Broccoli cream soup

This isn't exactly cream soup. I will show you in a minute how you can make your bowl of soup a balanced meal without doing too much and also low fat.

Ingredients:
Broccoli: 1 cup
Tip: add any vegetables you want to make it more green and tasteful.
Onions: 1 medium
Garlic clove: 1-2
Green beans: handful
Spinach: handful
Carrot: 1 small
Bottle gaurd: 1/2 cup

Basil: 12-15 leaves
Sweet corns: handful (whole sweet corn are fiberous and will make this soup a poo pushing soup :D).

Seasoning:
Freshly crushed pepper:
Sea salt to taste:

Low fat cottage: 2 large spoon

Bread sticks/ croutons/ bread of your choice.

Preparation:
Wash, clean and cut all vegetables. Boil then in water just enough to soak all vegetables.

Crush them into smooth paste by removing excess water. Add basil leaves and churn it.

Pour it into a pot. Add low cottage cheese and seasonings. When cheese starts to melt add corns. Cook on low flame until corns are boiled.

Tip: Always cook soups on low flame, this will really allow all the flavours to come out nicely and make all the ingredients live in the soup.

Serve hot with the bread of your choice.

Butter bean tofu vegetable soup with almond pesto

This is excellent soup for good taste and good health. Butter bean is low GI, high protein with bounds of fiber. Mixed it with tofu, all the fresh vegetables and olive oil makes it well balanced meal.

Ingredients:
For soup
Butter bean: 300 gms boiled
Broccoli: 3-4 florets head
Onion: 1 small
Carrot: 1 small
Courgette: 1 medium
Mushroom: 4
Celery stick: 2-3
Tofu: 100gms
Tomato passata: 500gms
Garlic: 2 cloves
Green beans: handful
Freshly crushed pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
For almond pesto:
Garlic: 1 clove
Basil leaves: 20-25
Almonds: 10-12
Extra virgin olive oil: 2 table spoon or 1/2 cup if you are not watching your weight.

Ciabatta bread

Preparation:
Wash all the vegetables properly. Peel onions, garlic and carrot. Take the stem off beans.

Cut beans, broccoli, carrot into cubes. Boil the water and first boil the bean after 3-4 minutes add broccoli and carrot. Boil vegetables for only up to 80%. Do no over cook it.
Cut onions, celery, mushrooms, garlic, tofu and courgette. Finely chop garlic.
Heat the pan. Add 2-3 table spoon of extra virgin olive oil. Keep the heat on medium - low flame.
Add freshly crushed pepper, garlic and allow it to leave flavour for a minute. Take care the garlic doesn't turn brown. Add onions. Saute for a minute. Add celery and after another minute, add mushrooms.
After each minute add tofu, butter beanand courgette.
Add par boiled vegetables along with the vegetable stock.
Add tomato passata
and 1 cup of water.
Mix well. Add 2 table spoon of almond pesto in the soup. Add salt to taste and let the soup boil for 15-20 minutes on low flame without lid.
Drizzle extra virgin olive oil while serving.

Almond pesto:
Take almonds, garlic, basil leaves, extra virgin olive oil in a pestle or bowl.
Crush it with hand or hand blender.
Toast the ciabatta bread and apply thin layer of pesto on top.

Serve with soup. Taste excellent.

Bottle gourd soup

Bottle gourd or lauki or dudhi is amazing vegetable with tons of health benefits. It is rich in iron, vitamins, fibers and yet low in fat. It is light on stomach so very good for people who wants to lose weight.

If you have had a heavy meal or party previous day, have this for your dinner and you will balance out your weight gain.

This soup is very good for people with stomach problems.

Once again pick and mix what you want to add for flavour.

Ingredients:
Bottle gourd: 1 small or 1/2 large
Tomato: 1 medium
Yellow split mung dal:1/2 cup
Ginger: 1 inch
Salt to taste

For garnish:
Freshly crushed pepper
Asafoetida
Lime juice
Cumin seeds

Preparation:
Wash and cut bottle gourd with the skin on.
Wash and rough chop tomato. Rough chop ginger after peeling the skin off.

Add everything in the cooker and add 1/2 cup of water. Pressure cook until 3-4 pressures on medium heat.
Let the cooker cool off and open it when it is safe to open.

Using hand blender make a smooth paste. I am not going to filter any fibers. You can do it if you wish.
Add salt to taste, pepper, lime juice, asafoetida, cumin seeds and mix well.

