CREAMY BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

My husband and I went to a restaurant here in San Diego for a buffet. Being vegetarians, we knew our options would be limited but still we wanted to give it a try since its a very famous restaurant here in San Diego for Sunday Brunches. So there we tasted this butternut squash soup and I fell in love with this soup immediately. It was so rich and creamy. I can never forget the taste of it ever. We really loved the soup. Not only soup, we had so many vegetarian options as well. But this was super hit. So I decided to make this at home but never got a chance till now. When I went to my market this week for my veggies, I found butternut squash and I picked it immediately.  So, today, I am presenting to you all my fav butternut squash soup. 

Ingredients:

Butternut squash - 1/2 of medium sized squash - 1.25 cups diced chunks

Onion - 1 medium

Carrots - 2 chopped
Garlic - 2 cloves (optional)

Butter - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste 

Red Pepper flakes - 1 tsp

Black pepper powder - to taste

Water/ Veggie broth - 1 cup

Heavy cream - 3 tbsp or to taste

Preparation: 

In a pan, melt butter and add 2 cloves of garlic. When it turns golden brown take it out and toss it away. In that same pan, add onions and saute till it becomes caramelized. 

Add carrots and squash and saute for about a min and add water/ veggie broth just enough to cover the squash, salt and cover it. Let it simmer for about 20 mins. 

Make sure the squash and carrots are cooked well and is tender. If not let it simmer for another 10 mins till it becomes tender (You should be able to mash the squash with a fork).

Take the veggies in a blender and blend it to a smooth paste. 

Transfer the contents back to the pan with the stock and add spices according to needs. 

Let it cook for couple of mins and add about 3 tbsp heavy cream. 

The color of the soup is similar to color of carrot but since I added cream, the color is lighter than the usual. 

Serve hot with garlic bread and relish the soup! 

Sending this to Deb' Souper Sundays

Corn Soup and Celebrating my 100th post!!!!

I am extremely happy to announce that this will be my 100th post. Finally I made it. I always thought if I would be able to post 100 recipes in my blog. And today, it has come true. This will be my 100th post. :-) Hope to keep posting more interesting recipes. :-) With that happy note, let me go to my post for today...

It was Sunday evening, my husband was taking a nap and I was browsing through my blog to see what new recipe came up. That time I got this update from Deb who hosts the event called Souper Sundays. I got this week's update and the first soup that I saw was this Asian Corn Soup. It was prepared by Deb for her event and I was so thrilled to see that it was all vegetarian. I was just then hunting for some soup recipes and when I found I had 99% of the ingredients at home, I tried it at once. It came out really well. 

The original recipe is here . I adjusted the measurement according to my requirement. The original recipe's yield was 6 servings. 

Ingredients:

Corn kernals - 2 cups (I had frozen corn. Original had fresh corn with cobs)

Yellow Onion - 1 small finely chopped

Ginger - about 1 tbsp chopped 

Garlic - 1 pod crushed

Salt - to taste

Lime Juice - 1 tbsp

Jalapenos - 1 

Lime slices and Jalapenos slices - to Garnish

Vegetable Broth - 1 cup

Water - 2 cups

Lemon Grass - 2 coarsely chopped

Cilantro - about 12 sprigs

Oil - 1 tbsp

Preparation:

Heat oil in a pan and add onions. Saute till it becomes translucent. 

Add water, vegetable broth, lemon grass, cilantro, ginger, jalapenos, garlic and bring it to boil. Let it simmer for about 30 mins. 

Strain the broth and discard the solid particles. 

Now add corn kernels, lime juice, salt and mix well. 

Again bring all these into the pan and bring it a boil for another 5 mins. 

I like the way she garnished it so I followed the exact same ingredients to garnish :-)

Really light yet healthy soup is ready. 

Sending this to US Masala's Bookmarked recipes hosted by Priya and to Deb's Souper Sunday's  and to Hearth and Soul Hop

Creamy Carrot Soup

My husband and I took a pranayam course here in San Diego couple of weeks back. It was for 3 days and of which one day, they provided lunch with us. They had this carrot soup that day which tasted out of the world. We all totally fell in love with the soup. My god! it tasted so good. From then I really wanted to make carrot soup at home and today I made it. It came out very well. I never thought carrot soup would taste so good. Am sure you will all like this too.. 

Ingredients: 

Carrots - 4 chopped roughly

Onion- 2 Small chopped roughly

Green Chilli (optional) - 1 

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Bay Leaf - 2 

Cloves - 3-4

Fresh Cream - 3 tbsp

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Preparation:

In a pan heat ghee and oil. When hot add cloves and bay leaf. When the cloves start to puff up, take away cloves and bay leaf and throw them away.

In that oil, add onions and green chilli, turmeric and saute in high heat till onions caramelize. Then add carrots and saute in high heat till carrots become tender. Sprinkle water if necessary for the carrots to cook faster. 

When carrots are 90% cooked, turn off heat and let the contents cool. 

Blend everything in a blender along with some salt and make it a fine paste.

In the same pan, add this paste and bring it to a boil. Add water according to required consistency. Then add fresh cream , mix well and turn off heat. 

Serve hot with warm bread. 

