Spinach and White Bean Soup

Spinach Bean Soup

Cooking for your loved ones is more fun and easier as compared to cooking just for yourself. That's how I feel. Most of my solitary meals are soups and salads. When I make a soup or a salad, I try to include all nutrients - carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins. Today's spinach and white bean soup flavored with Thai Sriracha sauce is one of my light yet wholesome lunches.

Ingredients:
Spinach/Palak - about 3 cups
Dry White Beans - 1/3 cup
Red Onion - 1 medium
Garlic - 2 big cloves
Ginger (grated) - 1 tsp
Soy Sauce - 2 tbsp
Sriracha Sauce - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 1/2 tbsp

How to cook Sriracha flavored Spinach and Bean Soup:

Soak white beans in plenty of water overnight. Wash the soaked beans well. Heat about 5 cups water in a big pot. Add the soaked beans and cook them until soft. Add more water if required. Alternatively, you can also cook the beans in a pressure cooker.
Use any other beans of your choice. Canned beans would be fine too.
Finely chop onions and garlic.
Heat oil in a pan. Add onions, ginger, garlic and sauté until onions soften. Add soy sauce and Sriracha sauce and sauté for few seconds.

Spinach Soup

Add the cooked beans, spinach leaves and 1/2 cup water. Cook it covered until spinach wilts.
Taste the soup for seasonings. I did not add salt, as both the sauces seasoned the soup well. Garnish with spring onions and serve with crostini.

Comments

Naval Kol Bhaji / Kohlrabi Stir-fry

Green Kohlrabi called as Navalkol in Marathi and Navilkosu in Kannada, belongs to the cabbage family. My Mom used to make this stir fry very often. Just like cabbage, this vegetable in available in two colors - green and purple. I was quite hesitant about the purple one, as I haven't seen that back in India. Anyway, I picked the green bulbs and Navalkohl Bhaji with Chana Dal was part of our healthy vegetarian meal today.

Indian Dal / Lentils

Lentils, known as Dal are a staple in an Indian diet, especially vegetarian. For me, dal is comfort food. 5 different dal varieties - Toor, Moong, Chana, Masoor and Urad are commonly used in Indian sweet and savory delicacies. You can cook dal with just one kind or a mix of two or more. I generally cook dal with 1:1 Toor and Moong dals. But then, we like Panchmel or Panchratna Dal too, which is made of all five. Most dal recipes have Toor dal as the primary ingredient. It is also known as Toovar or Arhar dal or Split Pigeon Peas . Some of our family favorite dal recipes are Dalitoy (Konkani Dal) Tadka Dal Among all lentils, moong dal and masoor dal take lesser time to cook. Moong dal is also known as Split Green Gram or Split Mung Bean . Moong dal is also used in making sweet dishes like Mung Dal Kheer Mung Dal Puranpoli Chana dal is also known as Split Bengal Gram or Split Chickpeas . Chana Dal takes a little more time to cook as compared to toor dal....

Whole Wheat (Atta) Veg Samosa

Samosa, the most loved Indian appetizer with a crisp crust and savory potato stuffing. When you make such fried fast food at home, you get to make some changes to make it healthy. Here are some Whole Wheat Aloo Matar Samosas for you to try at home and savor them as much as we did. Ingredients: Whole Wheat Flour/Atta - 1 cup Carom Seeds/Ajwain/Owa - 1 tsp Ghee/Clarified Butter - 1/2 tbsp (optional) Olive Oil or any other Oil - 1/2 tbsp Potatoes (Russet) - 2 medium Green Peas/Matar - 1/2 cup Coriander/Dhania Powder - 1/2 tsp Cumin/Jeera Powder - 1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp Ginger (grated) - 1/4 tsp Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp Turmeric/Haldi - 1/4 tsp Green Chilli - 1 Coriander/Cilantro Leaves - few sprigs Salt Oil for frying How to make Indian Samosa: Making Samosa Crust: In a mixing bowl, add whole wheat flour, carom seeds and little salt. Heat ghee and olive oil in a small pan. Add this hot (not warm) ghee and oil to the wheat flour and mix...

One Day At A Time!

Search This Blog