Last time I went to the market, I was planning on making a nutritious bone broth to sip and keep me warm and nourished while it gets colder here in Shanghai. To make bone broth, you basically just boil kitchen scraps. This includes ends of vegetables, random vegetables you forgot you had in your fridge, leftover bones from a previous meal etc. Since I didn't just have leftover bones laying around, I figured it would be easy enough to just find them at the local market. After all, cartilage is a popular enough thing in China right? Well I couldn't find any. In two of my local markets. So I had 2 carrots, a giant leek, and other random stuff in my fridge that I had forgotten about. So I decided to make soup. Soup is da bomb. You don't need a recipe to make a delicious and nutrient dense soup from scratch and it’s super cheap! Although I don't think anyone really needs a soup recipe, I am posting this one because it tasted dope af, turned out to be a beautiful colour, and I think its funny that I had no idea what I was doing and it shouldn't have worked, but it did.
So here it is. My “What Am I Doing With My Life Smokey Shanghai Tomato Carrot Soup”
I would like to incorporate some pun about chain smoking in Shanghai into the title but I am not clever enough with words for that. If you think of one feel free to comment!
I N G R E D I E N T S
Tomatos 3
Red Pepper
Carrots 2 medium sized
Red Onion .3
Leek 1
Lotus Root 1
Garlic 1 Clove
Ginger .5t
Rosemary .5t
Ground Turmeric 1T
Olive Oil … At least 3 good Swirls.. Then as much as your heart desires.
Salt n Peppa
D I R E C T I O N S
Peel and roughly chop the carrots and boil them until you can easily poke a fork into them. You want to chop them up into about 1 inch pieces. This helps them cook faster.
So here it is. My “What Am I Doing With My Life Smokey Shanghai Tomato Carrot Soup”
I would like to incorporate some pun about chain smoking in Shanghai into the title but I am not clever enough with words for that. If you think of one feel free to comment!
I N G R E D I E N T S
Tomatos 3
Red Pepper
Carrots 2 medium sized
Red Onion .3
Leek 1
Lotus Root 1
Garlic 1 Clove
Ginger .5t
Rosemary .5t
Ground Turmeric 1T
Olive Oil … At least 3 good Swirls.. Then as much as your heart desires.
Salt n Peppa
D I R E C T I O N S
Peel and roughly chop the carrots and boil them until you can easily poke a fork into them. You want to chop them up into about 1 inch pieces. This helps them cook faster.
Roughly chop the tomatoes, onion and garlic. I think I chopped one tomato into about 5 or 6 pieces. Add the tomatoes to a pot and drizzle with some olive oil and salt n peppa. Turn to a medium low heat stirring around every so often as you prep the other ingredients.
Cut the leek into 2 inch pieces then into two length wise.
Keep stirring the tomato until the pot dries out a bit and the tomatoes burn a bit then add about a quarter cup of water and stir. Keep adding about a quarter cup of water every time the tomatoes dry out. Once they are mushy and slightly overdone, add them to a blender. Don’t blend yet though!
Add the onions and the garlic to the pan with the leftover juices from the tomato and cook the onions until they are tender. Add about 1 cup of water throughout the cooking process or more if need be.
Once the carrots are cooked, strain them and add to the blender.If you live without an oven follow these steps to roast the pepper. If you have an oven, 400 Degrees turning every few minutes until done.
Stick a pair of chopsticks into the pepper, turn on your flame and roast the pepper over the flame until you have blistered the pepper. Make sure your pepper is dry to avoid any surprises.
Cut the leek into 2 inch pieces then into two length wise.
Keep stirring the tomato until the pot dries out a bit and the tomatoes burn a bit then add about a quarter cup of water and stir. Keep adding about a quarter cup of water every time the tomatoes dry out. Once they are mushy and slightly overdone, add them to a blender. Don’t blend yet though!
Add the onions and the garlic to the pan with the leftover juices from the tomato and cook the onions until they are tender. Add about 1 cup of water throughout the cooking process or more if need be.
Once the carrots are cooked, strain them and add to the blender.If you live without an oven follow these steps to roast the pepper. If you have an oven, 400 Degrees turning every few minutes until done.
Stick a pair of chopsticks into the pepper, turn on your flame and roast the pepper over the flame until you have blistered the pepper. Make sure your pepper is dry to avoid any surprises.
Once you’ve roasted the pepper peel off any charred areas of the skin. Don’t cut it off though. Underneath is where the flavour is.
Cut open the pepper, remove the seeds and add to the blender.
Cut open the pepper, remove the seeds and add to the blender.
In your blender should be: tomatoes, onion, red pepper, garlic ginger. Good? Blend.
Once you have a smooth consistency add the soup back to the pot you cooked the onion and tomato in. Put to a low heat and add the turmeric and rosemary and leeks.
Peel and slice the lotus root and add to the soup. cover and cook for 10-15 minutes.
I had the soup with my leftover roast chicken sandwich and it was AWESOME. Enjoy!
**If you couldn’t tell, this became smokey because while prepping other food, I let the tomatoes dry out and they burned ever so slightly. Which is how I came to adding the water and getting that awesome smokey flavour! I know lotus root doesn't usually belong in this kind of soup.. but it worked. Really well. Happy accidents all around!
Peel and slice the lotus root and add to the soup. cover and cook for 10-15 minutes.
I had the soup with my leftover roast chicken sandwich and it was AWESOME. Enjoy!
**If you couldn’t tell, this became smokey because while prepping other food, I let the tomatoes dry out and they burned ever so slightly. Which is how I came to adding the water and getting that awesome smokey flavour! I know lotus root doesn't usually belong in this kind of soup.. but it worked. Really well. Happy accidents all around!