Tomato and Spinach Soup

Tomato-Spinach Soup

This was a completely unexpected and impromptu soup. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m not much into soup since I have so few soup recipes. But this just came together suddenly, since I didn’t even get into to the kitchen until about 8 in the evening. What can I say, I was bored so I started cooking. I had some things I wanted to use up before they go bad and wanted something easy, light, healthy, and packed with nutrients. And since I’m fond of throwing a bunch of stuff in one pot and seeing what develops, I got a really yummy soup that is perfect for this cold and rainy weather. I hope, one of these days we’ll have spring.

Ingredients:
1 (1lb) jar of tomato sauce
2 bell peppers (red and yellow, or whatever you want)
1 large onion
1/2 lb carrots
1/2 cup of brown rice (optional)
1 lb spinach
Water (at least as much as the tomato sauce; I used two times the tomato sauce)
basil
bay leaves (optional; I used a few small ones)
Spices (salt, freshly ground black pepper, cumin, corriander, paprika, Pensey’s Chile Con Carne, Pensey’s Sweet Curry)

Steps:
1. Saute the onion and bell peppers. Season a little bit.
2. Heat the tomato sauce in a pan (I used a 3.5 QT pan). Add water (as much as you used for the tomato sauce. I just used the empty jar of sauce).
3. Add the sauted vegetables and cook a few minutes.
4. Add brown rice, if using and carrots.
5. Add spinach.
6. Add the rest of the water and bay leaves.
7. Add the spices, whichever you are using, and basil.

Tomato Soup ingredients

Tomato soup and veggies

Tomato soup and spinach

Shurpa

Shurpa

When I say we cooked yesterday, I mean we really cooked. In addition to Nora’s Salad and Damlyama, we also made Shurpa. Shurpa is a rich and brothy lamb soup that warms your soul. There are many variations, mainly having to do with vegetables and garbanzo beans. My dad likes garbanzo beans in shurpa and that’s how we made it back home, so that’s how we made it here too, though many people leave out the garbanzo beans. The main thing to keep in mind is that you want the broth to be clear and free of color. Take a look at the picture at the bottom of this post. That is why the vegetables are generally whole or halved. But here is our version. Nora, please correct me where/if I missed anything.

Veggies in Shurpa. See the carrots, onion, greens, and pepper chunks? See the floating tomato half?

Ingredients:
2 whole carrots
1 small onion whole
1 tomato (we used Roma) cut in half
1/2 red pepper (cut 2 sides off)
2 lbs of garbanzo beans (we used 2 1-lb cans drained)
1/2 large onion cut into half moons
2 lbs of lamb (get soup bones, not just the fleshy bits)
1.5 – 2 LB of potatoes
Salt, black pepper (whole, not ground!), cumin (all to taste)
parsley and dill (about 10 stems or so whole, if they’re kinda full)
parsley and dill for garnish (put into each plate, about a teaspoon each plate)
Water

Steps:
1. Salt the meat and put into a large pot (a stock pot would work). Cover with water and let come to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat but keep it at a low boil. When the meat is cooking, you will see a grayish film bubble up (I’m sure there is a name for it, I just don’t know what it is in English), but be sure to skim it off; nobody wants to eat that.
2. Add the carrots, small whole onion, 2 halves of the tomato, pepper pieces, and parsley.
3. Cook for about a half hour and then add the garbanzo beans. Season.
4. About a half hour before the soup is done, add the potatoes which have been cut into bite size pieces.
5. Cook for about 4 hours total, on a low boil.

Potatoes in Shurpa

Brothy Shurpa

Lagman (Uzbek soup/sauce)

This recipe turned out very close to how I remember my grandmother’s Lagman.  Having grown up in Uzbekistan (Tashkent), we ate this somewhat often.  I love the food of the region and I try to reproduce some of it now.  There are many variation on Lagman, some have it really “dry” and more like a sauce, some have it more “wet”, like a soup.  Our version is the more like soup one.

All the chopping and slicing is very much worth the effort.

Ingredients:
1lb lamb (cut into small pieces, about 1-inch cubes)
3 TBLSP of extra virgin olive oil or vegetable oil
2 medium onions (diced)
4 medium-large carrots (diced)
2-4 bell peppers (diced) [I used 2 really large red ones]
3-4 tomatoes (diced) [I used 1 14-oz can of diced tomatoes]
4 medium potatoes (diced)
8 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
4-5 cups of stock [I used chicken stock but beef stock works absolutely great]
3 medium bay leaves
salt, pepper, coriander, and cumin to taste

Steps:
1. Saute the diced onion, carrots, and bell peppers.

Diced onion, carrots, and bell peppers

2. Add the lamb, tomatoes, and garlic. Let this mixture cook until the meat gets browned.
3. Add the stock and bring to a boil.
4. Add the diced potatoes and the bay leaves and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Lamb, tomatoes, garlic, potatoes, and bay leaves

I add the salt, freshly ground black pepper, cumin, and corriander between each step. This way, the flavors can develop gradually and I can adjust as I go along. Also, you know your stove better than anyone, so adjust the cooking time to meet your stove’s capacity.

This must be serverd over noodles. I used spaghetti, but angel hair pasta works really well here too.

Lagman with Spaghetti

Lagman in kasa 'касушка'