Indian Inspired Vegetable Soup/Stew

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup diced onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ajwain seeds

15 baby carrots finely sliced
3 ribs celery, sliced thinly
2 cups diced green, red and/or orange peppers

Salt/pepper to taste

2 bay leaves

1 tbspn Cumin powder

2 tbspn Corriander powder

1/8 tsp turmeric powder

½ tbspn red chili powder

1 cup orzo pasta (or rice that doesn’t fluff up in soup)

6 cups vegetable broth

1 15-16 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons fresh parsley leaves, chopped
1 tsp dried basil

1 ½ cup small beans or lentils (not black beans)

Method:

Step 1:

Heat olive oil, add ajwain seeds, onions and garlic on high heat for 3-5 minutes (don’t burn).

Step 2:

Turn heat to medium, add carrots, celery, and peppers. Stir it up. Fry for 10 minutes stirring every two minutes.

Step 3:

Add all the spices. Stir and fry for about 5 minutes more on low heat. During this 5 minutes heat the water and start to make the pasta.

Step 4:

Add the vegetable broth, diced tomatoes, parsley (if using dried, use 1 tbspn) and basil into the soup. Stir it up on high heat. When it boils, turn heat to medium, cover it up.

Step 5:

After 10 minutes add in the beans/lentils. Cover it again and let boil.

Step 6:

Heat for another 10-20 minutes to get firmness/softness of carrots and other veggies you prefer.

Step 7:

When veggies are almost the right firmness, add cooked orzo or rice. Turn off heat, let sit about 10 minutes and serve.

Will serve 4-6. Adapted from http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/food/1712

Originally posted on my other blog in 2007.

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Thank you for reading and spending your time here! Bon Appétit!

Mixed Dhal/ Five- Lentil Soup

I used to 'follow the book' in making dhal, and stuck generally to making dhal curry with toor dhal and minor adjustments, as in my dhal curry with a kick! recipe. However, one day, I opened the cupboard and realized the toor dhal supply would make less than one serving, so I suddenly wondered what would dhal taste like if I mix different ones together. Of course, different dhals do take different cooking time to get the same softness, but the fun of mixing different ones with the same cooking time is that the end product has different textures and softness levels. It's very nice. I also wondered for past few days what to use whole urad for. I had asked my friend Radha, who suggested Dhal Maharani, and my friend, Vidhya who recommended placing it in adai. I want to try those, but on the fly, I have created the below. It turned out to be very tasty!


Ingredients:

1/4 cup toor dhal
1/8 cup following: val dhal, moong dhal, masoor dhal, whole urad dhal (with black coverings)*
1/8-1/4 cup coarsely diced tomatoes (roughly 1/2 a medium sized tomato)
1/8 cup diced bell pepper (capsicum) - red, green, yellow, orange
1/8 cup diced onion
4 tbspn dried methi (fenugreek) leaves (optional)

Add spices of your choice. I like to put 2-3 tbspn of Shan Dal Curry Mix (Masala), along with salt as per taste.

-or- Spices of your choice! Make it fun and exciting with your own spice ideas.


Method:
1. Place all dhals in a pan and rinse with water. Feel with fingers to assure no small stones or other unwanted small things are left from packaging from store.
2. Place this plus 2.5 cups water in a pan. Put on medium heat on the stove.
3. Dice vegetables and place in water. (Alternatively, if you want oil taste in the dhal, you can heat oil in another pan, temper the veggies in the oil, and place in the dhal.)
4. Add the dhal curry mix and 1/4 tsp salt.
5. Let boil one medium for about 20 minutes.
6. Add the fenugreek leaves if you have them. This is not necesary, just for additional color and texture. One of the other reasons I like to add fenugreek leaves is because it is said one property of fenugreek is to help with blood circulation. Dhal is a comfort food. Comfort foods make you feel lethargic, lazy and wanting to rest. Adding fenugreek can balance out this effect for some. It does for me!
7. Keep on medium for another 20 minutes. Taste for salt and the curry mix. Add more of salt or curry mix as per your taste.
8. It will be done when: masoor dhal has disintegrated - this dhal will dissolve and you will not see 'pieces of it,' toor dhal appears mashed, moong dhal will be mostly dissolved but some small pieces remain, val dal is a bit soft/hard but not crunchy, and whole urad will be soft inside and a little hard on outside. All dhals will be chewable and not hard or crunchy on the teeth.


