Black beans soup

In our healthy promoting diet, black bean is an exceptionally great legume with its unique and solid nutritional profile. They are an excellent source of molybdenum, fat-free high quality protein, dietary fiber, flavonoid anti-oxidants (anthocyanins), vitamins (B1) and minerals (folate, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus and iron). It also contains a small amount of omega-3 fatty acids which is about 3 times more than other beans.

A list of health benefits derived from black beans is as follows:
- detoxifying sulfites (note: sulfites are a type of preservative commonly added to prepared foods)
- lowering cholesterol
- good choice for individual with diabetics, insulin resistance or hypoglycemia
- preventing constipation and digestive disorders.
- rich in antioxidants
- acts as a protection against cancer
- stabilizing blood sugar levels
- increasing your energy

(Source: WHFoods)

Now, the question is how to incorporate black beans in your meal plan? If you do a search online, you may find a variety of cooking methods for black beans. But today, I share with you a very simple and easy black beans soup which I used to drink as a child.

The recipe is adapted and modified from here. Ingredients: 150g black beans 300g pork ribs 15 nos red dates (removed seeds) 2 slices of ginger 1200 ml water Methods: 1) Put black beans in a frying pan and dry fry over a medium-low heat until the beans' coat starts to crack slightly. Dish up and rinse. (Note: this method is to remove the smoky smell from the beans.) 2) Blanch pork ribs over boiling water. Rinse, drain and set aside. 3) Bring water to a boil and add in all ingredients.When the water re-boils, reduce the heat and simmer for another 2 hours. 4) After 2 hours, turn off the heat and serve.

My Legume Love Affair is created by Susan of the Well Seasoned Cook. This phenomenal event draws a large volume of entries each month. This month, MMLA 10th helping is hosted by Courtney of Coco Cooks. You can participate by submitting an entry which must be either a starter or dessert before 30 April 2009. Click here for the host line-up.

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Corn chicken soup

From young, soup has been served regularly in my family's daily diet. As far as I can recall, my mom has been boiling different types of Chinese soups almost every day. After I got married, I too enjoyed all the home-boiled soups of my mother-in-law. Now, as a “minister of home affair cum head chef”, I continued with our family’s tradition to boil soups for the family as my son is a big fan of soup. The soups I had tried making consist of both Chinese and Western version as shown in the soup categories of this blog.

For Chinese soups, it generally requires 2 hours of simmering to achieve the best result. On those days when I am contraint for time , I will pick a quick and easy soup recipe such as the corn chicken soup I am in this posting. It is adapted and modified from “Soup of the Day” 天天有好汤. The time required for preparation and cooking is very minimum as compared to Chinese soups. I had added in extra ingredients (of course, do not overload it) to compliment its taste and nutritional value. Since all of the ingredients are edible, it can also be served as a one-dish meal. The happiest thing to me is less washing too!

Ingredients:
150g chicken breast meat
1000ml chicken stocks (I used 3 tbsp of concentrated chicken stock to mix with 1 liter water)
1 packet sweet corn cream style (380g) – De Monte or any other brand
1 packet enoki mushrooms * (cut away the tough part of the stems; if you think it is too long, then cut into halve, rinse with running water)
4 pcs fresh shitake mushrooms * (blanch over hot water and slice them thinly)
4 stocks of baby sweetcorns * (slice thinly)
1-2 eggs (lightly beaten and mix with 2-3 tsp water)
1-2 slices of ginger *
Spring onions for ganishing - chopped
Corn flour mixture (dilute some cornflour with water, adjust the consistency according to your personal preference)
Note: * - my personal add-on. Other recommended ingredients are: tofu and green peas

Seasonings:
Salt (I had omitted it because the chicken stocks is tasty enough on its own)
Pepper

Methods:
1) Rinse and pat dry chicken breast meat. Cut into small & long strips. Marinate with light soya sauce, sugar and cornflour for about 15-30 minutes.
2) Bring the chicken stocks/ water in a pot to boil. Add in chicken concentrated stock if used.
3) Add in ginger slice, baby sweetcorns and mushrooms. Simmer for 10 minutes.
4) Add in cream corn and stir well.
5) Add in chicken strips and stir well until it is fully cooked.
6) Add in cornflour mixture and stir gently to thicken.
7) Pour the egg mixture slowly into the soup, stir until it forms thin egg shreds on the surface. Turn off the heat.
8) Season with salt, pepper and sprinkle some spring onions before serving.

