Waistline or Wasteline?
Being a food lover has its disadvantages. It gets in the way of the waste line, oops waistline! No matter how hard you try, dear food lover, there is no transgressing that thin line or should I say thick line? How would you satiate your palate without compromising on the taste of the intake? Well, soups and salads are the recommended advice shouted from the rooftops – to keep your waist in check. Hell, soups and salads are dull and advised for people with diabetes, aren’t they? Oh, not quite. Not this soup recipe for sure.
The Right Soup for Food Lovers
It was by sheer chance that I stumbled on this soup recipe that lay hidden in the leaves of my soups recipe book. Greek Cold Soup it is called. Try it and tell me if it isn’t the tastiest thing you’ve sampled in a long time, oh you dieters!
Greek Cold Soup - A Grecian Recipe
Ingredients
The Indo Greek Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ kg tomatoes (boiled, peeled, blended & strained to avoid a “seedy” soup 🙂
- 20-25 pcs pasta (the twisted variety, boiled to 60 per cent)
- 2 tsp Sriracha hot chilli sauce
- 1 large chicken soup sube (Maggi cube)
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp basil powder
- 5-6 tbsp coconut milk
- 200 ml water (i.e. 100ml + 100ml)
- ½ tsp salt
- Garlic bread (optional)
Instructions
How To Make the Soup
- Heat the olive oil a tad, then drop in the chilli flakes.
- Add the boiled pasta soon after, followed by a large soup cube, and then some water to help boil the pasta further.
- Add the salt, coconut milk, and the magical Sriracha sauce. Boil it some more but not to a head.
- Let the soup mixture cool, to ensure it stays close to its name. Cold.
- Sprinkle some basil powder just before serving, and if you aren’t thinking diet let garlic bread give it company. (In Greece, I’d attempt to eat bread made from barley despite its apparent hardness. And dip he hard barley bread into the soup instead of wine as the early Greeks did).
Hallmarks of Greek Cuisine
Some of the hallmarks of Greek cuisine lie in its olive oil and herbed ingredients. Think light, think Mediterranean. Countries along the Mediterranean coastline like France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Egypt and others fall into this category and hence share common food ingredients.
One glance at this soup recipe and you’d be able to quickly tell that it bears the flavours of the Mediterranean regions in its Italian pasta and Moroccan coconut milk. The only deviant lies in the presence of Sriracha sauce; which although of South-East Asian origin, pairs well with Greek and Mexican cuisine alike.
While the traditional Greek way to eat this soup is cold, there is no stopping one from eating it hot. Some like it hot; some like it cold. Some like it in the pot, nine days old.
As with most meals, soups are followed by appetizers or starters. A recipe of such a Greek starter in the form of Greek Gyro will complement this Greek soup well. Try out the Greek casserole to complete the Grecian theme.
