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 :-)

Mixed Veggie and Cous-Cous Shorba...

I Am Sorry...I know I promised to follow up with this Soup Recipe for the bread I posted below...But I just got caught up in doing stuff and been busy at work...so could not find much time to update the blog as I would have wanted too...Anyways...I very much believe in the saying - "Better Late than Never.." So here goes...

Recipe Origin and Background

As I have already told you in earlier posts, nothing can ever beat the taste of our Mom's Cooking...and for me My Mom is the best known cook ever...So this recipe is hers...and is definitely one of my favourites and I will explain why?...

We always had these Multi-Cuisine Dinners on saturday....our mom used to cook different dishes she learnt from travelling abroad...basically to spark an interest in us towards cooking...as part of training or preping us to be atleast passable cooks when the right time cooks...(Can't Thank her enough for that training...helped me in more ways than one...and obviously making a total fool of myself...)

Mom and Dad used to work in Algeria(North Africa) and the cuisine their had a lot of French Influence (being a french colony...) and also neighbouring Islamic Cuisine influences esp that of Moroccan...I heard from mom that this soup was like a speciality dish for large family gatherings because it was not only easy but also wholesome, filling and also nutritious...and dont get me started the importance of a balanced nutritious diet in the eyes of my mom...(she being a Doc...)...I can end up writing pages...on how she inculcated from early on the importance of a balanced diet...

Anyways...Cous-Cous is the Staple Food Crop of the North African Countries...(Just like how rice and wheat are to us Indians...) ...It is made from Corn...basically it is coarsely ground Corn or Maize...used as an accompaniment to soups, mains mainly made of meat or consumed as it is with a flavourings...

In this recipe I have added Cous-Cous into the soup to give it that extra bit of Oumph and also to make it more like a main dish rather than a starter...Now comes the recipe...

Ingredients:

• 2 Large Potatoes (cut into Big chunks)
• 2 Carrots (cut into Big chunks)
• 2 Tomatoes (Roughly Diced)
• 1 Medium Onion (Roughly Diced)
• 4 Green Chillies (Slit Length-wise)
• 1 teaspoon of Ginger-Garlic paste
• 1 Cup Boiled Chickpeas(Chole - Soaked overnight)
• 1/2 Cup Cous-Cous(Medium Grain)
• 1 Vegetable Stock cube
• Spices - 1 teaspoon each of ground Cumin and Coriander
• Seasoning - Salt, Pepper and a little Chilli Powder
• To Garnish - Roughly chopped Corainder Leaves.

Process:

1) Firstly heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a pressure cooker...then add in the onion and green chillies and saute for a little while.

2) Then add in the ginger-garlic paste and the spices and saute it on a medium heat for one more minute till the raw flavour from the spices is gone.

3) Then add the veggies and saute them till the spices are well coated over them... add the Chickpeas and the Cous-Cous and mix then well..

4) Add the seasoning as required and suitable to your palate..

5) Finally add the dissolved vegetable stock cube and about 1 litre of water to the veggie mix.

6) Cover and pressure cook it on a low flame till you get 3 whistles.... and increase to high and let another 2 whistles come...

7) Cool and when the pressure is completely out... open the lid and check if there is enough liquid (cous-cous makes the soup thick)...if the soup is watery ...just let it simmer on a low flame for a little while...or else if the soup is too thick then add in a little more liquid and simmer it for a little while...

8) Add in a little chopped coriander to the soup as garnish..This soup is a main dish in itself...you donot need anything else...but I serve it with a little crusty bread on the side...to slurp up all the yumminess...

If unable to get Cous-Cous, Broken Burghul wheat or Durham wheat (Goduma Rava) as a subsitute...Any vegetables can be used like Beetroot, Peas, Corn, Radish, Broccoli, Cauliflower etc..

So as promised - A Tasty, Wholesome Soup which is not only nutritious but also Very Very easy to make...

Image Source: My Trusty Phone Camera
Recipe Source: My Mom

Hope you enjoy this recipe of mine...Happy Cooking...:-)