Lentils, Pumpkin & Sweet Potato stew : One pot dinner

I cannot be a self respecting food blogger and not post a pumpkin recipe for that time of the year when pumpkins are omnipresent on the internet. Actually, I didn't even realise this when I made this stew for dinner. Indians don't need a time of the year to use pumpkin. It is cooked round the year in several dishes - curries, sambars, a kootu with dals and lots more. In fact, pumpkin is such an everyday thing, that most Indian families love to hate it (familiarity breeds contempt and so on) and cannot understand what the hype & hoopla over pumpkin is all about, during this time of the year in other countries. Using pumpkin in desserts like cakes, cookies, muffins, pies etc. is not a very Indian thing, because none of the above dishes are primarily of Indian origin. There is of course a delicious Pumpkin Halwa (fudge) served in wedding feasts and other such auspicious occasions.

This stew is a healthy way to eat pumpkin and a perfect one pot dish for a chilly evening. Very little chopping and the fact that it simmers itself into a dish without much of supervision, makes it an easy post-work dinner too. This recipe serves two but you could easily double the quantities for a larger families. It's not something I'd call a glamourous dish, but something that's surely hearty, comforting and super healthy.

Lentils, Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Stew
Serves 2

Ingredients
1/3rd cup dry whole masoor dal, soaked in warm water for 2 hours
1 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup diced yellow pumpkin ~200 grams
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and sliced, 1 cm thick slices
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp tomato paste* or 3 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp ground cumin or ground fennel
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp of hungarian paprika or 1/2 tsp of red chilli powder

Directions
In a medium sized saucepan, heat the olive oil. 
Add the garlic and saute for few seconds (do not brown), add the diced pumpkin and sweet potato slices. Saute on high flame for 30 seconds. 
Reduce the flame. Drain the soaked (rehydrated) whole masoor and add to the pan. Stir for a minute or so. 
Add all the spices & herbs, stir well for few seconds, add 3 cups of boiling water to this and bring to a simmer. 
Cover and let this simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are soft but holding their shape. Towards the end, add the tomato paste dissolved in 2 tbsp of hot water, to the stew, bring to a simmer and then remove into a bowl to serve.
Serve hot with a slice of crusty bread or crackers or as it is. 

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Roasted Pumpkin Soup with flavours of Lemongrass and Ginger

We're not yet fully into winter and yet early morning temperatures are hitting lows of 15C. Bangalore, how I love thee for this. With this soup I made for my son and me a couple of nights ago, I have hit upon another perfectly warming soup recipe for the winter evenings. The lemongrass keeps it fresh and the ginger gives it the warmth.

I buy fresh lemongrass from Namdhari's that comes chopped in batons and sold in plastic bags. I'm talking about the green leaves here and not the stalk that is used in Thai cooking. I keep this in the freezer once opened, and it stays for a long time. My favourite use for this is in my morning Chai. Other than this I use it in Thai curry pastes, or even just simmer in a curry and fish it out in the end for that fresh lemony flavour. I have found that Lemon Basil is a great substitute for lemongrass in tea as well as curries.

This soup is as filling and creamy as it can get, without adding even a touch of cream. You could do an oven roasted pumpkin soup, but I find the flavours very similar even with slow roasting on a stove top pan. I used the yellow pumpkin for this. You could try the same with butternut squash or the darker orange pumpkin too.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Recipe for Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Lemongrass and Ginger
Serves 3
Under 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
200 grams yellow pumpkin
1 large onion
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
6-7 lemon grass leaves
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 1/2 cups skimmed milk
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Paprika
Dried parsley

Preparation
Peel and slice the pumpkin into medium sized pieces
Peel and thinly slice the onion
Slice the garlic

Directions

1. In a large wok, heat the olive oil. Before oil gets hot, add the sliced garlic and onions. Saute on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the lemongrass leaves and ginger. Stir for a few seconds.
2. Add the sliced pumpkin. Braise on high heat, shaking the wok every now and then until the slices get a golden brown coating.
3. At this stage sprinkle sea salt and let this cook uncovered for 5 minutes on low heat.
4. Add 1/2 cup water, cover and cook the pumpkin now, until it is fully done and falls apart when touched with a ladle.
5. Remove to a dish and cool. Remove the lemon grass leaves from the cooked veggies and discard.
6. Once cooled, remove this to a blender and blend to a smooth puree with milk.
7. Get this back into a saucepan and check for seasoning. The soup will be reasonably thick and very creamy at this stage. Adjust consistency of soup using some water if required, if you prefer a thinner soup.