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Fen ge herbal soup (粉葛药材汤)

I first learned about 粉葛/葛根(Thomson's kudzu/fen ge - as shown in picture below) from my mother-in-law. She used it to make soup for the family. At the first glance, it looked quite similar to 沙葛 (yam bean). 粉葛 has natural sweetness and brings many health benefits to women especially for the middle-aged group as mentioned in this link. There are many types of 粉葛 soup. The most common type of 粉葛 soup is made by adding pork loin and red dates/candied dates.

Usually my mother-in-law adds in some Chinese herbs to the fen ge soup. The combination of dang shen, red dates and wolfberries has a therapeutic effect of blood nourishment and energy booster especially for ladies after childbirth or surgery. You can even use this combi (without fen ge) as a tonic drink.

I am sharing with you a simple fen ge herbal soup made by my mother-in-law:

Ingredients:
600g 粉葛 (Thomson's kudzu) - de-skinned and cut into big chunks
5 sticks 党参 dang shen (10cm long) - washed and cut into halves
15 red dates 红枣 - washed and removed seeds
3-4 tbsp wolfberries 枸子
250g pork loin
1100-1200ml water
Salt to taste

Methods:
1. Blanch pork loin with boiling water. Drain and set aside.
2. Bring water to boil and then add in all ingredients.
3. When the water is boiling, reduce heat and allow to simmer for another 2 hours.
4. Add in wolfberries 5 mins before turning off the heat.
5. Season with salt (optional).

Servings: 5-6 persons

Below are the pictures of 粉葛 and 党参





Other recommended Chinese soups:
White fungus and yu zhu soup (银耳玉竹清润汤)
Fresh huai shan (鲜淮山）soup
Liu wei soup (六味汤)

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Simple asparagus soup

If you have lots of asparagus on hand and are running out-of-time, it is a perfect recipe for you to prepare a tasty asparagus soup with some simple ingredients and easy steps. It can be served hot or very well-chilled.

Source: Adapted and modified from The Delia Collection: Soup

Servings: 3-4

Ingredients:
450g asparagus
25g butter
½ medium onion (finely chopped)
½ slightly rounded tbsp plain flour
500 ml hot chicken stock (you can replace with vegetable stock)
75 ml double cream (I use thickening cream)
Salt and freshly grounded black pepper

Methods:
1) Slice tips from asparagus. Blanch in salted boiling water for 1 minute. Drain and reserve for garnishing.
2) Discard the tough, stringy white ends of the stalks. Chop the green parts into 2.5cm lengths.
3) Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and cook the onion for 5 mins.
4) Add in asparagus and sweat for about 10 mins with lid on. Stir occasionally.
5) Add in flour and stir again to soak up the juices.
6) Add in hot chicken stock, a little at a time, stirring after each addition.
7) Bring it to simmering point, season with salt and black pepper.
8) Simmer the soup under low heat for 20-25 minutes, partially covered.
9) Let the soup cool a little and puree in a food processer or blender in batches.
10) Adjust seasonings if necessary.
11) Stir in cream and re-heat gentlely for 3-4 minutes.

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ABC soup

If you are in a rush and need to cook 1 dish-meal cum soup, then this soup is the perfect choice! It is not only as easy as ABC but also a wholesome soup for the family. All of the ingredients (except for the fish bones) are edible. You can serve it with rice or pasta. Hence it is considered a "ZERO wastage" soup. Guess what have I done to the sweetcorns and potatoes in the soup? I had created another dish. The answer is here!

Ingredients:
380g salmon fish bones (you can substitute with lean pork or chicken bones) - blanch over boiling water, put into a soup bag
2 large potatoes (about 300-400g) - cut into 4 for each potato
2 carrots (about 200g) - cut into chunks
1 large sweetcorn (about 360g) - cut into chunks
3 tomatoes (about 300g) - sliced
1 stalk celery (about 100g) - cut into chunks
1 white onion
2 bay leaves
1500ml water

Seasonings:
Salt and pepper to taste

Servings: 9-10 persons

Methods:
1. Bring water to boil. Add in fish bones, onions, sweetcorns and bay leaves. When the soup re-boils, turn the heat to lower and simmer for 2 hours.
2. After half an hour, add in potatoes, carrots, celery.
3. 5 mins before turning off the heat, add in tomatoes.
4. Season with salt and pepper.

Other similar recipes:
- corn chowder
- corn soup
- Italian pasta soup

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Beancurd seafood soup （豆腐海鲜羹）

My hubby loved this soup so much that after drinking the soup, he also took an extra portion to mix with his rice so as to give him a "braised rice" flavour.

