simple soup Archives ⋆ Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby

Simple Vegetable Soup- Steamboat in a bowl?

Chris-budgetpantry — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 15:12:48 +0000

Everyone has a dish that he or she takes for granted. It could be Mom’s fried egg with dark sauce, porridge with light soy sauce, or even instant noodles with egg. This is it for me- Vegetable Soup- something that I’ve always taken for granted.

It is a dish when I need a break from cooking but still need to eat. It is a dish I cook when my brain cells are fried and can’t conjure up anything new. It is a dish I cook when I need to feed my family more vegetables! You can vary the ingredients and add pork slices, prawns, squid, abalone (!).. in which case it won’t be “Simple Vegetable Soup” anymore but “Steamboat in a bowl”!

This soup very versatile ok?

Simple Vegetable Soup
Serves: 4
Total cost: $3.75
Total cost per serving: $0.95

What I used:
Base Ingredients:

1 carrot, peeled and chopped into chunks
1 corn, chopped into 5-6 pieces
1 medium tomato, wedged
1 red onion, wedged
A handful of cabbage stems (the white part of WaWa Cabbage-‘Napa Cabbage’, Chinese Cabbage, or Beijing Cabbage)
2 celery stalks (optional. I only remembered about them later on so that explains the late addition below!)
Enough water to cover all vegetables

Assorted Ingredients (up to you, really):

Crabsticks
Fishballs
Meatballs
Cheese tofu
Napa cabbage leaves
Xiao Bai Cai

Seasonings:
1 tablespoon Woh Hup Concentrated Chicken Stock
Pepper
Half tablespoon Mushroom seasoning:

Steps:
1. Place “Base Ingredients” in a large pot or pan and cover with enough water.
2. Let it boil, then lower the flame and add “Assorted Ingredients” except the vegetables and crabsticks. Simmer for 15 minutes.
3. Add in vegetables and crabsticks, cook for 30 seconds, stir in seasonings, do a taste test and off the flame. Enjoy!

How much I spent:
$0.30 for carrot
$0.45 for corn
$0.30 for tomato
$0.20 for onion
Approx $2.50 for assorted ingredients
Everything else from my pantry

The best part of this soup is that you can vary the assorted ingredients depending on what you have in the fridge. If you have some garlic, peel and crush them lightly before adding them whole together with the base ingredients. You can also throw in some noodles or bean vermicelli. This is an easy way to add a dish to your dinner table and definitely my favourite way to eat vegetables!

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Salted Vegetables Tofu Soup with Chicken

Chris-budgetpantry — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 05:23:22 +0000

I love cooking a simple soup for lunch where we don’t usually have a full meal. Funny how for most families, dinner is always the highlight meal of the day, when we supposedly should eat “like a pauper”. Nobody eats like a pauper during dinner and like a king at breakfast ok? That is just another fairytale.

So last week I was thinking of an easy soup to cook which will not take up too much time. I was wandering around Giant looking for inspiration (I know right?!) and saw some salted vegetables along with other preserved stuff near the fruits and vegetables section. I’ve not cooked salted vegetable soup for awhile (erm a few years is more like it!) and thought it’ll be something new for my family. When buying salted vegetables, choose stems instead of leaves if you can as they lend a nice crunch and are more suitable for soups.

Makes 4 servings

What I used:

1 box tofu, cut into cubes (I like to choose the one that says “Good for Steamboat”)
1 piece salted vegetable stem, about the size of your hand (not palm)
8 shrimps
2 strips chicken fillet, sliced
2 tomatoes, wedged
1 carrot, peeled and chopped into half circles
1 piece ginger, about half an inch thick
2 litres water
1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
A dash of white pepper
Coriander

1. Soak the whole piece of salted vegetable in water for 30 minutes then discard water. Chop into approx. 1-inch pieces.
2. Add the salted vegetables, tomatoes, carrot, ginger to a pot and add water. Bring to boil then simmer 10 minutes.
3. Add in the tofu, chicken, shrimp and Chinese cooking wine. Simmer for 5 minutes til chicken and shrimp are cooked.
4. Add a dash of pepper and garnish with coriander before serving.

How much I spent:

$0.75 for tofu
$0.30 for salted vegetables
$2 for shrimp and chicken
$0.50 for tomatoes
$0.30 for carrot
Everything else from my pantry!

Total cost per serving: $0.97

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This clear soup is very “cheng” and is almost guilt free. Although I have rinsed the salted vegetables, I still make it a point not to finish up the soup as it can still be salty. And instead of chicken, you can choose to add pork balls or sliced fish- they cook just as fast. If you’re in the mood for some pork ribs, I suggest you keep them for some lotus root pork rib soup which you can cook in your slow cooker instead of boiling on the stove top. I’ll be making this soup tomorrow as I have some lotus root to use up. Stay around!

The post Salted Vegetables Tofu Soup with Chicken appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

ABC Soup with Chicken

Chris-budgetpantry — Tue, 02 Jul 2013 13:51:09 +0000

updated 10/11/2014 with better pictures. You can leave out the vegetables cos they are not traditionally in ABC soup. But I was in a leafy vegetables kinda mood today.

Why is this called ABC Soup? Because it is unbelievably easy to prepare, that’s why! <-- this is my version of the reason. Some people say it is because of the vitamins in the soup, and I've read someone say it is because A for Ang Mo Kio ("tomato" in Hokkien), B for Bawang ("onion" in Malay) and C for Corn. Hilarious! Anyways. This soup usually has got pork ribs in it but since I have no pork ribs, I have made this without it. The soup is sweet and still bodied (if there's pork ribs then it would be erm full-bodied but this version's just "bodied"), with my favouritest ingredient in the world- THE ONION. Really, if there is one ingredient I can't live without, then it's gonna be THE ONION. It's such an amazing thing, it's gonna be a blockbuster movie.

ABC Soup with Chicken
Makes 4 servings
Total cost per serving: $0.53

What I used:
1 honey date
1 medium potato, cut into 1-inch chucks
Half a carrot* (see foot note), cut into chucks too
Half a corn* (see foot note), I HATE CHOPPING CORN
1 large onion, cut into chucks
2 teaspoon Who Hup concentrated chicken stock
1.5 litres water
Chicken fillet (cut into bite sized) or minced meatballs, whatever tickles your fancy
A dash of white pepper
Some vegetables if you’d like

Steps:
1. Place honey date, potato, carrot, corn and onion into a large pot with 1.5 litres of water.
2. When it boils, reduce heat and simmer for 30 mins. Add concentrated chicken stock.
3. Add chicken fillet/minced meatballs, cook for 2 mins, add vegetables, then it is ready. Add a dash of white pepper before serving.

How much I spent:
$0.30 for potato
$0.20 for carrots
$0.30 for corn
$1.20 for chicken fillet

Everything else from my pantry

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I served this with shanghai greens and curry pork as part of a Chinese meal. This is such a comforting, fulfilling and familiar soup. Best for cold, rainy nights. I could just have this with a bowl of rice, or without, since I now don’t eat rice, but you get the idea.

*By the way, I used half a carrot and half a corn only because I chose a pot that’s too small. Your ABC Soup will not become XYZ Soup because of how much carrot and corn you put in. Please, I’m not forcing you not to use your carrot and corn so cook as you please. Not only does cooking fill your tummy, it also teaches you life skills- you adjust and adapt to circumstances (big pot or small)!

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