Serving
Ladle the hot soup into bowls. Top with some extra virgin olive oil. sprinkling of paprika, a tinge of grated ginger and some fresh lemongrass leaves as a garnish.
Serve with sliced toasted baguette which have been rubbed with garlic cloves, or soup sticks.

Tip
You can make this soup spicier by adding a Thai red chilli in the initial stage along with ginger and lemon grass.
You could try adding a tsp of fresh thyme leaves towards the end for a more intense flavour.
Here's a colourful guide on the different commonly available pumpkins and how to cook them.

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Spinach Lentil Soup - Lunch for one

Spinach Lentil Soup
(Click for larger image)

Cooking for oneself can get extremely boring and uninspiring even for a food blogger. Sandwich, salad or soup is easily made for one person, without going through the bother of making a 3 part Indian meal like roti, vegetable and dal. It is also a good way to compensate a heavy dinner buffet of the previous night. A soup like this is a perfect alternative to skipping a meal. The latter, as a nutrition doctor, I will never advocate.

Any fresh greens can be used instead of spinach and I have used Masoor Dal which are one of the lightest and fastest cooking lentils around. The 1.5L Hawkins Pressure Cooker is a blessing when cooking for one or a small family of two or for making your baby's meals. Whether it is cooking dal or rice in a matter of minutes, or making a light gravy vegetable in the cooker itself - this is one piece of kitchen equipment that I find indispensable.



Printable Version of Recipe

1. Wash 1/4 cup masoor dal well and place it directly in the smallest pressure cooker you have. To this add a cup of well washed spinach leaves, discarding the thicker stems. Also add 1-2 cloves of peeled garlic.
2. Add a cup of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles and 5 minutes on sim.
3. Once the contents have cooled, puree finely in a blender. Keep aside.
4. In a small saucepan, heat 1/2 tsp oil or ghee.
5. Add a tiny pinch of asafoetida, 1/4 tsp of cumin seeds and 1/4 tsp of ground black pepper. Once the cumin seeds splutter, add the pureed soup and required quantity of water to achieve the desired consistency. Bring to a boil. Season with salt and some more pepper if required. Remove to a bowl.

Serve hot with soup sticks, bread or a salad on the side.

This is a delicately flavoured soup that will also make a good option of stage 2 solid food for your baby. You can leave out the black pepper and take care to wash the spinach extra well, even if you buy pre-washed leaves. For an older baby, you can soak bread slice or roti pieces for more texture and a more filling meal.
Next time, I will add more cumin seeds, because the taste of the fried seeds and their crunchy texture was quite yummy!

And hey, my favourite Blogger is offering 4 Dynamic Views - Check out the links below and tell me which you like...I love all four and can't decide which one looks better.

Mosaic View
Flipcard View
Snapshot View
Timeslide View
Sidebar View

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Roasted eggplant soup and the hate-list from my childhood

Some twenty years ago, if someone told me 'It's kathrikkai (eggplant) soup for dinner' I'd have won the 100 metre sprint. Yeah, eggplant was probably the only vegetable in my hate-list. Sometimes my tongue would itch after I ate a piece of this, so I hastily assumed that I'm allergic to eggplant and lost no time in informing all concerned about this significant development in my life!
The other two food items that didn't impress me with their strong tastes were asafoetida and gingelly oil. My grandmom would use 'katti-perungayam' (asafoetida cake) which was broken into tiny pieces, and a couple of small bits soaked in water in a small ceramic pot, ready to tip into any waiting sambar, rasam or kozhambu. Sometimes, a small chunk of this asafoetida would fall into the sambar and guess who's plate it would land into? Yours truly of course, and this bitter gooey smelly thing was enough to spoil my taste for the rest of the meal.
Gingelly oil or 'nalla yennai' - oil extracted from sesame seeds yet not exactly the taste of sesame oil used in Chinese cooking, is another favourite in Tamil homes. Used with thuvaiyals, used to light brass lamps and to mix molagai-podi, the spice powder had with idlis and dosais has a golden yellow almost amber colour and a distinct smell.  In my younnnger days, my mom / granny had standing instructions from me that there would be no gingelly oil smeared on my idlis and the molagaipodi should be mixed in regular refined oil, not the 'smelly' oil.
Today, all of the above has reversed. May be my tam-bram genes are finally expressing themselves or I'm just growing up. I love eggplant, the big variety, which I use to make at least ten different things from all cuisines of the world. Type 'eggplant' in the search field on this blog, and you'll find at least ten results (I hope)
Asafoetida I cannot live without, in fact I have some four types of these in my pantry - LG Katti Perungayam, yes, the very same I loved to hate, Vandevi compounded asafoetida, Goldie's pure asafoetida granules and LG asafoetida powder. That should say it all.
Gingelly oil, I make sure I never run out - for the lamps we light everyday, for the idli / dosais we eat at least once a week and for the kozhambu / thuvaiyals we eat around once a fortnight.
How things change!
So coming back to what I said, if someone told me Brinjal Soup - I'd say ' God's must be crazy to give you such an idea' but today, the new and improved me, is making such stuff for a low-carb, healthy soup. I must say I got the inspiration for this from a column in The Hindu, but the recipe is entirely my own.

