A Bowl of Hot Soup ... Anyone?

The cold wind, the rain, temperature dipping to -2 C made me feel very lazy. I was craving for a hot bowl of soup. Hubby suggested that we go out for dinner , but I did not feel like wearing layers and layers of cloths to just go to a restaurant. I had all the necesary items at home. So decided to make some soup for dinner. I did not have any recipe in mind just tossed few ingredients in hot Olive oil and poured water into it and pressure cooked for sometime. Could it get any easier?? By this time I was feeling warm due to the little cooking and got in the mood to make some Pizza to go with tomato soup. I scanned the pantry and found all items available. I had bookmarked this Pizza from Shilpa's blog. I felt this was very good for beginners and it actually tasted good. I followed the recipe for crust and when the dough rose well, I was very pleased. However, I felt that the smell of the yeast was overpowering. When I asked Harini and Aparna about this they suggested that I try using fresh yeast next time or a new batch of yeast. Thank you both for the suggestion. I will buy a new batch next time. But wanted to post it here for my future reference.

For soup here is what's needed:

2 big tomato's roughly chopped 

1 medium carrot roughly chopped

1 medium Onion roughly chopped

4 cloves of Garlic roughly chopped

small piece of Ginger chopped

2 cloves

4 whole black pepper

a generous pinch of Cinnamon powder

Salt and Pepper powder to taste

a pinch of Sugar

1-2 tbsp of Cornflour

Olive oil

Coriander leaves chopped to garnish

Procedure:

1)In the pressure cooker pan, Heat Oil and add ginger,garlic, and slightly crushed whole spices. Sauté it for a min. Add Onions and again sauté it for a min or two. Add in the tomato and cook slightly for a min before adding the carrots. Add in cinnamon powder and salt. Add 1.5 cups of water and pressure cook until done. Let it cool completly before running it through blender. I do not strain it.

2) If preferred, add a tad bit of butter and pour the liquid into it. Add 2-3 cups of Water depending on the quantity of soup. Give it a rolling boil. Take 1/4 cup of water. Add a tbsp of cornflour and mix it well with no lumps. Pour this misture into the boiling soup. Give it a good boil. Add salt, pepper powder and a pinch of sugar. If you feel that the soup is thin you may add more cornflour to water and add it to the soup. Garnish with finely chopped Corinader leaves.

Serve hot with croutons. We had ours with small Pizza topped with Onion and Capsicum. I also used very little amount of grated cheese.

P.S:I did not add any milk or butter to this soup. Potato can also be used in this soup and any fresh herb can be added to this. 

Update: Trupti just reminded me that this fit perfectly for her "Winter Treat event". Thank you Trupti :)

Sweet Corn Soup

Yesterday we had a cold day. It had rained in the morning and all day long it was very cool with strong winds too. This weather prompted me to cook something warm and comforting and thus soup was made. I love Sweet Corn Soup a lot. I picked up this recipe from Nita Mehta's Chinese Vegetarian Cuisine book.

Found this info while I did some googling on Sweet Corn:

Key benefits of sweetcorn

Sweetcorn is a good source of folate. It also helps protect against age-related macular degeneration and helps fight free radicals in the retina. It provides more starch and more calories than most vegetables. It is high in iron and potassium. It is also a good food for steadying blood sugar.

How much sweetcorn should you eat?

Sweetcorn is fairly high in calories. An average portion of 85g a day should be sufficient to derive the benefits from sweetcorn.

Now coming back to the recipe. Here is what's needed:(Serves 3)

2 big whole Corn

3 cups Water

1/2 tsp Ajinomoto (optional. I skipped this yet it was tasty)

1 tbsp Cornflour dissolved in 1 cup water

1/2 - 1 tbsp Sugar

Salt to taste

1/4 tsp White pepper

3/4 tsp White Vinegar

1/4 cup chopped Cabbage (Optional)

1/4 cup chopped Carrot (Optional)

Procedure:

1) Grate Corn. Reserve few corns whole Corns too.

2) Pressure cook grated corn along with whole Corns with 3 cups Water and a tsp of Salt. After the first whistle keep it on medium low for 10-15 mins.

3) Mix Cornflour in a cup of Water and add to the cooked Corn. Add Sugar, Ajinomoto if using and pepper. Mix well. Let it boil for 10 mins. If the soup appears to be too thin you may add some more Cornflour dissolved in water and add to it.

4) If adding vegetables add it at this point and let it boil only for 3 mins. This keeps vegetable crunchy. Serve hot. 

This Soup is very filling and if combined with fresh salad will make a complete meal.