This recipe is adapted from Hawker's Fair Simplified cookbook.

Ingredients:
1 piece soft beancurd - mashed into puree (it can be substituted with egg bean curb or homemade beancurd)
1 fresh squid (about 200g) - shredded
6 crab sticks - shredded
2 pieces ham - shredded
3 black mushrooms - soaked and shredded
6 water chestnuts - peeled and shredded
2 egg whites
1500ml stock (上汤）

Seasonings:
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper and chicken stock granules
3 tbsp corn flour (mixed with 5 tbsp water for thickening)
1 tbsp chopped spring onion

Methods:
1. Bring stock to boil. Put in all ingredients, seasonings and bring to boil.
2. Add in corn flour water and mix well. Then add in egg whites, mix well and remove from heat.
3. Dish soup into individual serving bowl, sprinkle chopped spring onion on top and serve with black vinegar if desired.

Note:
I had made some slight modifications to the ingredients used because I need to clear some of my stocks in the fridge.

Ingredients (my version):
1 tube Japanese egg beancurd ( 150g) - mashed into puree
5 water chestnuts - peeled and shredded
5 fresh shiitake mushrooms - blanched over boiling water, shredded
2 slices bacon flavour vegetarian ham - shredded
120g surimi crab legs (imitation of crab legs) - shredded (I think it will taste even better if use original crab meat because of its textures and taste)
3 egg whites
1100 ml stocks (I use chicken bones to boil the soup first)

I had replaced chicken stock granules with some concentrated chicken stocks. Before adding egg whites, you may also need to adjust the seasonings according to your own preference if neccessary.

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White fungus and yu zhu soup (银耳玉竹清润汤）

Under the current hot weather, it is beneficial to drink some nourishing soup. I found this recipe from here. Another similar soup without using sweetcorn can be found over here.

Ingredient A:
20g white fungus 银耳(washed, soaked and torn into small pieces)
20g yu zhu 玉竹 (washed)
20g lily bulb 百合(washed)
10g red dates (removed seeds) / 15g candied dates (I used 2 big candied dates)
100g carrots (washed, cut into chunks)
2 medium-sized sweetcorns (washed, cut into chunks)

Ingredient B:
250g lean pork (washed, cut into chunks, blanched over hot water)
Pinch of salt

Methods:
1) Put ingredient A into a cooking pot, add in adequate water, soak for 1 hour.
2) Bring water to boil, add in lean pork for a while, reduce heat to low fire, simmer for 2 hours, season with salt.

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Corn chowder

Chowder is a special kind of thick soup from New England in the USA

Below is the recipe adapted from Children's Healthy & Fun Cookbook .

Ingredients:
1 large onion
200g fresh, frozen or tinned sweetcorn
1 large carrot
350g potatoes
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 bouquet garni (optional)
1 bay leaf
1.2 litres vegetable stock
300ml milk

Seasonings:
Salt and pepper to taste

Methods:
1. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Scrub the carrot and then thinly slice it. Finally, peel the potatoes and then cut them into small pieces.
2. Hear the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and saute over a medium heat for 8 mins or until soft and slightly golden. Stir the onion occasionally.
3. Next, add the corn, carrot, potatoes, bouquet garni and bay leaf to the onions. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the stock and bring to the boil.
4. Reduce the heat to medium to low. Cover with a lid and cook for 15 mins, stirring occasionally. Add the milk and cook for a further 5 minutes.
5. Scoop out some of the vegetables and blend the rest of the soup until smooth. Return the vegetables and blended soup to the pan and warm through.

Tips:
1. If you prefer a chunky soup, leave out step 5. Otherwise, blend all the mixture in step 5 until the soup is creamy and smooth.
2. You can serve it with bread rolls, rice or pasta.
3. For a delicious smoked flavour, add chunk of smoked haddock to this soup. Add the fish in step 4 with the milk and simmer for 5 mins or until cooked.

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Borlotti beans (花豆）soup

Every time when I go to the market, I cannot resist the temptation to take a few close-up looks at these beautiful borlotti/ cranberry beans. But I didn't buy any because I had no clue on how to cook it. Until recently, I discoverred that using them to boil soup is not only easy but so tasty as well. My son felt so much "in love" with the beans until he ate 80% of them from the soup!

