Carrot Soup

As I mentioned before, I love to cook, I don't mind spending hours in the kitchen... but even for me, there are times when I need something hearty and really quick, or I am feeling just plain lazy and do not want to do  any or the minimal amount of cutting and chopping. So here is a recipe... actually my mom's recipe for a soup I make... hearty, filling, n quick...

You will need a pressure cooker and a blender.


The soup gets done in about 40 minutes :)

Ingredients

4 medium sized carrots,
1 medium sized onion
1 large tomato
1/2 cup rice (washed and drained)
1/2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp roasted cumin seeds, or just cumin powder will work just fine
1 green chili
2 cloves of garlic

The Process

Roughly chop the onions and tomatoes (big pieces are okay). Peel and chop the carrots into big pieces as well, just remove the core which is hard and may make the soup bitter (if the carrots have a thin and tender skin, you don't have to peel it off). Peel the garlic cloves and remove the stems.

In a pressure cooker, heat the oil and splatter the cumin seeds in it (if using the powder just put it in after the oil heats up.) then put in the onion and garlic, add some salt to it and saute it till the onions are slightly golden.
Now add the carrots, tomato, and the rice and mix it up. Add enough water to this and pressure cook (5-6 whistles should do it).

Open the cooker after all the steam has escaped. then Let the mixture cool down, then blend it and strain it into a saucepan. (its okay if you don't strain it) Add enough water depending upon how thick or thin you want the soup to be, add salt and pepper to taste, add a bit of sugar and if you want more spice just add some chili powder. Bring this to a boil and you are done... its all rich and creamy without an ounce of cream or butter!

Creamy Carrot Soup :)

Serve this with a few croutons, or eat it with just some bread and butter or a grilled cheese (yumm!!) and it makes a good lunch or dinner! I usually just have 2 big bowls of the soup and dinner is done!! :P