The class today was soup! 20 enthusiastic participants enjoying themselves immensely. A visit to Earthcare is always a joy. Eric took us on a tour of the community vege garden and we picked a few ingredients for lunch on the way.

From talking with folks today it is clear that there is a growing movement of realisation that being vegetarian is health giving and promotes sustainability across the planet.

Here’s the recipes from today:

The Stock for the Soups

To make a delicious stock ready to be used in soup the idea is to add a variety of tasty vegetables and herbs. As Ling says ‘anything you can find in your garden’. Today the stock started with a large pot of water since we were preparing four soup dishes in the class. Ingredients were leaves from the outside of the corn cob, perilla, amaranth branches with seeds, chokoes sliced into four skin and all, lemon balm and a teaspoon of salt. You could equally use carrot, turnip, apple, grapes, cabbage, corn cobs, celery; just to name a few.

Bring the stock to the boil and let it simmer for half an hour.

Steam Boat

Using the vegetable stock which is made from garden veges, eg chokoes and other greens.

Ingredients

• Enoki mushrooms – 1 packet
• Vermicelli noodles – 3 individual servings
• Tofu, soft silky – 3 packets
• Soy nuggets – 1 pack
• Vegetable Q-tofu chunks – 1 pack
• vegetarian chunky fish – 1 pack
• broccoli – 1 head
• Tomatoes – a few tomatoes
• Cabbage – half head, chopped to bite sized
• Water cress – 1 bunch
• Sauce: Satay sauce mixed with soya sauce and mushroom chilli sauce

Method (at home version)

• Prepare the vegetables and tofu etc into bite sized pieces ready for dipping and cooking in the steam boat stock.
• Keep the stock simmering in the pot on the table.
• Put your choice of vegetables and tofu pieces into the steam boat.
• When they are ready to eat, lift them out and dip them into the sauce, ready to eat.

Choko and Corn Soup

Ingredients

• Chokoes x 2 peeled and diced
• sweet corn. Sliced off the cob.
• Potato, 3 medium sized, diced
• Carrot, 2 medium, diced
• long green beans, 200 g sliced
• onion x 2 medium, diced fine
• extra virgin olive oil, 3 tablespoons
• corn flour to thicken, optional
• soy sauce, 3 tablespoons
• pepper, a few pinches
• BBQ sauce, 2 tablespoons

Method

• Add the olive oil to the pot and heat. Add the onions and fry. Add the potato and carrot and fry for 5 minutes.
• Add the beans, corns and rest of vegetables. Add the soy sauce, pepper and BBQ sauce. Cook for a few minutes.
• Add the previous stock, bring to the boil
• Ready to serve.

Pak Kayang Soup

Pak Kayang aka Sawtooth Coriander aka Rice Paddie herb aka Limnophila aromatica

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of Pak Kayang, chopped fine
• 1 cup of crispy soy slices, cut in half
• bean sprouts x 2 cups
• four cups of stock
• chilli paste and mushroom sauce x 3 tablespoons
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• choko leaf tips

Method

• bring the stock to the boil
• add sauces
• throw all other ingredients into the stock
• bring to boil
• serve

Vermicelli omelette soup

Ingredients

• Eggs x 6
• vermicelli x 2 packets
• ½ cup of chives
• pepper
• soy sauce
• stock 4 cups
• olive oil
• Miso sauce x 2 tablespoons

Method

• soak the vermicelli for 15 minutes until soft, then cut in to 2 cm sections
• drain and squeeze out excessive water
• put in bowl
• add pepper, chives and eggs and beat
• add oil to a pan and heat, add the mix and cook
• cut the omelette into bite size
• bring the stock to bowl and throw the omelette pieces
• add 2 tablespoons of Miso sauce bring to the boil and serve garnished with chives.

Banana and Sago coconut dessert

Ingredients

• 10 x bananas
• organic brown sugar 1 cup
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup of sago
• 1 can of coconut cream
• 4 cups of water

Method

• cook the banana with the skin on
• peel the banana and cut into bite size
• soak the sago in 1 cup of water
• add 3 cups of water in the pot
• add banana, sugar and salt, cook for 10 minutes
• add sago, cook for 5 minutes
• add coconut milk, when boiled its ready to serve.