Sri Lankan Vegetable Soup

My blogging has become a bit sporadic of late, there are two reasons for this:

1. I have started a new job which is taking up a lot of my time in training and well…”actual” work 😉
2. I haven’t been in the greatest of mind sets over the last few weeks, it’s personal so I’m not going to broadcast it all over the web but  I’ve taken a few knocks – still onwards and upwards…

Because of these two quite large life events I haven’t been eating as I should (and like t0). Specifically point number 2) has made my appetite disappear to the point where I would be sitting in a restaurant, looking over the menu for 30 minutes, only to order a beer whilst my friend ate copious amounts of food. Not good, especially when I need energy for my new job.

So what on earth can you eat when you are not hungry but you know you have to eat? The answer as most of you will know is soup. It is healthy (if made fresh without additives & MSG). I’ve got a few recipes up my sleeve for soup but I thought I would start with the famous Sri Lankan vegetable soup. It beats the Western varieties for taste and not only does it help bring back an ailing appetite (something to do with the added ginger and pepper I believe) it is also fantastic for colds and flu.

Sri Lankan Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

• 50g leeks, sliced
• 50g carrots, sliced
• 50g green beans, chopped
• 50g cabbage, shredded roughly
• 1 or 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2 small potatoes, cubed
• 1 or 2 sticks of celery sliced
• 50g red dhal (mysore)
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 inch piece of ginger, grated
• 2 cardamoms
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 piece of rampe or lemongrass
• 1 tsp raw curry powder
• 1 piece cinnamon
• 1 tbs crushed black pepper (I also like to add a few peppercorns more but it depends on how hot you like it)
• 1 tbs tamarind paste
• 8 to 10 cups water
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients except the tamarind paste. (NOTE: you can fry the garlic and ginger first if you like)
2. Bring to boil over to a medium heat about 1 hour (if you have time…it can be eaten after 30 minutes but I prefer it cooked well)
3. Add tamarind and adjust salt.
4. Simmer another 10 min. on low heat.

Sri Lankan Vegetable Soup