Showing posts with label Soups and Salads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soups and Salads. Show all posts

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Pumpkin and Carrot Soup

I've been lazy, very very lazy with posting on the blog. We've had people over for dinner almost every alternate day for the past two weeks, I did really cook a lot, but the prepping, cooking, hosting and cleaning after has been tiring and really got to me after a point. And what's suffered most is my blog - I just didn't have the energy to click pictures and post.

pumpkin and lemon grass soup

Here, the long spell of rains finally seem to be slowing down and its started getting pretty warm again, as we gear up for the second summer, like one wasn't enough !
The drastic change in temperatures has taken a toll on most kids and they are sniffling and coughing thru it all. Made this for a rare guest-free dinner last week. A warm comforting soup with lemon grass to really soothe the cold and cough.

I've always wanted to try a rost pumpkin soup, but always remembered too late and there was never any time for the roasting. So I've just pureed the steamed pumpkins and carrots and added some spices and lemon grass to make this really quick and simple soup

Pumpkin and Carrot Soup

What you need -

3 cups peeled and chopped pumpkin
1 cup peeled and chopped carrot
1/2" piece ginger, julienned
3-4 cloves of garlic
4 stalks lemon grass
1/2 tsp oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp crushed pepper
1 tsp red chilli flakes
1 tsp chopped celery or coriander leaves

What you do with it -

Steam the chopped pumpkin and carrots in a steamer or just cook till its just done in a microwave or stove top
Heat the oil in a small pan and add the garlic pods
Add the steamed vegetables to this
Heat for 2-3 mins and allow it to cool
Blend to a smooth paste and add the lemon grass stalks and ginger juliennes
Bring to a slow boil, adding salt and pepper
Sprinkle chilli flakes and chopped celery / coriander leaves and serve hot
Great way to calm the sore throat and rid yourself of the cold

Friday, January 25, 2013

Broccoli soup with fried garlic

The cold and wintry evenings are the perfect time for a bowl of hot soup with some warm bread to dunk into it. TH is not very fond of soups, but broccoli is a favourite and luckily my son loves broccoli too

My vegetable vendor always asks me if I want broccoli, baby corn, and mushrooms every time he gets them real fresh from the market. I seem to to be one of his regular customers for these 'English vegetables' as they are called here

brocolli soup

Broccoli has become really popular in India over the last few years, with all the publicity of its anti-cancer properties. Its really rich in Vitamin C and dietary fibres. Apart from being high on the health quotient, it tastes really good too, especially in stir fry or in soups.

We had broccoli soup, pasta in simple tomato basil sauce and some garlic bread for dinner last night. Light, warm and really comforting. Doesn't take too much effort, give this one a try.
Ma makes mushroom soup with this recipe, I tried it with broccoli

Sayantani of A Homemaker's Diary has a giveaway at here blog sponsored by Cuponation - India’s largest coupon portal offering discounts on various products.
All you need to do to enter is send in a winter warmer recipe that needs to be either a soup or a hot beverage. Check her blog for more details. I'm sending across this hot soup !

Broccoli soup with fried garlic
(Serves 2)

What you need

1 large onion
1 medium sized broccoli
6 cloves of garlic
a pinch of red chilli flakes
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup milk
salt to taste
1/2 tsp crushed pepper

What you do with it

Chop the onion into large pieces
Cut the broccoli into florets. Keep 1-2 small florets aside and steam the rest for 3-4 mins. It should get cooked slightly, but must remain firm and not turn to mush
Chop 3 garlic cloves lengthwise and keep aside and the other three into smaller pieces
In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil and add the finely chopped garlic and the onion
After 2-3 mins, add the steamed broccoli, salt and pepper and saute on high heat for another 2-3 mins
Allow it to cool and then put it through a blender. Grind it to a smooth paste, adding the milk, till you get the thickness you want
Bring to a slow boil again and divide the soup into 2 bowls
In a small pan, add 1 tbsp olive oil and add the garlic chopped lengthwise, tiny florets of broccoli and the chilli flakes
Add this over the soup in both the bowls
Serve hot with some warm garlic bread

Friday, May 18, 2012

Fresh fig and goat cheese salad

I've been having a little too much fun since I landed in Bangalore. Meeting up with friends, visiting new restaurants across town and having family around - it really doesn't get better than this..I really dread that in a couple of weeks, I will be back to the grind. Early morning alarms, packing my son off to school and the hot, hot Ahmedabad weather..

