Vegetable Soup Recipe (Indian Veg Soup)
Updated: September 14, 2023, By Swasthi
Vegetable Soup Recipe – This easy, healthy & delicious Indian-Chinese vegetable soup is super quick to make. It just takes about 20 mins from start to finish to make a large pot of this flavorful and hearty soup. I have shared a basic recipe here. Flavor it & spice it up the way you like! Vegetable soup can be made with any veggies of your choice. The taste & flavor of the soup depends on the vegetables & spices used. So make the right choice!
Most times I make soups to use up the excess veggies or when someone at home is suffering from cold and congestion. Last weekend we craved for a Indo Chinese dinner. So I got to make this mix veg soup & vegetable noodles.
I was left with so many chopped veggies after making the soup which I used to make Chinese pakora. There was some bottled homemade schezwan sauce in the fridge which went well with these.
The combination of Vegetable soup, Chinese pakora with schezwan sauce and noodles was so good that I thought of sharing the recipes here.
About Vegetable Soup
Vegetable soup is a simple soup made with various vegetables, leafy greens, herbs and sometimes spices. It is made in various cultures and cuisines across the world. So you will find numerous ways to make it but the one ingredient you will always find in all of these is the vegetables.
Some recipes use spices to flavor the vegetable soup. The recipe I have shared in this post is much more commonly served in the Indian Chinese restaurants. This is light on the stomach yet so nourishing and filling that makes a great appetizer.
This vegetable soup uses veggies like carrots, peas, sweet corn, green beans and cabbage. It is flavored with ginger, garlic, spring onions, ground black pepper and red chilli flakes.
If Indo Chinese cuisine is not your thing then just serve this soup with some sandwiches or cheese toast.
More Soup recipes
Tomato Soup
Manchow soup
Clear soup
Sweet corn soup
Mushroom Soup
Photo Guide
How to Make Vegetable Soup (Stepwise Photos)
1. Rinse all the vegetables under running water and chop them finely. Make sure all the veggies are of the same size otherwise one turns mushy and the other underdone.
2. Chop ginger and garlic as well.
3. Heat oil in a pot. Saute ginger, garlic and spring onion greens for a minute or 2. If using bay leaf and cinnamon you can add them here first.
4. Add all the veggies.
5. Then add in cabbage or any other leafy greens.
6. Fry all of them on a high flame for 2 to 3 mins to bring out aroma.
7. Pour water or stock. I used water here.
8. Cover and cook until slightly tender.
9. Meanwhile in a separate bowl stir in cornstarch or arrow root powder with half cup water. Ensure it is lump free.
If using boiled potato, add it to a blender jar and pour half cup water. Puree to a smooth paste. I usually add 2 cups of water to the pot and then 1 cup for potato puree.
10. When the veggies turn slightly tender, pour the corn starch to the boiling vegetable soup. Stir continuously and cook until it turns slightly thick.
11. Add salt and sugar (optional).
12. Add then crushed pepper. You can also add white pepper.
13. Turn off when the soup turns slightly thick. It thickens further after cooling. Very thick soup tastes starchy so do not thicken it a lot. The soup must be free flowing and not very thick.
I prefer to add apple cider vinegar when the soup cools down a bit. Taste the soup and add more salt if desired.
14. Add red chili flakes and more spring onion greens.
Serve Indian-Chinese vegetable soup hot or warm.
Pro Tips
- Veggies: The key to a good veg soup is the combination & the quantity of veggies used. The quantities given below goes well for our taste.
- Spices: 1 Bay leaf, half inch piece real cinnamon, pepper, red chili flakes & allspice are the spices that go well in this soup.
- Thickener : This recipe uses flour to thicken the soup. You can use oats powder, barley powder, corn starch or arrowroot powder. However flour can be replaced with 1 medium boiled potato. (details in the recipe card notes).
- Ginger is optional. If you have young kids, you may skip or use it grated.
- Vinegar or lemon juice & ginger are great for sore throat, detox and even congestion. You can also skip them if you don’t like the flavors.
What vegetables can I put in the soup?
I generally use cabbage, carrots, beans, spring onions, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, Indian spinach (palak), peas & sweet corn.
Apart from the veggies mentioned in the recipe you can also add about
half cup Indian palak or baby spinach (loosely measured then chopped)
2 to 3 fined chopped mushrooms
half cup broccoli or cauliflower
replace cabbage with bok choy
You can pour 1 cup more water for every addition of veggies.
Healthy variations
Skip the flour or starch for all these variations. These are healthy versions of the same recipe which I make for my family.
- Noodle vegetable soup: I add about 1 serving organic dry noodles once the water comes to a boil. The noodles cook up and thicken the soup. You will need 1 cup more water.
