Vegetarian Lotus Root Soup

Hi Folks!

Warm nourishing soup is a comfort food for me, When I was staying with my mother-in-law during my first year of marriage, I pickup a little of her soup-making skill and habits. In her house, soup is a staple in every meal, be it lunch or dinner and at times when there are leftovers for breakfast or brunch during the weekends.

And my kids love soup too. It's a good point especially for picky eaters I felt as we could add in (or you may call it "hide") some nutritious ingredients that they normally wouldn't eat it on its own.

Now, baby ZS also picked up the love for soup, thus I am on my way to discover and polish up my soup-making skills once more.

Yesterday I made old cucumber soup(will share it in my next entry) and the kids had few bowls of it! *happy mom*

And now I would like to share my "experiment" for Vegetarian Lotus Root soup, another favourite for my family.

Vegetarian Lotus Root Soup

Ingredients

1. Lotus Roots (fresh, washed, peeled and sliced)
2. Black Beans (you can use *groundnuts or even pearl beans, I love using black beans for the blood-building properties and the protein-packed nutrients!)
3. Carrots (optional)
4. Mushroom (optional)
5. Red dates (a handful)
6. Black dates (a handful)
7. Tong Sum (it's said that this herb is good to build chi as well as to cure dry cough)
8. Honey dates (one for taste-enhancement without further additives to the soup)
9. Water
10. Salt for taste

Tips:

1. One tips my mother-in-law share with me for fool-proof sure-soft groundnuts in soup as some people like me, used to get hard groundnuts after simmering it for a long time....is to pre-boiled the groundnuts with boiling water over the fire for 5-10 minutes, throw away the water before adding the pre-boiled groundnuts to the soup. Then you'll get soft and yummy groundnuts for your soup.
2. How do you make the soup sweet as many of my non-vegetarian friends would asked me. For me, after lotsa experiments and tips from my mother-in-law is, we can generally use natural plants-based ingredients like carrots, celery, red dates, dried longan and even honey dates to make the soup fresh and soup.
3. Usually, my mother-in-law would cook this soup for 3 hours. After the water is boiled and the ingredients are added, simmer over low fire for 3 hours and the soup will be so power-packed with the lovely taste of the wholesome ingredients. However, for me, I would use thermal pot whereby I would boil the ingredients for 30 minutes and transfer it to the thermal pot base for further cooking. That'll save me time from watching over the fire and save some gas too. I know some people would use slow cooker for this and it's workable too ;)

That's all I used for the soup for my kids! Noticed that I opt out on peppers and too much seasonings as baby ZS is drinking this soup as well and the kids have no complaints. Thus is more like getting used to a more natural taste of the soup from all the natural ingredients!

Lastly, enjoy the soup while it's warm.

(For this picture, I have used pearl beans which cooked fast!)

Bon Appetit!

Cheers!