SOUP OPERA: A Duo of Soupy Entries for the Rainy Days

For this round of Lasang Pinoy, I came up with two “soupy” entries made of leftover food from different meals at the ‘Orfanage’.

What is so great about soup then? For one, you can make it out of practically anything; and two, it doesn’t require a lot of fancy equipment. You can also make most soups ahead of time and they will taste even better after they’ve been in the refrigerator for a while. And when I think of cool, misty and rainy days, I think of good savoury foods, like stews, and homemade soup. There is nothing better on a cool weather than a steaming, delicious bowl of soup to warm up souls weary of the daily city grind.

PINOY MINESTRONE SOUP

Family dinners and get-togethers at the ‘Orfanage’ normally would be overflowing with foodie goodies. The first soup, Pinoy Minestrone Soup, is a result of leftover vegetable and noodle ingredients in a recent ‘shabu-shabu’ dinner. With Yaya SisterVi having been informed of this month’s theme, she was quick to suggest a recipe which everyone enjoyed over Saturday lunch the following day.

Minestrone is from the Latin minestrare, which simply means “dish,” or “to serve or dish up.” It is an Italian soup made with fresh seasonal vegetables, most often with the addition of pasta or rice. Common ingredients may include beans, onions, celery, carrots, stock, and tomatoes. There is no set recipe for minestrone, since it is usually made out of whatever vegetables are in season. [ And as the case here – leftover vegetables! ] It can be vegetarian, may contain meat, or contain a meat-based soup such as chicken or beef stock. Thus, the word “minestrone” has become synonymous with “hodgepodge”.

Minestrone is one of the cornerstones of Italian cuisine, and is probably more widely dispersed and eaten throughout Italy other than pasta. Minestrone originally was a very humble dish and was intended for everyday consumption, being filling and cheap, and would likely have been the main course of a meal. Minestrone is part of what is known in Italy as cucina povera [ literally “poor kitchen” ] meaning poorer people’s cuisine. Due to its unique origins, there is neither a fixed recipe, nor is it particularly similar across Italy, as it varies depending on traditional cooking times, ingredients, and season. Minestrone ranges from a thick and dense texture with very boiled-down vegetables, to a more brothy soup with large quantities of diced and lightly-cooked vegetables that may include meats. [ Wikipedia ]

Leftover Shabu-Shabu vegetables and seafood balls.

For this Minestrone, we chopped-up all the leftover veggies like cabbage, carrots, celery, red and green capsicum, including some leftover prawn and squid balls! Then we chopped some garlic, onions, spring onions, and tomatoes. To give the soup an added texture, we also added some diced potatoes.

We then brought a large pot with chicken stock to a boil. Then added the garlic, onions and tomatoes, some tinned tomato puree, oregano and basil, salt and pepper to taste, and simmered for about ten minutes until onions were translucent and the fresh tomatoes were well done. Finally, we added all the chopped vegetables, prawn and squid balls, leftover miki noodles, and simmered for another five minutes.

Minestrone Soup from recycled vegetable and noodle leftovers.

The result is a nice and flavourful soup to whet the appetite as well as a feast for the eyes with its burst of colours!

ALMONDIGAS SOUP

Now, the second soup came from leftovers of Albondigas [Spanish meatballs] served during an impromptu dinner for some visiting friends with kids. This Albondigas though is slightly different from the one I posted earlier. This particular Albondigas is the fastfood-spaghetti-meatballs version cooked in tomato sauce and sweet-tasting to suit the kids’ palates.

Almondigas Soup is basically meatballs with misua noodles on a clear soup and is one of the easiest and fastest to do. There are also aplenty variations of this soup here in the Philippines. Here in the ‘Orfanage’ and also back home, versions will vary according to available ingredients - fresh or recycled.

For this variation, we had the meatballs cut into quarters and remained soaked in the tomato sauce prior to cooking. A large pot with beef stock was then brought to a boil and added in the quartered meatballs, some chopped vegetables like Chinese cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, capsicum, onions, and finally the misua noodles.

Lasang Pinoy 15

Lasang Pinoy, which could mean ‘tastes of something Filipino’ or short for ‘the Filipino taste’ is a monthly food blogging event to promote Filipino food. It is a product of e-mail brainstorming sessions of several Filipino food bloggers who thought it was time for a Filipino event in the tradition of Is My Blog Burning. The blogger organisers of Lasang Pinoy and participants strive to make the events reflective of Filipino culture.

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