Soups of the world

When it's cold ... something warm! While the temperatures drop outside, the inside of the houses the kitchens are filled with aromas of, broths and preparations that will help make winter more bearable. Although you can have soups at any time of the year and in any area of ​​the planet, very hot soups are usually typical of the winter months and colder areas. But don't forget the cold soups either! . We detail the best ones below soups of the world.

• Each continent has typical soups that we can include in our winter menus to comfort ourselves and discover new flavors.
• Many are very complete dishes as they combine vegetables, meat or fish and noodles or rice, such as ramen or pho.
• Others must be watched, as they are quite energetic, so they should be combined with light dishes. This is the case of US corn soup or Mexican tortilla soup.

With recipes you already know, there are as many variants as chefs, and if we also talk about soups from all over the world we find that many are mixtures and / or adaptations of one and the other, which have originated in one place but have given way to another soup now typical of another country, etc. For tastes, soups, in a thousand ways. Let's see some.

WORLD'S MAIN SOUPS

SOUPS OF EUROPE

• Cataplana The cataplana is in fact a type of typical pot from Portugal, which is shaped like a shell and allows food to be steamed. With this type of pots different dishes are cooked, among which we find a stew of fish or shellfish, which receives the same name. The cataplana is native to the Algarve and seems to have Arab roots. It is prepared with vegetables such as peppers, tomatoes, and fish and shellfish. Nutritional note: With this dish we have an original and healthy way of presenting fish, since it is steamed and is also accompanied by vegetables.
• Minestrone Minestrone is a typical vegetable soup that is prepared from a variety of vegetables. The ingredients are usually beans, onions, celery, carrots and tomatoes ... and also includes legumes and small pasta. Vegetables present in the market are usually used according to the season, but the presence of tomato is what gives it that reddish tone that characterizes it. Nutritional note: It is a totally vegetable soup and therefore suitable for vegetarians, it often combines cereals and legumes so that in a single dish we are obtaining good quality protein without the need to eat foods of animal origin.

• Goulash Actually, Goulash is a very popular Hungarian dish made with braised beef, potatoes, onions, leek, bell pepper and paprika, etc. Depending on the amount of water added in the last cooking of the meat, it can lead to a stew or a soup. Nutritional note: We are again in front of a complete plate as it contains vegetables, tubers and meat, and sometimes pasta is also added. Generally, the amount of meat is quite generous, which is why it is a dish with a remarkable protein content. It would be nice to complete it with a starter salad.

SOUPS OF AMERICA

• Corn soup or cron chowder This soup is typical of the United States and, as we can deduce, its main ingredient is corn. It also has milk, potatoes, chopped onion, etc. and butter and cream are usually added to it. And as we mentioned at the beginning, corn soup is not only typical of the US but in Latin America this recipe is also very typical, with some variations in the ingredients. Nutritional note: this recipe, in addition to providing carbohydrates through corn and potatoes, gives rise to a quite creamy and energetic soup due to its cream and butter content. However, there are lighter variants with a lower content of saturated fat.
• sancocho Sancocho is a soup made from boiling a mixture of tubers, vegetables, seasonings and meats. Generally, meats are what give it its name, for example, sancocho de gallina. It seems that the origin could be in the Spanish stew, from which different versions have been generated according to the places where it is made. Today it is widely consumed in Colombia, Ecuador, the Canary Islands, Puerto Rico, Honduras, Panama, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Nutritional note: A dish that contains a great variety of foods, so if we consume the different ingredients it can perfectly be a unique preparation for a meal.
• Tortilla Soup The tortilla soup is a typical Mexican recipe, an explosion of flavors that combines tomato, onion, fried tortilla strips, cheese, cream, chili and, all in a base of chicken broth and adding a touch of spices and seasonings. To the taste of each one. Nutritional note: This recipe provides us with vegetables, dairy products, cereals made in the form of an omelette, avocado ... A fairly complete recipe and also forceful.

ASIAN SOUPS

• Ramen Although we know it as a dish of Japanese origin, it seems that it has been a Japanese reinterpretation of a soup of Chinese origin. Ramen is a bowl of noodle soup prepared with a very aromatic broth and accompanied by different ingredients such as rolled pork loin, spring onion, cooked, mushrooms, seaweed, spinach, vegetables of all kinds, seafood ... The broth is the soul of the ramen and can be garnished with miso, soy sauce, mirin, etc. Nutritional note: Ramen is a very complete dish, due to the combination of vegetables, cereals in the form of noodles and protein foods such as eggs, meat and / or seafood.
• Wonton or wonton soup Dish of Chinese origin, although it is currently widely consumed in some Latin countries. Wonton is prepared with chicken broth, it is taken with the meat itself and with vegetables such as onion, spring onion and cabbage. Now, the main ingredient, as its name suggests, is wonton, that is, the dough that is used to make Chinese dim sum. Nutritional note: light soup with vegetables, which provides the carbohydrates from the pasta and the proteins from the meat or fish used in the soup and the wonton filling.
• Pho Traditional dish of Vietnamese cuisine. Rice noodle soup made with a beef broth and served with small elongated pieces of meat. Variations usually include organ meats, minced meat, or different parts of the chicken. In addition, it usually includes chives, white onion, coriander, coriander, mint, basil ... And it is served with some foods on the side so that each one is added to taste, they are usually: lemon, lime, mint, pepper ... It can also have sauce hoisin, fish sauce, sriracha, etc. Nutritional note: again we are faced with a fairly complete pasta soup, as it contains vegetables, pasta and meat as protein food.

AFRICAN SOUPS

• Kandja or kandia soup Kandja soup is a fish soup in which we must take into account choosing good quality ingredients, especially the palm oil with which it is made. In addition to fish and oil, the soup is made with okra, a vegetable that must be tender, nenetou, a condiment, yet, which is a mollusk, and guedj a salted and dried fish. Nutritional note: It is a fish soup in which the protein contribution of the fish is combined with the presence of vegetables. It provides saturated fatty acids, but the virgin oil used in soup is certainly preferable to that in processed products.
• Egusi soup Soup originally from Nigeria whose main ingredient is the one that gives it its name, the seeds of the egusi melon, a bitter melon from which the meat is not consumed, but the seeds are. In addition to pumpkin seeds, the soup is made with beef, spinach, tomato, onion, vegetable oil, usually red palm oil, pepper, salt ... Nutritional note: This soup provides us with polyunsaturated fatty acids that the seeds contain, and vitamins and minerals from seeds, spinach, etc., in addition to the protein content of the meat.
• Harira Typical Moroccan soup that is part of the typical table of the Ramadan period. It is a very complete dish, it is made with tomato, onion, carrot, celery, smen hour, or failing that, butter, previously soaked and peeled chickpeas, veal, pasta and spices, many spices and condiments, it has turmeric, coriander, paprika , coriander ... Nutritional note: very complete dish, and therefore it is used in the Ramadan period. It contains both vegetables, and usually includes pasta and also meat. It is a highly concentrated dish, both nutritionally and tastefully.