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Cream of Mixed Vegetable soup with Dal ~ best way to use leftover vegetables!

With prizes of vegetables hitting the roof, its a wonder we can actually cook any dish with these vegetables. A week back, the prize of tomatoes was 60 rs, now its somewhere around 40, which is still very expensive.Imagine the plight when you can't think of cooking anything without tomatoes. For me, the mindset has always been, without onions and tomatoes, there can't be a gravy! How sad indeed. Since couple of weeks, I have been planning on dishes that use very minimum of these prized vegetable! Not just that, even carrots, brinjals cost sky. Hubby dear, back from his usual shopping, brought a kilo of tomatoes and carrots. Promptly asked me to lock away those vegetables. I didn't understand what he was trying to say. He said they cost so much that they are fit to be locked away in beerva!

The other day, Dad came home and saw a bag of tomatoes lying on the table. He commented so merrily "Oh you are buying tomatoes? I could only join him in the merry, though the plight of cooking a dish with tomatoes, sound so tough! Since last week, we have been cooking only dals with tamarind instead of tomatoes. Dals are fine, but how about my masala gravies, I ask! How about Paneer Butter Masala? Konda needs a weekly dose of PBM. My colleague J had asked me for the PBM recipe sometime back and she came around to cooking it finally now. When my other colleague B came to know this, she said J is going to cook a very expensive dish. J asked if its because of loads of cream, butter and other things. For which B replied, no its because PBM is going to consume lots of tomatoes!

Thinking of our woes of tomatoes and other vegetables, here comes a soup that makes an efficient use of left over vegetables or rather blend of all vegetables on hand. There is no hard and fast rule on this recipe. This came into existence for the sheer want of a change from the usual roll of soups getting brewed!

Ingredients Needed:

French Beans - 4
Carrot - 1/2
Cabbage - Handful chopped
Tomato - 1/2
Yellow Moong Dal - 1 ladle (can be less if you want)
Mint leaves - about 5
Garlic - 3 small pods
Onion - 1 small
Clove -1
Cinnamon - 1"
Salt & Pepper to taste
Oil - 1/2 tsp

Method to prepare:

Wash and chop all vegetables. Heat oil in a pressure cooker, sauté clove, cinnamon, then onions and garlic till its fragrant.

Add in the mint leaves, fry for 1 min. Then add the drained vegetables. Sauté for 2 mins on high. Then add the washed moong dal. Fry for 1 min. Add 1 - 2 cups of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Remove the clove and cinnamon.

Once its cool, grind to a smooth paste. Add more water if required, then season it with salt and pepper. Bring to boil and remove.

This taste absolutely yummy. I would say it tasted of all the vegetables that went in and I felt more filled. A bowl of this makes a dinner complete.

And not to mention, best way to clean up left over small quantities of vegetables.

check out what my fellow runners are up to! The group has increased in numbers. We are now 26!!


DK , Siri , Anu, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha , Divya M, Lak, Raaga, Lakshmi Venkatesh, Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, Pavani, Karuna, and Roochi
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