After eating all that “rich” food during the holidays, you may be craving simple food to help your body recover. Sometimes it may be all you want while suffering from the flu and you’ve had enough of chicken soup…
This fat-free vegetable soup is unlike any you’ve ever had (unless you’re Javanese or Surinamese), because it’s not your standard savory soup. Although the title says “vegetable” soup, we usually make it with only one, no more than two veggies. Most common is cabbage, but other vegetables to try are spinach, green beans, zucchini, or kale, basically, any other vegetable with a mild flavor.
What’s typical about this soup is the flavor; it’s more sweet than salty. Did I surprise you? Many Indonesian dishes are sweet and while not overly sweet, the lack of salt definitely helps to make your vegetables shine. You get to enjoy the full flavor of your cabbage or green beans. But who wants a sweet soup, you say? Well, it’s all about balance!
The way we balance the flavors, is by adding fried, salty fish on the side and then top it off with sambal oelek (type of hot sauce). Sambal is totally optional, but serve the soup with rice and you’ll have all the important ingredients of a meal. Fried fish of course is not fat free, but you could bake your fish somewhat dry (or not), as long as it has enough salt to balance out the sweetness. This soup by the way, is known as Jangan Bening and here’s the recipe.
Fat free vegetable soup (Javanese)
Ingredients
- 1/2 green cabbage
- 1/2 onion sliced
- 2 cloves garlic sliced
- 1/2 small tomato chopped
- 1/3 tsp salt
- 4 cups water
- 2 tbsp sugar
Instructions
- Rinse and cut the cabbage in large chunks
- Boil water, adding salt, onion, garlic, tomato, sugar and cabbage.
- Optional: Add whole tomato and pepper (for sambal).
- Cook until vegetables are tender.
- Soup should taste more sweet than salty.
- Take tomato and (1/2)pepper out, to make the sambal.
Optional
Sambal Oelek
- 1 habanero pepper, 1 tomato, 1/4 tsp shrimp paste, 1/4 tsp sugar, salt to taste and 1 tbsp chopped onions (optional).
- Take the boiled pepper and tomato out of the soup and mash together with the other ingredients into a chunky sauce that’s more salty than sweet.
Serve with steamed rice and fried salted fish as a whole meal. Selamat Makan!
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