I had no intention of cooking today. Cleaning my apartment took priority but surprisingly at 5:00pm with everything I set out to do done, I found myself looking at my numerous options in the refrigerator and longing for a clear soup. Before I knew it, I took out all the suitable vegetables I had - carrot, zucchini, red and yellow capsicums, brown onion, garlic cloves, a chunk of ginger, one fresh chilli pepper, kipler potatoes and a big tub of homemade soup stock.

This soup is incredibly easy to make and if you already have a homemade soup stock, (for recipe, see blogs dated 19 January and 2 January 2022), the flavour is complex and satisfying. Use whatever vegetables you have on hand and skip the chilli and ginger if you do not enjoy their spiciness; you will still have tremendous flavour without them. You will have a soup made from scratch in less than an hour!

Clear Vegetable Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients

5 cups homemade vegetable soup stock (no salt or fats added)

1 carrot, trimmed and julienned

1 zucchini, trimmed and julienned

1/4 red pepper, seeds removed and julienned

1/4 yellow pepper, seeds removed and julienned

2 kipler potatoes (or 1 large potato of another variety), julienned

1 brown onion, peeled and julienned

1 inch chunk of ginger, peeled and grated

1 fresh red chilli, stem trimmed and finely chopped

4-6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed with press

1 tsp Himalayan pink salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Method

Prepare the vegetables. Julienned all the vegetables with a mandolin using the large blade.

In a dutch oven, heat the sesame oil and add the onions. Cover and cook for several minutes checking to make sure they do not stick or burn. Add the ginger and chilli and cook for another minute or two. Add all the julienned vegetables and continue to cook for two to three minutes.

Add in the vegetable soup stock, crushed garlic, salt and pepper and bring to a healthy boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for twenty minutes.

Serve piping hot!