Sending this to Deb's Souper Sundays and Girliechef's Hearth and Soul

Horse Gram soup

When I bought horse gram 2 weeks back, I was unaware of the goodness it had.  I just knew it was good for health in general terms and I bought it just for sake of a healthy addition to our regular food. But I was really amazed to know the actual nutritional facts about horse gram. It is horse food, imagine the strength in the food!!!! Though I bought it, I dint really use it much.  I felt as though I was preventing nutrition to enter into my body. This guilt feeling in me made me try this soup. The climate is changing and its getting cold. San Diego is seeing some rains for the past coupe of years. I wouldn call it rain but this drizzle is also a great boon to us. This great climate calls for a hot soup right??? So come lets enjoy this soup.

Health Benefits:

It is a cure for kidney and bladder stones.

It is also used to purify the menstruation in women.

It helps in controlling high blood pressure.

Important Point:  Horse Gram generates lot of heat in the body. Make sure you take sufficient substitues like yogurt, buttermilk, milk or drink lots of water after consuming any dish made out of horse gram

Ingredients:

Horse Gram - 1/2 cup
Carrot - 1 cut lengthwise
Onion - 1/2 cut length wise
Broccoli - 3- 5 florets
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Oil - 1 tbsps
Cloves - 3
Bay Leaf - 1
Garlic - 1 tbps chopped fine
Sugar - 1 tsps
Basil - 1 tsps chopped

Preparation:

Soak Horse gram for about 5 - 8 hrs and cook it in a pressure cooker.

In a pan, heat oil, add cloves, bay leaves, garlic. Fry for few seconds and add onions.

Add carrots and cook for another 3 mins. Add broccoli and let the veggies cook for about 4 mins.

When the veggies become tender add horse gram, salt, pepper and water or vegetable stock according to your need. I used the stock of the cooked horse gram.

Bring everything to a boil. You could add basil for extra flavor. I did :-)

Add sugar, mix well and remove from heat. The reason to add sugar is that, horse gram has a bitter taste. So I added sugar to reduce that bitter taste. Or you use just water or vegetable stock instead of the horse gram stock itself and the bitterness would be very minimal

Serve hot with bread or croûtons.

Sending this to Deb's Souper Sunday's , Hearth and Soul
Susan's MLLA #28 Event hosted by Divya from Dil Se for this month

Tomato Basil Clear Soup

All time favorite - Tomato soup. There are various methods to make this soup. I got this recipe from my aunt. It came out very well. Very simple and easy. My aunt made this soup just as thick tomato soup. I just twisted it little bit, added more ingredients to it and made it clear soup. The reason I made it clear soup is for easy digestion and its light. The taste of tomato along with a hint of basil mixed with some spice makes it a great treat. 

Ingredients:

Onion - 1 medium size

Tomato - 2 

Basil Leaves - 10 leaves

Salt - to taste

Pepper - 1/2 tsps

Bay leaf - 2 

Cloves - 4

Oil - 1tbsps

Preparation:

Heat oil in a pan and add bay leaves, cloves. Fry till the cloves become brown. Take out the bay leaves and cloves. 

Add onions and fry till it becomes transparent. Add tomato and fry till it becomes tender. 

Now add basil and just leave it for a min and remove from flame. Let it cool for sometime. 

Blend this mixture in a blender along with salt until it becomes a smooth paste.

Strain the soup with a strainer . You can add more water to extract the entire juice out of the mixture. 

Heat the soup and serve it with hot bread. Add pepper according to requirement. 

Sending this to Deb's Souper Sundays

Split Pea Soup

Soups are my favorite. I can just live on soups. I am sure many of us like soup. Its healthy, its delicious and a great meal supplement. My husband loves split pea soup from CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) This made me try the split pea soup at home and beleive me its a super duper hit!!! And now, no more CPK, its only AK's split pea soup. ;-)

Nutritional Facts:

• 
  
  
  Split pea - legume family- is a great source of cholestrol lowering fiber.
• 
  
  
  They are also of special benefit in managing blood-sugar disorders
• 
  
  
  It provides excellent amounts of  important minerals,  B-vitamins, and protein--all with virtually no fat.
• 
  
  
  They are a good source of potassium
• 
  
  
  It is also good for lowering high blood pressure.

Ingredients:

Split Peas  - 1 Cup

Bay Leaf - 3 leaves

Cloves - 3-4

Onion - 1 cup Chopped

Celery - 1/2 cup Chopped

Paprika - A pinch

Salt - to taste

Olive Oil - 2 tbsp

Water - 1.5 cups

Preparation:

Pressure cook the split peas or cook split pea in 1.5 cups boiling water in a pan untill its cooked well.

In another pan heat oil and add bay leaves and cloves. When the cloves start to fluff, take the cloves and bay leaves out (its only for the nice aroma) and add onions. Fry untill it starts to loose its color and add celery and salt. Continue to fry till celery is almost done.

Remove from heat and let it cool. When warm, add the mixture in a blender along with the cooked split pea. Add about 3/4 of the cooked split peas and blend everything untill it blends well.

Now again turn on the heat and pour this mixture in the pan and add the left over split peas to this and let it cook for about 5 mins untill it comes to a boil. 

Drizzle paprika on top of the soup and serve it with hot corn bread or any other variety. Such a treat to taste buds in winter :-)

I am sending this to Briciole MLLA - legumi che passione! (numero 26) and to Susan's Legume event . Also sending this this to Debis' Kahakai Kithcen - Souper Sundays!!