Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Soup

Rains and more rains....after a very very veeeerrrryyyy long wait the rains finally arrived....and did they come down....started in the night and continued the whole morning...darkening the skies and casting a gloom over the day and our plans...

Had some errands to run....and some other things to take care of - so had decided to set out early in the morning - so as to avoid the traffic and complete all the jobs as planned...well that was totally taken care of by the rains...not that we were complaining as it was long overdue...causing the temperatures to shoot up...and a real possibility of water shortage due to the scanty rainfall we have had till date...but as I said this put a scrimp in our plans for the day .....so decided instead to spend the time enjoying the rains while staying indoors warm & toasty & dry...

Would have loved to have bhajiyas & hot tea with a good book and a fireplace ?!?.....well in lieu of that decided to go in for hot steaming soup and garlic bread...good book very much present ...fireplace very much absent :-)...anyways guess you have to make do with what you have...which reminds me of this saying... which is rather apt for the current weather...

"If  you think sunshine brings you happiness, then you haven't danced in the rain"

So with that thought (though not dancing ) let us proceed to make the soup...and enjoy the rainy day....




Decided to go with red pumpkin soup or bhopla as we call it here and made a few changes from my regular style...the results were positive so here goes...
Ingredients:

250 gms of red pumpkin ( bhopla ) cut into inch cubes
1/2 onion diced
2 cloves of garlic diced
1 medium tomato
2 tblspns of grated coconut
salt to taste
crushed pepper to taste
2 tsp oil
2 tsp butter
3-4 curry leaves
a pinch of spice powder ..(* given below ) ( optional )


Method:

1) In a pan heat oil, add onion and garlic and stir till onion becomes translucent, then add the chopped pumpkin and keep stirring for about 4-5 mins. The pumpkin starts becoming soft.
2) Add the tomato and stir another couple of mins.
3) Then add all the spices ...salt, pepper, pinch of spice powder and also the coconut and stir till it is all incorporated.
4) Transfer the entire lot to a pressure cooker with a cup of water and cook till 3 whistles or continue cooking in the same pan till done.
( I had done the initial stirring in the pressure pan and then just put the lid on with a cup of water and pressure cooked it )
5) Cool the mixture and then grind it so as to get a liquid consistency.
6) Take a non stick pan - heat the butter and add the curry leaves - once it starts to sizzle add the crushed soup to it and add water to adjust the thickness of the soup ...also check the seasonings. Bring it to a boil and then turn off the heat.

* - spice powder - this is a mix of cardamom seeds, cinnamon, clove, ginger powder - crushed in the mixer and stored in an airtight jar.

I use this occasionally in tea, or soups or even sometimes in cakes or bread...adds a dash of spice to it...gives a special touch.
The addition of coconut and this spice powder changed the total taste of the pumpkin soup and made it special.
Enjoy !!!

Garlic Bread & Pumpkin Soup

The soup was truly an amazing blending of all the flavours - the coconut gave it a new twist and the tomato a slight tang...it was not as sweet as a regular pumpkin soup is and that is what made it heavenly...so that was a pleasant accompaniment to the garlic bread (recipe to be posted another day ) we had and our light lunch in front of the windows of grey skies and heavy downpour made it a day of  joy !..!