The following recipe I have done it for some time now and always forgot to have a picture for the blog. It became such a usual dish for me that I always forgot to find some time to write recipe.
The following mushroom soup is one of those dishes that you always want to do when you don’t want to spend so much time in the kitchen but still have something healthy and nice.
A really love mushrooms and try to use them in different kind of recipes from time to time. So you will see me adding them in dishes. My original love for mushrooms brought me to search for the following recipe that I cook regular now.
MUSHROOM SOUP
1 kg white mushrooms
½ onion, grated
½ glass dry white wine
200 g.butter
1 chicken cube
1½ liter of hot water
3-4 tsp.flour for all uses
150 ml cream
3 tsp.tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
The creamy mushroom soup is ready
Method
We clean with a damp cloth the mushrooms and then mash half the amount of them in the blender and cut into slices the other half.
In a deep pan pour half the amount of butter, let it warm up well and saute the slices and trimmings of mushrooms and grated onion.
Add the white wine, lower the temperature, stirring from time to time and close with a lid until the mushrooms are tender.
Fill with hot water and add the chicken stocking cubes, stir until dissolved and continue cooking for 5 minutes.
In a glass, add flour, add 4-6 spoonfuls of water and with a fork stir until becoming a thin slurry.
Pour the diluted porridge to soup and continue cooking until the soup thickens, stirring with a whisk to avoid clotting.
Finally, add the cream and the remaining butter and stir to obtain our shiny soup texture, color and flavor.
Serve the soup in dishes garnished with chopped parsley.
You know when a recipe is good for students? When it combines, meat, vegetables and you spend the less possible time. Ok i lied, the ideal recipe is when it contains only meat but anyway… Well the following recipe almost has these characteristics which make it if not ideal, but really good for students or generally people that leave alone.We have spoken before forFasolada, the typical Greek bean soup that every Greek knows. Well, come on I wont say the same again about how to do it, you check the recipe over there.When I was little my mother always used to add sausages in the recipe as it is more attractive for kids. Also it’s a different way to cook the beans. Basically mixing this recipe with Spetsofai.
Now, why this one is ideal for students or general people that want to spend minimum time on the kitchen…
Well lets suppose that you have prepared the beans from yesterday and you start bowling them. The only thing that you have to do is to have the ingredients ready and cut. Just add them when the time comes. As the beans are bowling, you can go in the students halls and have a beer….eeeeeem….i mean go to your room and study for tomorrow’s exam. Leave the beans to boil for an hour and when you are back you are ready to eat.
To be honest when I was a student most of the times I was doing toast’s and ordering pizza’s but…it was a good effort J
Well…either way I thought it brought a pretty good result in the end…
BEAN SOUP WITH SAUSAGES
INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound white beans moderate
1 large onion or 2 small
3 tablespoonsolive oil
1 tbsptomato paste
2 sprigs rosemary
6-8 dust.garlic
2-3 bay leaves
1/2 celery
3 carrots cut into rings
salt
1 pork rustic sausage cut into slices
1 cube of herbs
METHOD
Soak for 8-12 hours, the beans in cold salted water (2 pinches of salt).
Strain, put cold water and boil the beans for 5 minutes.
Strain again and throw water
In a saute pan over medium-high heat put tomato paste for a few minutes.Remove, wipe with a paper pan and keep the paste in a bowl.In the same pan in 1 tbspolive oil saute the onion and garlic to get nice color and keep themselves on the side.
Then in a little olive oil saute sausage, celery and carrot until the sausage is getting good color and the vegetables soften slightly.
Then in a pot with 2 liters of water, put the beans with the cube, herbs tomato paste, garlic, onion, carrots, celery and cook for about 1 hour over low heat without stirring, keeping the pot half covered
Check to add a little water as it is good to keep it boiling in order not to interrupt the cooking of our food.
Season with salt towards the end of cooking and then add the sausages and a little raw olive oil to serve
I always remember the times when I was young looking my mother preparing soups for supper..especially during winter….fasolada…lentil soup…..fish soup….and chicken soup.
One of the most stupid thoughts that I had seeing my mother cooking a soup is that it takes so much time. Well, that is not the case. Cooking a chicken soup is a one of the most easiest recipes you can have.
The reason why I say that is because you don’t need to have any extra skills or do two things at the same time…the only thing that takes time is cleaning the vegetables. Other than that is a recipe that it’s really straight forward and depends on you how much you want to change it.
The basic ingredients for me that you need to use are… chicken breast (obviously J ) , rice and lemon ! Other than that you can add as many vegetables as you want or have.
So lets try it !
Ingredients for Chicken Soup
1 small chicken
1 cup of rice
6 carrots
2 courgettes cut in large pieces
1 cup of olive oil
1 red onion trimmed
couple of leaves from celery
1 lemon juice
sal,t pepper
How to cook Chicken Soup
In a large pot put 2.5 litters of water, thoroughly wash the chicken and put it in the pot. Add the olive oil, onion, celery and a little salt. Cook chicken over medium heat for about 1 hour and 15 minutes. 15 minutes before the end pour into carrots whole.
Once thoroughly boil the chicken remove carefully and leave it in a platter. Remove carrots and leave it on the plate to cool. Pass the broth of chicken from fine strainer not to have pieces of chicken. Put it back in the pot and let it boil.
Remove the breast of the chicken. Cut into small pieces and pour the broth boils. Pour the chopped carrots. Taste and, if necessary, add a little salt. Add one cup of rice soup. Allow the soup to boil thoroughly until rice is melting and lightly thicken the soup.
