Easy Healtilicious Pumpkin Soup

This is one nutritious recipe suitable for young and old ones. Smooth, flavorful and full of goodness. Pumpkin soup is one of my little ones' favorite soup whenever we patronage western restaurant, but it really is quite easy to make at home kitchen. I have ran out of milk at home otherwise the texture will be even creamier. 

This soup is ideal for infant too, with just pumpkin, garlic and onion, it's one nutritious early food for your little ones. Just skip the cinnamon, salt and fresh milk.

 

Preparation Time: 10 min 
Cooking Time: 30 min
Serving for: 4-5 person

Ingredients:
1 medium pumpkin, cut into cubes and wash

1 whole onion, finely chopped 

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

900ml / 6 rice bowls of water or stock
300ml fresh milk (or replace with water / stock)
A dash of cinnamon 

A dash of salt to taste

2-3 slices of bread 

Essentially, these are what you need to make this soup.

The Making:
1. Heat a table spoon of olive oil in a pot, add in the chopped garlic and onion, stir fry for about a minutes until the onion turns translucent. Add in the pumpkin cubes and cook with lid on for about 3 minutes. 

2. Add in the water or stock, let it simmers on high heat for 5 minutes then switch to low heat. Cook for approximately 25 minutes or until the pumpkin cubes turn mushy. 

3. Add in the milk and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Unfortunately I've ran out of milk so I used only water.

4. Turn off the heat. Using a hand blender, blend the soup directly in the pot for about 2 minutes on high speed, until no lumps observe.

Prepare the croutons:

5. Using a separate pan, melt a small lump of butter and pan fry the bread on both sides until it turns golden brown and with crunchy edges. Cut into cubes or long strips and drop into the pumpkin soup when serving.

Yums..... Hot and aromatic pumpkin soups to warm the tummy on a rainy night! Now I'm going to keep a small pot for my old ma who has been ill, this shall do her good.

Just for Sharing..

Pumpkin is high in fiber and a good source of beta-carotene, anti-oxidant, vitamin A and is low in calories. It also has high level of potassium which is needed to keep our muscles and heart working at optimum level. So, if you are not a pumpkin lover, perhaps you may re-consider this pumpkin soup in view of it's many benefits.. ;)

Glass Noodle Omelette soup 煎蛋冬粉汤, 妈妈家常菜 #15MinuteSuppers

Bi-lingual | 双语版

Today I am going to share a super simple childhood dish that my old ma always made for us, I am not sure if this is of Teoh Chew origin, or invented by my grandma, but it sure is one simple and delicious dish that our entire family likes.

This omelette has a chewy texture thanks to the presence of the glass noodle, which is actually a type of translucent noodle made of starch (green bean, yam or corn) and water. The original version only have glass noodles and eggs, I made some variation to make it more child friendly by adding some shredded carrots.

Hope your kiddos like this dish as much as my duo. :)

Preparation: 5 Minutes
Cooking: 10 Minutes 
Serving for: 3-4 little ones

Ingredients:
6 medium size eggs, lightly beaten 中型鸡蛋，六粒
50g of Glass Noodle (also known as tanghoon) 冬粉半包/50克

1/2 medium carrot, shredded 胡萝卜半棵，切幼丝
1 teaspoon of soy sauce 酱油，一茶匙
A pinch of salt & pepper to taste 盐，胡椒粉适量
6-10 stalks of baby choy-sam, washed 小菜心六-十棵，洗净

Some spring onions, roughly chopped 青葱两根，切细条
2 table spoon of olive oil 两大匙橄榄油
1 pot of stock (I boiled mine with some anchovies, carrots and pumpkins) 高汤1锅

The Making:

1. Soak glass noodles in water for about 2 minutes until softened, drain the excess water and set aside.

2. Lightly beaten the eggs, seasoned with some salt, pepper, soy sauce and add the shredded carrots. Pour the beaten eggs over the glass noodle. Make sure the glass noodles are all all covered with the eggs.

3. Heat up the olive oil in the pan, pour in the egg mixture and spread it around to form into circular shape. Cook both side for about 2 minutes each, the remove from heat. At the same time, bring the stock to boil.

4. Using a clean knife and chopping board, roughly cut the omelette into 10-12 square pieces. 

5. Drop the fried omelette and baby choy-sam into the boiling stock and let them simmer for few minutes, add some salt to taste (as per your liking) and sprinkle with some spring onions before serving.

I served ours as dinner by tossing in some flat noodles in step 5. Took only about 1 minute for the noodles to cook so you can precook the soup and add the leafy veggie and noodle when it's time for dinner. I also added some pumpkin cubes and carrots into the soup for added nutrition and sweetness but they are really optional if you are in a rush. 

Tips:

• When serving for my little ones, I cut the stems of the baby Choy Sam with a kitchen scissor so it's easier for them to chew.
• Personally I would not recommend  serving glass noodle to toddler below 2yo, who may find it difficult to chew and may not be able to digest properly. Let's wait till they have stronger teeth and digestion system.

煎蛋冬粉汤, 这是小时候我最爱的家常菜。我也不确定这是否潮州菜式或当年婆婆的自创，但肯定的是家中老少都喜爱的一道菜。浓浓蛋香夹着質地韌柔的冬粉丝，添加点青菜肉丸，好吃的家常菜只需十五分钟就可轻松上桌。

冬粉一般是由绿豆制作，也有些使用淀粉或薯粉制作，我个人不主张长期给小孩吃。一来冬粉面条较不易消化，二来两岁以下的小孩咀嚼能力可能还欠佳，所以建议在过两岁以后才煮给小朋友吃。

做法：

1. 把冬粉浸在水里约两分钟至松软，捞起备用。
2. 鸡蛋打散，加入盐，胡椒粉，酱油调味，和胡萝卜丝混合后倒入冬粉里。
3. 烧热两汤匙的橄榄油，把蛋液和冬粉倒入锅里用慢火煎熟至金黄色。每面约莫两分钟左右。
4. 在干净的案板上，把蛋饼切成10-12片方块。
5. 烧热一锅高汤，汤滚后把蛋饼和小菜心放进锅里煮两分钟，熄火，撒上一撮青葱即可上桌。也可以加点面条和青菜一起煮，当清汤面来吃也不错。

趁热吃咯！

Homemade Dumpling Soup 猪肉萝卜饺子汤

I love dumplings since I was a kid. A bowl of hot dumpling soup on a windy night is just perfect to warm the tummy. Toss in some noodles and you have a bowl of hot dumpling soup noodles. It's really an easy dish that is suitable for young and old alike.

While my mom made really mouth watering dumplings, its usually full meaty and with added MSG, so I came out with my own version that is more balance with added vegetable, free of MSG and sugar. It turned out pretty delicious, my little boy had 4 of the dumplings, an unusual number for a picky eater like him. Even my 16 month old baby girl had 2 which I smashed up and mixed into her rice.


Soup dumpling, the way I like it.

The freshly made dumplings, uncooked

The making of the filling is easy, the tricky part is actually wrapping them up into nice shape without falling apart. Let me share my methods here, it's really not that complicated as it seems... Believe it or not, this is my first time trying these wrapping methods :)