I love Italian and Mexican cuisine along with Indian. Indian cuisine is very rich with spices and different flavors. Although I don't like the famous Idli and Dosas, I love biryani and other rice varieties from South India. I am not at all a fan of street food, but I love chat masala and pav bhaji sometimes.
I love soups and salads a lot. Eating fruits and vegetables in a natural way makes me love my salad. I love the natural mix of colourful vegetables like carrots, green peas, potatoes, capsicum, spinach etc., Soups are great appetisers. The aroma and taste of pepper in soup is soothing to the throat.
I never attempted making soups and salads at home until a few years ago. It's not that difficult anyway to make a soup and salad which tastes same as in a restaurant.
Any soup would need a vegetable stock. I prepare vegetable stock by boiling all vegetables (carrots, capsicum, onions, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, tomato), spices (cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, ginger, garlic, cardamom, black peppercorns). See this link for the video.When the stock is ready, we can store it in the refrigerator for one week and in a freezer for a few months. For any soup, I will add all vegetables that I want to in 1 cup of stock and 1 cup of water and bring it to boil until they are cooked and soft, then I will add salt, pepper and 2 spoons of oats for thickness. Seems simple, right?
For a salad, I will add cut vegetables like carrots, capsicum, spinach/ lettuce, broccoli, cucumber, cherry tomatoes and add some salt, pepper and lemon juice. I add croutons/ bread crumbs and use Cesar salad dressing on top of that. This is a quick salad for me.
I also prepare a cooked salad. I pressure cook cut vegetables like carrots, green peas, sweet corn, capsicum, potatoes and beans (just 1 whistle). Then I heat olive oil, add minced garlic, finely chopped green chillies and onions and fry them lightly. I add cooked vegetables to it, add salt, pepper and lemon juice. It just tastes perfect!
How do you prepare salads and soups quick? Please do share your ideas.
This is day 13 post for #NaBloPoMo challenge.
NIce post. I make a lot of these too. Soups and salads are a favourite at home. I like to make them fresh rather than use the soup packets available in the markets.
Wish i could prepare these for the lunch today.
I normally make uncooked salads very rarely like lettuce and cucumber. I will try cooked one!
I am not great in the kitchen! But you make it appear so simple! The task of getting all veggies together is something!