Healthy Quinoa Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb beef in bones ( more or less), cut small
- 1 cup chickpeas, soaked overnight and rinsed
- 1/4 cup lentils, soaked for 15 minutes in warm water, then rinsed
- 1 medium onion, roughly chopped.
- 3 cloves garlic.
- 3 medium carrots, cut in half
- 3 celery stalks
- Small piece of butternut squash, about 1 cup or less when diced (optional)
- 1 medium zucchini, halved
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium tomato
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- 1 tbsp Paprika
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- Salt to taste
- 1/4 tsp (or to taste) pepper
- 1/8 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp ginger powder
- 1/4 tsp coriander powder
- 1/8 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- jalapeño, chili peppers or other type of hot peppers (optional)
- Lemon wedges for serving (optional)
Instructions
-
In a soup pot, put the vegetables such as onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, piece of butternut squash, tomato, celery stalks, lentils, cilantro and parsley. Add hot peppers if you like(optional).
-
Season with salt, pepper, ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon. Add paprika and tomato paste.
-
Place the soup pot over medium high heat.
-
Cover all the vegetables with hot water.
-
Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium low. In the first few seconds of boiling, remove the outer skin of the tomato.
-
Let cook covered for about 20 minutes.
-
In meanwhile, put the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
-
Add the meat pieces and let brown for 1 to 2 minutes.
-
Add chickpeas.
-
Cover with hot water.
-
Season with salt (about 1 teaspoon for now).
-
Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to medium low and let cook covered for about 30 minutes.
-
Once the vegetables are cooked, remove the celery stalks, parsley and cilantro. Discard them.
-
Put the vegetables in the blender and process until smooth.
-
Pour the puréed vegetables in the soup pot placed over medium heat.
-
Add the meat and chickpeas with the water in them.
-
Add the Quinoa. Mix and bring to a boil
-
Reduce the heat to medium low and let cook for about 30 minutes.
-
Stir the soup from time to time so that the Quinoa won’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
-
Adjust the seasoning and garnish with chopped cilantro, parsley or both (optional).
-
Serve with lemon wedges on the side for squeezing over.
Recipe Notes
- You can add 1/2 tsp minced garlic at the end of cooking. Mix and turn off the heat( optional).
- You can use your choice of spices.