Chicken-Vegetable Soup [Indian Style]

 

Whenever I try to reduce my weight, I cook mixed vegetable soup with some chicken breast meat. And, I have it the whole day as main or side dish. Instead of having the same soup often, I sometimes turned it into tom yam soup and soup with other flavour with some extra seasoning or ingredients added. 

I recalled the soup that an Indian friend cooked for us when we were invited to her house for dinner, which my boy loved it very much. The ingredients used were similar to the vegetable soup I usually cooked, but with few extra ingredients and spices added. The soup was just superb, tasted good and low in calorie.

The spice-mix is from Malaysia it contains cumin, fenugreek seed, mustard seed, fennel seed, and etc. I am not sure what it called, and I got to admit that I am not good in Indian spice at all. According to my friend, this spice-mix is good for vegetable and fish dishes. For meat dishes, spices like clove, cardamon and star-anise are good.

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp Indian spice-mix
• 1-2 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/4 head cabbage (large cabbage), cut into chunks (if cabbage is small, use more)
• 1-2 stalk celery, cut into chunks
• 1 carrot, cut into chunks
• 1/4 head broccoli, divide florets
• 1/2 chicken breast meat, slice and season with some salt
• 20 g bean-thread noodles / 冬粉/ 春雨

Method:

1. Heat a large pot, add in oil. Saute spice mix, garlic and onion till fragrant then add in turmeric powder. Cook for a minute, add in about 1/5 litre of water. Bring to a bowl.
2. Add in all cabbage, celery, carrot and chicken. Cook on low heat for about 15 minutes, then add in broccoli, bean-thread noodles and salt to taste. Cook for 2-3 minutes. 
3. Transfer to bowl and serve warm. If soup celery / coriander is available, chop and garnish.