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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Moong Tomato Soup

After a wonderful week of eating out and enjoying, have decided to seriously try and lose all the excess pounds before summer officially begins. This isn't New Year's eve, but have made a resolution nonetheless! I am going to workout regularly and exercise control over my diet. Nothing too drastic in the food department though - that would be asking for too much from a foodie like me! So, as a part of the new healthy eating phase, have decided not to eat rice for dinner. In fact, I would like to stick to just soups and salads as far as possible - let's see how far that works out! Am hoping since its out there in black and white, will try harder to stick to it!!



Hence the recipe for tonight - moong tomato soup. I do love the creamy tomato soups with heavy cream and butter, but that would definitely throw my resolution out of the window. So, I was looking for other options when I came across this tomato soup recipe at Tarla Dalal's website. I liked the idea of using moong dal for the soup's creaminess. But that's about all I took from that recipe and completely modified it to suit my taste. I added brown sugar because I read somewhere that it helps cut the excessive acidity from the tomatoes. So here goes...

Preparation & Cooking: 25 minutes           Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Moong Dal - ½ cup
Diced Tomatoes - 1 14.5 oz can
Grape tomatoes - 1 dry pint
Onion - 1 chopped fine
Garlic - 2 cloves, minced
Celery Stalks - 3
Carrots - 2, shredded
Mint Leaves - a handful
Roasted Cumin Powder - ¼ teaspoon
Turmeric Powder - a pinch
Brown Sugar - ¼ teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Pepper powder - to taste
Vegetable stock - 4 cups
Olive Oil - 2 tablespoons
Ghee/Clarified Butter - 1 teaspoon

Method:
  • Rinse the moong dal, soak it in water and set it aside.
  • Heat the ghee and oil together in a pressure cooker and saute the chopped onion, garlic, celery and shredded carrots in it.



  • Once they begin to soften (about a couple of minutes), add the cumin powder, turmeric powder, salt, diced tomatoes, grape tomatoes, mint leaves, brown sugar, moong dal and vegetable stock. I leave the grape tomatoes and mint leaves whole for now, as they will get mashed in a blender later. 



  • Pressure cook this mixture until the moong dal turns soft and mushy. Once this cools, use a blender to puree it to the required consistency. I like a slightly grainy texture, but you may make it very smooth as well.
  • If you think it is too thick, add a little water/stock at this stage and bring it to a boil. On the other hand, if the soup is too watery, add some bread crumbs and bring it to a boil to thicken it.
  • Ladle the soup into serving bowls and season it with freshly ground pepper to taste. Serve hot with croutons or as is.

Handy Tip: I pureed the left over soup into a smooth paste. Tomorrow, I'll  add some cooked pasta to it and send it for school lunch for my kiddo.

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