Recipe for Roasted Eggplant Soup
Makes two generous bowls

Ingredients
1 globe eggplant, medium sized (around 350 grams)
3 medium tomatoes
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced thinly
5 small cloves garlic
Some oil to smear on eggplant
1 tsp olive oil
3 cups water / vegetable stock
1 tsp salt or salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp dried basil
Olive oil

Directions
Smear the eggplant with some oil and roast directly on the flame, turning sides*. In under 7 minutes, the skin will be completely charred and the eggplant softened right through. Keep aside to cool. Peel the skin, chop flesh roughly and keep aside.
One by one, pierce the tomatoes with a fork and grill on open flame, until entire skin is charred. Each tomato will take around 2-3 minutes. Peel when cool enough to handle. Chop roughly, discarding the seeds.
In a small wok, heat 1 tsp olive oil. Fry the garlic cloves and onion slices on medium heat, till golden and soft.
In a blender, puree the eggplant, tomato and softened onion-garlic to a fine paste, using water / vegetable stock as required. Season with salt, pepper. Bring this to a simmer in a pot, adding dried basil at this stage.
Remove in bowls, topping with some olive oil and freshly crushed black pepper. I topped mine with some Cajun seasoning for a nice kick.
Serve with soup sticks for a light dinner or with a nice foccassia bread and pasta for a complete Italian meal.

It was a yummy soup with deep adult flavours, a nice farewell to the lovely winter we experienced in this new city! I have a feeling, this soup will taste good chilled too.

*If you don't have access to an open flame, use the method described in the recipe from The Hindu

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'Souper' supper - Simple Mushroom Soup

Dinner last night was a very light one in preparation for the inevitable hogging that happens on weekends. Whole wheat toasts dunked in some hot soup make a comforting meal, even if it is too hot here nowadays. Like most other stuff I post here, this one too is a quick meal made from a few ingredients. The mainstay as the name suggests is mushrooms - with some onions and spinach to add flavour and body to the recipe. Made thicker, this will serve as a nice sauce for pasta too.

Simple mushroom soup
Makes two large bowls
Time taken - Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic - peeled
1/2 cup sliced onions
200 grams button mushrooms - cleaned, roughly sliced
1 cup spinach leaves
2 cups water

1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp black pepper powder
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt or to taste

Directions
Heat the oil in a pressure cooker. Saute the garlic for 30 seconds. Add the onion slices and saute for 2-3 minutes. Next throw in mushroom slices and spinach and stir on high flame till spinach wilts. Add 2 cups water to this and pressure cook* for 5 minutes (keep on sim for 5 min after two whistles). Remove and cool. [You can make this in advance up to this point and keep in refrigerator for a quick supper after a long workday.]
Blend this to a chunky consistency once cooled. We like it this way, as it gives a lot of texture. Remove to a saucepan, bring to a simmer. Add seasonings. Check for salt. Add milk towards the end, bring it to a simmer once again. Remove from flame, serve hot with croutons or whole wheat toasts.
*If you don't use a pressure cooker, then boil the mushroom, onion and spinach with some water in a pan with a lid for around 10 minutes till mushrooms are soft.

