Tag Archives: soup

Thick lentil soup with pork ribs

One is dreaming about spring and warm days, another like me wants the weather staying cloudy and windy as longer as possible. This soup is not something extraordinary, but it is comforting and hearty. It nourishes and fills you up, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need after a long day at work. I love lentils because they are healthy – contain protein, fiber and vitamins, and easy to prepare – you do not need to soak them for hours.

Aromatic bay leaf and hot chilli flakes make this thick soup brighter! So, wake up your taste buds and start cooking the soup, it’s a great way to warm up your belly and bowl!

If you want this soup to be vegetarian, feel free to omit the meat or try this recipe of red lentil soup (meatless).

Lentil soup with pork ribs, chilli and bay leaf

Thick lentil soup with pork ribs

Servings: 2-3
Time: 1hr30min
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

200g pork ribs, cut into segments

200g beef, but into medium cubes

4-5 black peppercorns, optional

100g brown or green lentils, washed

1 small leek and 1 small red onion, sliced

2 small potatoes, peeled, cubed or sliced

1/2-1 tsp chilli flakes

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 bay leaf

1 medium tomato, chopped

1+1 tbsp olive or other veg oil, for frying

salt, black pepper to taste

small bunch fresh parsley or coriander, chopped, for garnish

Method

In a frying pan, heat oil and fry pork ribs and beef cubes from all sides on high heat until just browned. Transfer the meat to a soup pan along with peppercorns, cover with water. Bring to boil, reduce the heat to medium, cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes. Do not season with salt, it will increase the lentils cooking time.
Add lentils to the pan, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in the same frying pan (you use another one if you wish), add more oil if needed, and fry leek and onion on a medium heat for 5 minutes. Add potatoes and fry for another 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, stir in chilli and garlic, saute for a couple of minutes.
Stir vegetable mixture into soup, season to taste and simmer on a low heat for 15 minutes or until lentils and potatoes are cooked.
Serve hot, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Rus magazine “Collection of recipes”, 2010

Sharing with lovely foodie-parties: Throwback Thursday, Fiesta Friday, Saucy Saturdays, Foodie Friends Friday Party

Masoor dal (red lentil) Soup

Masoor dal is a split red lentils, widely used in Asian cuisine, particularly in Indian. Lentil is a good source of protein and fiber. These lentils do not need to soak overnight, they cook very quickly, so the recipe is perfect for everyday cooking. Adding aromatic Asian spices enhances lentils’ taste and brings loads of flavour to the soup! Rich, amazingly good vegetarian thick soup; you should give this recipe a try! 🙂

Masoor dal (red lentil) Soup

Servings: 4
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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You can skip chilli if you don’t want the soup hot, or add more if you like it really spicy.

The longer you cook the soup – more creamy it’ll be.

Ingredients

300g red lentils, washed

200g (2 small) potatoes, cut into small cubes

2 Tbsp olive or sunflower oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/3-1/2 tsp chilli seeds, optional

1 clove

2 bay leaves

5-6 pink peppercorns, crushed

sea salt, to taste

3-4 Tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

naan/flatbread, to serve

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan. Add mustard seeds, chilli (if using), cumin, bay leaves, clove and fry until fragrant. Add onion and garlic, cook for 5-7 minutes until soft. Stir in potatoes – fully coat it in oil and spices. Sprinkle with turmeric, pink pepper and salt, stir.
Stir in lentils, add water to cover the mixture. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until vegetables are cooked. Add more boiling water or continue to simmer further to achieve your preferred consistency. Adjust the seasoning.
Stir in fresh coriander. Serve with bread.

Pokhlyobka – The Old Russian Pottage

Pokhlyobka is a kind of thick Russian soup made by adding flour, grains, potatoes or other vegetables. It is similar to the Britain Pottage.

Long time ago, it was a main meal among poor strata of Russian society. Most of the time, villagers and peasant farmers cooked and ate vegetarian pottage, because such expensive ingredients like meat or fish were not affordable for them. It’s worth mentioning that meat was eaten once or twice a year; more luckily were farmers, who had lived near rivers and could caught a fish throughout the year. The dish was easy to prepare, and people could use the remains of the yesterday meal – chunks of boiled potatoes or cabbage, then add extra millet or buckwheat. The rich part also ate pokhlyobka, but it was significantly better and besides potatoes, contained the meat of duck, hazel-hens, and etc.