Toscano, the very popular Italian restaurant with branches across Bangalore has opened one more at a new mall close to Ma's place. I've been there thrice in three weeks and still can't get enough of it !

fig and goat cheese salad

The last time I was there, we ordered for a salad that had fresh figs, apricots and feta with rocket leaves that tasted divine. The leaves were fresh, the feta delicious and the dressing just perfect with the sweet fruits
I then happened to visit Godrej Nature's Basket store and couldn't resist buying some goat cheese - this one was the French chèvre, recommended by the very helpful person at the store. The chèvre was creamy and crumbly.

A mild dressing, some lettuce and a generous amount of figs and chèvre and it was the nicest salad I have made so far !!
This was part of my Mother's Day dinner menu

Fresh Fig and goat cheese salad

What you need -
(serves 4-6)

10-12 lettuce leaves
8 fresh figs
5-6 walnuts
100gm goat cheese

Dressing
1.5 tbsp honey
1 garlic clove crushed
juice of one lemon
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp crushed pepper

What you do with it -

Combine all the ingredients for the dressing and set aside
Break the walnut into smaller pieces and toast them lightly
Wash and dry the figs and cut into quaters, lengthwise
Tear the lettuce and arrange in a plate
Place the figs over it
Cut the chèvre with a light hand and spread over the figs
Sprinkle the dressing over the salad and then top with toasted walnuts

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Summer Salad - lettuce, pineapple and grapes

Summer is here, with a bang ! Its 41 deg C / 105 F right now and this is just the beginning of summer... April is bad and May is unbearable here. I am all set, ready to pack my bags and head to Bangalore, in the next couple of weeks ! Here, the humidity is really low and its scorching hot, almost feel your skin burning away.

This dry and hot weather calls for something light and cold, like this really simple salad.

summersalad

Mangoes have also started coming into the market. The very famous Alphonso mangoes are exorbitantly priced right now. There are a few locally grown ones, which my son insisted that I buy. A mango milkshake with this salad was our lunch yesterday !

There isn't really a recipe for this. I just tossed the lettuce, chunks of pineapple, halved black grapes, pieces of red peppers and drizzled the dressing over it. Topped it with some toasted sunflower seeds.

For the dressing -
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1 crushed garlic clove
salt
pepper
1 tbsp honey
Combine and mix well

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Moroccan chickpea soup with harissa

Winter has finally set in, in my part of the world !
It was really sunny and hot till the weekend, but on Sunday the temperatures really dropped...My little one heads off to school really early in the morning and we now have to bundle him up in his woollens...The days are pretty warm, but the evenings get really chill

chickpeasoup

Made Moroccan chickpea soup with harissa and some thyme roasted potatoes to go with it, for dinner last night
There's this lovely restaurant for Mediterranean food here in Ahmedabad called Souq, which we have been frequenting regularly since they opened. Had this chickpea soup here for the first time and loved it - everything on their menu is really really good !

Last month I was in Bombay for a few days and on one of our shopping sprees, my cousins and I landed up in Moshe's thrice in one day ! Its a lovely cafe, that serves Mediterranean and some super awesome desserts !! We first went to the one that's in the Fab India store at Kalaghoda. While one cousin was helping an uncle with his shopping, the other one and I chatted endlessly about food ! We then ran up to the Moshe's there and picked up some kiwi and green apple jam and a bottle of harissa...
We went to another Moshe's for lunch and the third for dessert after our shopping had drained us out and we needed the sugar rush to keep us going !

Harissa is a hot chilli paste, popular in North African cooking. Add it to pasta, soup, couscous to make a spicy tasty difference. This can be made at home
With this store bought harissa on hand, I decided on the chickpea soup with harissa. Got the recipe from OneTribeGourmet, a blog that's a visual treat !

Moroccan Chickpea soup with harissa

Recipe Source - One Tribe Gourmet

What you need -

1 cup cooked chickpeas / kabuli chana / garbanzo beans
3 cups of stock (I used the liquid from cooking the chickpeas)
1 small onion
5-6 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes / 6-8 ripe cherry tomatoes
1/2 tsp saffron threads
1/2 tsp roasted and powdered cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp harissa sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro / coriander leaves

What you do with it -

Soak the chickpeas overnight in a pot of water and then cook in pressure cooker / stove top
Drain and reserve the water
Chop the onion, garlic and tomatoes
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a deep pan
Add the garlic and onion and saute until translucent
Add the cumin powder, saffron threads, salt, pepper and chili powder
Saute for 2 mins and then add the tomatoes
Add the cooked chickpeas along with the stock or the water the chickpeas were cooked in
Mix well and cover and allow to simmer for about half an hour
Add chopped coriander lemon juice and let it simmer for 10 more minutes
Use a hand held blender to pulverize the chickpeas but don't mash it up completely
Spoon into the soup bowls and garnish with coriander leaves, lemon wedges, a spoon on olive oil and a tsp of harissa sauce
Serve hot !

