Bori Bori Soup – from Paraguay

My son is a big laddu fan. So much so that I have gained expertise in turning anything into the laddu-ball shape to entice him to eat it. Typical paruppu-saadam urundai (small balls of dal/lentil and rice) are passé. Fruit balls made with the melon baller, cooked vegetables and rice balls, pulao balls (yes, I’ve made those too!), milk and biscuit balls (those were before he started eating ‘bikki’), roti-sabzi balls – you name it, and I’ve made it all! Funnily enough, you know how he eats the actual boondi laddu? He crumbles the entire laddu, smashes it up even more and then puts each tiny bit by tiny bit into his mouth!

So, if your son is anything like mine or if he likes cheese (anyone who doesn’t?) then this soup will really speak to you. This funny sounding soup looks very interesting and tastes simply wow. It has cheese dumplings along with finely diced veggies in a clear soup. These aren’t the usual oozy cheesy cheese balls. These are more like soft, but firm, cheese dumplings made by binding corn flour and cheese.

Paraguayan food is predominantly non-vegetarian. The country is said to have abundant crop of mangoes, avocadoes and vegetables, but they aren’t much used in the cuisine. I was lucky to come across this vegetarian Paraguayan soup in the book The Global Vegetarian. The best part about this one is that the whole dish comes together pretty quickly. It is light, yet filling; tasty and nutritious too. Read on for the how-to.

PS: About the pictures: I know they’re pretty dark. I tried to shoot with natural light with our Indonesian wood coffee table for background. I don’t think I was too successful. For one, I don’t have a tripod for the camera, so I can’t shoot at aperture lower than 1/25^th of a second.

Bori Bori Soup – Vegetable soup from Paraguay with corn-cheese balls

Ingredients

For the soup:

Chopped green beans (any variety) – 1 cup, finely chopped

Mixed vegetables – 2 cups, finely chopped (mix of capsicum, carrot, corn, sweet corn, zucchini)

Onion – 1, large, finely chopped

Garlic – 2-3 fat cloves, minced

Coarsely ground black pepper and salt to taste

Water – 3 cups

Oil – 2 tbsp

For the dumplings:

Fine corn flour – ½ cup (yellow flour made from corn ie. makki ki atta, not corn starch)

Grated cheddar cheese – ½ cup

Dried oregano – 2 tsp

Ground black pepper – ½ tsp

Method:

For the dumplings:

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and knead into a dough. You can add milk/water a teaspoon at a time if you find it too dry to bind

Leave the dough to rest, covered, for about half an hour

Pinch out pieces of dough the size of a small lemon/rounded teaspoon (I made them larger!). Roll it well and keep aside

For the soup:

Heat oil in age saucepan and sauté the garlic and onions till onions turn transparent

Stir in all the vegetables and sauté for a few minutes

Add salt, pepper and water and bring to a boil

Then lower the heat to the minimum and gently add the dumpling one by one

Simmer the soup for 15-20 minutes

Serve hot!

———————————–

This is my post for alphabet P (for Paraguay) for the blogging event titled Around the World in 30 Days , a special bi-annual version of the Blogging Marathon hosted by Srivalli.