Desi meal in a bowl

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Of what is often served as not just an appetiser, but also a health food, soups stimulate your appetite and give you a dose of the most essential vitamins and minerals. From the usual corn to your tomato broth, the USP of homemade vegetable soups is that you can make them with any veggies that is available in your refrigerator. Quite liberating, isn’t it? If you’ve long lived on rich English soups and classic French bouillabaisse, you’re definitely missing out on some nutritious desi soups.
“I make the yellow moong dal soup often for my kids. Take three tablespoons of yellow moong dal, chop 1 carrot, 1 potato and two French beans. Combine all ingredients and pressure cook for three whistles or simply boil till the dal and vegetables are soft. To this you can add salt and black pepper according to your taste,” says Anuradha, a homemaker.
Another all-time favourite is the spinach soup. Housewife Komal Khattar makes it special by sometimes adding pulses to it. “Pick spinach leaves and wash them thoroughly. Chop onion, tomato and green chillies. Pressure cook all the ingredients for 8-10 minutes or allow 2-3 whistles. Open the pressure cooker, when cooled down. Blend the mixture with a hand blender. Add more water as per your taste and boil for another 5 minutes. You can even add chane ki daal or any light dal to this to give it a variety of flavours,” says Komal.
You can also serve it with a wedge of lime or some cream if you don’t want to experiment with the pulses. And there’s a piece of advice for those who’ve failed at making their spinach soup delicious — try and add more tomatoes for a better flavour.
Taking a closer look at the cuisine down South, the variety of homemade soups is scrumptious, rasam being an all-time favourite. “Unlike my siblings, as a child I preferred thicker soups, stews and curries with rice. I never liked rasam but when I had it at one of the traditional South Indian restaurant in Delhi, I instantly fell for the recipe. Their mix of spices like pepper, cumin and red chillies with hints of coriander, tamarind and curry leaves was apt,” says Raghav, a DU student.
Another one from grandma’s kitchen is the red pumpkin soup. Boutique owner Shikha Khanna tells us, “My son doesn’t like pumpkin so I tried my hand at making a soup out of it. My son still doesn’t know it’s pumpkin I use in his favourite soup. The best part about pumpkin soup is that you can use chilies and oregano to give it a different twist.”