Vegetable Broth

Got vegetables which are almost  'on their way out' or veggie scraps lying around in your kitchen? I have an idea may be its an old idea but its a good idea, so I thought I would share it with you all. I keep a zip-lock bag in freezer and keep adding the veggie odds and ends to it. Once the bag is full, its vegetable broth time!

Homemade vegetable broth is not only flavorful but very nutritious and much cheaper than the store bought one. It can used as a base for soups, gravies and rice recipes. Make a large portion of broth, cool completely and store it in freezer for later use.

INGREDIENTS

•  1tbsp oil
• 1  cup of onion, tomato and carrot each.(you can add other veggies like beans,cabbage,potato)
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 6 cups of water
• 3 Garlic cloves
• 2 bay leaves
• peppercorn - to taste
• salt - to taste

METHOD

Heat a large pot, add oil and garlic cloves, bay leaves and peppercorns. Add in all the vegetables, salt and allow it to cook for 5-6 min. Add in water & cover, increase the flame to high and wait for it to boil. Once it boils reduce the heat, cover and simmer for at least 45 min.Turn the heat off and allow it to cool completely. Strain the stock/broth from the vegetables and remove the bay leaves. Store in refrigerator then freeze it for later use.

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Spicy Vegetable Sweet Corn Soup

I enjoy a cup of sweet corn soup at the Indo-Chinese restaurant, so I have posted my version with a little bit of spices. I do this soup often for my hubby as he likes to try different kinds of soups. This recipe is not complicated and it’s very easy to make. I think everyone will like a warm cup of soup in this cold weather . Kids usually don’t like vegetables but they would love this healthy soup. Now let’s go to the preparation.

                                             Serves: 4
                                      Prep Time: 4 mins 
                                Cooking Time: 25 mins 

Ingredients

Sweet corn	3 cups
Onion (fine chopped)	1 medium
Tomato (fine chopped)	1 small
Cabbage (fine chopped)	1 cup
Carrot (cut into small cubes)	1 cup
Frozen peas	½ cup
Zucchini (cut into small cubes)	1 cup
Corn flour	1 tsp
Lemon	1/2
Green chilies (fine chopped)	2 nos
Cilantro (fine chopped)	2 tbsp
Pepper powder	½ tsp
Salt	As needed

To Temper

Oil	2 tsp
Bay Leaf	1 no
Cloves	2 nos
Cinnamon	1 inch
Fennel Seeds	½ tsp
Whole Pepper	1 tsp

Preparation

•  Soak the frozen sweet corn in hot water for a 5-10 mins , then divide the sweet corn into two halves. 
• Grind the first half of the sweet corn (approximately 2 cups) with little water to extract juice out of it and use the rest of the sweet corn (approximately 1 cup) to the soup. 
• Mix corn flour with little water and keep it aside to mix it with the soup at last to give a thick texture.

Method

• In a pan heat oil, now add bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds and whole pepper, and then when it starts to split add onion, fry until it turns  transparent or pink color.
• Now add the chopped tomatoes, add little salt so that it gets mashed. After tomatoes are cooked, add all the vegetables and a pinch of salt.
• Once the vegetables are cooked, add green chilies, extracted sweet corn juice and cook in the medium heat for 5-6 mins.

• Add little salt, pepper powder and corn flour mixture to the cooked vegetables and allow it to boil for 5 mins.
• When the soup starts to boil , add lemon juice and put off the heat.
• Now hot and healthy sweet corn vegetable soup is ready to serve. While serving add croutons to the soup as it gives a nice flavor and taste.

Tips

• Green chili gives a different flavor to the soup, if you don’t want it can be omitted. 
• I added vegetables like cabbage, carrot, frozen peas, zucchini but you can also add beans, cauliflower, broccoli. 
• You can have this soup as appetizer for lunch and dinner along with toasted bread.
• Zucchini is a low calorie vegetable which is a good source of vitamin A, folate and potassium. The other name for zucchini is summer squash. You can also add yellow zucchini to this soup.