Total cooking time - between 45-60 minutes. Low need for maintaining throughout. It is recommended to get up and stir it every 10 minutes. Because I cook it uncovered, water will naturally evaporate out, so take care to add more water- about 1/2 cup as it dries out - as required. Some people like it more dry, and others, like me, like it more watery, or soupy.

Serves - 4-6

Eat with rice. Eat with roti/chapati. Or, eat plain like soup. I actually like to eat dahl the 'American way' like soup sometimes, plain, with croutons, or with yogurt (dahi, thayyir) mixed in! YUM!! Enjoy how you prefer!!


*Some recommend soaking urad dhal separately in water for about two hours before placing in cooking pot to get more softness. This can be done, along with val dhal as these both are a bit more hard if cooked all at the same time as others. However, I like that variety, so for me cooking all at once is totally preferred!

This post is labelled 'low fat' as it can be made without oil or butter!

Related Posts/Links:
Adai - Multi Lentil Pancake (without urad dhal)
dhal curry with a kick!

Pongala Payasam/ Chakkara Pongal/ Sweet Rice and Dhal Pudding

I found this recipe posted by Indianadoc last year when searching for naivedyam or holy offering to eat on Attukal Pongala. I decided to make this for Pongal this year. Pongal is a porridge made of rice and dhal with a choice of spices, nuts, herbs, fruits or vegetables. If it is salty it is VenPongal (meaning white pongal), if it is sweet it is ChakkaraPongal (or sweet pongal). Usually chakkarapongal is a brownish color from the use of jaggery, a type of raw brown sugar.

The original recipe for pongalapayasam shared by Indianadoc has coconut, which I think would be definitely added for Attukal Pongala, being a Kerala festival and the love for coconut has no bounds in God’s Own Country!! If you like to add shredded coconut, that can also be done, though this recipe has omitted that ingredient.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Rice
3/4 cup Split moong dal
4 cubes Jaggery grated into 1 cup water (maybe ¼ cup powdered jaggery, if jaggery is not available use brown sugar or white sugar)
2 Bananas - small diced (1 to 1 ½ cup)
1/2 cup Cashew nut crushed
1/2 cup Raisins
1 cup Milk
3 tbspn Ghee (or butter)

Method:
1. Wash and rinse rice and moong dhal in water.

2. Slow cook the rice and dhal in 3 cups plain water, uncovered on medium heat.

3. While this is happening grate jaggery into one cup water. Stir this water and add to pot.

4. Cut the banana and add to pot.

5. In a separate frying pan, heat ghee and add the cashews and raisins to it, making it golden brown. Add this to pot.

6. Take ½ cup of the milk add to the pan to rinse ghee from frying pan. Add to pan.

7. Boil all items together until they are like a porridge. Dhal will appear to dissolve in the mix. Rice will soften and become mushy. During this process if too much water is boiling out, add ¼ cup at a time.

8. When it is done the mix should be pudding –like. It should not be a mass. It should not burn to the bottom of the pan. Take off flame and let sit so the flavors can mix. After ½ hour should be ready to eat. At this point, to moisten it add the remaining ½ cup milk- warmed.

**I have given this recipe label of low salt. I have not added any salt to this recipe. The salt would enter if the ghee/butter or nuts used have salt.

Total time to cook 30-45 minutes

Servings 10-12 (estimates – ½ cup servings)

Related Posts/Sites:
This recipe inspired by the one posted by Indianadoc in her blog post, Indian Potpourri-Recipes,Culture,Ethnicity: Naivedyam
Celebrating the Feminine Divine: Attukal Pongala in Kerala
Pongal Menu and Recipes list