Opteptops advisory

I had thought of a soup for almost two weeks and on the actual day i decided to attempt something different. I hope you shall enjoy. I would recommend starting this recipe the day before you plan to eat unless you prepare the soya a day earlier. It could seem as though i have prepared quite a bit of this meal but the actual amount cooked was enough for 5 sittings and i was able to give some to a friend and some to my neighbours too, which is not particularly easy when a new recipe. Ingredients: one cabbage Dried soya 2 medium/largeish fairly strong tasting onions 5-7 medium cloves of garlic 2 vegetable stock cubes (i mixed a lesser expensive stock cube with another) one beef stock cube (optional) 2.5 tblsp dried curry leaves one scotch bonnet chilli and two green chillies.

Be careful if using chillies , especially scotch bonnett chillies if you have pets. Do not allow children to handle them please unless supervised. It is adviseable to wear gloves with scotch bonnett chillies and claen any surfaces /floors if you drop them and have pets. 2 large tablespoonfuls of madras curry powder 1 tblsp of ground turmeric 1 heap and one level teaspoonful of ground mixed herbs one third of a level very small teaspoonful of compounded Asafoetida 1 lime 2 large cups or two mugs of brown lentils Compounded Asafoetida has turmeric in it but the quantity of the mixture used is very minimal. Asafoetida is used in some regions/ countries widely and often by those who cannot for religious/cultural reasons eat onions or garlic. You would do wisely to look it up on sites such as wiki and i am sure you will be very surprised at what you find. Salt and pepper Place the soya into a watertight container andfill to 3" approximately above the dried soya. Crumble and add the two vegetable stock cubes and stir with a wooden spoon. I would advise a soaking time for the soya of at least overnight and in a refridgerator if possible. Cut the cabbage into halves and remove the core and any outer leaves which may not be suitable and place into a saucepan with some cold water. Chop the onion and garlic and add that too. And stir with a wooden or spoon.Add all of the herbs and spices (except the optional beef stock cube) and stir.