The chicken is always in big pieces as well as all the vegetables.
Add the juice of a lemon, some salt if necessary and at the time of serving pepper. The soup is served warm.
Its difficult to write about the following dish as anyone that has been to Greece or is Greek knows about it. The following bean soup is called “Fasolada” in Greek and it is one of the most famous dishes in country and one of the most healthy ones you can find.
Trying to pronounce it can be a little bit difficult, but then again most of the recipes over here i guess would make you feel the same.
Fasolada -and not mousaka– has been often characterized as the national food of Greece. There are many stories behind that. One of it is that before German occupation of 1941 but obviously afterwards, Greeks didn’t have much money to eat and meat was rare and only for privileged people. So many greeks had Beans as a basic part of there menu.
Nevertheless, Fasolada has its roots also in ancient Greece where there are mentions about it.
Our Fasolada Soup
In Athens, every year they celebrated god Apollo on the fourth month of the Athenian calendar which most probably would be around …end of September with end of October in our times. In order to celebrate his presence they were cooking bean soup for him.
Why especially bean soup?
Well, when Thiseas according to ancient mythology, went to Crete to kill Minotauro he stopped in the sacred island of Dilos to make a sacrifice (Olive which was considered sacred…) to Apollo in order to help him and come back alive. However, Thiseas coming back to Athens after killing Minotauro didn’t had anything on his boat to give to Apollo.
Most probably they ate everything…
So Thiseas ordered his crew to gather beans that was left and offer them to Apollo in the temple of Dilos. The result? Athenians and later on other Greeks were always cooking bean soup at that time!Whatever story you choose doesn’t makes a big difference. The main point is that it is one of the most traditional dishes of the country.
The recipe is really simple but it takes a lot of preparation in order to succeed the proper taste.
Add some Feta cheese on top and your greek bean soup is ready
How do you make the Greek Bean Soup (Fasolada) ?
500 gr of medium beans
3 carrots sliced
2 medium onions sliced
2 celery sliced
1 tomato juice can
1/2 cup of Olive Oil
Salt/Pepper
Method
Boil the beans in pot for 35-40 mins and then strain them. Slice all the vegetables . Add in the pot the Olive Oil, as well as the vegetables and stir them really good as they start to sizzle.
Pour the tomato can and stir it good so it can mix with all the other vegetables. Then we add the half cooked beans and we pour a bit of boiled water so it can cover all the ingredients.
Cover the pot and continue to boil for 30-40 mins.
Add salt and water as well as Olive oil to make the bean soup more juicy. Serve it with Olives or pickles.
Is Fasolada Healthy?
It is
the dish of the Greek culture and tradition. A trademark of the Greek diet
which is extremely nutritious and
topical due to its low cost choice.
Like
all legumes, it is a very good source of plant protein in our diet. It is not
compared to the protein of meat and animal food, but when combined with foods
such as rice it is very close to it. It contains
significant amounts of insoluble and soluble fiber that contributes to lowering
blood cholesterol levels and good functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
It is
also an excellent source of vitamin B1, which is also called thiamine, and
plays a role in our better mental function.
Adding
vegetables and spices, such as celery, carrot, significantly increases the
vitamin content of an antioxidant such as carrot. According
to the principles of the Mediterranean diet, legumes such as beans and lentils
should be consumed at least once or twice a week. And for those who cook them
we advise not to overdo it in the oil and add it to the end of the cooking or
even raw after boiling.
A cup
(172 g) of cooked beans contain:
Calories:227
Carbohydrates:40.8 g
Totalfat: 0.9g
Vegetablefiber: 15g Is excellent source:
Iron(3.61mg),
Magnesium(120mg),
phosphorus(241mg)
Flavic acid (256mcg)
and good source:
Zinc (1.93mg),
thiamine(0.42 mg),
niacin (2mg).
Still anot so well-known feature is their high antioxidant content.
Lentils were one of those foods that I hated when I was young as I found that there was nothing interesting on them. As kids the only things that you really like are meat, …meat…..pasta and meat…
Despite that everything changes when you lose something…and after some years in the uk I realised that I didn’t had Lentils for ages… Lentils are really healthy and really tasty while there are different variations on them. In Greek its pronounced as Fah-kes and I know that many English can make a lot of jokes regarding the name buuut…we will continue 🙂
As I said, there are a lot of variations about the lentil soup but I am a traditional kind of guy and I still do them the way that my mother was doing them when I was young…and I was never eating them…
INGREDIENTS FOR LENTIL SOUP – FAKES
500gr of green lentils
1 red onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic chopped
1 can of tomato juice
Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper
Oregano
2 Bay leaves
Vinegar
1 vegetable stock cube
The traditional greek lentil soup. Fakes with a bit of vinegar
HOW TO COOK FAKES
In deep pot, add some olive oil and throw in the garlic and onions. Let them sizzle for 3 minutes making sure that they are not burned at all.
Add water to fill 3/4 of the pot and then add the lentils inside. Put Salt, pepper, the vegetable cube as well as the bay leaves and bring them to boil for 45 minutes.
When the lentils have soften a bit then you can add the can with the tomato juice and continue to boil it for another 30-40 minutes.
Add oregano , and a teaspoon of olive oil in the end so the mixture becomes a bit more thick. Serve together with a bit of vinegar and some feta cheese.
