Lemon Coriander Soup - Vegan/ No onion No garlic

A bowl of hot soup with some vegetables added is definitely a comfort meal on a chill rainy evening.  As many of you may know , I am not much of a soup loving person and I hardly make it at home , but there are certain soups which I love to have while dining out . With the present scenario where eating out is a distant dream, we were craving for the hot lemon coriander soup which we would relish at our favorite restaurant Mainland China . 

Lemon coriander soup is a basically a clear soup which very midly spiced with a refreshing flavor of lemon juice and freshly chopped coriander.  The after taste of lemon keeps lingering in your mouth for a long time and it feels so fresh and warm to sip on this on a cold evening. 

There is no specific list of  vegetables that go into it , you can  add whatever you like . Today I  just added few French beans , carrots, frozen corn . You can add some cabbage , celery , bellpepper as well . But personally I don't like to add too much veggies and prefer to keep it clean and easy to sip on.  Homemade vegetable stock can be used if you have it ready or if it is an impromptu call like how I did today, normal water can be used .

How to prepare vegetable stock ?

• Take chopped  vegetables like cabbage , celery, few cauliflower florets, carrots , onions and boil in 4 cups of water with a little salt until it reduces to 3 cups.  Skip the onions if you don't eat them.
• Strain  this mixture through a juice filter and your veg stock is ready .
• Best is when used fresh else you can store in a food grade bottle for 2 to 3 days in the fridge and use it as and when you please .

Preparation Time - 10 mins

Cooking Time - 7 to 8 mins

Complexity- simple 

Serves - 2 to 3 

Ingredients 

8 to 10 French beans chopped finely

1 small carrot finely chopped (skip if preparing jain version) 

Handful of chopped cabbage 

Handful of frozen corn

1 green chilli finely chopped 

1 tsp  corn flour or maida (use rice flour  for GF )

1 tsp oil 

Lots of fresh coriander 

1 or 2 lemons 

3 cups water or vegetable stock 

Method 

• In a deep pan or kadai, heat the oil and fry the chillies and add in the chopped veggies and saute for 1 - 2 mins. You can also saute about 1/2 tsp finely chopped garlic.
• Slowly add in the vegetable stock or water with required amount of salt and let it boil for about 5 to 6 mins or until the veggies are cooked. I used plain water today as I was not having the stock ready on hand .
• Mix the corn flour or maida in 2 tablespoon water and make a paste without lump and add it to the boiling soup . This will give a little thickness to the soup . You can skip this if you want to have a pure clear soup .
• After adding the flour paste, make sure you stir it continuously till the raw flavor is lost and then turn off the stove . Stirring is important because there is a tendency for the flour mixture to settle down and stick to the pan and the taste of the soup will be bad and all the effort will be wasted.
• Finally , squeeze in the lemon juice and add freshly chopped coriander and serve it hot . 
• Remember to add the coriander just before serving else it will wilt and turn black in the heat of the soup .

Donot forget to Pin it up for your reference