Mixed Veggies and Chana Dal Soup

Hey everyone! I am back after a long break. Well, last few months were quite memorable. We celebrated our child's 1st birthday at Shedd Aquarium. Later, an amazing trip to India, visiting family and friends. One month just flew by. 25 hours air travel with a one year old was the only exhausting part, but it all went well.
Today's post is inspired by my India trip - an Indo-Chinese style soup with mixed leafy greens, carrots and chana dal. A spicy low calorie vegan soup with loads of veggies and protein is perfect for this cold weather.

Ingredients:
Mixed Greens - about 200 gm
Carrots (thinly sliced) - about 100 gm
Chana Dal/Split Chickpeas - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1 medium
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Red Chili Powder - 1/4 tsp
Soy Sauce - 2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt

How to cook Vegan Mixed Greens and Lentil Soup:

Soak chana dal in about 1 cup of water for about an hour. Wash soaked dal well.
Finely chop onions.

Heat oil in a pan. You can use butter if you like. Add onions and saute until onions turn slightly brown. Next, add washed chana dal and 2 cups water. Cook it covered until chana dal turns soft.
Next, add mixed leafy greens and carrots. Cook the veggies covered until the greens wilt, about a minute.
Lastly, add salt, garam masala, chili powder and soy sauce. Stir well and add another 2 cups of water. Cook it covered at low heat for 2 - 3 minutes. Check if the carrots are cooked and taste for seasoning. Add more water if required.
This soup can be made with a number of variations. Instead of Garam Masala, you can use any seasoning or masala of your choice. Along with onions, you can add garlic, some herbs as well.

Serve hot Mixed Vegetables and Chana Dal Soup with crackers or bread.
Enjoy! Wish you all a very Happy 2015!

Comments

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....

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.

Surti Val Papdi Bhaji

My Mom used to make Val Papdi Bhaji in a simple way with few ingredients. This is the first time I gave it a try here in my US kitchen. This stir fry does require little more oil, as no water is added for cooking. Dal Rice tastes great with this sauteed Papdi. I tried this Bhaji once with frozen Surti Papdi and I was not happy with the result. I prefer fresh Papdi for this recipe, which I can only find in the local Indian store. I am not sure if Val Papdi is called as Navy Bean or Fava Bean in English.

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