Mixed Vegetable Curry with Simple Spices/A Medley of Vegetables

 

Not that every day we like to eat spicy curries. Sometimes a simple dish, with little effort, can make all the difference.

Though this curry does not fall in the category of Shukto, yet it is a mix match of a variety of vegetables.

This can be served for lunch, along with the main dishes. Tastes very good with hot tawa rotis. And if you love porota or luchis, this can go with it. It is very simple and less time taking.

Soup with the Bite

Variety in food – that’s what – makes all the difference to a person’s taste and appetite. And then, comes, the dish from one’s own kitchen to be laid on the table for people at home. Everyday cooking is like passing an exam on a daily basis. Little more salt and faces come up and speak out frankly, “aajke aee tarkari-ta-te noon besi hoyeche. Or – dal-ta aeeto jaljale aar mach khoob kora bhaja… (this curry has too much salt, the dal is so watery, the fish has been fried too much).

Hah! Says the lady, but not unhappy with what she has heard. “It happens, it happens”, she says with a wide smile, taking it sportingly. Silently she vows to serve them a different dish, not the regular ones for dinner. That’s how this soup comes up. The fridge is opened and all the stuff comes out from the Big Thanda Box – the refrigerator – understood…

Jokes apart let me serious. J

The vegetables for this dish:

Carrots: 2

Radish: 2 along with the stems of the greens cut into 2 inch length

Brinjal/Eggplant: 1

Cauliflower florets: 6-7

Green bananas: 2

Tomatoes: 3 nice ripe red ones

Green chilli’s 3: slit in the middle

Other ingredients:

Oil: tsp.

Haldi powder: ½ tsp.

Black pepper or chilli powder (as you prefer) ½ tsp.

Salt: to taste

Panch phoron: 2 tsps. (for all the aromas of jeera, sauf, methi, kalonji and mustard)

Sugar (optional): 1 tsp.

To start off with the cooking, first wash and cut the vegetables into small pieces.  Put all the vegetables in the pressure cooker, add enough water and wait for the first whistle to come. Switch off the flame and allow it to cool.

Once it has cooled down, open the lid. In the meantime take a kadhai/wok and put it on the burning stove. Now add oil and once the oil starts to release the heat add the panch phoron. Let the whole spices crackle, but don’t let it burn. Once the aroma of the spices start to come up, pour the vegetables along with the vegetable stock from the pressure pan into it. Now add the haldi powder, chilli or pepper powder, salt and sugar and let it boil for 4-5 minutes. By now the flavour of all the vegetables has mixed together with a slight sour taste from the tomatoes. Soup is ready to be served…hot of course…

Enjoy the soup with the bite of the veggies. You can also eat it with hot rotis or with the dip of bread slices.

© gouriguha

Soup da Quicky

Everyone was in a mood for a bowl of soup. To be very frank, I desired for it too but was in no mood to go to the kitchen. Seeing the father and son duo look at one another and then again at me, I could read their thought…a mom…a wife…could not keep them waiting.

I was in a frame of mind to cheat them and out came my words, “A Soup da Quicky will do”. They shared their looks with one another for few seconds and son said, “Of course something new will do”. And Mom…this bechari me…soon moved into action. Not a military command but one of love that adorn the heart of every wife and mom.

From the kitchen cupboard I brought out the four pack Maggi Vegetable Atta Noodles packet which I had got with this months grocery. Opened the fridge and took out the bowl of Knoor Vegetable Hara Bhara soup…leftover of the previous day.

And soon I got busy…into action…in the kitchen..

To tell you how I did it, simple method.

Ingredients:

Two Maggi vegetable Atta Noodles

1 bowl ( medium size) of leftover Knoor Vegetable Hara Bhara soup.

Preparation:

Poured 3½ cups of water in a pan.

Added 2 pouches of the taste maker and gave it a stir and let the water boil.

In the meantime broke the noodles into 1 inch size.

Once the water started boiling added the noodles.

Stirred it from time to time.

As I had added extra water than recommended in the instruction, I had to check the noodles to see they were done.

Then added the soup I had taken out from the fridge and mixed it well.

Let it boil for a couple of minutes and then switched off the gas.

Soup bowls ready to be served within 10 minutes.

My son said, “Ma, yummy for the tummy, love the name too”. It was indeed a lazy effort but the result was…all smiles.