As a child one of my favorite dishes was a simple broth with noodles. Already very early on I was able to cook it all by myself, standing on a little chair I mixed stock powder with hot water, boiled some noodles in it and after a few minutes I was in a salty broth heaven.
Nowadays I don’t like stock powders that much anymore, but I still love a good broth and have tried a lot of recipes, which promised to turn a pot of hot water into broth heaven. But as I like my broth clear or only with little add ons I find ordinary vegetable broths often a bit boring and they also take ages to cook (and having some bones or a soup chicken at home takes quite some planning).
A while ago I read a book by David Tanis and he mentions a provencal garlic soup which only needs 20 cloves of garlic and hardly anything else. After trying it out I knew I had found the holy grail of vegetable broths. The garlic loses its penetrant smell while cooking and turns he water into a savory broth which is comparable to a long boiled chicken broth. And it only takes 20 minutes with ingredients I always have at home!
It also made me think that many indian dishes start with the same procedure – at the beginning of the cooking process a good measure of ginger-garlic paste is fried together with the spices and then cooked for some time to give the dishes their particular savouriness.
My turmeric garlic broth recipe is a mix between Tanis recipe and the beginning of an Indian curry and uses also turmeric and ginger, which make the soup not only a bit more peppery but also at least as wholesome as a good chicken broth. My 2 year old son loves it by the way.
Turmeric Garlic Broth
A savoury vegeterian broth ready in 20 minutes!
Ingredients
- 20 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 piece of ginger (5 cm)
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 3 black peppercorns
- 1250 ml water (5 cups)
- salt, as per taste
For serving:
- herbs
- noodles
- vegetables
- poached egg
Instructions
Give the garlic cloves in a pot or bowl, put some kind of lid or plate on top and shake strongly for 30 seconds. This helps to loosen the skin and makes peeling much easier. Peel the cloves roughly and mash them a bit with a mortar, bottom of a pot or anything else heavy.
Clean the ginger and grate it (it's not necessary to peel it).
Heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the garlic and fry it lightly, it should not take on any colour (2-3 min) Add the ginger, turmeric and peppercorns and fry for another minute.
Add the water and 1 teaspoon of salt, close with a lid and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
Once ready give everything through a fine sieve while pressing on the garlic, so that all liquid releases. Add salt per taste (don't skimp on the salt, a good broth is always a bit salty). Serve with a lot of fresh herbs (I like coriander), noodles, vegetables, egg or whatever you feel like.
Notes
You should use good quality, fresh garlic for getting maximum flavour.
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