World Disco Soup Day 2017
By Adele Wong
Did you know that every year, approximately 1.3 billion tons of food get tossed away worldwide? In Hong Kong, where we toss 3,300 tons of garbage into landfills every single day, around 36% of the waste is made up of food.
In order to help raise awareness about this massive but preventable problem — and to keep edible goods from ending up in the bin, Slow Food Hong Kong decided to partner up with Tong Chong Street Market to tackle the issue head-on. We celebrated our first-ever World Disco Soup Day on April 29, in solidarity with other Slow Food networks across the globe.
We gathered excess and unwanted veggies from local farmers and restaurant groups, then poured the ingredients into a giant pot filled with water, added some seasoning and fresh herbs, and turned everything into a colorful, delicious and healthy vegetable soup. While we didn’t bring our boom box (as some other Slow Food factions would have done), our volunteers definitely brought along the spirit as they passed out bowls of free soup to passersby at the Tong Chong Street Market.
The message? Food doesn’t have to be wasted — even produce that don’t look perfect, or are past their sell-by date, can be put to good use. And one of the easiest things to make is soup! Next time, remember to think twice before you toss anything edible away.
Rooftop Republic
Local Ginger
Vegware
Local farmers at Tong Chong Street Market
Farmers’ Choice
JIA Group
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If you would like to try to make some soup yourself from surplus vegetables, here is the recipe we used on the day for reference. (The portion was for 10, using around 3kg of vegetables – please adjust accordingly.)
70g Olive oil or sunflower oil – heat in large “Marmite” soup pot, add one by one:
150g Onion , cut fine – saute under low fire
35g Garlic , cut fine – saute under low fire
100g Celery
150g Carrot
140g Cabbage
80g Leeks
100g Green beans
120g Zucchini or Jade squash,
100g other veggies , such as Kolrabi, Fennel
130g Yellow or red pepper (not necessary since it gives a different taste direction)
– cut all in chunks some that needs a bit longer cooking into smaller pieces; you can add 130g fresh corn shaved from the cob
– saute, (sweat) slowly until veggies start to slightly caramelise, its juices to reduce
(This may take 20 minutes, but is ESSENTIAL for a good, tasty vegetable soup.)
– then add:
chopped herbs such as Parsley (including the stems), Lovage (if available), Thyme, Oregano, a bit of Rosemary
350g chopped fresh red tomatoes
80g Tomato paste
30g Organic vegetable stock powder
Bay leaves, black pepper, sea salt, fennel seed powder , 1 spoon of raw sugar, squeeze a bit of lemon, Maggi liquid seasoning – a few generous splashes
– mix well all than add 1.8L water
– slowly cook for 20-25 minutes than add:
180g Potato cubes, or sweet potato
100g chopped green Kale – simmer for another 30 minutes
– final seasoning to your taste and throw in a handful of hand torn basil leaves.
you can also add some pre-cooked pulses with the soup at the end, to make it more rich and plentyful
When serving:
sprinkle with some chopped parsley or fine chopped chives (and a splash of fine EV Olive Oil, as you please)
Comments:
the consistency of the soup should be rich, stew like.
The soup tastes even better when you heat it up the next day. The flavours will be more pronounced.
So, when you cook soup, always cook some more, keep some in the fridge and you will have a tasty healthy light meal always ready, with bursting flavours that are pleasing.
(Rich vegetable soup recipe credits: Walter Kern)