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Corn Bhel

Bhel is essentially street food, very popular in Bombay. Its a great fusion of flavours, sweet, tangy, spicy - all in one !
Usually, puffed rice (kurmura, mamra) is used to make bhel.
Here, I have substituted it with corn kernels
Its actually a healthy dish, I would think, camouflaged as a chaat, almost like a salad, except for the addition of the chutneys

There are two chutneys used in making most chaat dishes. I discovered this style of green chutney here in Ahmedabad. Peanuts are used here instead of onions. A little sugar is also added in this green chutney usually, which I skipped out

Corn bhel

What you need -

1 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
2 tomatoes
1 onion
1/2 cup of coriander leaves
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1 potato
2 tsp green chutney (recipe follows)
2 tsp sweet chutney (recipe follows)
1/2 tsp chaat masala
1 tsp lemon juice
salt to taste

What you do with it -

If the corn is really tender, use as is, otherwise, cook in salted water till done
I used the pressure cooker to cook the kernels since it was not very tender
Boil the potato and peel and chop
Finely chop the tomatoes, cucumber, onion and coriander leaves
In a bowl, mix the corn, potatoes, onion, cucumber and the green chutney and sweet chutney
Add tomatoes and salt if required
Mix it well and then garnish with coriander leaves
Sprinkle the chaat masala and lime juice over it
You could also sprinkle some sev over it


The chutneys here are more than what is required for this recipe
These chutneys can be stored and used as accompaniments for other dishes too

Green Chutney

1 cup packed coriander leaves
2 green chillies
small piece of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp peanuts
salt
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

Grind all the ingredients together to make a smooth paste
You can store this in an airtight jar in the refrigerator

Sweet chutney

1 cup deseeded dates
1/2 cup cleaned and deseeded tamarind
2 tbsp grated jaggery
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 cup water
a pinch of salt

Chop the dates and soak in warm water
In a pan, heat the jaggery powder and water and add the dates, tamarind and salt
Heat on a low flame and slowly bring to a boil
Once it starts thickening, add the chilli powder and cumin powder
Keep on heat for 2-3 mins and allow to cool
Strain and store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Carrot ginger soup and Tomato bruschetta

The winter has set in early this year and most parts of India which barely got cold during winters, have seen a real dip in the temperatures. Ahmedabad used to get a little cold towards the end of December, but this year its been pretty cold since end November and I've pulled out my entire stock of woolens...

Remember I had told you about this set of hand-written recipes that Miri had gifted me long back...I was going thru it a couple of days back and decided to make a nice healthy soup from it. I don't make soups very often and I really don't know why because I think I really like them ! And I love these new soup bowls that my sister-in-law gifted me, so I'm sure I'll be making soup more often now :)

carrot ginger soup

Teamed the carrot ginger soup with some tomato bruschetta from Kay's fabulous blog 'Kayotic Kitchen'- perfect dinner for this weather, light on the stomach and nice combination of flavours

soup and bruschetta

The sharp taste of ginger with the almost sweetish carrots and the heat from the pepper made this soup really perfect and we loved the bruschetta...Thank you Kay and Miri for these great ideas !

What you need -

3-4 medium sized carrots
10-12 sprigs of coriander leaves
2 medium sized onions
1 big piece of ginger
1 tsp butter
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste
1 litre water

What you do with it -

Clean the carrots, peel and cut into big chunks
Chop the onions and crush the ginger slightly, but dont let it break. This way you get the flavour, but not the pieces of ginger
Heat butter in a pan and add onions and carrots
Clean the coriander sprigs and tie it up with a thread
Add the bunch of coriander and the ginger piece and a litre of water to the carrots
Pressure cook for 15 mins
Discard the coriander bunch and the ginger
Cool and run thru the blender
Add the remaining water, salt and pepper and allow to simmer
Turn off the heat and add a few drops of lemon juice
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves

Friday, November 6, 2009

Green papaya salad (Thai)

This is my second year in Ahmedabad and like it always happens, though I hate admitting it, we have settled in better - got used to the weather to some extent, though I cant stop complaining about it after living in my dear ol' Bangalore for almost all my life this far...
What has made me feel most 'settled in' here is that I know few more people here now and that I've had visitors almost every month since July...parents, in-laws, cousins, and last weekend, my dear friend from Bangalore was here...

