Hot & Sour Soup

A hectic Saturday finishing up chores, bank work, grocery and veggie shopping, dealing with carpenters who don't have a clue what they are supposed to do.......all this in the morning half. Spending time with my daughter, making lunch and attending a kiddie birthday party(thankfully just upstairs and all friends around) was the second half. We were tired and also stuffed on the delicious snacks at the birthday party, so didn't really want a full meal for dinner.

Soup sounded like just the ticket for the evening and I was in the mood for something really tongue tickling, but a clear soup since I didn't want it to be too heavy. What followed was my "look at what's in the 'fridge, throw most of them into a pot and let's see what happens" kind of cooking!
The clear soup condition meant that it was going to be Oriental so that pretty much led me to where I was going. Mixed veggies, minced garlic and chopped ginger (so hubby can take them out if he wants to), stock cubes, lemon juice and fragrant Gandhraj lemon leaves - and within 15 minutes we had ourselves steaming bowls of absolutely refreshing and filling soup. Not to mention tangy and tongue tickling!
You can add shredded boneless chicken pieces if you want, or shrimps or even tofu cubes; lemon grass is a great addition too instead of the Gandhraj lemon leaves. Home made vegetable stock or chicken stock and a dash of thai chilli paste are other ideas.

This post goes to AFAM - Lemon being hosted this month by Simple Indian Food. A Fruit A Month was begun by Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual.

Hot & Sour Soup

1.5 cups mixed vegetables cut into thin long strips (carrots, mushrooms, beans, babycorn, bell peppers)

4 cloves garlic - minced

1 " piece of ginger - chopped big

2 slit green chillies

2 onions sliced (spring onions can be used)

2 soup cubes dissolved in 2 litres of warm water

salt to taste

1 tsp oil

juice of 1 small lemon

2 Gandhraj leaves

1. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add the minced garlic and chopped ginger and saute 1 minute.

2. Add the sliced onions and sliced green chillies and saute till translucent. The chopped vegetables go in next, stir fry on high for 4 minutes.

3. Lower flame and pour in the stock, add salt and bring to boil.

4. Cook covered on a low flame for about 10 minutes, till the vegetables are all just cooked but still retain their colour.

5. Put the Gandhraj leaves in and switch off the flame. Add the lemon juice and serve hot.