Easy recipe for vegetable soup

Fast and easy recipe for vegetable soup from left overs, so you will enjoy a cheap, delicious and healthy soup in less than 30 minutes.

Makes 2 servings in 20 minutes, originally posted by The Skinny Cook, 8th April 2001 (Vegetables / European (Belgium) / Soup / Stove / No marination)

Cooking for 2 people has the side-effect that we have left overs from what we buy : try to buy half a cucumber , 3 mushrooms or just enough fresh coriander for one day…

So we are left with… left-overs! in the fridge and scratching our head – mind you in 10 years from now I won’t have any hair left because of this – what to do with it? …. Drumroll please…: add your vegetables to any soup recipe: the more fibers, the better for your digestion system.

The recipe below is what I combined with left overs found in our fridge. Main thing is : let your imagination do the cooking and pair tastes that go together:

• For vegetable soup … that means all kind of vegetables, without any one vegetable dominating, otherwise it the soup should be called according to the dominant vegetable. Having said so, the below recipe could also be called "cucumber soup with coriander".
• For taste: when you feel that the taste doesn’t come together and you have added enough salt already, add in some lemon or lime or a sour tomato.
• If available, saute any or all of these typical soup vegetables: onion, leek, celery and carrot.

Easy vegetable soup ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 cucumber (250gr)
• 3 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 tablespoons coriander, chopped
• 1/2 oz (10to15gr) butter
• 1,5 cup boiling water
• juice of 1 limau kasturi – = those tiny calamansi limes –  (or 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice)
• 1 coffee spoon ‘Maggi’ chicken stock granules (or any other brand instant stock)
• pepper to taste
• oil to fry

Recipe for vegetable soup

1. Let the green skin on the cucumber (that’s where all the taste is!) but remove its inner seeds. Cut cucumber into 3/4 inch (1,5cm) pieces.
2. Heat the butter in a pan and brown the mushrooms for less than 1 minute. Add the lime juice, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes.
3. In another pan : fry the onion in the oil until softened.
4. Add to the onion the cucumber, pepper, stock-granules and boiling water. Cover and boil for 4 minutes. Afterwards take a mixer and mix until cucumber pieces are pureed.
5. Add coriander and mushrooms, and put on the fire for 2 minutes more.
6. Serve your vegetable soup with a lot of love…