Shopping, eating, chatting up, it was such fun, just like the good old days from college, though we now also discussed hair colours to hide the greys !!

We decided on a Thai menu for lunch - green papaya salad, green curry and pineapple basil rice...
Raw papaya was something we had to go looking for in Bangalore, but here its used pretty frequently in cooking, and I was so excited the first time I saw one in the market

Raw Papaya

The salad has a lovely combination of heat from the chillies, garlic, sugar and the tangy taste from the lemon...the raw papaya and the peanuts add the crunch factor

Salad

thai lunch

Adapted from Nita Mehta's Thai Vegetarian Cooking

What you need -

1 medium sized raw papaya
1 tomato
1/2 cup roasted peanuts

Dressing -

1 tsp soya sauce
3 tbsp lemon juice
4 tsp sugar syrup (I used 3 tbsp of sugar, didnt have time to make the syrup)
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
1/2 tsp salt
3 green chillies
1 clove garlic

What you do with it -

Crush together the green chillies and garlic to a rough paste Mix this with all the other ingredients of the dressing
Peel and grate the papaya into thick long shreds
(In the book, she says you can cut into juliennes, I tried that once and its really painful - grating is an easier option)
Cut the tomato into four, deseed and cut into small squares
Add the grated papaya and tomato to the dressing and mix well
Cover with a cling film and chill for at least an hour so the flavours penetrate
Mix in half the roated peanuts
Lightly crush the remaining peanuts and top the salad with it

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Vegan Corn Chowder Soup

This is one more recipe from the Good Food show that I mentioned here

I am not a big fan of soya milk. A friend who loved her flavoured soya milk once offered me some, and lets just say, I had it only because I didnt want to be impolite. Thats really not for me.

When i saw this recipe which uses soya milk, I was sure its going to be one of the recipes that I will never turn to, or even if I did, I would replace the soya with milk !
But I decided to be really brave and picked up some natural soya milk just to make this and it tasted awesome. Not that I will ever drink soya milk again, but will definately use it for this.



The corn here is really good, its almost out of season now, but during winter, there was so much of it all over the place, that I used corn in cutlets, pulav, salads and anything else I could find. It was so tender, crunchy and sweet and it added that extra something to every dish I used it in...

Here's my corn chowder, try it with soya milk and you will love it.
I did try it with regular milk and it was nowhere as good as the one with soya milk.

What you need -

2 medium potatoes
1 onion
3 cups corn nibblets
4 cups water
2 cups soya milk (natural flavour)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed pepper
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp soup powder (if you have some, I didnt)

What you do with it -

Peel potatoes and chop the potatoes and onion into small pieces
Put the potatoes, onions, water, salt and pepper in a saucepan and bring to a boil
(Add the soup powder too with this if you are using it)
Reduce heat and simmer till potatoes are tender
Remove from heat and stir in the corn
Take 2 cups of this and put thru the blender
Return the puree to the pan
Stir in soya milk and heat

Garnish with oregano and more pepper, if you can take the heat

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Pink Mania

Recently "pink" has been a lot in the news here -
Firstly, the pink carpet event for the premiere of Pink Panther 2, all the hype the media created earlier when Aishwarya signed up and the flak she got after release about the length and nature of her role
and then the famous 'Pink chaddi campaign' in bangalore after some 'rama sene' people decided to take the moral policing in their own hands and went about hitting and abusing girls who wore 'western' clothes, spoke english and well, were employed, unlike the many 'ram sene' activists !

And on a happier note, there's also the FIC - PINK this month.

Got two entries to send across to FIC - Pink hosted this month by Priya. FIC or Food in colours is the brilliant idea of Harini, more famous as Sunshinemom

A simple and easy Beetroot Raita, which is an add on to a meal during the hot summers. Moms always tell you to eat this so you'll get pink cheeks :) and I do this to my son now, who shows me his cheeks after every bite of the beetroot raita and i have to tell him how pink his cheeks are :)



and

Strawberry flavoured yoghurt - this was the dessert I mentioned in Pasta Salad post




Here are the recipes -

Beetroot Raita

What you need -

2-3 beetroots
2 cups yoghurt / curds
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp chopped coriander leaves

What you do with it -

Cook the beetroots
Peel off the skin and chop into small pieces
Whick the yoghurt with jeera powder, sugar and salt
Mix the beetroot pieces into it
Garnish with chopped coriander leaves