My recipe of Russian pottage is also without meat.. Definitely, a good piece of fatty pork or beef could makes the pokhlyobka especially rich, so if you’re not a vegetarian you may add it. But I suggest you to try the non-meat option, which is infused with aromatic spices, and delicious pumpkin and thick sour cream make the soup absolutely irresistible!

‘Acoulina cooked absolutely delicious koulebyaks, various pokhlyobki..kvas..soaked apples..’ from the Russian novel ‘Whites, blacks and grays’ by Ivan Lazhechnikov written in 1856.

‘The dinner was absolutely delicious that day: pokhlyobka made from goose meat with wild onions, venison shashlik and slices of bear meat..’ from the Russian novel ‘Plutonia’ by Vladimir Obruchev written in 1915.

Pokhlyobka - The Old Russian Pottage

Servings: 2-3
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

120-130g yellow split peas

3 small potatoes

300g pumpkin or squash

1 medium carrot, sliced

60-70g celery root, cut into small cubes

1 small onion, thinly sliced or finely chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped, optional

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp cumin

2 bay leaves

1.2 l water

1 Tbsp sunflower oil

salt, black pepper to taste

fresh parsley, chopped, for serving

sour cream, for serving, optional

fresh country-style bread, for serving, optional

Preparation

Wash peas, put in a pan, cover with water and soak overnight. Pour out the water. Cover peas with new cold water. Boil on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until peas are tender. Skim the foam during the boiling.
Meanwhile, in a frying pan, heat the oil, add spices and fry them for a minute. Add garlic, onion, carrot, celery root and saute vegetables on a medium heat for 8-10 minutes.
Peel and cut into small cubes potatoes and pumpkin.
Add potatoes to the pottage. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Add pumpkin along with fried vegetables, simmer the pottage for 10 minutes more or until the pumpkin is soft.
Adjust seasoning. If the pottage is too thick, add more hot water and stir through.
Garnish each plate with a dollop of sour cream and chopped parsley. Serve with a slice of bread.

Enjoy the old Russian farmer meal! 🙂

I’m bringing this traditional recipe to all lovely people who’s enjoying the FF party today!

Summer is a time for Russian Okroshka

July 24, 2014
milkandbun
27 comments
cold soup, food, okroshka, recipe, Russian, soup

Okroshka is a cold Russian soup topped with kvas (a fermented beverage made from bread), which combines chopped vegetables and cooked meat or fish. The name originates from verb ‘kroshit’ (soft t), that means to crumble. The history of the dish varies. One says it came from the old simple dish – mix of sliced radish and chopped onion topped with salt and kvas, lately some boiled potatoes were added. Another says, it came from burlaki, who ate salted fish with kvas.. Anyhow, okroshka had been made from remains of roasted pork, beef, turkey, and grouse; the meat was chopped along with pickled or fresh cucumbers, onions, sometimes with splash of brine (from pickled cucumbers or cabbage) or vinegar, and of course, homemade kvas. Peasants who work in fields took vegetarian okroshka and kvas for their lunch; kvas is well-known drink to quench a thirst, and okroshka is wonderful and refreshing dish during hot summer months.

You can vary vegetables in okroshka to suit your own taste, add more or less some of them, you can add some boiled carrots, rutabaga (swede), turnip, pickled cucumbers, onion, or tarragon. It’s commonly accepted that meat or fish should be 1:1 to veggies.

For the spice dressing, in a cup mix some kvas with black pepper and a teaspoon of mustard or horseradish; or rub some chopped spring onion, parsley and/or dill with salt. This dressing is added to a bowl with okroshka, then you should stir okroshka with a spoon and keep for 20-30 minuted to allow all flavours to meld; only after that you can pour over kvas, and add sour cream.