- Curried vegetable soup: Just add in the desired amount of curry powder. I have tried this with pav bhaji masala and it tastes great.
- Quinoa vegetable soup: I add about 4 tbsps quinoa to the same recipe. Just add them after the veggies are half done.
- Chicken vegetable soup: You can add about half cup cooked or grilled and shredded chicken. I usually saute the bone-in chicken in a tsp of oil until pale and then cook in water until tender. Then lastly I make the vegetable soup and pour the chicken stock to it. I shred the chicken and add it. It tastes yum.
I also have a similar recipe of chicken soup here.
I have doubled the recipe so you will find the quantities more than mentioned in the recipe.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Vegetable Soup Recipe (Indian Veg Soup)
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- ½ tablespoon oil (or butter)
- ½ tablespoon garlic fine chopped or minced
- ¼ to ½ tablespoon ginger fine chopped or minced
- 2 sprigs spring onions greens (or scallions)
- 2 sprigs spring onion whites (or scallions)
- ¼ cup carrots fine chopped
- ¼ cup peas
- ¼ cup sweet corn
- ¼ cup french beans
- ½ cup cabbage fine chopped
- 2½ cups water or vegetable stock
- 1 tablespoon corn starch (or 3 tbsp oats powder or 1 tbsp arrowroot powder) (optional) (refer notes)
- ¼ cup water (to mix with flour)
- ¼ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
- ½ to 1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
- 1 teaspoon vinegar (apple cider) or lemon juice
Spices
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon red chilli flakes
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon pepper powder (crushed pepper)
- 1 small bay leaf optional
Instructions
Preparation
- Rinse the veggies thoroughly and chop them finely. You can also use a food processor.
- Chop or mince ginger and garlic.
How to make Vegetable Soup
- Heat oil in a pot.
- Fry garlic, ginger, bay leaf (optional) and spring onion whites for a minute.
- Then add all the other veggies and saute for 2 mins on a high flame to bring out the aroma.
- Pour water or stock and cook covered until the veggies are slightly tender.
- Meanwhile stir in the corn starch in ¼ cup water.
- Pour the corn starch mixture to the boiling vegetable soup.
- Cook stirring constantly until it turns slightly thick. It will thicken further upon cooling.
- Add pepper, salt & sugar. Stir and turn off the stove. Let it cool down a bit.
- Then add in vinegar and chilli flakes. Taste and add more salt if needed.
- Serve vegetable soup hot or warm with some hakka noodles or cheese toast.
Notes
Video
Watch Indian Soup Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
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About Swasthi
Iโm Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthiโs Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
Nice recipe and well explained.
I really like indo chinese recipes.
If its published by swasthis then I’m confident will be good
Thank you so much Sarwat
its easy and delicious and quick to make
Thank you
It came out absolutely amazing
Glad to know Tanvi. Thank you!
Yummy
Yum! The soup is really good! I like to make veggie soup for fiber and deliciousness!
Yum!!!
Can we messed all veggies once it’s cooked for kids who are not ready to eat cut veggies in soups ??
Yes you can mash the veggies
Thank u very much for this recipe
*
Love this recipe. How many days can I store this in the fridge?
Anita, it should be okay for 2 days.
Love this vegetable soup. Turned out great
Glad to know Meghana
Thank you
Great recipe. I added all the leftover veggies and it was amazing. Thank you!!
This came out exactly like a Chinese vegetable soup. Used some soya sauce and rice wine vinegar. Tastes so good.
loved it
Thank you!
Very nice like it
A simple but delicious soup. The addition of apple cider vinegar gives a good taste. Loved it.
Glad to know Winnie
Thank you
Just tried this recipe. It’s so simple. It came out to be so tasty. My kids love it too. Thanks a lot for sharing it.
You are welcome! Glad it turned out good.
Plz share manchaw soup
Yes Ruhi
I will.
Is it corn flour or corn starch ?
Hi Swetha
Both are same. It is white corn flour or corn starch
what can I make with rice powder
Hi Ravi,
It depends on the kind of rice powder. You can use it to make dosas. Just soak half cup urad dal for 4 hours. Blend to a smooth batter. Mix 2 cups of rice flour with water until a batter consistency is achieved. Mix it with the urad dal. Ferment overnight and make dosas. You can also make some snacks. Here are some recipes
Murukku
thattai
Madam,
Congrats and Thank you very much for your wonderful job….. because of you only my wife trying different varieties by seeing your website and YouTube videos….
I personally request you to create an app that might be useful to more like us…..
Hello Sir,
You are welcome. So glad to know the recipes are helpful. Thanks for the comment. Currently we do not have an app yet. Not sure if I will be able to work on the app due to time constraints. Thanks again.