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Soup of the week: Balti Vegetable Chowder

Because it was so cold and dark yesterday I wanted something for dinner that would be easy, healthy, and taste bright. As usual, the soup of the week was not planned out other than that. Before I left for work I put 1/2 pound of dried fava beans in a bowl of water and when we got home we sat at the table drinking lattes and peeling the tough outer skin off the reconstituted beans.

Then I chopped. I think one reason I like making soup is that it gives me the opportunity to chop vegetables and listen to music. In this case I chopped some of almost every vegetable in the refrigerator while I listened to the Be Good Tanyas. With all that chopping complete it was then just a matter of adding everything to the pot in the right order and choosing the seasonings.

Since these vegetables are common almost everywhere I could have made a minestrone soup by using some Italian seasonings or perhaps just a touch of thyme or maybe a bit of herbs de provence to give it a french influence. I could have added curry and had a mulligatawny soup. But because I’d been reading about the IMBB event, The Spice is Right hosted by Habeas Brulee, I decided to get a little creative. I used Penzeys Balti blend. According to Penzeys, Baltistan is a region of northernmost Pakistan with influences from Persia, Tibet and China. This blend contains coriander, garlic, ginger, cumin, dundicut chilies, Ceylon cinnamon, brown mustard seeds, cardamom, clove, fennel, fenugreek, charnushka (kalonji, black onion seed), ajwain, star anise, black cardamom, cilantro, anise seed and bay leaf. According to Wikipedia, Balti is a type of curry served in Birmingham, England and also the flat bottomed pot it is cooked and served in.

The soup was everything I wanted it to be plus there are leftovers for later this week. The spices gave it an unusual flavor that was bright and lively. The fava beans disintegrated as they cooked, I guess because I took their skins off. But that is what really thickened it up and made it into a chowder (if you don’t mind me using that word loosely).

Dessert was Bake or Break’s Butter Pecan Turtle Bars which are like a chocolate covered praline. A very nice sweet to eat while watching Heroes.

Balti Vegetable Soup

1 onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
1/2 pound dried fava beans, soaked and peeled
2 carrots, diced
2 parsnips, diced
1/4 of a head of cauliflower, divided into little florets
4 garlic cloves, chopped fine
2 Italian frying peppers, diced
12 Mushrooms, sliced
1 cup frozen green beans
1 box organic chicken stock
2 cups water
2 tablespoons Balti seasoning

Cook the onion and fennel in 1 tablespoon olive oil until translucent. Add the chicken stock and the fava beans and cook until tender. At this point you may need to add the water because it may be too thick. Add the carrots, parsnips, peppers, cauliflower, and garlic and cook until tender (about 5 – 8 minutes). Add the mushrooms and green beans and cook a minute or two. Add the Balti seasoning, turn the heat off and let sit for 2 minutes. Serve.

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