Colourful Carrot soup

My nephew is a fussy vegetable eater, but loves soups. Amma made colourful carrot soup which was instantly  attacked by my nephew. Here is a recipe adapted from Amma's basic recipe.

You will need 

2 Medium sized carrots

5 pepper corns

1/8 inch piece of ginger

¼ tsp cumin seeds

2 cups water

Salt to taste

Seasoning:

¼ tsp butter or oil (optional)

Cilantro chopped fine

Finely chopped red capsicum (optional)

Method 

Clean and chop carrots into big pieces and pressure cook without adding water into the carrots till cooked (3 whistles).

Let cool.

Dry roast pepper and cumin seeds.

Blend cooked carrot, roasted spices and ginger to a fine paste.

Take  2 cups of water in a vessel, add the carrot-spice puree, salt bring to a boil.

Saute finely chopped red capsicum and cilantro with ¼ tsp oil or butter and add it to the boiling mixture.

Serve hot.

Note:

Made the same soup richer and tastier by the addition of 1 marathi moggu when roasting pepper and cumin.
Also added about 1/2 cup first pressed coconut milk. I first boiled water with salt and then added the carrot puree, coconut milk, and finally the sauted capsicum and cilantro.

I kept aside a little bit of the carrot spice (minus the ginger, salt) puree, coconut milk mixture for my 11 month old son. He happily finished his 'new' spiced baby food!

Capsicum rice

One busy afternoon we were greeted by unexpected guests. I had to quickly make something tasty and that is how this recipe was born.

Though this recipe is simple and easy, it is extremely tasty.

You will need

1 red capsicum

1 green capsicum

1 yellow capsicum

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 teaspoon or less unrefined oil or butter or ghee.

2  cups cooked integral/unpolished rice  ( if possible,add salt when cooking )

Salt to taste.
Juice of half a lemon (optional)

Method

Clean and finely chop/mince capsicum.

Heat a skillet and add oil/ghee/butter.

Add cumin seeds and let it splutter.

Now add capsicum sauté till cooked. Add salt, mix well, add cooked rice, mix.
Turn off heat.
Now add lemon juice if needed. 

Mix and serve hot.

You could use a single coloured capsicum too.