Heat on medium flame for one boil and serve hot. Garnish more pepper if you wish. You will surely love it.

Spinach soup

I like to add tomato in spinach soup. To make it thick I also add mung dal or piece of pumpkin.

Spinach is very healthy and it is important to add this wonder vegetable in your diet.

Also if you have eaten wrong food previous day you can simply have just spinach soup for dinner. This will help you keep your calories balanced.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
Spinach leaves: 2 cups
Tomato: 1 large
Yellow split mung dal: handful OR Pumpkin piece: 2 inch large.
Salt to taste
Lime juice: few drops
Freshly crushed pepper
Sugar: pinch

Preparation:
Wash spinach leaves properly. Wash and rough chop tomato. Wash mung dal and boil everything in 1 cup of water until dal is soft.

I pressure cook for 2 pressures.

Let it cool off for a bit. Using blender make a smooth paste. No need to filter.

Add salt to taste, pepper, lime juice, pinch of sugar and stir well.

Heat until one boil and serve hot.

Hot tomato soup

This is one of my favorite soup recipes I have learnt. I love it during the winter months. It gives the kick with hot spices like ginger, pepper and red chili and surely clears your nasal. Its very easy to make and tastes so good. Try it, you will love it.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
Tomato: 3 large
Onion: 1 medium
Ginger: 1 inch
Garlic: 1 clove
Cumin seeds: 1 tea spoon
Red chili powder: 1-2 tea spoon
Cinnamon stick: 1 inch
Clove: 2
Clarified butter: 1 tea spoon
Asafoetida: pinch or two
Salt to taste
Freshly crushed pepper: 1-2 tea spoon
Sugar: pinch or two

Preparation:
Wash and cut tomatoes into large pieces. Peel and chop onion, garlic and ginger into large pieces.
Add 2 cups of water.
This soup is thinner than what I normally make. Adjust the water amount accordingly. Boil it until soft. I pressure cook it for two pressures.
Let it cool down for 10 minutes and using hand blender make a smooth paste. Before you crush everything down, remove access water just in case. You can add this back to the pot.

Using large holes sieve, filter the soup.
Let large fibers comes off the soup to give it smooth texture.
Pour the liquid in the pot and heat it on low flame. Add red chili powder, salt, sugar, pepper and stir.
For tempering, take a small round vessel, heat it on medium flame. Add clarified butter and once hot add cloves, cinnamon, cumin seeds.
Asafoetida and red chili powder once they start to splutter. Chili powder is added to enhance the color of the soup little bit. Add only little quantity of chili powder.

Add the tempering to the soup.
Cook until one boil.
Serve hot.

Manchow soup

You must crave for Indo-Chinese if you are based abroad. I have very little decent restaurants which will serve authentic Indo-Chinese. Some of them don't serve good Chinese soups. Now my last resort was to do it myself and stop my cravings. This was a super hit recipe. Love it and got lots of compliments from hubby dearest. It turned out well and just like you get in restaurants in India or may be even better as it was totally hygienic.

Serves 2:
Ingredients:
Carrot: 1/2
Green pepper / capsicum: 1/2
White cabbage: 50gm
Spring onion: 1
Ginger: 1 inch piece
Garlic: 4 large cloves
Green chili: 2-3 (optional)
White pepper or black pepper: 1 table spoon
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar
Dark soya sauce: 3 large table spoon
Green chili sauce: 1 table spoon
Red chili sauce: 1 table spoon
Tomato puree: 1-2 table spoon
Tomato sauce: 2 table sauce
Cornflour: 1 table spoon
Fried noodles for garnish (optional)
Chinese salt: ajinomoto: pinch (optional)
Oil: 1-2 table spoon

Preparation:
Tip: Success is in cutting each vegetable very small. I have food processor but I did it by knife as I wanted same sized small vegetables. It takes time but in the end its totally worth it.

Wash cabbage. Peel and wash carrot. Wash spring onions properly. Wash capsicum. Peel garlic and remove skin from ginger.

Chop them into very small pieces. Smalled you can cut.

Keep green part of spring onions separate.

Take corn flour in a bowl and add little water and make a smooth paste. Keep aside. Take out all the sauces in a bowl in advance.

We are going to cook this soup on high temperature so while cooking you might burn your soup while waiting for sauce to come down the bottle.
Boil 2 cups of water.

Once you do the preparation everything else takes hardly any time.

Heat large pan. Pan should be smoking hot. Keep it on high flame. Get everything you need near by.