Ingredients:
150g borlotti/ cranberry beans
200g pork loin
2 large candied dates (蜜枣）
1000ml water

Seasonings:
Salt to taste

Methods:
1. Blanch pork loin in boiling water for a short while. Dish and set aside.
2. Bring 1 liter water to boil. Put all ingredients inside. Bring the water to boiling again and switch to low fire.
3. Boil for 2 hours. Turn off the heat. Salt to taste and serve.

Other useful references:
马桥花豆
UKTV Food

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Fresh huai shan （鲜淮山）soup

Huai shan(淮山) or shan yao (山药) (Chinese yam - English), is a type of vegetable which is neutral and sweet in nature. As mentioned in this site, Chinese yam is effective in relieving cough but should not be taken for cases with abdominal swelling and pain. Nowadays, fresh Chinese yam can be easily obtained in the wet market and supermarket. It can be used in cooking a variety of recipes ie porridge and soup. My son has been eating Chinese yam since small.

This recipe is adapted from Hawkers' Fair Best Of All Time Favourite (double-boiled fresh huaishan and spare ribs soup).

Ingredients:
300g spare ribs
200g fresh huai shan(鲜淮山） (peeled and cut into chunks)
50g carrot (chunks)
50g yu zhu (玉竹）
1 tbsp gou zi （枸子)
12-15 red dates (I added in these dates to increase the sweetness of the soup)
1000ml water

Seasonings:
2 tbsp white rice wine
Salt to taste

Methods (Double-boiled):
1. Blanch spare ribs, huai shan, yuk zhu, carrot, red dates and gou zi in boiling water for a short while. Dish and drain.
2. Put all ingredients and boiling water into a double-boiler and double-boil at medium heat for 2 hours. Add in seasoning and serve hot.

Note:
If fresh huai shan is not available, can substitute 100g dried huai shan.

Methods (Normal boiling - I used this method):
1. Blanch spare ribs in boiling water for a while. Dish and set aside.
2. Bring water to boiling, add in spare ribs, huai san, yuk zhu, carrot and red dates. Bring the soup to boiling again and then reduce the heat to small.
3. Boil for 2 hours. Towards the end, put in gou zi and boil for another 5 mins. Turn off the heat.
4. Season with salt and white rice wine. Serve.



Other useful references:
山药的保健作用
山药有哪些功用?食用时有哪些注意点？

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Cream of pumpkin soup

I still remember the first time I made this soup. It was a total FAILURE! I felt so discouraged because nobody liked it including myself. But I couldn't figure out what went wrong because I had followed exactly the recipe from the newspaper cut-out. Then after searching for sometimes, I managed to find another simple recipe from Kuali Online. It turned out to be my son's favourite now (partly because pumpkin is his favourite). With some modifications, I had derived at my own version as follows:

Ingredients:
400g pumpkin (chopped)
1 medium sized potato (chopped)
1 large white onion (chopped)
250 ml fresh milk
750 ml water - It depends on personal preference. If you prefer a thicker soup, then you can reduce the water.
2 slices ginger
1 tbsp butter (for frying)

Seasonings:
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg powder (optional) - it enhances the flavour of the soup

Methods:
1. Melt the butter in a cooking pot.
2. Fry/ bake the onion until translucent.
3. Add in pumpkin, potato, onion and ginger slices and stir well.
4. Pour in water and bring it to a boiling point. Then simmer for about 15 mins or until all the ingredients are softed and mushy.
5. Remove the ginger slices, pour the mixture into a blender and blend until it becomes smooth.
6. Pour back to the pot. Add in milk and seasonings and bring it to a boiling point.
7. Off the heat and serve with toasted bread/ rice. (I used toasted raisin sticks).

Variation:
You can add in cooked fish or prawn in the soup.

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Cream of mushroom soup

Ingredients:
200g fresh button mushrooms (chopped)
1 large white onion (diced)
1 large stalk of celery (diced)
360ml stock (I diluted 1 tbsp concentrated chicken stock with water)
300ml fresh milk
30g butter
3 tbsp plain flour
Salt and black pepper to taste

Methods:
1. Melt butter in a cooking pot.
2. Bake onion until translucent.
3. Lightly brown the mushrooms, then followed by celery
4. Stir in flour and mix well with the ingredients, then add in stock
5. Simmer for approx 20 mins. Stir occasionally.
6. Puree into a blender. (If you prefer a chunky soup, do not blend it until too smooth)
7. Pour back into the pot.
8. Add in milk and simmer for another 4 mins under medium heat. (Be careful not overboil the milk)
9. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve with homemade garlic bread.

