Comfort in a bowl

A bowl of creamy vegetable soup and a chunk of crusty bread can be most welcoming after a hard day at work. Pauline D Loh brews up some soothing solutions

Hot weather is an appetite dampener, and in summer the slow burn of the sun, haze and humidity can turn you right off food. Still, man, or woman for that matter, cannot survive on cold beer, diet soda or fruit juices. We need more solid sustenance and we need our daily four plus four of vegetables and fruits.

Making a batch of vegetable soup may just be the answer. And making it ahead will mean you have a ready supply to dip in after work and not have to start cooking when you are tired out.

Start by looking around the vegetable section of your local market.

It's pumpkin time in summer, and there are some pretty cool choices ranging from tiny green gems to orange globes the size of an American football. You can also buy smaller wedges of the squash if you don't feel like eating pumpkin seven days in a row.

They are ideal for soup making and they keep really well. Pumpkin soup can also be drunk piping hot or chilled, straight from the fridge. And that's a definite bonus if you are too tired even to start the microwave.

Pumpkin is also very good for you and promises to give you the energy boost you most need, in addition to a host of essential vitamins and minerals guaranteed to put back the bounce.

It is a squash and related to the cucumber, but it is royalty among the cucurbita family because it is so rich in all the essential goodness.

For one, its bright color advertises the presence of beta carotene, which gives you instantly usable Vitamin A. The squash is rich in potassium as well, which helps lower hypertension and there are also traces of zinc, a boost for the immune system and bone density.

Most of all, pumpkin is rich in fiber, which is very useful these days when we eat so much heavily processed food which are easy on the taste buds but bad for the body.

By the way, those of us with creaking joints or aching limbs should eat also more pepitas, or pumpkin seeds. They are said to be anti-inflammatory.

Or if you see punnets of mushrooms, pick up a couple. This is another of nature's presents in that mushrooms taste good and they have, like the pumpkin, a host of health benefits.

Mushrooms are rich in a host of vitamins including lots of B Vitamins, magnesium and selenium.

Selenium is the anti-ageing trace mineral, and it used to be present in a lot of our vegetables until mass modern farming methods leached it all out of the soil. Mushrooms are one of the very few vegetables still able to extract natural selenium, and it is needed by our bodies for normal cellular functions.

Apart from all its obvious nutritional plus points, mushrooms just taste good. Its earthy flavor goes well with meat but it can stand alone equally well. Made into a delicious cream soup, it is a rich bowl of satisfying, meatless goodness.

There are plenty of mushroom varieties to choose from these days. The most common are the white or brown button mushrooms with their rounded caps. When these grow larger, they will become the Portobello mushrooms with the visible gills. The shiitake mushroom is the same type which makes the dried "Chinese" mushroom. The dehydration process intensifies the flavor, but the fresh mushrooms are a lot milder and also suitable for soups.

Oyster mushrooms look like umbrellas turned inside-out and are available in many sizes. They, too, make good soup.

The only ones I will hesitate using are the stringy Enoki mushrooms which are sold in bunches like undernourished, anemic asparagus. They're good for hotpots and stir-fries, but are too fibrous to be used in a cream soup.

The secret of making good cream soup is patience. It is a two-step recipe that can be leisurely brewed on a lazy weekend. Prepping the vegetables is essential to getting the best flavor out of them. After that, a quick blitz in the blender and you are ready to divide the soup into tubs for a quick meal after work.

Pick up a baguette or a couple of dinner rolls, indulge in some real butter and even the most jaded appetite will perk up.

Recipe

| Cream of mushroom soup

Ingredients (makes 4 portions):

200g button mushrooms

1 large brown onion

1 tbsp butter

1 tub (250 ml) thick cream

1 liter chicken stock

1 sprig of fresh thyme, or 1 tsp dried thyme

Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Slice mushrooms and onions and toss in butter over high heat to seal. Continue to fry until mushrooms are slightly caramelized around the edges.

2. Add chicken stock and simmer for five minutes. Add the sprig of thyme. Simmer for another five minutes to allow flavors to develop. Stir in the cream.

3. Take off heat and cool. Remove thyme sprig, and pour the soup into a food processor and blend until smooth.

4. Season with salt and pepper and serve hot. Garnish with a sprinkle of chopped fresh thyme or a pinch of dried thyme.

Food notes:

You have to fry the mushrooms over high heat to seal in the flavors. If your fire is not strong, the mushrooms will just stew in the pan and release all their juices. This will make your soup turn a rather dirty brown. It's not inedible, but it will just look unpalatable. Adding an onion to the soup will help sweeten the flavors. If you cannot find fresh thick cream, you can use unsweetened evaporated milk. This is a savory soup so avoid using yoghurt as a substitute. It changes the balance.

Recipe| Beta booster pumpkin soup

Ingredients (makes 4 portions):

1 pumpkin (abt 600g)

2 carrots

1 liter chicken or vegetable stock

1 tsp ginger juice (squeezed from a tbsp of grated ginger)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Peel pumpkin and carrots and cut into large chunks.

2. Place pumpkin and carrot in a steamer and steam for 15 minutes over high heat.

3. Heat up stock and add pumpkin and carrots together with a teaspoon of ginger juice. Allow to simmer about 15 minutes or until flavors have blended.

4. Carefully blend the soup until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Pour the soup into serving bowls, garnish and serve.

6. Chill any left-overs and enjoy as a cold soup.

Food notes:

Pumpkin has lots of soluble fiber so you do not need a cream to thicken the soup. The carrots give it an added nudge where flavor and color are concerned and adding just that bit of ginger will boost the character of the soup. Steaming the pumpkin and carrots beforehand is important because it breaks down the vegetables so that by the time they are dropped into the chicken stock, they are like thirsty sponges. It also makes it a lot faster to cook.