Lentil Soup - My Hero

Hands down I accept that this soup has played the major role in my weight loss. I had a ravishing love affair with this guy and it regularly featured on my lunch dinner table.

I stuck to this soup because it is filling and I like the taste. Moreover I was always the daal rice person. SO, when I made this soup I would add 2 -3 spoon of rice and whatever sabji that was made at home. It used to give me the satisfaction of having the whole meal.

There are 3 versions of this soup. I usually stick to version 1 because I am lazy and I just like this simple version, its light, lemony and always tastes awesome.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup yellow mung daal.

2. 1 pod garlic.

3. bottle gourd finely chopped. I put as much as possible.



The basic mix

In a pressure cooker, add all the above, salt and a pinch of turmeric. Do not add lots of water. For 1 cup daal 2 and half cup water is more than enough. Pressure cook for 3 - 4 whistles. The ingredients cook fast.

For better results you can soak the daal for 1 hour. I usually make it as it is, who will wait for an hour.

Once you pressure cook it, you will get a thick mixture even if there is water don't worry. This is your basic base.



Version 1 :

Damn easy. To the basic mix add water to adjust the consistency of soup, also adjust the salt. Squeeze lemon. Your version 1 is ready. I like to eat the bottle gourd pieces along with this soup.

Usually I take a bowl, add some rice and the sabji. You can see Bowl 1 has bhendi sabji, rice and soup and Bowl 2 has french beans sabji, rice and soup. The trick is to have very less rice and lots of vegetable and soup.




Version 2 :

No one has stopped you to make a proper daal out of it. This base is always there in my fridge. So in some emergency, I take little oil, add cumin seeds, onions. tomato and make a tadka daal. You can also cut lots of veggies and then add this daal and the add the sambhar powder to give it a twist. 1 big bowl of this daal always guarantees satisfaction.

Version 3 :

Now this requires some work and of course it tastes the best.

Ingredients

1. Finely chopped french beans.

2. Finely chopped carrot.

3. Finely chopped capsicum.

There is no quantity restriction. More the veggies the better.



Procedure.

1. Blend the basic daal mix (the one that we pressure cooked and prepared) into a fine paste.

2. In a pan take little oil and stir fry veggies on high heat. We don't want the veggies to cook. We want them to be crisp. So cook them on high flame for 4 - 5 minutes.



3. Add the blended purred daal and adjust the consistency by adding water.



4. Adjust salt.

5. You can sprinkle black pepper and lemon on top.



This is the actual lentil soup.

The basic mix also serves one more purpose. I usually make the basic base and keep it in fridge and as per the mood I make the version that I want to eat. Sometime I knead the dough with this mixture. No water is required. Take wheat flour and knead it with the daal mixture and make roti. You can use little oil to gril the roties, they taste awesome.

Didn't I tell you that this soup is a hero. It server multiple purposes and also knocks off the weight. Now can you beat that.

Have fun with it.