Cooking notes

• Full of vegetables, this soup is best for cool nights, when you need something hot yet packed with flavour to sip on. It’s my easy take on an Indian-Chinese cuisine staple.

• I added a lot of vegetables – feel free to cut down or add any other veggies that you enjoy.

• Try to chop the vegetables into quite small cubes, so that not only do they cook easily, but they also aren’t too much of a mouthful in the broth.

• Makes about 4 portions.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp cooking oil

• 3 cloves garlic, chopped

• 1 inch ginger, chopped

• 1 stalk celery, chopped

• 1 onion, chopped

• 1 carrot, chopped

• 4-6 French beans, chopped

• 1 green capsicum, chopped

• 6 cups water (1.5 litre)

• 1 chicken bouillon cube

• Salt, to taste

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp red chilli sauce

• 2 tbsp vinegar

• ¼ tsp white pepper powder

• 1 tsp sugar

• 2 tbsp corn flour (divided into 2)

• 2 stalks spring onions, chopped for garnishing

Method

1. Heat the oil in a big-bottomed pan. Once it's hot, add the garlic, ginger, celery, and onion. Sauté them for one minute, till the onions become a little golden.

2. Then add in the carrot and beans. Continue stirring for 1 minute.

3. Next, add in the capsicum, and stir again for a minute.

4. Add the bouillon cube and water. Add soy sauce, green chilli sauce, vinegar, white pepper powder, and sugar (salt too, if you need). Stir everything well.

5. Let it come to a boil, and then simmer for 3 minutes.

6. At this stage, if you want the soup thick, you can add a corn flour slurry, i.e. mix 1 tbsp corn flour in ¼th cup of water, and pour this into the soup. Continue cooking for a minute, keeping in mind that it’ll thicken further once you take it off the heat.

7. My tip would be to use the corn flour slurry in batches, depending on how much soup you’re planning to have now and later. This way, you won’t have to re-heat an already-thickened soup when you’re having the next portion.

8. Garnish the soup with the spring onions and serve hot!