Beetroot Soup | Ayurvedic Meal 1

I attended a cooking class by Dr Sujatha Kekada in Ubud Bali. Dr Sujatha is an Ayurvedic doctor who owns Amrta Siddhi an Ayurvedic clinic at Nyuh Kuning in Ubud. The five recipes she planned out for us that afternoon was a dosha balancing meal. So far I've only tried out 3 of them.

This was the first dish, an appetizer to prepare the gut for a better digestion. We were all pretty reluctant to taste it at first as you must agree it is an unacceptable color for a delicious bowl of soup? But it turned out to be the yummiest homemade vegetable soup I've ever tasted. Those who said they weren't hungry, scraped the pot cleaned!

Ayurvedic Beetroot Soup Recipe

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Ingredients

• 1/2 kg beetroot peeled and halved
  
• 1 medium sized potato and halved
  
• 1/2 tspn thyme leaves
• 2 cloves garlic sliced
  
• 1/4 cup shallots sliced
  
• 2 cups water
  

Seasoning and oils

• 1 tbsp ghee
  
• 2 tspn sea salt
• 1 tspn ground black pepper
  

Directions

1. Boil beetroot and potato for 5 mins at medium heat.
2. Sauté the garlic and shallot
   
3. Pour beetroot and potato together with the stock into the blender. Add in garlic and shallot and blend until texture is smooth.
4. Pour the smooth paste into the pot and bring to boil.
5. Add thyme and ground black pepper.
   

Serves 6 people.

Amaranth Soup

Edible amaranth is a widely used vegetable in Southeast Asia and it is also referred to as Chinese spinach. Other names most commonly used are en choy (Cantonese) and bayam (Indonesian and Malay). When selecting this vegetable, look for young amaranth with stems that snap easily and do not bend. Edible amaranth is also great eaten raw mixed in salads.

Usually, this dish is prepared in a broth made with dried anchovies and shrimp. I like this dish primarily because it is such a clean tasting soup.

Amaranth Soup Recipe

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Ingredients

• 1 bundle of edible amaranth
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 3 slices of ginger, julienned
• a small handful of wolfberries
• 3 cups of stock (or water)

Seasoning and oils

• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp mushroom seasoning
• sea salt to taste

Directions

1. In a wok over medium-high heat, heat sesame oil. When oil has heated, stir-fry garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 1 min.
2. Add stock to wok. When broth begins to simmer, add mushroom seasoning, wolfberries and season with salt.
3. Add amaranth to simmering broth and cover wok allowing it to simmer until amaranth wilts, about 2 mins.
4. Check seasoning and serve immediately.

Serves 2 people.

Ginger Wine Soup With Rice Noodle

This is a quick no fuss meal.

Ginger wine soup with rice noodle recipe

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• 4 stalks of chinese cabbage, sliced
• White crab mushroom
• 1 1/2 inch ginger, stripped (can you tell I love ginger?)
• Rice noodle for 2
• 1 ltr of water

Seasonings and oils

• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp of mushroom seasoning (or any vegetarian stock seasoning)
• salt or Braggs liquid aminos to taste

Directions

1. Boil ginger in water for 10 mins on low heat
2. Add in rice noodle and mushroom and boil until noodle is cooked
3. Add seasonings and oil

Serves 2 people

Sweet potato dessert soup

Even though this is considered a dessert soup, I find myself having it as part of my breakfast or during teatime. It's extremely easy to make and simply good to eat!

I like using brown slab sugar, but if that is not available, rock sugar will work just as well. Back home, mum added a pandan leaf (screwpine leaves) knot in the soup giving it a nice sweet aroma. Osmanthus flowers are a good substitute as pandan is relatively difficult to find outside of Southeast Asia.

Sweet potato dessert soup recipe

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• 1 sweet potato, cut into chunks
• brown slab sugar to preferred taste
• 6 big slices of ginger
• enough water to cover ingredients in a pot
• 1 knotted pandan leaf or 1 tsp of dried osmanthus flowers (optional)
  

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in a pot and cover with water.
2. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low.
3. Simmer for 15-20minutes.
4. Serve and enjoy!
   

ABC Soup

Nope, there are no alphabets in this soup. I suppose it has been dubbed ABC soup because it is as simple as ABC to put together. It requires only the most basic of ingredients that every home kitchen has on hand - carrots, onions, potatoes and bones (usually pork ribs).

ABC soup is a staple in most Asian households and a comfort food. When I asked my friend what we should make after a long day of moving to her new apartment, she said, "How about some ABC soup!" As a kid, mum would make a big pot of soup in the morning, we'd eat it for lunch and then as a side with other dishes during dinner.

As there are no pork ribs on this blog, here's a rib-less version that's just as nourishing and just as comforting.

ABC soup recipe

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• 1 carrot
• 1 white onion
• 1 small potato
  
• 1/2 sweet potato
• 1 small tomato
• 1 lily bulb (bai he 百合), seperated (optional)
  
• 1 cup chopped oyster mushrooms
• a knob of ginger
• 3 whole cloves of garlic
  
• Enough water to cover ingredients in a pot

Seasonings

• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• chopped scallions for garnishing
  

Directions

1. Chop vegetables in to chunks.
2. Fill soup pot with water and add in all ingredients.
3. Bring soup to a boil and simmer, covered, for about an hour.
4. Check seasoning and add salt if required.
5. Turn off heat and allow soup to rest a few minutes before serving.
6. Garnish with chopped scallions.