CONTESTANT RECIPES for the Great International Vegan Soup Competition

This week I've got the Contestant Recipes for the Great International Vegan Soup Competition to show you. Entries are now closed, but there were three entries all together. I haven't chosen a winner yet, but I will do so when I have the time to make all these soups! If any of you out there would like to vote, please comment on this post or e-mail rabbit-cat[at]vegemail[dot]com with your selection.
Last week, I promised to talk about something very, very tiny... but I'll have to do that sometime soon, instead, because these recipes take up enough (delicious) space as it is.

And so... here are the contestants, folks...
(You'd better try out these recipes yourselves, okay?)

Recipe #1: Pumpkin Soup

 

Submitted by Carol-Anne (not the author of this blog), near Ottawa, Canada

Ingredients:

Medium size pumpkin about 10 inch radius.

1 tsp tumeric

1 tsp medium curry powder

1/4 tsp mild cayenne

2 tbsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup chopped chives

1/2 cup rice yogurt

4 cups vegetable stock

 

Method:

Cut top out of the pumpkin and remove seeds (save the seeds and roast them separately)

Roast the pumpkin at 350 degrees Fahrenheit

until tender.

Allow pumpkin to cool enough to handle.

Using a large blender, pour in all ingredients except chives and rice yogurt, and blend until smooth, pour into a large pot and heat until boiling reduce heat to low, allow to stand on low stirring occasionally for 30 minutes..

Ladle soup into bowls, add a tablespoon of rice yogurt in the center of the bowl of soup and garnish with chives.

Recipe #2: Auntie Lu’s Vegan Cream of Zucchini Soup

Submitted by Lucinda, near Ottawa, Canada

You will need a frying pan, a kettle, a measuring cup, a glass or ceramic bowl, a whisk (or fork if you do not have a whisk), a blender and a large sauce pan.

Ingredients:

·         4  tablespoons olive oil

·         4 cups diced zucchini

·         1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)

·         4 cups vegetable broth (you can buy non-GMO, organic vegetable broth cubes that you dissolve in boiling water)

·         2 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk (if possible, use non-GMO organic soy milk)

·         Sea salt to taste and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper just before serving

·         1 cup chopped packed fresh parsley or ½ cup chopped packed fresh basil (or half and half if you want)

Preparation:

Stir fry the zucchini and onion in the olive oil on medium heat until the onion is soft and transparent and the zucchini is soft but not mushy.  Take it off the burner.

Boil water and pour 4 cups into a large bowl.  Then crumble the vegetable broth cube(s) (as per the instructions) into the boiling water and whisk it until it is not lumpy.  

Blend (a bit at a time) the zucchini mixture, broth and fresh parsley or basil (reserving about ¼ cup of the parsley/basil to use as garnish) together in a blender until smooth and then pour it into a large saucepan.  It is important to make sure that you blend it a bit at a time so that it doesn’t overflow when you turn the blender on (the blender should only be about half full) and, for each batch of vegies and broth, start the blender on low gradually increasing the speed.  Once you have the entire mixture blended, and in the large sauce pan, gradually stir in the soy milk and a little sea salt to taste (about ½ teaspoon).  Heat the soup gradually over medium to medium-high heat while stirring (to prevent it from burning or sticking to the bottom of the sauce pan) and serve with a sprinkling of cayenne and use the rest of the parsley/basil to garnish each serving.

If you don’t want the soup to be completely smooth and creamy, but want it to have some pieces of vegetable, you can reserve about a cup of the cooked zucchini and onion to add to the soup after adding the soy milk.  Serve with crackers and/or fresh bread with vegan margarine.

ENJOY!

Lentil Butternut Squash Soup

Submitted by Margo, near Ottawa, Canada

(All measurements are approximate)


In a fairly large pot, stir fry, in olive oil, one onion chopped up and one cup washed lentils. Stir fry till slightly browned.
Add (all chopped up): 2-4 cloves garlic, 2-3 celery stalks, 3 carrots, about 1 cup butternut squash, or other squash will do as well, about 5 cups water, Salt to taste, pepper to taste, dried or fresh parsley...about 1/4 cup, and 1 can of stewed tomatoes.
Bring to boil, turn down heat and simmer for at least 1 hour. Stir once in a while while cooking. Taste to make sure lentils and veggies are cooked.

 That's all for this week, folks. Come back next weeks for further awesome-ness. (Hint: the very, very tiny thing starts with an "m" and ends with a "t". And no, it's not meat!)

C.