Make Something Monday: Easy Soup Curry a la Jane

Hey! This is the first installment of a new weekly topic! Make Something Monday! (Ohkay, that's probably my quota for exclamation points for this post.)

I probably swiped it from some other blog but I can't remember what blog. Sorry. Anyway, the topic is exactly what it sounds like: every Monday I'm going to make something and then post about it! Of course, I can't promise that I'll have time to make something every Monday...but I'll try and if I can't make something ON Monday, I'll plan to make something FOR Monday.

When I first thought about incorporating this, I thought I'd be making something like a craft but it turns out for the inaugural run I decided to post a recipe!

The temperature is finally on a decline (and not just hanging out in some weird limbo) so today I wanted something to warm me up for dinner. At first, I thought about whipping up some easy minestrone (most of my cooking is "easy") but I didn't have any beans (which also meant that I couldn't just make some reliable veggie chili) or small pasta. I just couldn't have minestrone without beans or pasta.

The next logical step would be soup curry, of course! (Not really.)

Soup curry is exactly what its name implies: a curry flavored soup with heaps of veggies and meat (if you want). It's a specialty of Hokkaido- the area's cold climate is the best place to enjoy a bowl of hot, spicy soup curry. Also, many restaurants boast the use of homegrown vegetables (much of Hokkaido is farmland).

From our favorite soup curry place, Voyage

A true soup curry would/should take hours to make. You have to do things like make a roux, and simmer things for 2 or more hours and strain liquids out of vegetables and put a lot of extra love into it. I, however, do not have the time nor the desire to spend making a "true soup curry" though I do try to put in as much love as I can spare. Here's a link to a recipe http://www.powderlife.com/magazine/issue/16/japanese-cooking-recipies/hokkaido-soup-curry that sounds not too hard but still not my cup of tea- at least not for a regular weekday meal.

And here's what I did:

First I made Ryan cut the vegetables. Then I threw the vegetables (carrots, peppers, kabocha) onto a baking pan and started baking them at 220C.

I then started on the soup. First I sauteed the onion and garlic in olive oil in a large pot. Then I added the water and the onion soup powder. I brought this to a boil. Then I realized that I should saute the spices with the onion and garlic and the can of tomatoes (OK, kinda like a roux) THEN add the water...

So I poured the onion soup water into another container. With the garlic and onion still in the large pot, I added a little more olive oil, put the pot over a medium flame then just added the spices to my liking. Here's the list of spices I decided to use:

Don't worry, I listed them in the ingredients area at the end of this entry.

This smelled soooooo good! After I decided the spices were all warm and mixed, I poured the canned tomatoes in the pot. Just as I thought, it seemed that the tomatoes took over the flavor of the spices so I added more spices. When it started to smell great again, I poured the onion soup water back into the pot, lowered the heat, and worked on the next step.

At this point I realized I forgot to tell Ryan to cut the potatoes and the eggplant. So I did these myself, and set them aside to roast after the first batch of vegetables were done. This took about 20-30 minutes. I put the roasted vegetables in a container and started roasting the potatoes and eggplant.



The potatoes and eggplant took about 40 minutes I guess. I also threw in the avocado about 25 minutes in (so they cooked for about 15 minutes.)



The soup had been simmering for awhile at this point and filling the kitchen with the loveliest fragrances.



Now that all the veggies were roasted and the soup was hot, it was time for assembling!!

I just ladled some soup into a bowls, and then put as many vegetables as I could fit.




We enjoyed this soup with some toasted baguette.

The little tub of butter was a present from a neighbor. She said it's a kind of handcrafted butter. It's SUPER tasty. (I love butter.)

Here's Ryan enjoying his soup curry.

That's his excited face. Really!

In Summary:

1. Cut all the vegetables that you want in your soup curry.

2. Place them (except garlic and onions) on a baking pan with sides, sprinkle some oil on top, and bake or roast. (Whatever setting you use to do that kind of thing.)

3. Saute garlic and onions in a large-ish pot. Add spices. Stir around until it dries up a bit and starts smelling awesome.

4. Add the canned tomatoes. Mix well. Add more spices to your liking.

5. In another pot, bring water to a boil and add the onion soup powder. Then add this water to the large pot of spicy tomato roux. Simmer until the veggies are ready.

6. When the veggies are ready, place as much as you like in your bowl and then gently ladle the soup curry into the bowl. (I originally did this the other way around but I think this way is better.)

7. Enjoy with rice or bread or even just by itself!

Pro-tips:

#1. Some cheese sprinkled in the soup is delicious. Alternatively, you could put cheese over your rice. Even better, sprinkle some fried garlic chips on top of your rice.

#2. You can add chili peppers or crushed chilis to the soup to make it as hot as you like.

Ingredients:
4 cups water
Onion soup powder
1 can tomatoes
Onion
Garlic
Olive Oil
4 Potatoes
4 Peppers
1 Carrot
3 slices of Kabocha
2 Eggplants
Spices: Cumin. Turmeric, Coriander (died leaf and powder), Black pepper, Garam Masala, Spicy Curry Powder