Vegetable & Meatball soup with Brown Multipurpose Homemade Fresh Seasoning

 

Vegetable and meatball soup with multipurpose homemade fresh seasoning - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

Hi, welcome to Ichi's Fusion Recipes. Today I am going to share the easy way to make a soup at home by using multipurpose homemade fresh seasoning. Before scroll down read this article, it would better if you read how to make brown and brown multipurpose homemade fresh seasoning in another article that I wrote before. 

Soup is basically my daily menu since I was a child. I love soup that contains lots of vegetables such as potato, cabbage, carrot, celery. We can add french beans, green peas, cauliflower as well. However, I do not recommend adding other vegetables because the taste will ruin. But the good news is we can put meatballs to enhance the flavor. Yes, I can't eat meat, but still, I can accept processing foods such as meatball, sausage. However, it depends on how to cook so that I am able to consume these processing foods. Improper cook and undercook or half cook, I do not accept that, my body will reject it.

In my hometown, there was a meatball soup seller. He pulled his cart every evening went around the village. My brother and I were one of his customers that my brother had always wanted to eat meatball every time this cart pass by our home. This meatball made from flour, cassava starch, and beef. The reason why I could eat this kind of meatball was that the percentage of beef to make meatball was very low. Meanwhile, the broth was made from water, some cow bone, and lots of seasoning including garlic. Serving with yellow noodles (I think it was similar to Hokkien noodles) and white noodles. I think that time was a good memory for me especially my brother when he could ask anything to eat. It was the time when our father had a decent job. That was a meatball soup story in my hometown.

When I studied at a university that far away from my hometown, I could not afford to buy a bowl of meatball soup. The price was too expensive for a poor student like me. The price of one bowl of the meatball was enough to pay for my 3 meals for a day. So, I avoided this menu in my routine. But a few years later, before coronavirus year, I often visited this city where I studied and ate not only meatball soup but other food that I wanted to eat. 

Cooking our daily meals is my priority now since I always concern with our healthiness. Unlike most locals who love to dine out, we are an exception. It is uncommon that living in Singapore but we cook our own meal. Moreover, I can't eat food that contains meat, MSG, too salty, or too sweet, overcook, or improper cook or half cook. My body can't accept those things. One day we order fried rice from a food stall at a mall nearby. After an hour of eating this fried rice, my throat felt itchy, and gradually I got a cough. That's only one example of how my body reacts soo fast with foods that contain unacceptable ingredients, whether how they prepare and cook, or what they put on the food they made. I just feel safe if I cook our own meals every day. 

And did you know that celery is good to lower blood pressure? So people who have high blood pressure could take this soup as a daily menu. I do remember in the past, one of my grandmas told a story that her neighbor who was pregnant had high blood pressure. She was worried, but my grandma said to her to boil celery and drink the water. What happened next was amazing! After drinking celery water for a few days, her blood pressure got low. So, by adding celery we can keep our blood pressure normal. For me, not only in soup, but I often add celery in my tempura and omelet. Celery is a common ingredient that I have always had in the fridge.

Speaking of which, now we talk about this soup recipe. Actually, basically, in my hometown, people used to cook vegetable soup without meatballs. I do not remember where the exact time I discover to put meatballs on my vegetable soup. But I found that the taste is great and blend well. I do remember I also made a sausage soup that time. Both of these soups are tasty! So, let's check out how to create this amazing soup!

Ingredient:

• 200 g of beef meatball - cut into 4 pieces each
• 1100 ml of water
• 2 tbsp of brown multipurpose homemade fresh seasoning
• 5 g of garlic powder
• 5 g of onion powder
• 5 g of low sodium salt - add more salt if you want too
• a bunch of celery
• 3-4 leaves of white cabbage
• 1/2 medium carrot - cut in thin-slice
• 1 medium potato - peel and cut in small size
• If you have a french bean of your fridge you can add 2 french bean

These are what you do:

• Prepare the pan or a pot
• Pour water and add the brown homemade fresh seasoning. Turn on the stove on medium-low flame
• Add meatball. Cook for about 15 minutes. Note: I cook my meatball for about 15 minutes to reduces or minimize the unpleasant smell from the beef and make them fully cook and absorb the seasoning well. If you do not have any issues with the smell you can cook for 5 minutes

Ichi's Fusion Recipes - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

• Add potato and carrot first, after a few seconds add cabbage and celery
• Add garlic powder, onion powder, and salt. Stir them well and cook for no more than 5 minutes. Ideally 3 minutes. Turn off the stove

Ichi's Fusion Recipes - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

• Tips: we can substitute white cabbage with wong bok or Chinese cabbage. We also can add cherry tomatoes to create not only colorful soup but great taste and healthy soup!

Bonus: Tempura tempeh & dried tofu with Brown homemade fresh seasoning

These are what you do:

• 4-5 tbsp of Japanese batter
• 150 ml of cold water
• Cut a bunch of celery finely
• 1 tbsp of brown multipurpose homemade fresh seasoning
• 5 g of low sodium salt; add more salt if you want too
• Mix all those ingredients above in a bowl

Ichi's Fusion Recipes - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

• Cut 200 g of fresh tempeh in thin-slice and cut the tofu as well. I need at least 6 dried tofu
• Cover the tempeh with the batter
• Fry the tempura tempeh on medium-low flame with about 400 ml of canola oil until golden brown on both sides

Ichi's Fusion Recipes - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

• Turn off the stove and place the tempura tempeh and dried tofu on a plate that layer with kitchen paper

Tempura tempeh and dried tofu with brown multipurpose homemade fresh seasoning - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

Look at the tempura tempeh and dried tofu, it looks crispy and soo tasty! I love it when it comes from the pan! You want to know about something? We can sell them as a snack food in my hometown! Yes, there are many food stalls that sell these items but using common flour, not Japanese batter. I can imagine if I could sell it by using Japanese batter as an ingredient, I imagine how long the queue because many people would like to try a Japanese but in local seasoning!🙃😋

I eat this soup with Japanese white rice and tempura tempeh. I can't separate those combos!  They are perfectly matched and great!

Ichi's Fusion Recipes: vegetable & meatball soup with multipurpose homemade fresh seasoning, tempura tempeh &dried tofu, Japanese white rice with furikake, dragon fruit, and coconut water - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

What do you think? It looks easy and simple cooking, right? Furthermore, it is quick preparation, great result, and a healthy menu! You have already known, right, that fermented food is good for our immune system. In this case, is tempeh; eating tempeh is good for our health.

Thank you for reading my article, see you and bye for now!🖐🙂

Note:

• Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
• Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
• Do not reuse this article without permission
• Do not reuse these photographs anywhere else without permission