A few months ago I came up with an idea: why not use green tea as a broth for a soup? Thusly the quest for the perfect green tea soup was born.
Here is my first attempt. Overall I would rate it a 6/10. It was edible, but there is certainly room for improvement.
Ingredients:
3 potatoes cubed
2 green tea bags (pure, not sweet blend - I used Tetley's)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/4 c butter
1/3 white onion, sliced
1 tbs fresh ginger root, sliced
1/2 c mixture of raw broccoli, snow peas and carrot. (california stir-fry veggie blend)
Meat mixture (taken from sausage rolls: ground beef mixed with onion and pepper, cooked then rolled into sausage shape and sliced into pieces).
Step one: Potatoes
Cut uncooked potatoes into cubes. In a small bowl mix partially liquified butter with 2 cloves of garlic. Put potato slices in pan and pour butter mixture over top, ensuring that all cubes are soaked (this was part of my problem, I stacked cubes in a narrow deep dish, and only the bottom cubes soaked up flavor) bake at 375 C until potatoes are soft (about 40min)
Step 2: Soup
While potatoes are cooking boil 4 cups of water. Put hot water in kettle with 2 tea bags and 1 tbs of ginger root. Let steep for about 5 minutes. Pour water into medium sized pan on simmering heat. Use a filter or sifter to pour liquid, so that the ginger can be separated and removed from soup. (I left ginger in my soup, and it created a strong flavor whenever bitten into). Ensure soup is on a low boil. Add meat and veggies (onion, broccoli, carrot and snow peas). Cover and let simmer until potatoes are finished cooking, or until veggies reach desired softness.
Step 3: Finish
Remove potatoes from oven. Drain butter mixture and add potatoes to soup.
Pour soup into bakeable bowls. Cover dish with mozzarella or white cheddar, and bake until cheese is melted. Serve with bread.
To reiterate, the soup was okay but not great. The potatoes turned out really yummy, but I think they would have been better served on their own with a bit of mozzarella topping. Hence, THE QUEST CONTINUES! I was thinking about tweaking this recipe, but I might just start all over. I once tried a blend of "Stash" green tea (Sushi bar flavor) which I thought would go good with shrimp. I'm going to do a bit of research this time, and look up recipes for shrimp soups. Hopefully I'll find something inspiring!
