Cucumber Coriander Soup

Coriander is a herb that my mother always stocks in her refrigerator, and uses quite a lot in her dishes including sambar, rasam, chutneys, snacks like pakoras, sandwiches, parathas, drinks like spiced buttermilk, etc. While garnishing soups, she generally limits the use of this herb to a lesser quantity, and I preferred it that way too.

However, this weekend, I wanted to finish two things that had been lying inside the fridge for about a week - 2 cucumbers, and a large bowl of washed and dried coriander leaves. I thought of a simple salad, but no, my little one would not eat it, and raw at that. So I decided to make a soup out of the cucumber. While thinking of boil ing it and using vegetable stock, my eyes fell on a bowl of freshly set curd, and I decided to use buttermilk in the soup.

To make the Cucumber Coriander Soup seen in the picture, you will need:

Cucumber - 2 medium sized
Coriander - a large bowl - chopped
Curd - Fresh and not sour - 2 cups
Green chilly - 1
Water - 1 cup
Turmeric - a pinch (optional)
Jeera/ Cumin Seeds powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper - to taste
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Peel the cucumbers, peel them (if too many seeds, de-seed), grate them into a bowl like you would grate carrots, and boil with a cup of water until well cooked and semi-dry
• In a mixer add 1/2 a cup of water to the 2 cups of fresh curd, blend well for 5 minutes and keep aside until cream settles on top
• Remove the cream from the buttermilk, and add salt, green chilly, turmeric, jeera powders and chopped coriander leaves and blend well
• Add this to the boiled grated cucumber, and keep on low flame for 3-5 minutes stirring continuously, adding enough water only to adjust consistency if required

Note: If you do not add turmeric, the soup will not have the light yellow colour, and will be more natural with the green coriander and white cucumber buttermilk combo with just a tinge of brown jeera. Also, I did not remove the cream, which is why my soup is slightly thicker and creamier (you can see on the sides and glistening on top in the picture)

Serve with crushed pepper in soup bowls

'Herb Mania' is an event started by Dee of Ammalu's kitchen, and is being hosted this month by Siri at Siri's Corner.




The Cucumber Coriander Soup is my entry to the Herb Mania: Coriander/ Cilantro event.

Beetroot Almond Soup

I suddenly realized after finishing yesterday's post that I had made a soup day before yesterday for my daughter who loves her soup-mammam, and did not post it as an entry to EasyCraft's WYF: Salad/ Starter/ Soups event. Today is the last day, and I am just in time!



Beetroot is a vegetable I love primarily for its colour, or because of the colour it imparts to any dish made with it. I do not enjoy it in salads, and prefer it cooked and spiced. I have posted only one other recipe on this blog, which features this vegetable. Beetroot rasam is something I make often, but for want of a different soup, I decided to make it into a soup this time around.

Another thing I have recently started doing in order to ensure that my daughter's diet includes almonds, is to use them in her favourite dishes. A trick, because if she feels a piece of the almond in her mouthful, she spits it immeditely. I soak the almonds overnight, and grind them into a fine paste after peeling them. This way, it gets mixed well in her bhindi subji, sambar, rasam, soup, etc. Which is exactly why this beet soup has almonds in it.

To make the Beetroot Almond soup seen in the picture, you will need:

Beetroot - 2 medium sized - cut into cubes
Almonds - 8-10 - soaked overnight, peeled, and ground into paste
Tomatoes - 2 - chopped OR Lime juice - 1/2 a lime (optional)
Onion - 1 - chopped
Ginger - 1 tbsp - peeled and pounded
Green chilly - 1 - sliced
Coriander leaves - chopped (optional)
Jeera/cumin powder - 2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Methi/ fenugreek seeds powder - 1 tsp
Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste


Method:

• Pressure cook the beetroot, onion, tomatoes (if using lime, it is to be added later), green chilly, ginger for 4-5 whistles and keep aside to cool
• Take a mixer and blend this well after it is cool along with salt, pepper, jeera, methi, and coriander powders, and the almond paste
• Transfer this into a heavy bottomed saucepan, add water to adjust the consistency, and bring to boil while stirring continuously on low flame
• Serve with ladle into bowls, and garnish with coriander

R and I had this with bread, with a lot more pepper. For my daughter, I served it with a spoonful of melted Amul butter on top.

You may also be interested in another soup with bottlegourd.

Note: You can use almond powder if you have it ready-to-use at home. Tomato or lime juice is used only for giving a sour/tangy flavour. If you do not wish to use it, you can follow the recipe without it.

Lauki Soup

I was inspired to put up this post today (despite my recent post of Ribbed Gourd Thoran yesterday) by the post for Dal Lauki by Priti. This is the first time I am going to be participating for an event in the blogosphere.

I hope my entry to VoW-Vegetable of the Week-Bottle Gourd is accepted. The first thing I did was check the rules, and go through Pooja's blog for the last date to send in the entries. I am so glad today is 14th July, and I did not miss the last date.

It so happened that I had made Lauki Soup on Friday, 11th July, for my daughter's birthday. She loves vegetable soup, and it being her birthday, I made her favorite dishes (sambhar, bhindi, soup, payasam) only. I always take pictures of the dishes I make, so it is useful for a blog entry later:-), and I am so happy I can now post it here, as part of the event.

You will need:

Lauki - peeled and cut into large cubes (no need to deseed) - 1 large bottle gourd or 4 cups

Onion - chopped - 1

Tomatoes - chopped - 2

Ginger - peeled and pounded - 2 tbsp

Garlic - peeled and pounded - 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves - chopped - to garnish

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp - a pinch (for colour)

Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp (for colour too)

Pepper - 1/4 tsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Pressure cook the bottle gourd pieces, onion, tomato, ginger, garlic into with 1.5 cups of water (3-4 whistles)
• Cool and grind the same (with any water left) along with the powders and salt in the mixer
• Pour into a pan and heat on low flame to a light boil and keep stirring
• Add pepper and garnish with coriander leaves

Serve hot in soup bowl