Healthy and Hearty Vegetable Soup

I first know about the ABC Soup was in the 'Cooking Competition' during my secondary school time. It was a really easy and tasty soup, my first impression. One need only not more than 5 ingredients to cook it, so it is always the choice for the competition :P So when im cooking these days, i wanted to enrich its flavour and texture but maintain the main idea: stay healthy and hearty, so i tried to create my own version. 

Vegetable Soup garnished with cream, black pepper and parsley

Traditionally, the ABC Soup is cooked from water, carrot, onion, tomato, some salt and white pepper. On top of these, i added potato, celery, leek and garlic for flavour and 1 handful of rice for texture. The complete ingredients per below:

1. Carrot .......................... 4
2. Onion .......................... 4
3. Potato .......................... 2 Large
4. Tomato ........................ 4
5. Celery ........................   8 sticks
6. Leek ............................ 2 Large sticks
7. Bay leaf ....................... 1
8. Rice ............................. a handful 
9. Water ........................... 2cm above the ingredients in the pot
10. Fresh Cream ................ optional amount to liking 

20-30min of boiling will soften the vegs for easy blending. 

Direction:

Cubed Ingredient #1 - #6 and add them into the pot then add in the water. We do not want to over add the water nor under so, i figured out adding the water to about 2cm above all ingredients are just good. Lit on and add in the bay leaf and rice. The boiling should take about 20-30 minutes depending on the cube size. Take away the bay leaf and start blending with an immersive blender. Until everything have 'disappear', you should end up with a thick soup (because of the rice and potato). At this point, season with salt and freshly grounded black pepper. Add in some fresh cream and it will become another promising flavour. 

Basically you can add in anything into this veggie soup and blend them. If you are on diet, especially for dinner on, you can instead drink this soup because of the starch (potato and some rice), it is actually a good filler. 

Useful Tips:

1. This soup is equally good if serve chilled
2. For silky smooth texture, you can sift the soup before serving
3. Food processor can replace the immersive blender, the idea is just to blend everything together
4. A knob or 2 of unsalted butter will further enhance the flavour