Thursday February 12, 2009 I’ve been on an experiment making little micro soups.  It’s part of my self-reprogramming routine.  In the past, I always ended up making too much soup and so now I’m training myself to make smaller portions.  Plus that means I can make a new soup each day and not have to eat the same one for a week until it’s gone or freeze it.  At first it wasn’t easy, but I quickly got the hang of it and acquired some good cooking habits at the same time.

First I analyzed. what was causing me to make way too much soup each time?  Usually I start by carmelizing 2 chopped onions, 2 carrots and 2 stalks of celery with 6 cloves of garlic while I decide what else will go in the soup.  Ok, right there is one problem.  So what I do now is chop and saute only one onion, half a carrot and half a stalk of celery.  Instead of an entire can of chopped tomatoes, I add only 1/4 to 1/3 of a can.  I add 2 cups of broth, not an entire 4 cup can.  If I am adding beans, or corn or potato, I add only 1/4 cup.

Ok, I hear you, what are you going to do with this other half a carrot and half a celery stalk and the rest of the can of tomatoes, etc?  Well this is the fun part.  The tomatoes and broth you’ll use in tomorrow’s new soup.  If I’m doing a soup, it’s likely I’m making a veggie fried rice as well.  The other half of the carrot and celery stalk can go in there.  I’ve also learned to make a small pot of rice, with 1/2 cup or 1 cup of rice and the same amount of water.  I like jasmine rice but will also mix rices.  I used to think I had to fill the rice cooker each time I used it, then I discovered I could make just a one meal amount each time and not feel guilty about it.  Here are the recipes for last night’s dinner:

Savory Root Vegetable Micro Soup
Put 1 tsp olive oil in a small saucepan and saute:
one chopped onion
1/2 chopped carrot (set other half aside)
1/2 chopped celery stalk (set other half aside)
1/2 small chopped turnip
3 chopped cloves of garlic

Saute until the onions carmelize.
Add 1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper
1 shake of coriander powder
1 shake of cumino powder
A pinch each of dried basil and tarragon

1/3 can fire roasted canned tomatoes
2 cups of Swanson chicken broth

I set my timer to 45 minutes and set the soup on a rolling simmer while I prepared my rice.

My rice cooker gives me rice in about 25 minutes.  I like to add a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce to my rice as it cooks.  I don’t use salt in the rice water if I use the soy sauce.

Mini Veggie Fried Rice
Put 1 cup jasmine rice and 1 cup of water in rice cooker with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

While that cooks, I chop up and saute in 1 tsp olive oil in a large frypan:
one chopped onion
8 chopped mushrooms
1/2 chopped carrot
1/2 chopped celery stalk
2 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 cup chopped parsley

When the vegetables are getting tender, toss in the rice.  it will be a little crusty on the bottom where the soy sauce will have settled.  Just toss everything together and you have 2 good portions.  In the past, I’d end up with 4-5 good portions, so this is a streamlined recipe.

I find that making micro soups and mini fried rices are good ways for me to incorporate more fresh vegetables into my diet.  Sure I take daily vitamins also, but when I eat fresh organic fruits and vegetables daily, I feel my system just gets an extra boost of vitality.