Recipe: Fearless Vegetable Soup

My husband travels a lot for work.  A lot of people would find that this made it difficult for them to cook, but I'm quite the opposite.  While my husband is a very adventurous eater, he does have some particular tastes.  When he's gone, I can indulge in creating dishes that appeal to me alone.  Sometimes I use ingredients he dislikes, such as lentils or eggplants.  Other times I experiment with new flavor combinations, or new dishes that come from my own fevered imagination.  This recipe is one such experiment. 

 

I don't think that there is anything in this recipe that my husband actively dislikes.  He would probably think that it wasn't filling enough, but that's okay.  It was fine just for me.  This makes enough for a main-course soup for two, or as a soup-course soup for four.  I was generally pretty happy with how it came out.  I would have preferred fresh lemongrass, but I didn't have any.  It probably looks like there is a lot of vegetable with little soup; this is kind of what I was going for.  If the high cost per serving is prohibitive, you can use less vegetables, or substitute other vegetables in.  Button mushrooms would make a less expensive alternative to the shitakes. 

 

Fearless Vegetable Soup (serves 2 as a main course; approx. $4.66/serving)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 red bell pepper, seeded and roughly chopped

3 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

1 habanero pepper, seeded and chopped (yes, seeded.  I was afraid of overpowering the shitakes.)

.15 lb snow peas (this was how much I was charged for, anyway.  It was about a handful.)

1 tablespoon grated pickled ginger

10 oz shitake mushrooms, coarsely chopped

1 piece dried lemongrass, crushed

1/4 teaspoon galangal powder

2 scallions, chopped, white and green parts divided

1/4 bunch cilantro, roughly chopped

2 cups vegetable broth

Equipment:

• Sauce pan, soup pan or wok

1. Heat the oil in the pot.
2. Add the bell pepper, garlic and habanero.  Cook until slightly softened.
3. Add the snow peas, mushrooms, white parts of the scallions, lemongrass and galangal.  Saute for a few moments to let the flavors marry.
4. Add the broth.  Boil until the vegetables are soft enough to be edible; this is a matter of personal taste. 
5. Garnish with the green scallion parts and the cilantro and serve.

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