Quick and easy creamy cauliflower soup

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a relaxing holiday. We spent a week getting pampered by my little sis, playing with the little cousins  and visiting the battle sites of the civil war. I made my first gingerbread house ever with my niece and nephew (from a kit). It takes a lot of frosting to hold the house together! Eating the gingerbread house and the leftover decorations was  more fun for the kids. I made them brush their teeth afterward, in case you are reading dear sis. We baked sugar cookies and I let my niece and nephew eat as much as they wanted becoming cool aunt in their eyes.  And my sister fed us - Dosa, Idli, Pav Bhaji, Dal, Usli, Bhindi masala and tondekai palya - this is just a partial list. I think we ate her out of the house.
Now it is back and some minor resolutions to eat well - nah who am I kidding, we got goodies galore from Bangalore. We will eat soup and assuage our guilt.

 You can make home made soup in 15 minutes - no instant pot, just operational efficiency. I whipped up this soup yesterday when the big cousins came over. I didn't cook the vegetables in stock or water. I just steamed  and cooked in a smidgen of oil. This made transferring to the blender much easier and far less clean up. And it is a healthy, filling, creamy soup that warms you up and makes you feel rather virtuous too.
Do seek out white pepper for this recipe. It adds a fruity delicate  aroma that is very different from black pepper.

Creamy Cauliflower soup 
1 red onion
1.5 tsp of oil
1 head of cauliflower
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp whole white pepper corns
6 sun dried tomato halves not in oil. If using oil packed, drain the oil
a small handful of raw almonds
salt to taste

Chop the onion into slices or chunks. Heat the oil in a tall saucepan that has a lid. Add the onions, turn the flame to medium, add a tiny pinch of salt and close the lid allowing the onions to sweat.

While the onion is cooking, clean the head of cauliflower, Take out the dried leaves and chop into big pieces - stem and all. Peel the garlic.  Put the cauliflower and the garlic in a microwave safe bowl, add a splash of water, cover with a lid and cook until tender but not mushy. It took me 6 mins in my microwave on full power.

The onions should be done by now. Tip the onions and cauliflower into a blender. Add the sun dried tomatoes, white pepper and almonds  and blend. Add water as required to keep the blades running.
Empty blender content  into the saucepan you used to cook the onions and add water to dilute to desired consistency. Heat on medium flame until heated through, Season to taste with salt.

Top with toasted almonds and a swirl of pesto. Enjoy.

Gingered Tomato Soup

What do you do when you crave tomato soup but tomato season is still far away? You make soup with canned tomatoes and then surprise yourself with how good it tastes way beyond your expectations. This is try 2.. My first attempt was not worth writing about.

1 large red onion chopped into 1/2 inch thick slices.

3 15 oz cans of tomatoes (whole, diced, any kind)

2 tsp of olive oil

4 - 6 cups of water

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1 tbsp  chopped ginger

2 Thai peppers

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste.

Really all you need are the tomatoes and the onions and a lot of patience. The recipe is all in the technique. 

First you need to caramelize the onions.

Film a large non reactive stockpot with the oil and heat on medium. Add the onions and stir to coat. Close the lid and cook for about 15 minutes stirring occasionally. 

Open the tomato cans and drain the tomatoes, reserving the juice.

Reduce the flame to low and remove the lid. If you want a gingered soup add the ginger and the peppers at this point. Lightly salt the onions.  Keep cooking the onions , stirring occasionally until they are golden brown and caramelized.  Do this for another 15-20 minutes until you feel all the moisture has evaporated and you can't prevent the onions from sticking.

 Now add the drained tomatoes, increase the heat to medium and 'roast' the tomatoes in the stockpot stirring now and then. The tomatoes will turn a couple of shades darker and break down. This took about 15 more minutes on the stove. Take off  the heat and cool a little.

Now blend the tomato mixture to a smooth puree (blender, immersion blender whatever). Add the reserved tomato juice and   2 cups of water and heat it to medium. Taste the soup, add more water if  necessary. Bring to a boil. Season it with  salt and pepper. 

