Thick 'n' Creamy Mushroom Soup

This thick 'n' creamy Mushroom soup is lip-smacking. It is an easy-peasy recipe and most of the ingredient which goes in are commonly available in every kitchen.

The weather here was bad this evening - it's cold and rainy. I felt like eating something hot which is soothing to the stomach. I was lazy to spend much time in kitchen and thought of dishing up a comforting bowl of Mushroom soup for the two of us.

Ingredients:

Butter - 1 tbsp
Bay leaf - 1 small piece
Garlic cloves - 2 (chopped finely)
Onion - 1 small
Button Mushrooms - 1 cup ( chopped finely)
Milk - 2.5 cups
Cornflour - 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper powder to taste
Grated cheese - 1 tbsp
Mixed herbs powder - 1 tsp

Procedure:

 In a small bowl add cornflour to 1/2 cup cold milk and mix well. Make sure there are no lumps. Keep this mixture aside.

Heat Butter in a cooking pan. Add the bay leaf and finely chopped garlic cloves. Saute it for a minute.

Now add finely chopped onions and saute. When onion turns translucent, add the mushrooms and saute well for few minutes.

Then add salt and pepper powder and saute for a minute. Now add 2 cups of milk and boil the soup for around 5 minutes.

Now add the mixed herbs powder to the soup.

Simmer and add the cornflour mixed with cold milk. Keep stirring to avoid the formation for any lumps.

The soup now slowly starts thickening. If the soup becomes very thick, add little milk and mix well to adjust the consistency.

Add grated cheese to hot soup and mix well before serving. [ The soup tastes great even without cheese]

Creamy mushroom soup is now ready to Slurp !!!!

Green Peas - Potato Masala

Coconut is used in most of the Konkani cuisines. Usually I use coconut based gravy for Green Peas masala. When i had called Mom yesterday, she gave me this recipe. This version of  green-peas masala doesn't use coconut-based gravy.

 I prepared this for the first time today as a side-dish with chapati , and it was absolutely finger licking. 

In addition to Green-Peas and Potatoes, I also added few Mushrooms. You can add any other veggies of your choice. This is a simple recipe which doesn't take much time and effort, yet delicious and healthy.

Ingredients :

Green-Peas - 2  cups (Frozen)
Potato - 2 Medium sized
Mushrooms - 6
Onion - 3 large
Tomatoes - 2 medium
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Ginger - small piece (around 1/2 inch)
Garlic - 5 or 6 cloves
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt to taste
Garam masala powder - 1 Tsp (Optional)

Procedure :

1. Finely chop the Onions and Tomatoes. Chop the Mushrooms to 2 or 3 pieces depending on their size. Chop the Potatoes into medium thick slices.

2. Pressure cook the Green-Peas and chopped Potatoes in pressure cooker up to 1 whistle.

3. Heat a Kadai and add 3 tbsp Oil. Add chopped Onions and fry them. When the Onion turns golden brown, add chopped Tomatoes.  Fry the Tomatoes well till they turn mushy. Add a little salt to quicken the process. Preferably use ripen Tomatoes for this dish.

4. Keep aside 2 tbsp fried Onion-Tomato mixture and 2 tbsp boiled Peas, which will be used later for blending.

5. Add the Mushrooms and other boiled veggies to the fried Onion-Tomato mixture.

6. Blend together the Coriander leaves, Green Chillies, Ginger, Garlic, 2 tbsp boiled Green Peas, 2 tbsp fried Onion-Tomato mixture to a smooth paste.

7. Add the blend masala to the cooked veggies. Add the desired amount of salt . You can add 1 tsp Garam masala if required. Boil the mixture well. Don't make the gravy too watery. This dish should be of medium thick consistency.

Green Peas-Potato masala ready to serve !

Serve this hot as a side-dish with Chapati, Roti, Dosa or anything of your choice.

Happy eating :)

Time of Preparation : 10 Minutes
Time to Cook : 30 Min
Note :

1. If you are using dry Green Peas, soak them in water overnight and then pressure cook for 2-3 whistles.  As i have used frozen Peas here, I just cooked it up to 1 whistle in a pressure cooker .