Vegetable Barley Soup

I have grown up with a love hate relationship with soups. My mother never made soups for us at home...basically the whole concept of soups was very alien to her. Being a Tamilian and growing up in Kerala she never had exposure to any international cuisines. The only soup made at her house was good old rasam. So we were denied the pleasure of sipping warm soups.

 I grew up in a small town in M.P and had only North Indian friends who used to boast about tomato and sweet corn soups made by their mothers. And so my tastebuds so much more wanted to be soaked in the sourness of tomato soups and sweetness of sweet corn soups. Then finally that day came when my mom did make soup...the first ever soup of my life..tomato soup. I liked that but did not love it. Felt that something is missing, but never complained.

Then one day we went to a newly opened restaurant, I ordered sweet and sour soup. When I tasted it I got the shock of my life, it was bad...really BAD. Wasted the whole bowl and my soup tastebuds went dormant for a while.

After coming to Dubai I dined in finest of restaurants and loved the variety of soups in the menu. But it's only very recently that I started to make soups at home and am loving it. With the winters slowly creeping in a bowl of warm soups with some roasted papad is all what I need for my dinner.

Ingredients:

Pearl Barley - 1/4 Cup ( Soaked for 7-8 hours )

Tomato - 1 ( Blanch, peel the skin and chop finely )

Carrots - 3 tbsp finely chopped

Green Peas - 2 tbsp

Onion- 1 medium sized 

Ginger- 1/2 inch piece 

Garlic- 2 cloves 

Green Chilies- 2

Coriander- Chopped for garnishing

Salt- As required

Pav Bhaji Masala- 1 tsp (Optional )

White Pepper Powder- 1/4 tsp 

Olive Oil- 1tbsp

Procedure:

• Clean the soaked barley two,three times in fresh water. 
• Boil the barley in around 3 cups of water till it gets cooked well. Strain the barley but do not discard the water. We will use it as stock for the soup.
• I used my chopper to chop onion, ginger, garlic and green chilies together. Heat oil in a wok and add these chopped veggies. Slightly fry these till raw aroma fades, no need to brown the veggies.
• Now add in chopped tomatoes, carrots, green peas and fry these till all the vegetables get tender. 
• Add salt and pav bhaji masala. Mix everything and add in the boiled barley. 
• Add the barley stock and required amount of water. Boil the soup for 3-4 minutes. Add in white pepper powder. Take out the soup from the heat..
• Garnish with chopped coriander. Serve the soup warm. 

Sending this to Priya's Fast & Quick Healthy Dishes Event hosted by Life With Spices. 

Gazpacho

Gazpacho is a cold Spanish tomato based soup which is ideal for summers due to its being cold and acidic in nature. And as I am trying to eat healthy I was browsing for some good soup recipe and came across Gazpacho...this soup perfectly suited us and it has lot of scope for variations. This soup is rich in Vitamin C, is  low in calories and trans fats.

Ingredients:

Bread( White or Brown)- 2-3 slices

Tomatoes- 4 Large quartered

Cucumber- 1sliced

Capsicum- 1 medium diced

Garlic- 2-3 cloves

Vinegar or lime juice- 2 tbsp

Olive Oil- 1 tsp

Salt- to taste

Procedure:

• Soak the bread in little water and squeeze out the excess water.
• Add all the ingredients in the blender along with soaked bread slices and process till every thing is ground.

• Strain the soup and keep in the refrigerator. Serve chilled and garnish with bread cubes, chopped tomatoes and capsicum.

Variations: Tomatoes and bread can be replaced with either Avocados, watermelon, grapes. Onion can also be added and cucumber may be omitted.

Osaman/ Clear Lentil Soup

Osaman is a very thin and easily digestible soup mostly made by Gujrati's. This is a very healthy and tasty soup. The soup is made by using green mung beans. The mung beans needs to be soaked overnight and then cooked in water till soft but not mushy. The water should be drained from the beans and that water is what is used to make this soup. I used the cooked beans to make sundal.

This soup is now a regular in my kitchen. Earlier I used to discard the bean stock but now this is used to make this very tasty and tangy soup.

(Recipe Source: You Tube)

Ingredients:

Mung Beans- 1 Cup ( Soaked overnight or at least 8 hours)

Asafoetida (Heeng)- A pinch

Mustard Seeds- 1/4 tsp

Cumin Seeds- 1/4 tsp

Cloves- 2

Cinnamon- 1/2 inch stick

Whole Black Pepper- 5

Oil- 2 tsp

Ginger and Green Chilli Paste- 1 tsp

Salt- to taste

Turmeric Powder- 1/4 tsp

Jaggery Powdered- 1 tbsp

Curry Leaves- 6-7 leaves

Coriander Leaves finely chopped- 1 tbsp

Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp

Procedure:

• Drain the soaked beans and cook in an open vessel with atleast 4 cups of water so that beans gets cooked thoroughly but does not get mushy.
• Once cooked drain the water in a pot from the beans and keep the beans separate to be used for any other dish. The water drained is what we require to make the soup.
• The above quantity of ingredients is for 2 cups of mung bean water. If the water drained from the beans is less then some more plain water can be added to dilute it and make 2 cups.
• In a pan add the oil and once heated add asafoetida, mustard and cumin seeds.
• Once the seeds splutter add in cloves, cinnamon, black pepper and curry leaves.
• Add in ginger and green chilli paste and sauté for a minute. Finally add in the mung bean water and keep on boiling.
• Once the soup starts boiling and in salt and turmeric powder and continue boiling.
• Add in jaggery and coriander leaves and boil till the jaggery has melted. Add in the lemon juice.

Switch off the gas and serve the soup hot.

Linking this soup to MLLA- 34 brainchild of Susan and hosted by Desisoccermom.