Strawberry Yoghurt

What you need -

10-12 strawberries
1 ltr curds (6 cups or so i guess)
3 tsps sugar

What you do with it -

Tie the curds in a muslin cloth and hang the cloth, so that all the water drips away
You will need to keep this for an hour or longer
Meanwhile, wash the strawberries and take off the stems
Keep aside 2-3 to decorate on top
Chop the remaining strawberries into large pieces
Run in a blender with the sugar till its a smooth liquid
Once all the water in the curd has drained out, mix in the curd with the strawberry pulp
Beat to get a smooth consistency
Garnish with cut strawberries
Refrigerate at least for an hour before you serve

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Pasta Salad with honey and mustard dressing



We had our friends over for dinner last week, on Holi.
We had a very scrumptious Gujarati thali for lunch, and they had a 'bhaang' party lunch, so preferred to go light with the dinner.
After the wonderful thali lunch of aamras (yes, mangoes are already in the market), puri, dal, rotli, 3 sabjis and more farsaan and sweets, I realised I could get high on aamras too, which is a good thing considering this is a dry(non-alcoholic) state!!

After we got back and got over with all our praises for the aamras, I decided to start thinking about what to make for dinner. My otherwise well-stocked refrigerator seemed fairly empty - the little that was there was not so interesting.
Went out and realised that most places were closed for Holi - managed to pick up grapes, apples, strawberries and capsicum !!
Got back and thought hard about what I could come up with for dinner. Digged into the refrigerator again and was quite happy with what I finally managed to make.

After going thru a lot of blogs trying to decide on the menu, I finally settled for
spaghetti with cilantro pesto from Mansi's blog and Spiced rustic bread with some modifications from Miri's blog

The baking was my second attempt(the first happened a week before that) - thats what baking does to you - it really had me hooked !

Made a pasta salad to go with it and strawberry yoghurt for dessert - you could add pineapple and other vegs too, but I was working with limited stock.
The grapes in it tasted really nice - this was the first time I tried it with grapes

Here's my pasta recipe

What you need -

1 cup fusilli (I had the three-coloured ones)
1 capsicum
2 carrots
1 apple
1 cup green grapes

Dressing

1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp mustard powder
2 tsps lemon juice
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp crushed pepper
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt

What you do with it -

Drop the pasta in boiling water with a pich of salt and a spoon of olive oil
Cook till al dente (follow instructions on the pack)
Drain and rinse in cold water
Add a tsp of olive oil and keep aside
Chop the capsicum, carrot, apple and grapes into small pieces
Toss in the pasta
Mix all the ingredients listed under dressing and whisk well
Pour over the pasta salad
Chill for about an hour and serve

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Cracked Wheat and Mint Salad

From the time I have started on this blog, I realised I have started cooking and eating more...In the quest to try out newer recipes, I have gone a bit overboard with the eating !!

Was looking thru my recipe books, and found this one, which was ignored and lying somewhere at the back - i realised I had never tried anything from this book "Low Fat Cooking" by Anne Sheasby
Now was definately the time to go the low-fat way. The pics in this book are really lovely and inviting, the recipes are simple, tasty and low fat - why didnt I ever try this - no idea !!
I guess the "Low-Fat" made me think bland, healthy, not-so-tasy food.
But not any longer, here's a recipe I adapted to begin with.

Nice healthy crunchy salad, perfect for the hot weather here



Sending this as my entry to JFI Wheat, hosted this month by Roma of Roma's Space. JFI - Jihva for Ingredients, is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi



What you need -

1.5 cups cracked wheat (dalia/lapsi)
3 tomatoes
1 green bell pepper
1 cucumber
1/4 cup raisins
3 tbsp chopped mint leaves
1 garlic clove
salt and pepper
juice of 1 lemon
(the recipe suggested zucchini and spring onions - i used cucumbers and capsicum instead)

What you do with it -

Put the cracked wheat into a large bowl and add enough boiling water to come 1 inch above the level of wheat
Leave to saok for 30-40 mins and drain excess water
Plunge the tomatoes in hot water for 1 min and then in cold water
Remove the skin, remove seeds and core and chop
Puree 2 of the 4 tomatoes
Peel and chop cucumber
Chop the capsicum, remove core and seeds
Add the raisins, chopped tomatoes, cucumber and capsicum to the cracked wheat
Whick together the tomato puree, lemon juice, chopped garlic, salt, pepper and chooped mint leaves
Pour over the salad and mix well
Chill for an hour and garnish with mint sprigs

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