Kale and Lentils Soup

This is a nutritious soup and one of my favorites.

What you need to make this Soup:

6 cups vegetable broth
1.5 cups brown lentils
1/2 bunch Curly leaf Kale
1 tbsp butter or cooking oil
1/2 medium sized onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 stalk celery, diced
2 carrots (optional), diced
a pinch paprika or red chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
Salt to taste
A very small pinch of nutmeg powder (optional)

Prep Work:

Wash lentils well and soak for one hour. Discard this water.
Kale – Wash kale well, drain, take the veins out carefully and chop finely (not too fine)

Method:

• In a saucepan, heat butter or oil. Add bay leaves, and garlic, sauté for a minute.
• Add onions, carrots, celery, little salt and sauté for 3 minutes or until the onions become translucent.
• Add broth and lentils. Let it boil.
• When lentils are cooked halfway, add kale, paprika or red chili powder, black pepper powder, and nutmeg powder. Simmer until the lentils are well done.
• Pick and discard bay leaves.

You may serve the soup as it is with Avocado or blend it and serve as a creamy soup, garnished with a teaspoon of heavy cream.

Miriyala Chaaru (Andhra Pepper Rasam)

This weekend, its very cold here in Houston, so thought I would make Pepper Rasam.
Rasam is South Indian thin soup that is often made with spices like pepper, ginger, garlic, cumin, limes, . Modern chefs even use pineapple, raw mango and other exotic.

Before the advent of Spanish, who brought chili peppers to the Subcontinent, Pepper (from peppercorns) used to be THE spice. I salute this ancient spice, whose existence can be found in almost every cuisine.
Like Indian Garam Masala, everybody has their own recipe for this heavenly preparation. Here is my take on it. This item appears frequently in variations at our dining table as its easy to prepare, tasty and above all, very healthy. Whenever somebody shows any symptoms of cold, they would promptly be fed this Rasam.

What you need to make this Rasam:

1/2 lemon sized tamarind
5-6 cups water
1 tablespoon chopped cilantrosalt to taste

To be roasted and ground into coarse powder:
1 tablespoon senaga pappu (Chana dal /split chickpeas)
1 teaspoon kandi pappu (toor dal /split pigeon peas)
1 tablespoon dhanyalu (dhania/whole dry coriander seeds)
1 teaspoon jeelakara (jeera / dry cumin seeds)
1 teaspoon miriyalu (whole black pepper)
a pinch of menthulu (methi seeds/dry fenugreek seeds)

For popu(tadka) or seasoning:
1 teaspoon cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon each black mustard seeds, and cumin seeds
2 cloves of garlic, chopped coarsely
1/2 teaspoon each turmeric powder, and hing
1 sprig curry leaves



Method:

• In a sautepan, roast chana dal, toor dal, dhania, jeera, peppercorns, methi in the order mentioned. Start with Chanadal, when its half done, add toor dal and keep adding other ingredients.
• Pound the roasted ingredients into a coarse powder.
• In a saucepan, boil water, tamarind and the ground powder for 5-7 minutes.
• Strain the liquid, discard pulp. This liquid is unseasoned Rasam.
• Add salt and cilantro. Stir well and keep aside.
• In a small sautepan, heat cooking oil, add the items listed for seasoning in the same order.
• Once sweet aroma starts coming from the seasoning, add the seasoning to Rasam.
• Bring rasam back to stove and let it simmer for a minute.
• Serve hot with boiled rice

This is my contribution to Weekend Herb Blogging