Bites

Soothing Sag Aloo Soup

The perfect soup to cleanse or soothe a sore throat by Lorraine Pascale

What you'll need
  • Serves 4-6
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 1 large onion, very finely chopped
  • 2 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and very finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, deseeded for less heat if preferred, very finely chopped
  • 1 litre of a good liquid vegetable stock
  • 1 large waxy potato (about 450g), peeled and cut into 1 cm dice
  • 2 tomatoes, roughly diced
  • 125g spinach leaves
  • ½ tin of chickpeas, drained (optional)
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

A few tips

  • If you want to make this in its regular form as a vegetable side dish and not as a soup, then just put enough stock into the dish for the potatoes to cook in and soak up all of the liquid. 

This is not a traditional recipes and it is unusual to have this dish in the form of a soup, but I feel it really does work. 

  1. Put the oil in a large pan over a low-medium heat.
  2. Add the mustard seeds, cumin, coriander and turmeric and cook for a couple of minutes or until you start to smell the aromas of the spices.
  3. Add the onion and ginger and cook for about 10 minutes. stirring regularly until softened.
  4. Add the garlic and chilli and cook for 1 minute more.
  5. Gradually pour in the stock, scraping any sticky bits from the bottom of the pan as you go.
  6. Stir in the potato and tomato.
  7. Bring to the boil and then reduce to simmer for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
  8. Stir in the spinach, fistfuls at a time, until wilted.
  9. Add the chickpeas to heat them through, if using, then season the soup to taste and remove
  10. from the heat.
  11. Ladle into bowls and serve.

Extract from Eating Well Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale (Harper Collins, £9)

Join the Conversation: Leave a comment

Join the conversation

More in Bites