And I am hoping that by consciously cooking more healthier recipes to start with, then some where down the line or in the near distant future it will become a part of our daily life style all through the year!
So here is a hearty, healthy soup made from bottle gourd. It has a slight tang from tomatoes and the aroma from fresh coriander and just a dash of butter to give a hint of its flavor.
Perfect warming soup on a cold winter day or a light soup for the summer!
Lauki & Tomato soup
A hearty & healthy soup
- Bottle gourd lauki (ghiya) – half of one big (or ½ kg))
- Tomatoes – 3 to 4 medium
- Ginger – ½ inch (peeled)
- Whole black peppercorns – 6
- Onion – 1 medium
- Fresh coriander (cilantro – 2 tbsp – to grind or chopped)
- Butter – 1 to 2 tbsp
- Sugar – 1/2 to 1 tsp
- Tomato ketchup – 1 to 2 tbsp – optional
- Salt and crushed black pepper – to taste
To serve
- Garlic toast (cheese toast, bread sticks)
- Wash, peel and dice lauki. Roughly chop tomatoes, onion.
- In a pressure cooker put bottle gourd, tomato, onion, ginger, whole peppercorns, 4 cups water. Cook up to 1 whistle and then lower flame and cook another 5 mins or till cooked. Remove from heat. Let pressure drop, then open lid.
- Cool the cooked mixture. Then blend to puree in mixer/blender. When blending you may add the coriander leaves if desired.
- Strain blended mixture. Pour puree into saucepan. Bring to boil. Add butter salt, pepper powder, sugar, ketchup if adding. Add chopped coriander if not added when grinding.
- Stir and simmer for few minutes.
- Serve hot.
Bottle gourd does not need to much time to be cooked. You may even cook the vegetables in a saucepan till cooked instead of a pressure cooker.
The soup tastes good even on its own without any accompaniments. You may even serve the soup alongside a simple pulao for a complete meal.
Vegans can skip butter.
Instead of regular white sugar, try adding some Demerara sugar for a more intense flavor
