock and add to the carrots.

7. Drain and add the rice.

8. Cover and cook for 20 minutes on a medium heat.

9. The soup should now be cooked. Add the fresh coriander.

10. Using a food processor, blend the soup. As this soup has cooked rice, it makes the soup rich and creamy.

11. If the soup feels too thick, you can add half a cup boiling water.

12. Just before serving, you can add cream, yogurt or butter if you like. I added some fresh yogurt and it tasted great.

13. The carrots I had were bought from the local farmer’s market and were really sweet and juicy so did not need much garnishing. However, you can add salt and pepper or even chilly flakes to the soup depending on your preference.

Pumpkin and Apple Soup

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A quick and easy heart warming winter soup with a fruity tasty. Sweetness from the pumpkin, balanced by the tartness from the apple balances the flavour of this soup beautifully.

Preparation time-10 minutes
Cooking Time-20 minutes
Serves- 4

Ingredients:

400 grams pumpkin peeled and diced.
2 cups water
1 granny smith apple (need apples that are slightly sharp in taste)
½ teaspoon white pepper powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon sugar.

Method:

1. Place the diced pumpkin in heat proof dish, add 1 cup water cover and microwave for 8-10 minutes till pumpkin is tender and cooked. (Alternatively you can cook pumpkin on stove top with required water. )
2. Peel and grate the apple and toss in lemon juice to stop it discolouring.
3. Put the cooked pumpkin and the grated apple into a blender and puree to desired consistency.
4. Transfer the apple and pumpkin puree to a sauce pan and add the second cup of water and heat the soup through. (Adjust the soup by adding more or less water to get the desired consistency)
5. Add the salt, pepper and sugar. Stir and simmer for 3-5 minutes.
Serve hot with fresh bread.

NB. A spoonful of cream can be stirred in just before serving for a richer creamier taste.

Tomato and Carrot Soup

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A fast and speedy soup that is hearty and delicious . 

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes.
Serves: 2

Ingredients:

2 medium carrots diced          
8 tomatoes diced
1 potato diced
2 cups water  
1 bay Leaf                        
1/2 teaspoon black pepper.       
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar.

Method:

1. In a microwaveable bowl add the bay leaf, potatoes and carrots  with 1 cup of water and microwave on high for 5 minutes untilvegetables  fully cooked .
2. Blend the tomatoes in a blender jug and puree them. Strain to remove skin and seeds and pour into a saucepan and add 1 cup water, simmer on medium heat.
3.Once vegetables are cooked remove the bay leaf  and add them to the simmering tomato puree.
4. Add more water to get desired consistency. Add the salt, pepper and sugar.Taste and adjust seasoning as required. Simmer for 5  more minutes.
5. You can either puree the soup in a blender jug to make it smooth  or leave it chunky .

To Serve:
Garnish with a drizzle of fresh cream and serve hot with fresh bread.