VEGETARIAN MANCHOW SOUP

This is absolutely a great soup for this rainy season in Nairobi. It is a clear vegetable soup which really warms you up in the cold evenings. It is a Indo-Chinese style soup and the name "Manchow" comes from the name Manchuria.

Ingredients:(serves 4)

Carrot, cabbage, green peppers or French beans- each 1/2 cup shredded

Onion- 1 (finely chopped)

Garlic and ginger Julienne- 1 tbspn

Dark soy sauce- 1 tspn

Vinegar-1 tspn

Pepper powder- 1 tspn

Chilli sauce- 1 tspn(optional)

Corn flour- 1 tbspn mixed in 2 tbspn of water to a smooth paste

Vegetable stock- 1 litre

Sesame oil/ any cooking oil- 1 tbspn

Salt to taste

Method:

 Heat the pan and add the oil. When the oil is hot add the ginger, garlic followed by onion. When the onion turns brown add all the chopped vegetables and give it a stir.

I have cooked with what I had at home. You can replace French beans in the place of green peppers or just add french beans too.

Now when the vegetables are half cooked add vinegar, soy sauce, chilly sauce, pepper powder, salt and mix uniformly.

I want you to be careful about the salt you add as the vegetable stock you are going to add would also contain salt.

To make 1 litre of vegetable stock I used 2 large onions, 2 large carrots, 3 stalks of celery, 1 whole bulb of garlic, 5 peppercorns, and a bay leaf.

Place all the ingredients in a sauce pan, add salt and let the water to boil.When the water boils lower the flame and let the vegetables cook for exactly 1 hour. Filter the stock and store in the fridge for further use. So anytime you are free you can prepare this and store and later when you want the soup this comes in handy.

Some opt to freeze the stock for longer use.

Pour in the vegetable stock and wait for a boil.  Now add the corn flour paste to the boiling soup. Mix uniformly for less than a minute. When you find the soup to be little thick put off the fire.

Serve hot with any Chinese starters.