Soup of the week: Red Orach leaves with other Veggies

My soup experiment continues. This time, I recreated a childhood recipe when I was still living in the old country based on some mysterious - but good looking colourful leaves - plant named in the local language 'loboda', and apparently translated into English as red orach. Adorned with sour cream, we used to have it cold, especially in the summer, when probably the plants were in bloom. Here, in Germany, I've accidentally found it at the veggies section from NETTO and was brave enough to try it at home. The result didn't taste exactly as I remember in my childhood, but was good enough to disappear from the pot in less than two days, which given our limited appetite for soups, was a real achievement. 

Ingredients

250 gr. red orach

1 medium onion, cut into cubes

1 medium red pepper, cut into cubes

1 medium carrot, cut into cubes

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

1.5 liter cold water

2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon walnut oil

1 egg

150 ml. butter milk or yoghurt

Directions

Clean the red orach leaves one by one, preferably under cold water.

In a pan, add the walnut oil, the pepper, and the onion and fry at 250C until onion turns gold. 

Add the cold water and the oil, pour all the veggies and the salt and let it boil. After at least 15 minutes, add the red orach leaves - eventually halved - and keep mixing well. Very short - as the red orach is boiling very fast, the soup will have a beautiful reddish colour.  Add the yoghurt or the butter milk and mix again for a couple of minutes.

At the end, add the egg, previously beaten. In fact, the egg is not compulsory, so after all it is a matter of taste to have it or not. I would have enjoy the soup without it as well. If you finally decide to do it, you must be careful to mix it well, otherwise you will have an omelett in the middle of the soup - and you don't need it. 

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45-50 minutes

Serves: 5

Bon Appétit!