Masoor Dal Soup

Weather has been very unusual at this time of the year. There were scattered thunderstorms in the evening and rain all the night for the last two days. But, it was very hot all afternoon. Then we both craved to eat something hot, and something filling. I thought of making some soup to go with the bread that has been lying in the refrigerator from long.

I tried with Masoor Dal/Red gram this time and improvised it to make it better. I also added Cottage Cheese to this recipe to get that creamy and milky taste.

You need…

2 cups Masoor dal/Red gram dal
1 medium onion, chopped into big chunks
1 big tomato
½ cup cottage cheese
1 tsp chilli powder
½ tsp cumin powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
½ tsp black pepper powder
2 tbsp shredded coconut or coconut milk
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
coriander for garnishing

1. Put tomato and onion in a bowl, add some water and microwave it for 3 mins. Check in between as tomato splits all over the microwave if kept for a long time.
2. Boil the dal with enough water till al-dente. Don’t make them too soft.
3. Remove outer skin from tomato and blend onion, tomato and half of cooked dal.
4. Add the blended mixture to the dal and continue boiling.
5. Add spices like bay leaf, cumin, coriander, pepper, red chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Also add coconut at this point.
6. Finally add cottage cheese and boil for 5 mins or until you get the thickness you desire.
   

Remove bay leaf and serve hot. I served with whole wheat garlic bread. I made garlic spread while the soup was boiling. I also added a piece of garlic to the soup for some garlicky taste.

To make Garlic Spread:

Take an oven safe bowl, put garlic pods with butter or olive oil. Add some Italian seasoning or all dried herbs and keep the bowl covered tightly in the toaster oven for 5-10 mins. Crush the garlic and mix. Apply to the bread before serving.

PS: this is my own version of soup and you can improvise it the way you want.

Masoor Dal Kichidi

I felt like eating Rasam today with rice. And I remember when I made Rasam last time, I had it with Kichidi and the combination was awesome. I tried that combination this time too and it was perrrrfect. But, unfortunately the pictures of Rasam have come out real bad as I accidently moved the pointer to the night mode on the camera.

Kichidi is the easiest thing to make of all the foods I believe. Very less work involved and less time in cooking and overall result is mind-blowing, a tasty and delicious kichidi. You have both carbs and protein in this dish. We can make Kichidi using both masoor dal and moong dal. I even made kichidi one day with whole moong and served that with coconut chutney that was wonderful too. My mom makes kichidi with split moong and serves with cocunut or pudina chutney.

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Ingredients
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1 cup rice (basmati or sona masoori)
1/2 cup masoor dal
1/2 onion
3 spoons oil or ghee
2 cardammoms
2 cloves
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1. Heat oil in a pan. Cut onions into small pieces and add to the oil. Let the onions cook until brown.
2. Add coriander, coconut (optional), cardammoms, cloves, ginger garlic paste and keep stirring. Cook for 3 minutes.
3. Lower the heat and yogurt and leave it for a minute.
4. On the side, wash both masoor dal and rice and add salt plus 3 cups of water (2 cups for rice and 1 cup for dal) .
5. Add everything into the rice cooker, dal and rice and the onion mixture.
6. Cook until done.

Serve with Rasam or any Chutney. Picture shows Chole, Yogurt and Bitter Gourd fry. I had these at home, so we finished eating with this meal and but the main one was Rasam to go with kichidi.