Curried carrot and lentil soup

Its absolute soup weather here, and since this year winter came in a lil late (thank god for that) we haven't really had much of a soup thing going on. The other day Ro got back from home craving for a bowl of hot tom yum soup and even insisted we head out to a Thai restaurant to have some. I shrugged it off saying I slogged in the kitchen for one whole hour (yes too much time) to come up with dinner and also left overs in the fridge make me uneasy. I love an empty fridge as opposed to others who love an over filled fridge :)

Although I love a good bowl of soup on and off, I am not really an expert at making them. In fact I honestly suck at it. So its all soup sachets and canned soup jazzed up with veggies and all sorts of stuff. If it wasn't for some carrots I needed to get rid of from the fridge, I wouldn't have made this soup either. Carrots are not really a favourite of mine, and other than eating them raw, I really cant handle them. This soup however was a welcome change. The sweetness actually was a good thing, since it matched perfectly well with the lentils and Indian flavours.

On a completely different note (although those of you on FB will already know), we are off to India, tomorrow, for 3 weeks (rather unexpectedly) and I am super thrilled that I get to spend Christmas and New Years with family and friends. This time, unlike last year, I shall just be resting and relaxing and watching loads of mallu movies and harassing my brother and sis-in-law. Although I have promised mom a lot of baking and this and that, I am pretty sure I WILL NOT be doing any of those. Good thing my mom doesn't read the blog :)

I wanted to fix up a couple of guest posts by a few of my favourite bloggers in my absence, but then a one week notice to all of them is rather unfair and so I have just decided to go ahead and schedule a couple of posts while I'm away. So if I don't visit y'all for a month, please do pardon me, its only because I'm either sitting in front of the TV, or prop shopping (plan to do loads of it) or sleeping, or eating, in Kerala. But do drop in, as I have a couple of interesting recipes making its appearances here.

Onion- 1 large, roughly chopped

Garlic- 4 pods, peeled and roughly chopped

Carrots- 200 gms, peeled and chopped into cubes or rounds

Red lentils- 1/4 cup

Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder- 1 tsp

Red chilli powder- to taste

Pepper powder- to taste

Soup cube- 1 small (vegetable or chicken)

Water 500 ml

Salt- to taste

Oil- 1/2 tbsp

Milk- 1/4 cup

Heat the oil in a pressure cooker and throw in the onions and garlic. Sauté for about five minutes on medium heat till wilted.

Throw in the cumin, coriander and chilli powders and cook till the raw smell of the masala's disappear, about a minute or so.

Add the lentils and carrot and stir around, making sure all the masala catches on to them.

Add the soup cube, water and bring to a boil.

Place the lid on the cooker along with the weight and cook for about 15 minutes or 3 to 4 whistles.

Once the pressure dies, open the lid, add the milk, season with enough salt and pepper and bring to a gentle boil.

Take it off the fire and wait for the soup to cool a bit before using an immersion blender to make a smooth mix, or if you prefer to leave it chunky, go ahead and serve it with some herbed garlic bread (I adapted Shabs recipe, just that I used chopped parsley instead of basil)

Notes: Freeze the soup in an air tight container and use it later on a rainy day

Replace the masala powders with about 2 tsps of curry powder

The soup cube makes all the difference, so don't omit that

Sending these over to the Christmas Carrot Competition over at Love the Garden.