Chef Seiji “Waka” Wakabayashi at popular French fusion restaurant bushi tei in San Francisco’s Japantown introduces a non-dairy vegetable soup.

Today he uses potatoes, but you can also carrots, English peas, and pumpkins. This soup is a good alternative to baby food, and a great vegetarian dish.

Ingredients (serves four)
Potatoes......................................4
Water.................................8 cups
White onion...............................1
Olive oil...........................1/4 cup
Good quality salt................1 tbsp
Sugar..................................1 tbsp
Laurel leaf.................................1

1. Remove skin from potatoes and chop. Thinly slice the onion.

2. Warm olive oil in a pot and stir-fry onion slices with sugar and salt, until onion slices get soft.

3. Add potatoes, water and a laurel leaf to the pot. Cook until the potatoes get soft. Start with high heat until it starts boiling, then lower the heat.

4. Take out the laurel leaf and put the contents of the pot into a food processor. Process until it becomes a puree.

5. Add some water to the puree to adjust the thickness of the soup. Also, add some salt and pepper to adjust to your taste.

Points

While stir-frying, be sure not to burn the onion slices. Adding sugar helps the slices to produce more water and “sweat.”