Spicy Lemon Rasam

About the recipe:
This aromatic,tangy Indian soup is the ultimate accompaniment to steamed rice on a nice rainy day! 

Ingredients:

• Oil
• Toor dal, - 2tsbsp (boiled)
• Tomatoes - 2 
• Juice of 1 lemon 
• Coriander powder - 1 spoon
• Coriander leaves to garnish
• Salt to taste

For Masala: 

• Black pepper corn - 1 tbsp
• Jeera - 1 tbsp
• Hing
• Curry leaves - few
• Garlic - 2 pods

Coarsely grind the above

How to:

• Pressure cook the toor dal with some turmeric and mash well
• Mash the tomatoes well
• In a pan add the above 2 ingredients then add coriander powder and the ground masala
• Add water to adjust the consistency
• Add salt and turn off the heat as soon as it turns to a boil. Boiling it too much might in fact turn it bitter. 

For seasoning:

• Mustard seeds - 1 spoon
• Jeera - 1spoon
• Curry leaves - few
• Hing (Asafoetida) - a pinch
• Red chillies - 2
• Oil for tempering

Heat oil, add the above ingredients to prepare the seasoning and add this to the rasam after turning off the heat. 

Garnish with some chopped coriander leaves and add juice of 1 lemon for the tangy flavor. 

Healthy Cabbage Soup

About the recipe:
Here's a simple,healthy and low-maintenance soup that wont make you wash a bunch of vessels or smoke up your kitchen.Great if you're trying to lose weight/watch your cholesterol. Note: This is a very mild soup,if you want something spicy this is not for you!


Ingredients:
You can use whatever veggies you have, so its a great leftover-utilization dish. And please don't use the frozen stuff as there is very little seasoning all the taste comes from the veggies, so the higher quality veggies you use, the better results you will get. Here's what I used:
(All cut bite sized )

• Carrots - 3
• Cabbage - Half a head
• Green Peppers(Capsicum) - 1 large
• Spring onions(scallions) - 6
• Tomatoes - 3 medium
• Celery - 3 stalks
• Baby Bok Choy - 1lb or how much ever you have (optional)
• Mushrooms-0.5 lbs or how much ever you have (optional, I used a combination of Shiitake and Baby Bella)
• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Oil - 1 tsp or less 
• Vegetable stock - as per your level of "soupiness"! Usually at least 500ml. (Water would also work)

Seasoning:

• Bay leaves -2
• Thyme - Fresh is best,dried also works, season to your choice.
• Fresh ground pepper (normal pepper also works fine)
• Salt

How to:

• Heat oil in stock pot or large pot
• Add garlic and bay leaf, saute for a min.
• Add spring onion,saute for a min.
• Dump all other ingredients and add good amount of stock.
• Bring to a boil, then simmer on low for 2 hours or so with stirring maybe once in the middle.
• Go watch TV.
• Serve hot.