Whole Mung Bean and Mushroom Soup...

These days my Hubby is working evening shifts and comes home pretty late in the night sometimes as late as midnight. Because he works at a place where they provide meals, (yummy and varied varieties he says) he calls up and tell me that that he wont be coming home for dinner. And when he does not eat dinner at home, I loose interest in eating anything at all. So I just drink up a juice or something like that and just sleep off. Now this has had an effect on my health.

So these days I cook up a One-Pot dish which is not only easy to make but also delicious and most importantly LOW-CALORIE...I personally love consuming Soups on a day to day basis unlike my Hubby who can have it only once a while. Winter this year in Melbourne is very very chilly and what better to have for dinner than a Steamy Hot Bowl of Soup...which is also healthy...What a Bonus...:-)

So here goes the Recipe...

Ingredients:
1 Cup Whole Mung Beans (Moong Dal or Pesaralu)
1 Medium Onion (chopped finely)
5 pods Garlic(chopped finely as well) (I love garlic so...but you can reduce the amount)
5-10 Button Mushrooms (depending on the size....sliced up...)
2 teaspoons Olive Oil
Salt and freshly crushed pepper to taste

To Garnish:
Chopped Coriander
Slithers of Spring Onion
Yogurt

Process:
1) Wash and Soak Moong Dal in Hot Water for 10 minutes.

2) Put them in a Pressure Cooker and add 2 cups of water and some salt and pressure cook them on medium flame till you you get 2 or 3 whistles. When cooled just mash it but not to a complete paste. Keep aside.

3) Then heat the oil in non-stick pan and saute the onions till translucent. Then add garlic and sliced mushrooms and saute for further 1 minute.

4) Then add the slightly mashed moong dal and if need be more water or vegetable stock bring to boil. Simmer on low flame for 10 minutes.

5) To finish, add salt and pepper as per your liking. Garnish with chopped coriander and spring onions and a light drizzle of yogurt.

Variation:
If the above recipe is too bland for your palette, then you can add a teasppon each of Cumin and Corainder Powder. If you want it to be spicy then you can add Chilli Powder accordingly.

To make the soup more enriching you can add some cooked Barley(available in all health stores) or even Broken Burghul Wheat.

I Just like mine plain and simple and served with a Crusty Piece of Bread preferably Wholemeal or Wholegrain...

So enjoy the Soup...and until next time...

Happy Cooking :-)