The authentic okroshka should be topped with kvas, but nowadays in Russia you can find okroshka with kefir, pure or diluted with mineral water, or airan. Such soup can be called ‘cold soup‘, not okroshka. While the original recipe did not significantly change over time, the Okroshka may slightly vary across Russia and the recipe has been slightly modified during Soviet time, some ingredients (like particular fish and meat) were not available or hard to find in a regular grocery, and people buy and use regular pork mortadella, because it contained about 90% of meat those days, and it was a good alternative to meat. Using mortadella was also making the Okroshka easier and faster to cook, and it could be make in a short time as regular salad. Many people in Russia since Soviet era still considering Okroshka with mortadella as original, despite all ingredients for the traditional recipe are widely available.

So, the choice is up to you! 😉

Russian Okroshka

Servings: 6-7
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Ingredients

500-600g boiled beef (or 300g beef+300g chicken), medium cubes

4 medium potatoes

5-6 large cucumbers

6-7 radishes, sliced

4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped or cut into quarters

a bunch spring onion, chopped

a bunch parsley and/or dill, chopped

1 Tbsp sour cream and 1 tsp mustard, per serving

cold kvas (kefir or laban up), 250-300 ml per serving

salt and black pepper to taste

Rye bread, for serving

Method

Wash and rub potatoes. Place unpeeled whole potatoes a big pan with cold water, bring to boil and cook for 30 minutes or until soft. Let it cool, peel and cut into medium cubes.

Cut cucumbers into medium cubes. If you want to keep the mixture in a fridge for 1-2 days, I suggest to discard the seeds.

In a large bowl combine meat, vegetables, onion and greens, gently stir. You can add eggs on this step, or later into each plate.

Put some okroshka into a serving plate, add mustard, sour cream, season to taste and give it a good stir. Pour over kvas or kefir. Enjoy!

Do you like matryoshki – those lovely wooden dolls? 😀

Healthy&Light Vegetable Soup with Chicken

I guess we all didn’t like veggies when we were kids 🙂 kids mostly love fruits and so was I, because fruits are sweet and veggies are not. But, despite our childhood preferences my today’s post is about vegetable soup which I could probably like many years back if I would tried it before. My today’s soup is light, smooth and simply delicious.

When I made it first time and tried, it was love from the first spoon. 😀 In Russia soup has another look (like Schi I posted about earlier), but creamy soup have different consistency and taste. Needless to say, that soup with fresh veggies and plenty of protein in chicken breast are always a healthy choice for a general well-being and also for those who look after their body shape.

Such soup for dinner can be a weekday lifesaver, especially if you make a huge pot ahead! 😉

This soup can be made completely vegetarian, or based on chicken stock (nothing beats the flavor of homemade chicken stock!), or it’s good way for using leftover chicken. Do what works best for you. 🙂

Ingredients:

Cooked or raw chicken breast – 2, medium size

Zucchini – 1 large

Bell peppers – 2-3

Tomatoes – 3

Onion – 1

Garlic clove – 1

Dry thyme – 1 tsp, optionally

Bunches of dill and/or parsley, finely chopped, or 2 tsp dry

Olive oil – 1 Tbsp

A pinch of chilli or cayenne pepper

Salt, pepper – to taste

Preparation:

If you make this soup with raw chicken breast follow next step, otherwise go to the step 3.
First of all, put the chicken breasts into a pan and cover with water (1l/34oz or so). Add bay leave, whole small onion and several peppercorns; bring to boil, simmer for 20 minutes or until the breasts are ready. Discard herbs and onion. Take the chicken out, cool it, then cut into small cubes and set aside. Reserve the stock. You can do it a day or two ahead.
In a soup pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook until tender for 5 minutes.
Cut bell peppers into cubes, add to the onion and saute for 4-5 minutes.
Cut the zucchini into cubes, add to the veg-mixture and saute for 2 minutes more.
Add chopped garlic, herbs* and chili pepper, stir and cook for 30 seconds more.
Chop the tomatoes, add into the pot along with chicken stock (or water), season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Puree the soup until smooth. Put chicken cubes* into soup, bring it to a boil. Cover with a lid and simmer over moderate heat about 10 minutes.
Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with fresh dill or parsley and serve with baguette slices.

*I recommend reserve some chicken and herbs for garnish.

Enjoy!