Another soup from the series - I throw everything I have into the pot, season it, and hope it will turn out good. You don't have to worry too much about the recipe because, as you can see, the proportions mentioned in it are... well, they are what they are. I just threw in whatever I had and what my heart told me to use.
INGREDIENTS:
95 g peanuts (unsalted and not roasted is preferable)
250 g broccoli and cauliflower florets
1 bell pepper
1 onion
80 g raisins
1 can of diced tomatoes
200 g cooked or canned kidney beans
30 g olive oil (three tablespoons)
1 1/2 liters of water or broth
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon hot paprika
pepper
salt
herbs for garnish
PREPARATION:
Roast the peanuts in a dry pan.
Separate the cauliflower and broccoli into small florets.
Slice the onion into thin strips.
Cut the bell pepper into quarters, remove the seeds, and slice crosswise into strips.
Heat olive oil in a pot and sauté the salted onion until lightly yellow. Add the bell pepper and spices (except for pepper and salt).
Sauté for a few minutes, then add the canned tomatoes, raisins, water or broth, and rice.
Cook over medium heat until the rice is al dente, then add the broccoli and cauliflower and cook until tender (but please, more on the al dente side!).
Finally, add the kidney beans and, if available, cilantro or parsley. Remove from heat. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper if needed.
VARIATIONS:
Since this is another "throw everything into the pot" soup or, as I like to call it, the chef's soup, there are thousands of variations depending on what you have on hand.
For example, I used half a red pepper and half a yellow pepper.
The important thing is to have a variety of vegetables in the soup, some protein (in this case, kidney beans and peanuts), and carbohydrates (such as rice, potatoes, grains, or bread as a side).
I believe adding protein is particularly important as it lowers the glycemic index, protects against insulin resistance, and helps prevent diabetes, which is becoming increasingly common in modern society.
NOTES:
You can use pre-cooked rice in this soup, in which case you cook the soup until the vegetables are tender.
If you cook rice in the soup, it is recommended to use white rice, as it cooks faster than brown rice.
It's best to use unsalted and not roasted peanuts. If you have roasted/salted peanuts, it's not a problem. You don't need to roast the peanuts, and keep in mind that salted peanuts will add saltiness to the soup.
In traditional Polish soups, it's common to throw all the ingredients together and cook them until everything is tender. As a result, the individual ingredients lose some of their distinctness. It takes a bit more effort to add the ingredients at different times, but it's definitely worth it.
Raisins were included here because I had an open package that I wouldn't have used up quickly otherwise. But they also played nicely with the tangy tomatoes in the soup. In Polish cuisine, adding fruits, including exotic ones or dried fruits, to savory dishes used to be quite common. The original, oldest recipes for bigos (a completely different dish from what we call it today) included apples and citrus juice. Such additions of sweet and sour fruits perfectly balance the flavor of the dish.
SERVING:
Serve with or without bread. An excellent addition is to add a spoonful
of cold yogurt on top of the soup on the plate, sprinkle it with salt, and drizzle it with lime juice.
Due to the properties of rice, the soup will thicken over a few hours. If that happens, add some water and salt to prevent the soup from losing its flavor.
Soup with everything is somewhat contradictory to haute cuisine or à la carte. It's more of an element of cucina povera, where we improvise a dish using everything we have left, everything that needs to be used up. Soup is an excellent way to use leftovers and ingredients with a short shelf life. Similarly, various stews or salads work well for this purpose.
It's a perfect opportunity to adapt the Buddhist joke about the Dalai Lama buying a hot dog.
What soup did the Dalai Lama order?
"One with everything."
In the original joke, it's "Make me one with everything," which captures the aim and essence of Buddhist practice and theory in a way.
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