This makes a good low-fat, low-carb supper (minus the toasts of course) . But even with the bit of carbs, it is an excellent option for those who are looking at shedding some pounds.

Another incredibly simple mushroom recipe coming your way soon!

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Announcing my other blog and the Aunt inspired soup series

Heartfelt thanks to your warm, kind and soothing words. I do feel glad I shared my feelings with my blog sisters - you are a wonderful bunch of people. And now I keep my promise of sharing with you my positivity blog - I've called it The Feel Good Blog. Every little thing that makes me feel good, everything I'm grateful for will go in here. It's just two posts old, so you haven't missed too much. Please bookmark this site and I would love you to share with me all things that make you smile. It's my little endeavor to share happiness and the feel-good feeling that we can all do with.


So much for my health conscious cooking, I wonder why I was so step-motherly to soups until now. It's just like when you never get down to doing something, it's so out of your mind anyway. My soup reminder came when I was at my mom's place for a while. My mom gave me the gossip that Aunt G has been making soup each evening at 6 - and each day it's a new soup, something like Soup of the Day in those nice little cafes. This was enough to spike my interest. And when she said yesterday's Soup of the Day was Cucumber soup, I told her let's go, check on Aunt G now!

My mom's sister and my granny live a couple of buildings away, and it goes without saying that when I'm there, I drop by my aunt's house in the evenings to catch up on what's happening (what's cooking rather). She's one of the most innovative cooks in the family and she's always upto something interesting in the kitchen. At least most the times, lets say! So that evening, it was a tomato-carrot-lentil soup. OK, so I stole the lentil idea for my soup from her, but hey mine is a more exotic combination. See below.

By the way, if you end up trying my recipe below, please tell me if you didn't go WOW on seeing the colour of the soup, when it came out of the blender! Do NOT forget.

Just to show you the colour - Yeah I know the photo is terrible, but blame it on the lack of practise, the steam and the shaky hand.

Soup of the Day - 1
Category - Soup, Quick dinner, No fat
Time to table - Under 20 minutes
Serves - One greedy person

Ingredients
1 cup packed spinach leaves, washed thoroughly
1 medium beet, peeled and cubed
1 small carrot, cubed
1/2 cup cooked yellow lentils (tur dal)
1 medium tomato, quartered
Seasonings - see below


Directions

1. In a pan, place 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, throw in the beets and carrots. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, till the veggies are nearly tender. Then add in the spinach leaves and tomatoes, covering and cooking for another 2-3 minutes.
2. Drain the veggies and let cool. Reserve the drained liquid.
3. In a blender, puree the tender veggies, cooked lentils till very smooth.
4. Remove this in the same pan with the reserved liquid, add some water to thin out the soup if you wish. Bring to a simmer.
5. Serve into a large soup bowl. Season with lots of pepper, pinch of salt and some lemon zest (and a dot of Amul butter too)

Nutrition notes

• My aunt likes to add some milk in the end to most soups, to give them a creamy taste and also to get an interesting colour. However I am against mixing dairy with green leafy vegetables as it makes iron absorption difficult.
• The lentils gave a nice body and an different dimension of mellowed out taste to the soup. You can use any leftover cooked lentils, or anything you've reserved in the freezer.
• In my opinion, lemon zest gives a nice flavour when beets are used, as they give a sharp edge to the metallic taste of beets and spinach.
• A trial proved that people who start their meal with a low cal soup, ended up consuming 20% less in the entire meal. This kind of reduced food (calorie) intake over a period of time, can help reduce weight or maintain lost weight. This is actually true in my case. I had this soup for dinner with two slices of whole wheat bread, toasted, and I had no appetite to eat any more.

Coming up soon are more healthy soups. I've already made 3 different types this week - yoohoo!!!

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As pure as your love...

We've made the sauce for the pasta and two bottles of homemade marinara sauce are sitting neatly at the back in the refrigerator. Also sitting is the exotic mushroom and bell pepper chutney to go on top of the bruschetta. To complete the valentine dinner, try this simple and subtle Cauliflower soup. Sometimes, less is more. Actually most of the times, less is more. I don't like the thought of adding all spices in all dishes, which is what happens in overly experimental Indian cooking.

Finally, it's valentine's tomorrow. My two bits of advice for that special dinner go like this-

Keep it simple (really simple).
Make atleast one dish from the scratch.
Choose recipes where you can make the basics ahead of time and just assemble on the D-day.
Finally, keep it LIGHT. You (or your significant other) should not sleep off while eating (heavy, greasy stuff) before you reach dessert.


