The wide world of Food.

Passport & Plate - Mas Villa Soup

Sri Lanka | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 3 photos

Ingredients
1 tbsp of oil (olive or sunflower)
50 g of butter
1 red onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 red pepper (without seeds)
100 g of carrots
200 g of french beans
1 pumpkin
1 teaspoon of madras curry powder
1/2 a teaspoon of chili powder
700 ml water
1/2 vegetable stock cube
300 ml milk
4 fresh mint leaves
salt/pepper if necessary

 

How to prepare this recipe
Peel and cut the pumpkin in half. Remove the seeds and chop into small cubes.
Peel the onion and cut in pieces. Repeat with garlic cloves,
Wash the carrots en cut into chunks.
Cut the pepper in half and remove the seeds. Then cut in small pieces.
Remove the outer ends of the beans en slice in half.

Heat the oil and butter in a big soup pan. When the butter has melted, add the red pepper, onion and garlic and fry until the onion is glazed.
Add the madras curry powder and chili powder and fry.
Now add the pumpkin, beans and carrots and fry again for 3 minutes.
Add the water and the stock cube and let it cook for about 15 minutes.

Use a hand blender or food processor to make a smooth soup.
Then add the milk and stir well.

Add some mint as garnish.

Your soup is now ready to be served! And as we say in The Netherlands: Eet smakelijk!

 

The story behind this recipe
About 23 years ago, I was born in Sri Lanka. In that same year as I was born, I was adopted by the two most wonderful people in the entire world, whom I get to call Mom and Dad. They took me back to their home country of The Netherlands where i got to meet my brother MaNOj, who is also adopted from Sri Lanka. But my Mom and Dad were so fond of Sri Lanka and the everlasting bond they have with it, that they decided to emigrate there. My mom, dad, brother, maternal grandmother and -father and I spent nine years living in Sri Lanka before we moved back to The Netherlands in 2002. Those nine years were absolutely the best years of my life. When I got older, my parents explained that they didn't want me and my brother to forget where we came from. So they wanted us to experience life there, and I am so grateful that they made the decision of moving to Sri Lanka.
But back in The Netherlands, it wasn't the same. It was cold, dark, grey, and just not Sri Lanka. But I've adjusted and have gotten to love this country as well. In 2004 we spent the summer holidays in Sri Lanka and it was great to be back for a little while. It definitely felt like coming home.
After that, it lasted eight years before we finally went back again. That was in 2012.
My father had planned almost the whole trip, like he always did when we went on holidays. In our second week, we stayed at Mas Villa for one night, in Kothmale. My, my, what a beautiful place that was. And the best thing was, we had it all to ourselves. We were the only guests staying there. At dinner, Mas Villa's chef had created a delicious menu starting with this soup. After the first taste, I was in love. We all were. When we had filled our stomachs with the glorious, enriched Sri Lankan dishes, the manager and the chef came to sit with us for the evening. I immediately jumped on the kind man to ask him about the soup recipe. Back home in Holland, I treated my family on the soup. And back came all those lovely memories..