You can also watch a video on How To Make Cream of Mushroom Soup from Video Jug

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Corn soup

Ingredients:
2 corn-on-the-cob sweetcorns
1 large carrot
1 white onion
Handful of mushroom stems (I had collected these stems from my previous cooking and stored them in the freezer) - optional
Fish bones
2 slices ginger
15 red dates (removed seeds)
1200ml water

Seasonings:
Salt and pepper to taste

Methods:
1. Wash fish bones. Blanch in hot water.
2. Defrost mushroom stems, wash and set aside.
2. Cut sweetcorns, carrot, onion into big chunks.
3. Bring water to boil. Add in ingredients and bring soup to boil again.
4. Reduce to low heat and boil for 2 hours.
5. Turn off heat and add in seasonings.

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Italian pasta soup

The recipe for this wholesome and tasty soup was adapted from Children's healthy & fun cookbook (published by DK).

Ingredients:
75g pasta bows (I had replaced it with small shell pasta)
1 large onion (white)
2 potatoes
2 sticks celery
1 large carrot (scrubbed)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried oregano
1 litre vegetable stock (I used Maggi concentrated chicken stock 上汤鸡精）
400g tinned chopped tomatoes (I used fresh ripe tomatoes)
Bacon (optional) (I used veg ham)
Parmesan cheese (grated) - optional

Methods:
1. Bring a medium-sized pan of water to the boil and add the pasta. Simmer until the pasta is just tender but not completely cooked. Drain well and set aside.
2. Chop the onion into a small pieces. Peel the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized chunks. Slice the celery and carrot into bite-sized pieces.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and fry over a medium heat for 8 mins or until it is softened and golden.
4. Next, add the celery, carrot, potatoes, oregano and bay leaf. Stir well and pour in the stock and chopped tomatoes. Stir again and then bring to the boil.
5. When the soup is bubbling, reduce the heat to low. Half-cover the pan with a lid and simmer the soup for 15 mins or until the potatoes are tender.
6. Remove the lid, add the pasta and stir well. Heat the pasta for 5 mins. Ladle the soup into large bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

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Liu wei soup (六味汤)

Ingredients:
Group A:
20g 玉竹 (yu zhu)　
20g 百合 (lily bulb)
20g 芡实 (fox nuts)
20g 淮山 (huai shan)
20g 湘莲 (lotus seeds)
10 红枣 (red dates) - removed seeds
250g 瘦肉 (lean meat)
1 liter water

Group B:
20g 圆肉 (dried longan)
2 tbsp 杞子(qi zi)

Methods:
1. Rinse lean pork. Cut into large pieces. Scald
2. Rinse all the ingredients.Bring water to boil.
3. Add in Group A and bring the soup to boil again over high heat.
4. Then reduce to low heat and boil for 2 hours.
5. Add in dried longan after 1 hour and add in qi zi 5 mins before 2 hours. These 2 ingredients are not suitable to cook for too long otherwise the soup will turn sour.
6. Salt to taste and serve.

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Apple and white fungus soup

Ingredients:
2 red apples (medium size)
25g white fungus
300g lean pork
30g sweet and bitter almond
4 candied dates (big)
1000 ml water

Seasonings:
Salt to taste (optional)

Methods:
1. Peel and core the apples, then rinse and chop them into 8 pieces. Set aside
2. Rinse lean pork and cut into 3 pieces, blanch in boiling water. Dish up and set aside.
3. Rinse candied dates and sweet & bitter almonds. Set aside.
4. Add water in a cooking pot and boil. Add all ingredients in the boiling water. When the water is re-boiled, switch to low fire and cook for 2 hours.
5. Turn off heat. Add salt to taste.

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Chicken herbal soup (玉竹鸡汤）

This recipe is adapted from 我的厨房笔记（玉竹鸡汤）。

Ingredients A:
Whole chicken : ½ pc

Ingredients B:
Yu zhu : 50 – 100g
Red dates : 15pcs
Gouqi : 1 – 2 tbsp
Ginger : 1 pc

Ingredients C
Water : own judgment

Method:
1) Wash chicken, cut into pieces, blanch the chicken with boiling water, drain
2) Wash Ingredients B, pour in water, bring to a boil over high heat, reduce to medium heat and boil for another ½ hour
3) Add in chicken , simmer for another ½ over medium heat

Note:
I used skinless chicken thigh and breast to boil this soup because it is less oily.

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