Pumpkin corn soup

The colorful autumn season and pumpkin are inseparable. To welcome this season I am publishing a post lying on my draft for a long time. This pumpkin soup is a pureed version of soup with sweet corn to munch on. I personally love this soup very much during cold weather, when we get pumpkin in abundance.

I coined this recipe after tasting it in a friend's home. I was much attracted to this colorful soup topped with a chunk of sweet corn. Its purely inspired by Archana's mom's lovely pumpkin soup.
Thanks Nalini Aunty!

Her procedure doesn't call for any apple. But I add tart apples for a more sharp taste. So it is optional to add apples here.

Ingredients:

Sweet pumpkin - 1 cup (chopped)
(1 long piece is enough)
Any tart apple - 1/2 cup
Sweet corn - 1/4 cup
Sweet corn cob (boiled and sliced) - 1 or 2
onion - 1/2
black pepper - 1 tsp
cumin - 1 tsp
green chillies - 1
butter - 1 tbsp
salt - to taste

Method:

Heat butter in a wok. Saute the sliced onion till it wilts. Take out and add the pumpkin, apple, chilly and saute in the remaining grease. Let it cook a little.

Let cool and puree them in a blener with salt, pepper, cumin, chilly and sauteed onion. Transfer it to the wok and add a cup of water to get a thick soup consistency.
Add the corn kernel and cook well.
Switch off after raw smell vanishes.

Separately cook the corn cob and slice it to 3 inch pieces. Add them to the soup.

Serve the soup in a bowl topped with a piece of corn cob.

Pumpkin corn soup is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Makes 3 servings.
Adding apples is not a must.

cabbage soup

Here is a healthy cabbage soup for the days which need a lighter meal. As usual I didn't add any cream but sauteed the cabbage in little butter and blended the vegetable in milk. The croutons are home made. I just cubed some bread slices, buttered them and placed in a hot oven to make the croutons.



Ingredients:
Cabbage - 2 cups (chopped)
black pepper - 1 tsp
green chilly - 1
onion - 1
garlic - 3 cloves
cumin - 1/2 tsp
tomato - 1
Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp (optional)
olive oil / butter - 1 tbsp
milk - 1/4 cup or cream - 2 tbsp
crouton / sliced bread - 1 cup

Method:
Heat olive oil in a wok.
Put the garlic, cumin, pepper and fry till garlic welts.
Add the chopped onion , chilly and cabbage. Stir fry till cabbage gets half cooked.
Now put the chopped tomato and cook everything for 3 minutes (till the cabbage looses the raw flavor).
Let it cool completely. Grind it to a fine paste and bring it to boil.
Add salt to taste. Mix some tomato sauce to enhance the taste.
Fry some croutons in butter .
Add cream along with fried croutons before serving.

Cabbage soup is ready!

Barley soup

Barley is a cereal loaded with larger amount of fiber.
We generally get 3.98 gms of fiber from 1 cup of oatmeal, whereas the same 1 cup of barley provides us 13.6 gm of fiber.
So the addition of barley in our diet will help us to get more fiber and hence a healthy digestive system. But beware too much of anything is not good.
So let's keep in mind barley is a good diuretic too.

Here is a low calorie soup made from barley and vegetables.


Ingredients:
Uncooked Barley - 1/2 cup
onion - 2 tbsp
garlic - 2 tbsp (crushed)
Green beans - 10
cabbage - 1/2 cup (shredded)
carrot - 1
Tomato - 2
Button mushroom - 4
Pepper - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste.
olive oil - 1 tsp
Wheat flour - 1 tsp

Method:
Wash and clean the barley. Soak it in water for 2 hours. Then cook till it becomes soft.

Heat a pan with olive oil. Saute the crushed garlic and onion.

Then add the chopped vegetables and let them cook in 1 cup of water.

Now add all the vegetables to the cooked barley , salt and add water to get the soup consistency.

Dissolve the wheat flour in 1/2 cup of water and add it to the soup and let it come to a boil.

Switch off. No need to add cream.
Barley soup is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Serve hot with pepper. Makes nearly 500ml of soup.
Makes a complete meal if served with some protein rich sandwich.

Approximate calorie calculation:
Barley uncooked 1/2 c = 200 K cal
olive oil 1 tsp = 40 K cal
Vegetable soup 1 cup = 56 K cal (we have 2 cups= 112)

Total is nearly 352 K cal from the entire dish.

Individual calorie courtesy : http://www.livestrong.com/

Event:

Pasta Soup:


The barley soup and pasta soup goes to Sireesha's Soup N juice event.