In our healthy promoting diet, black bean is an exceptionally great legume with its unique and solid nutritional profile. They are an excellent source of molybdenum, fat-free high quality protein, dietary fiber, flavonoid anti-oxidants (anthocyanins), vitamins (B1) and minerals (folate, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus and iron). It also contains a small amount of omega-3 fatty acids which is about 3...

  From young, soup has been served regularly in my family’s daily diet. As far as I can recall, my mom has been boiling different types of Chinese soups almost every day. After I got married, I too enjoyed all the home-boiled soups of my mother-in-law. Now, as a “minister of home affair cum head chef”, I continued with our family’s tradition to boil soups for the family as my son is a big fan...

  I first learned about 粉葛/葛根(Thomson’s kudzu/fen ge – as shown in picture below) from my mother-in-law. She used it to make soup for the family. At the first glance, it looked quite similar to 沙葛 (yam bean). 粉葛 has natural sweetness and brings many health benefits to women especially for the middle-aged group as mentioned in this link. There are many types of 粉葛 soup. The...

Beetroot (甜菜根) is a new vegetable to me. I only started eating beetroot 2 years ago after my good friend, Alice from Bits of Taste n Life introduced it to me. I didn’t know that there are so many great benefits eating beetroot until I read about it from here and here. The benefits of beetroot are: a) it is a rich source of carbohydrates, a good source of protein, and has high levels of important vitamins,...

If you have lots of asparagus on hand and are running out-of-time, it is a perfect recipe for you to prepare a tasty asparagus soup with some simple ingredients and easy steps. It can be served hot or very well-chilled. Source: Adapted and modified from The Delia Collection: Soup Servings: 3-4 Ingredients: 450g asparagus 25g butter ½ medium onion (finely chopped) ½ slightly rounded tbsp plain flour 500 ml...

Since I started cooking for the family, I used a lot of tomatoes in our meals because they are my little “big” boy’s favourite. He can eat any types of tomatoes be it raw or cooked, with or without skin, with or without seeds. In short, he is a TOMATO lover! Generally most of us know that tomato contains lycopene (the red pigment in tomato). It is a powerful antioxidant that can also fight cancer cells....

If you are in a rush and need to cook 1 dish-meal cum soup, then this soup is the perfect choice! It is not only as easy as ABC but also a wholesome soup for the family. All of the ingredients (except for the fish bones) are edible. You can serve it with rice or pasta. Hence it is considered a “ZERO wastage” soup. Guess what have I done to the sweetcorns and potatoes in the soup? I had created another...

My hubby loved this soup so much that after drinking the soup, he also took an extra portion to mix with his rice so as to give him a “braised rice” flavour. This recipe is adapted from Hawker’s Fair Simplified cookbook. Ingredients: 1 piece soft beancurd – mashed into puree (it can be substituted with egg bean curb or homemade beancurd) 1 fresh squid (about 200g) – julienned 6...

Under the current hot weather, it is beneficial to drink some nourishing soup. I found this recipe from here. Another similar soup without using sweetcorn can be found over here. Ingredient A: 20g white fungus 银耳(washed, soaked and torn into small pieces) 20g yu zhu 玉竹 (washed) 20g lily bulb 百合(washed) 10g red dates (removed seeds) / 15g candied dates (I used 2 big candied dates) 100g carrots (washed,...

Chowder is a special kind of thick soup from New England in the USA Below is the recipe adapted from Children’s Healthy & Fun Cookbook . Ingredients: 1 large onion 200g fresh, frozen or tinned sweetcorn 1 large carrot 350g potatoes 1 tbsp sunflower oil 1 bouquet garni (optional) 1 bay leaf 1.2 litres vegetable stock 300ml milk Seasonings: Salt and pepper to taste Methods: 1. Peel and roughly chop...