Serve immediately. You can also snip some  fresh herbs on top or swirl some Earth Balance  butter or coconut cream or do all three.

Chickpea soup

I have a confession to make - social media overwhelms me. May be it is because I am old (fashioned). I still think the primary purpose of my (smart) phone is to make phone calls, email is an efficient way to communicate and thank you letters should be written by hand.
But to my surprise when my media savvy friend introduced me to Twitter, I was hooked. So much information is such perfect titbits... this was a revelation and people tweeted recipes.
This was one keeper that I discovered via Mark Bitman's twitter feed. I adapted the recipe to ingredients I had in my pantry. You can find the original recipe  here. 

-1 cup dry chick peas soaked overnight and cooked until tender
  or 2 cups canned.
-2 jars of roasted red bell peppers (drained)
-1 medium white onion sliced thin
-2 tsps Olive Oil
-4 cloves garlic
-4 to 6 cups water or vegetable stock
-2 tsp cumin
-1/2 tsp paprika
-2 tsp basil pesto(made without any cheese) (optional)

Add the olive oil to a large stockpot on medium heat and sweat the onions. When the onions start to turn brown add the garlic and saute for a minute or two. Add the cumin, paprika. Add the chickpeas, red bell pepper and the 4 cups of stock (or  water0. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.  Puree the soup roughly in a blender in batches or use an immersion blender. Add more stock or water and bring to a boil again if you want a thinner soup.
Serve hot with a drizzle of pesto.
* I usually add a bay leaf a few cloves of garlic to the pot when cooking the chick peas.

Overcooked broccoli+onion+ginger+ Serrano pepper = Broccoli Soup

All those recipes that tell you to shock your vegetables in an ice water bath to stop cooking- they actually have a point. I thought," feh, who needs that extra step; it'll be fine."
 But the broccoli was not fine. It was perfect when I steamed it, but a little worse for wear by the time we sat down to dinner.
A wise friend once said, " If life knocks you over, roll over and look at the stars".
My translation, " if you overcook broccoli, cook it some more and turn it into soup"

3 medium heads of slightly overcooked broccoli
1/4 of a red onion
1 inch piece of ginger
1 Serrano pepper
6-8 stalks of cilantro
Water (enough to just cover the broccoli) a.k.a (i didn't measure it out)
2 tsp oil
Salt

• Heat a stock pot. Add oil. When the oil is hot add the onion, ginger and  Serrano pepper. Cover with lid and lower flame. Let cook till the onion turns transparent (about 5 minutes). Remove lid and cook stirring every now and then until the onions start to brown.
• Add the Broccoli and just enough water or stock to cover it.
• Return to heat over medium high and cook until the water boils.
• Season with salt  and cook for 3 more minutes.
• Cool, then blend with the Cilantro.

Proceed to eat  the vibrant green soup feeling very victorious that you turned something that was eww a few minutes ago into something yum.

One of each soup + coriander seeds+ coconut= kodilu

I started this blog with the intention of posting all the recipes I received from the recipe exchange. The intent was good, that is my story and I am sticking to it. One of the other recipes I received was called 'One of each soup'. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/One-of-Each-Soup-105905.

Needless to say I did not follow the recipe exactly.
Banana in a soup? I am not that brave, but brave enough to add a cooking plantain.
Celery -Didn't have any. So I added extra Garlic
Butter and cream - Way too rich for me; so leave it out

and needless to say

There were not many takers for the soup.

When your soup falls flat, make it into kodilu. 'Kodilu' is a dish from the  spice coast of India; a stew with Coconut and roasted spices. To turn your soup into kothilu, this is what you have to do
 2 Tbsp coriander seeds
1/8th tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
4-6  dried red chillies
1/4 c dessicated coconut
3/4 tsp of tamarind concentrate

 Roast the first three ingredients with a smidgen of oil till the seeds turn a couple of shades darker and you can smell the spices.
Turn off the heat and add the coconut. Continue to stir . The coconut will get lightly toasted.
Blend these to a fine paste adding water as necessary.

Add this blend and the tamarind to the soup and simmer gently.

Serve the kothilu over rice.