My dessert recommendation would be a sinfully delicious yet ready-in-15 minutes Zabaglione. But attempt this dessert drink only if you have an electric whisk. We don't want you slaving around with a hand whisk on this beautiful day. After all it is a day to pamper yourself and feel wonderful. I tried this one after watching it in the Nigella Feasts Delicious Dinners episode and can vouch for the wow-factor of this creamy luscious drink. Ah, it is a crime to call this a drink! If you don't have Proseco, splash your beau's favourite liquor into this, Baileys wont be a bad idea.

If no electric whisk then try this Brandy Chocolate Mousse. After all, what's a Valentine dessert without some liquor in it?


All that the Cauliflower soup is flavoured with, is garlic and dried basil. And a head of fresh cauliflower needs just that. This soup has pure clean flavours which go very well with some strongly spiced dishes to maintain the balance of your meal. Don't be tempted to over spice please, atleast the first time over.


Cauliflower Soup
Makes 4 large bowls
Time taken - around 40 minutes
Category - low fat, soups

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ingredients
3 cups cleaned cauliflower florets with delicate stems
1 cup sliced red onions
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried basil or oregano (whichever you love best)
1 cup milk
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

special equipment
blender or hand blender

directions
In a heavy pot, heat the oil. Throw in the garlic and sliced onions. Stir them around for a minute or so with a pinch of salt.

Put in the cauliflower florets and let the veggies braise for around 15 minutes on a low flame. Don't let them caramalise if you want a white coloured soup. Keep stirring them around, until the cauliflower is almost cooked.

Remove onto a plate and let it cool before blending into a very fine puree. You can use the cup of milk to aid in fine pureeing.

Pour the puree into a saucepan. Add required quantity of water to achieve desired consistency of soup. Simmer the soup for a few minutes. Season with more salt (if needed) and freshly ground white / black pepper and dried basil / oregano.

Serve hot in pre-heated bowls with some croutons.

What I'm going to cook up for Valentines is a surprise. I obviously don't want DH to read everything off my blog and then tell me - I know what you did last week! Besides, we may be doing the dinner end of the week due to some unexpected travel schedules. I still have time to plan. But you tell me, what's on your dinner table on the beautiful evening! I'm all eyes...

For more ideas, visit one of my favourites, Fat free vegan. There's a round up of Vegetable love!

Tags: Valentine dinner, soup, cauliflower

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Red Soup

One look at the soup bubbling in the saucepan and I said 'Red Sea'. It was literally a bubbling red sea, not the dark orange colour of a good tomato soup. Or you could call it the anti-oxidant rich soup. Made with ingredients that are three different shades of red, this is as much fun as mixing colours and filling a canvas.

I've been on a diet and exercise regimen for the last few weeks that is showing great results, which is why I haven't been posting much off late ( besides some serious writing deadlines). I know this is a sensitive spot, my dear friends, but would you care to share with me, how many of you have gained weight since you started food blogging?

Frantic bookmarks here and there, discovering one beauty of a blog after the other all spell doom for those who are trying to shed some. ( I've discovered Chocolate & Zucchini - one of the earliest blogs around and man - it is addicting, and then there is Humble Pie - our new member at Daily Tiffin with her homely blog) But I can't deny that 2006 has been a most memorable year other than 2004 ofcourse. The year of food blogging, where I discovered a whole new world, new foods, new friends and offering food to the camera first.



Back to the soup -this healthy recipe is low fat, low cal and filled with the right kind of calories. Try it and you'll agree that it doesn't taste lowcal at all.

