Something sour for a side dish? Of course there is something other than lemon. Since I was little, I have known this sour ingredient to make food delicious.
Take a guess. What is that ingredient? Yep, it's tamarind! Have you ever heard of tamarind? Maybe some people only know tamarind for delicious sweet and sour candy.
In Indonesia, there are many dishes that use tamarind ingredients to make food delicious. For example, soup dishes.
But besides making food delicious, I usually find tamarind trees on the streets. As a shade for the road, unfortunately now I often see other trees planted on the road whose trunks will have a higher selling value. Meanwhile, tamarind is only used for food and herbs.
What I like about tamarind is that it is not too sour like lemon but gives a distinctive fresh sour taste.
If for cooking, tamarind is usually sold without the skin and the soft flesh looks like paste. Meanwhile, there are still tamarind seeds.
I usually make tamarind for tamarind vegetable soup. The broth is slightly sour but combined with chili makes the overall broth delicious.
As for the chili, here I use a type of red chili that is not too spicy compared to cayenne pepper.
For the vegetable filling, I use mung bean sprouts, also green beans, corn, and carrots.
Mung bean sprouts also have a good source of protein and I like to mix this type of sprouts in side dishes. You can also use microgreens for toppings.
I don't know why I always like to cut carrots into flower shapes even though I don't have a special knife, ehehe. I just do it manually, making 4 cuts on the side of the carrot so that it will form a flower when the carrot is sliced thinly.
I also cut green beans. You can replace them with long beans.
For the corn, I didn't throw away the corn cob. I cut it into circles following the shape of the corn cob.
I used a traditional pestle and mortar that is usually used to make chili paste.
I pureed the red chilies, garlic, and shallots. Of course I used a blender but I don't have one.
Before removing, add mung bean sprouts. Stir well, then remove. And the tamarind vegetable soup can be served while warm.
I serve tamarind vegetable soup with rice as my and my husband's dinner.
For me, the taste is just right! Not too sour. Not too spicy either. The color of the soup looks appetizing.
Warm, but also refreshingly sour. I like it! Would you like a bowl of this tamarind soup?
Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari
Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share life, poem, and food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration.
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