To celebrate Matariki, Dominion Road Primary made delicious Hua Whenua Soup - a family recipe full of lots of root vegetables including carrots, potato and kumara. Add Maori Bread on the side and you have a wonderful winter warmer!
Ingredients - soup
- 4 litres vegetable stock
- Salt
- Choose from the following: 1/2 cup split red lentils, pasta (small shapes), rice, barley or soup mix
- Parsley - large bunch chopped and added just before serving
- Fresh vegetables (cut into small pieces)
- Onion or leek
- Celery
- Carrots - may be grated
- Potato - may be grated
- Pumpkin - may be grated
- Kumara - may be grated
- Spinach/silverbeet (stalks thinly sliced and added with vegetables, leaves shredded and added at end of cooking time)
- Other seasonal vegetables as available
Ingredients - bread
- 4 cups plain flour (+ extra for dusting bench and kneading)
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- Milk and water in equal measures
Will make one oven tray - approx 16 pieces. Double recipe as required (basically for every 1 cup of flour you use 1 tsp baking powder, so this bread can be reduced/increased as desired, adjust liquid added accordingly).
Hua Whenua (Vegetable Soup)
- Firstly, heat stock so veg can be added to hot stock. Once boiling, reduce to simmer and add lentils/rice/pasta - whichever is being used.
- Wash and prepare the vegetables: Onion: peel and dice. Celery: cut into thin slices, include any leaves. Root vegetables: peel and dice small or grate. Spinach/silverbeet: thinly slice stalks and add with vegetables, leaves shredded and added at end of cooking time.
- Add vegetables to pot as they are prepared.
- Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer until vegetables are tender (approx 25-30mins). Add more stock or boiling water if more liquid is required. Add salt to taste. Flavour will improve with longer cooking time (do not boil hard, a continuous rolling simmer is best here).
- When vegetables are cooked add shredded greens, if using, and cook for 5 more minutes.
- Add chopped parsley before serving.
Maori Bread
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Sieve flour, baking powder and salt into bowl. Make a well in the middle.
- Mix water and milk in a jug in equal quantities, start with 1 cup of each and add more as required.
- Gradually add water/milk mixture to the bowl, stirring with a knife (or your hand) to get a soft dough.
- Turn out onto a clean, floured surface and knead lightly, add more flour if needed. You want dough to just come together, so it can be handled onto the tray. Do not overwork dough.
- Shape bread onto baking tray into a rectangle shape approximately 2cm high. Cut through with a knife into even pieces, but do not separate. (we always had it shaped into a circle then cut through like pizza - hence 'cartwheel bread').
- Bake for approximately 20 minutes. Bread should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom and be evenly coloured.
Notes
You can use this same recipe for dough boys/kine kine/plastic potatoes (dumplings) for your 'boil up' pot.
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Hua Whenua (Vegetable Soup) & Maori Bread Comments
Thanks for the cartwheel bread just what I needed
jean
bread is very doughie even afer an extra 10 mins what did I do wrong
jean
Its basically scone dough. Dont put too much water in and definitely dont over knead. It will go tough if you do. Little is best.
Sharon Cannon