Red soup with basil freshly harvested from my kitchen garden

Red soup
Category: Soup, Low cal, Fast and healthy
Time taken: Under 30 minutes
Recipe source: My own
Makes 3 large bowls

Ingredients

3 large tomatoes - roughly diced
2 large carrots - scrubbed and sliced
1/2 medium beet- peeled and sliced
4-5 cloves of garlic - peeled
1 tsp dried basil
1 green chilli / Jalapeno pepper chopped (optional)
4 cups water
1 tbsp chick pea flour / wheat flour / corn flour
1 tsp olive oil / cooking oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh basil leaves to garnish

In a pressure cooker / pan, heat 1 tsp of oil. Throw in the garlic cloves. After a few seconds, transfer in all chopped vegetables along with dried basil and chopped green chilli.
Saute this mix for a minute or so. Add 2 cups water and a tsp of salt. Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles and then keep the flame on Sim for 3-4 minutes. Idea is, to cook it to a mush. (In case you don't have a pressure cooker, you can microwave this or boil it for 30-45 minutes to achieve the mushed up consistency)
Once the cooker has cooled, drain the contents through a colander. Reserve the liquid. Put in the vegetable mush into a blender with some water to make a very fine puree.
Empty the puree into a saucepan, add the reserved liquid and remaining 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
Dissolve the flour used in a few tbsp of fresh water and pour it into the boiling soup to thicken it further.
After simmering for a couple of minutes, remove the saucepan from heat. Check for salt. Season with some freshly ground black pepper and garnish with fresh basil leaves from your kitchen garden. I did my first little basil harvest for this soup. It is a wonderful feeling.
Serve with a salad or a slice of nice crusty bread for a light dinner.

The sweetness of the carrots and beet finely balances the tartness from the tomatoes. Garlic and basil add their respective characters to make a wonderfully nourishing soup, just right to enjoy the bit of winter we are experiencing in this part of the world.

Ideas from the morning after:
Sitting in the fridge, this one thickens a bit and I realise I can actually use it as a sauce to roll in some spaghetti or use it as a spread on a slice of bread. If it doesn't come across as that thick to you, by all means thicken it up a bit by boiling it with some more flour and you have a wonderful red sauce on hand. Then, let your imagination take over...



Tags:
Soup
Lowcal
quick dinner
winter food

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Instant tomato soup (not from the packet)

There are times when I'm already hungry and then I start cooking. Result - a dish comes together in under 10 minutes. Ideally I'd pressure cook / boil the tomatoes, peel them and puree them to be made into a soup. But there is a time lag between the boiling and pureeing because I have to wait for the tomatoes to cool off. Unless ofcourse I want a red spray paint on my kitchen walls.

I took the reverse route here. Puree whole tomatoes, skin and all with a few cloves of garlic. And then turn it into soup.

Cooked tomatoes are high on lycopene and lycopene is good for you. It helps in preventing various cancers especially of the colon and prostate. More about lycopene - here.

Instant tomato soup

Time taken - Under 10 minutes

Category - Soups, Low fat food, No-prep food
Makes one large bowl of soup

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Ingredients
3 medium sized tomatoes - roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic peeled
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp cornflour
Few leaves basil - torn
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of cumin powder
Freshly ground black pepper

Place the tomatoes and garlic in a blender and make a fine puree.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan, throw in the cumin powder and the puree. Bring to a boil. Add the seasonings.
Dissolve the cornflour in 1/2 cup water. Add to the pan and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Take it off the heat. Serve into a bowl and garnish with freshly torn basil leaves.
Keep a crusty bread on the side for dipping in. (The no-knead sourdought that I baked was the perfect accompaniment to this one.)

The flavours are fresh and yummy. This is one of the best meals you can make in under 10 minutes. A bowl of soup with a slice of bread and a fruit is a perfect light lunch.

Tags: Tomato, tomato soup, lycopene, fast cooking, lunch

Check out the array of scones made by Priya of Akshayapaatram which got left out from the Baking for breakfast - round up due to blogger's eccentricities.

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Pomegranate Rasam (Spicy pomegranate lentil soup)

(Steaming hot!!) Pomegranate Rasam

Pomegranate-BBC news calls this the fruity panacea. Packed with anti-oxidants (note the ruby red colour), it's known to protect the heart, prevent prostate cancer, reduce LDL (the bad cholesterol). It's rich in ACE Vitamins and iron, and no wonder doctors and many others are recommending a glass of pomegranate juice as a part of everyone's diet.

Fortunately, it's available in India pretty much all the year round and this is one fruit, the more I read about it, the more I am convinced of it's goodness.





Guess what I did with these ruby red seeds??

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Thanks to all those who took part in the guessing game. This time, no one came close to guessing though - probably because the veteran guessers like Priya, Neelu, Sumitha, Priya (Akshayapaatram), Sudha, Lalitha, Krishna Arjuna etc didn't make attempts :)

The picture at the top reveals what I made with the pomegranate seeds- Rasam indeed.

