Sweet Corn Soup

Yesterday we had a cold day. It had rained in the morning and all day long it was very cool with strong winds too. This weather prompted me to cook something warm and comforting and thus soup was made. I love Sweet Corn Soup a lot. I picked up this recipe from Nita Mehta's Chinese Vegetarian Cuisine book.

Found this info while I did some googling on Sweet Corn:

Key benefits of sweetcorn

Sweetcorn is a good source of folate. It also helps protect against age-related macular degeneration and helps fight free radicals in the retina. It provides more starch and more calories than most vegetables. It is high in iron and potassium. It is also a good food for steadying blood sugar.

How much sweetcorn should you eat?

Sweetcorn is fairly high in calories. An average portion of 85g a day should be sufficient to derive the benefits from sweetcorn.

Now coming back to the recipe. Here is what's needed:(Serves 3)

2 big whole Corn

3 cups Water

1/2 tsp Ajinomoto (optional. I skipped this yet it was tasty)

1 tbsp Cornflour dissolved in 1 cup water

1/2 - 1 tbsp Sugar

Salt to taste

1/4 tsp White pepper

3/4 tsp White Vinegar

1/4 cup chopped Cabbage (Optional)

1/4 cup chopped Carrot (Optional)

Procedure:

1) Grate Corn. Reserve few corns whole Corns too.

2) Pressure cook grated corn along with whole Corns with 3 cups Water and a tsp of Salt. After the first whistle keep it on medium low for 10-15 mins.

3) Mix Cornflour in a cup of Water and add to the cooked Corn. Add Sugar, Ajinomoto if using and pepper. Mix well. Let it boil for 10 mins. If the soup appears to be too thin you may add some more Cornflour dissolved in water and add to it.

4) If adding vegetables add it at this point and let it boil only for 3 mins. This keeps vegetable crunchy. Serve hot. 

This Soup is very filling and if combined with fresh salad will make a complete meal.

Broccoli Stir-Fry

I had never tasted Broccoli before I came here. With the advent of Supermarkets though it was available in my home town, I was skeptical to cook with it. I was not sure how to cook it or how it would even taste. When we visited a local resturant here I noticed I did not have much options for vegetarians.. it was stir fried veggies with a bowl of rice.. that's all. And the options of veggies that I had was grated Potato, blanced Spinach and Egg Plant ( Since those were the only veggie names that we knew in chinese ;) )

We had once been to a place called Ningbo. The original attraction to this place was that we wanted to go over the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the longest sea- crossing bridge. We decided to stay overnight in Ningbo and see the places around. We reached there and started with our sightseeing. At lunch time we entered a nice local restaurant. We also had one of my hubby's friend with us who is a pure veggie like me. The staff were not fluent with English so it was difficult for us to communicate with them and even the menu was in Chinese. Later a lady who seemed to be a manager came over and asked us to look at all the dishes. In this place they had a display of all the food that they cook and we have to make our choice and then they would take an order and make fresh batch of food. My hubby and his friend went over and ordered the food. They showed the veggies and told them that we eat this or that (Poiniting to the veggies) and also asked them not to include egg,meat,fish,Chicken. The lady took our order and within few minutes our order was being served. One after the other the dishes appeared on our table. Seven side dishes and a big hot bowl of noodles and three small bowls of rice. It so happened that the lady misunderstood when my hubby and his friend had explained to her the options of veggies that we eat and she thought that we wanted to have all those. She asked the staff to prepare Individual dishes out of those veggies! Though the food was tasty we had lot of leftovers!

That was the first time I ever tried out Broccoli and did I say I loved it. Now it has been one of the regular dishes that we order everytime we go out. I prefer it over the Cauliflower!! This recipe was given by my Cousin sister, Archanakka. I only made  a change to her recipe by adding garlic too. Almost all the chinese resturants here add garlic juice to Broccoli stri fry and I love its taste.

Here is what's needed:

1 medium Broccoli cut into florets and cleaned

2-3 garlic cloves minced

Salt and Pepper powder to taste

Olive oil 

Procedure:

1) Heat Olive oil and add Garlic. Saute it for 30secs. 

2) Add Broccoli and stir fry for 5 minutes or until crisp tender. Add salt and pepper to taste and Serve hot.

Broccoli's nutrients include vitamin C, vitamin A (mostly as beta-carotene), folic acid, calcium, and fiber. Broccoli is an important calcium source for those who don't consume dairy products. For more info on Broccoli click here.

I am sending this diet food over to Divya's Diet Food Event. Thank you Divya for this wonderful event.