Family Recipe

Well its not exactly a family recipe but today my mums side of the family had a catchup because one of my American cousins and 3 of her friends had come to Sydney for a visit.  We all said that we would bring a plate of food and when I woke in the morning I had no idea what to make, so I took down a pot of vege soup.  I was a bit nervous about how it would be received but everyone asked me for the recipe, a few of them even reminding me as we were leaving ... so I don't think they were just being polite *grin*

This could be one of the most random blog posts I have done so far, but as I was facebooking the recipe to my cousins I was also thinking about what I could blog about tonight and figured I could kill 2 birds with one stone and what the heck, a few of you might actually like it xx

Here is the recipe for todays soup to the best of my ability xx

Ingredients;

1 tbs Olive Oil
1 tsp minced Ginger
2 tsp Garlic
1 can Tinned Tomatoes
2 tsp Cumin Ground
2 tsp Coriander Ground
1 tsp Ground Fennel (optional)
1 tsp Tumeric
1 tsp Ginger Ground (optional, can use more fresh)
4 liters Chicken Stock
2 cups water
1/2 a Butternut Pumpkin cubed
1 medium Sweet Potato cubed
4 small Potatoes cubed
1 bunch Silverbeet/spinach shredded
1/2 bunch fresh parsley 


Instructions;

• Heat oil in the pot, add ginger, garlic, ground cumin, ground coriander, fennel, and tumeric.
• Lightly cook so that the flavours release.
• Add tomatoes, and cook them off a bit then add the stock.
• Chop, pumpkin, sweet potato, and potatos, bring to the boil and then simmer until the veges are cooked.
• Once they are soft add the silverbeet and parsley and cook until it all looks cooked, at this point if the soup is looking like it needs more water add enough to make it look more like a soup and less like a casserole and bring to boil and season to taste, eat as is or blend until smoothish. Serve with sour cream
  

Note; I put in whatever is in the fridge its become my ... 'what's in the fridge that if i don't use in the next few days I'm going to have to chuck out' soup. So you can also add/substitute;

Carrots
Zucchini
Broccoli
Fresh Tomato
Onion
Fresh Coriander
Natural Yogurt (instead of sour cream)
1/2 a packet of split peas/lentils/brown rice (need more water) to make it more filling but it makes the soup much thicker.
Rocket instead of silverbeet (nice if you add it at the end and let it be just wilted and not blended in)
Cube Chicken breast (just make sure you put it in before the vege and let it boil for about 5 minutes)
Use Vege stock, or just add 4 liters of water, season with salt and pepper and add some Italian herbs/dried oregano/basil/thyme.

The reason its hard to give you a specific recipe is that with the spices i really just do them to taste so if i taste it 1/2 way through and i feel its a bit boring i add more. I've really guessed with those measurements because i just use the end of a spoon to get them out .... 

Enjoy xx