Rasam is soul-food for any Tamilian. Be it a simple tomato rasam or the more exotic varieties like Mysore Rasam, Lemon Rasam or the fruity varieties made with pineapple, pomegranate, mangoes and so on...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Toor Dal -pressure cooked with 3 cups of water and turmeric

A small lemon sized ball of tamarind, soaked in water

One medium pomegranate shelled / 1 cup of shelled fruit

Small piece Jaggery (optional)

Pinch turmeric powder

Pinch asafoetida

2 tsp rasam powder (store bought brand like MTR or homemade)

(Rasam powder is a grounded mix of red chillies, coriander seeds, red gram dal, peppercorns and cumin seeds. Every home has it's own recipe for rasam powder. I just borrow a bottle from mom)

For tadka: 1 tsp ghee, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp mustard seeds, 8-10 curry leaves, 2 green chillies slit length-wise

Salt to taste

Method:

1.Place the shelled fruit in a mixer with some water. Grind well to extract juice and strain using a tea strainer. Keep the juice aside. This will come roughly to 3/4 cup.

2.Remove tamarind extract-to make upto 1 cup and keep aside.

3.In a pot/ a heavy bottomed vessel, place the mashed toor dal. Add a pinch of turmeric powder, pinch of asafoetida, rasam powder, salt, jaggery and the tamarind extract. Mix well and let it come to a rolling boil. Let it boil for 2-3 min. Take the vessel off the flame.

4.In a tadka ladle, heat the ghee. In hot ghee, add the ingredients for tadka. When they begin to crackle, put it into the rasam pot. Add the pomegranate juice and keep covered until you serve.

This rasam is bursting with flavours- sweet, tangy, spicy. Served piping hot on a rainy day- it is heavenly bliss.

Note:

~You may garnish with finely chopped coriander.

~Rasam can be served as an appetising soup or to be eaten with rice and ghee.

~Some freshly cracked black pepper on the top can make this an ideal home remedy for the sniffles. Call it the vegetarian's chicken soup :D

~Mango / Pineapple / Lemon rasam can be made in a similar fashion. Idea is not to boil the rasam after the fruit juice has been added.

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I present this recipe for the following events:

Cate's ARF Tuesdays since Pomegranate is one of the richest foods when it comes to AOs

Kalyn's weekend herb blogging which is hosted this week by Gabriella of My life as a reluctant housewife

Revathy's FMR #7 -Comfort food as I was brought up on simple homely food like this

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Check out:

Indira's recipe for tomato rasam

This recipe has taken inspiration from my grand-aunt -Mythili mami in Chennai who probably makes the most amazing traditional Tamil food.

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Disclaimer: Any resemblance in recipe idea, pictures, words is purely co-incidental.

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French Onion Soup

Wonderfully aromatic and a great depth of taste, this soup is a delight on a cold evening. Loads of onions in the soup, served with a loaf of warm toasted garlic bread, would readily make it a meal by itself

Ingredients
4 large onions- thinly sliced
6 large pods of garlic- peeled and chopped very fine
1 tsp Butter / Margarine
½ tsp sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
Salt to taste
1 tsp pepper powder
Vegetable / chicken stock ( optional)
Grated cheese ( preferably mozzarella) to garnish if desired

Place a large pot to heat. Place the butter / Nutralite margarine in a large pot. Throw in the garlic and sliced onions with a bit of sugar. Sugar helps caramelize the onions, ie browns them as they are cooking. Keep the flame on SIM and let the onions become dark brown, taking care to stir them around occasionally to prevent burning.
Once onions turn dark brown, which will take around 15 min on a low flame, add 6 cups of water or stock. Vegetable / chicken stock gives a further depth of flavour and a slow cooked taste to the soup. However, water is a convenient alternative, without much compromise in taste.
Let the soup come to a boil. Add the dark soy sauce and salt to taste. You may add a mixture of 1 tbsp wheat flour dissolved in water, to the soup, if you want to thicken it. Allow it to boil for another 5 minutes.
Serve the soup piping hot in bowls, garnished with pepper and grated cheese.

Note:

Traditionally French onion soup, is served with slices of toasted bread covered with grated cheese, that are floated over the soup and baked for a few minutes in a hot oven, to melt the cheese.

You could serve the warm bread by the side too !

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