Russian Borscht Soup 羅宋湯

I 1st heard of this soup from a HK friend Queenie during our university years at USQ, as a person who loves soup, I adore it immediately after the 1st spoonful into my mouth. Years later, there are more and more HK style restaurants mushrooming around SS2, I got to savor it whenever ordering their sets. However, when little girl comes along, I usually share the set with her, and most of the time she demanded the cream soup.

On Sunday, last day of the holiday, just staying at home and lazy to make heavy lunch, I recalled seeing this recipe at Carol's blog, decided to give it a try since I have most of the ingredients on hand.

Here is my version of the soup:

Ingredients

1 boneless whole chicken drumstick, diced

2 small onions, diced

2 small potatoes, diced

2 tomatoes, diced

1 carrot, diced

1/4 cauliflower, diced

Seasonings

4-5 bay leaves

2 tbsp ketchup

pinch of salt and pepper

1. Cut onions, potatoes, tomatoes, carrot and cauliflower into bite size
2. Cut chicken to small chunks
3. Heat pan, cook chicken with medium heat til pale (for about 3 minutes)
4. Boil a pot of water, pour cooked chicken into the boiling water, keep boiling for a minute or 2
5. Skim off any froth on surface of soup
6. Lightly fried all vegetables in the pan for 2 to 3 minutes
7. Pour the cooked vegetables into soup, add in seasoning ingredients, flavor to taste
8. Cover the lid, let it simmer for 40 - 60 minutes or til the vegetables turn soft

Ok, original recipe calls for beef, but I have chicken only, with no other choice, decided to continue the cooking.

Verdict: I love every single drops of the soup, had it for lunch and dinner yesterday, then lunch again this afternoon with rice, yum!

LG: Mummy! This is not ABC soup (Malaysian version of potato soup)

Me: Yeah, this is the English version ABC soup (should be Russian)

LG: ??? * showing a blur face *