Add 1-2 table spoon of oil. Add ajinomoto. Ginger garlic and stir well.
Before it gets brown add onions, capsicum, carrot and cabbage. Mix well. Add white pepper powder or black pepper. Salt to taste.
Let it cook for a minute. Add all the sauces. Mix well.
Add 2 cups of water. Give it a stir. Now add cornflour water. And let it boil. Once the soup start to boil its ready.
Taste it, add more pepper or chili sauce if you want more heat. Add pinch of sugar if you want little bit sweet.

Finally add green part of spring onions and mix well.
Remove it from flame and serve piping hot. Garnish with fried noodles or more green part of spring onions.

Italian bread soup

There are various Italian soup made of different base and different base.

This one is a tomato base soup with whey bread and 6 seeds. It tastes very nice. Easy to make and makes to full.

I am also adding left over Spaghetti funghi in it just to make it more interesting.

Ingredients:
Celery: 2 sticks
Onion: 1 medium
Garlic: 3-4 cloves
Freshly crushed pepper: 1-2 tea spoon
Salt to taste
Extra virgin olive oil: 1 table spoon
Tomato passata: 1 cup
Parsley: 1 cup
Left over spaghetti funghi: 1 cup(optional)

Preparation:
Wash celery nicely. Cut it into small pieces.

Peel and fine chop garlic. Peel and dice onions into small cubes.
Heat the pan. Add 1 table spoon of olive oil. Add freshly crushed pepper. Once it starts to splutter add onions and celery. Stir for 2 minutes. Add tomato passata and 2 cups of water.
Mix well. Add salt to taste. Add left over spaghetti. Parsley.

Take the bread and cut it into smaller pieces.
Now add bread pieces as much as or as less as you want. Turn the heat to lowest. Cover the lid and let it cook for 10 minutes.
Serve hot.

Kale and courgette soup

Kale is amazing source of vitamin K and folic acid. It is also good source of vitamin C. I did struggle to eat raw or boiled. I was thinking of making my own recipe so I can include this amazing herb to my diet.

Here is my tasty soup recipe with courgette. I hope you like it.

Ingredients
Curly kale : 250 gms
Tomato: 1 medium
Courgette : 1/2
Onion: 1/2
Soya sauce: 3 - 4 tbs
Corn flour: 2 tbs
Garlic : 2 cloves
Freshly crushed peppers 3 tbs
Salt to taste
Olive oil: 2 tbs

Preparation
Wash and boil curly kale and tomato. Crush it to liquid and drain off the fiber.

Peel and fine chop onions. Wash and cut courgette in small cubes. Crush garlic to paste.

Heat the pan. Add 2 tbs of olive oil. Add freshly crushed peppers and let it splutter. Add garlic and onions. Stir till translucent. Add courgette. Add soya sauce. Mix well. Once the sauce starts to boil add kale liquid to the pot. Lower the flame. Make cornflour paste using water. Add the paste to soup and keep stirring till its thick. Let the soup cook till courgettes are soft.

Serve hot. Garnish with coriander and freshly crushed pepper.

Crunchy veggie lentil soup

This is another lentil soup recipe from me. This one is neither Italian nor Mediterranean. This is just one of the spontaneous recipe and it turned out be a hit.

Ingredients:
Capsicum/ Green peppers: 1/4
Red peppers: 1/4
Courgette: 1 small or 1/2
Celery: 2 sticks
Onion: 1 small
Green lentil: 1/2 cup
Chopped tomatoes: 400 gm or 1 tin
Olive oil: 2 tbs
Freshly crushed peppers
Kale : handful
Soya sauce: few drops
Salt to taste
Garlic: 1 clove

Preparation:
Soak lentils for 60 minutes in hot water.

Wash and peel onions. Wash all vegetables. Dice them into small cubes. Crush garlic clove.

Heat the pan. Add 2 tbs of olive oil. Add crushed pepper. Add onions when pepper starts to splutter. After 30 seconds add peppers and celery sticks. Add lentils. Stir well. Add few drops of soya sauce. Stir well.

After a minute add kale and add tomatoes. Add courgette and salt to taste. Add 1 to 1.5 cups of water and lower the flame. Heat the soup for 10-15 minutes till lentils are soft.

Cooking on low flame will allow vegetables to get cooked but also remain crunchy in taste.

Remove it from flame once lentils are soft.

Serve with crusty bread or croutons. I have used tomato and basil croutons. Add extra crushed pepper to extra flavour.