Butter Vegetable Soup with Pork Belly

Great to be back! Well, it wasn't easy to eat LCHF when travelling but I did try my best (most of the time, lol) and well, I'm happy to say I'm back on track.

First post for the year and I'll like to share my idiot-proof soup recipe. It is simple (just 4 to 5 ingredients) and best of all, quick.

I used:
120g of butter
2 medium sized carrots, chopped
2 medium sized onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
some garlic, chopped
500g of pork belly

This soup will take only one hour (including prep time) without the pork belly. To me, that is really fast as the soups that I used to make usually take at least a few hours of slow boiling to achieve a rich flavour.

The belly part of the pork needs time to be melt-in-your-mouth soft so it needs a longer cooking time and I usually let it stay for one more hour.

First things first, brown the pork. Melt half of the prepared butter in your hot pot/pan and add the chopped garlic in. After a while, throw in your pork and turn them around while they cook.

Turn the heat down once the pork has cooked (notice the colour) and add in some water till it almost covers the meat.

Add a generous amount of black pepper and salt and bring the water to a boil

Once boiling, throw in your carrots, onions and tomatoes and let it boil on on high heat

One thing I love about soups is the option of adding you what you like. I'm a fan of mushrooms and I spotted these matsutake mushrooms (from Thailand) at NTUC which I thought will be great with the soup!

Once the soup has come to a boil, place in the other half of the butter. Stir the soup gently while the butter melts. Turn down the heat and let it simmer once it has melted completely.

After 30 mins, taste your soup. I usually add more black pepper and salt at this point of time as they really bring out the flavour of the soup. I also used some nutmeg and tumeric powder for an extra kick.

Let it simmer for an extra 15 mins and the soup will be done! If you have pork belly in it, remember to let it sit for an hour more.

Enjoy the glorious colour of the soup...oh and the buttery aroma that will fill your kitchen.

After 2 hours of easy peasy work, here's what I am having for dinner!

Let's all look forward to an awesome year 2013, living it up the low carb high fat way, alright? Lol.