Red Soup

One look at the soup bubbling in the saucepan and I said 'Red Sea'. It was literally a bubbling red sea, not the dark orange colour of a good tomato soup. Or you could call it the anti-oxidant rich soup. Made with ingredients that are three different shades of red, this is as much fun as mixing colo

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Ingredients

3 tomatoes large - roughly diced
2 carrots large - scrubbed and sliced
1/2 beet medium - peeled and sliced
4 - 5 cloves garlic - peeled
1 tsp basil dried
1 green chilli Jalapeno pepper / chopped (optional).
4 cups water .
1 tbsp chick pea flour wheat flour corn flour / wheat / corn .
1 tsp olive oil cooking oil / .
to taste Salt pepper . and
basil . Fresh leaves to garnish

Instructions

In a pressure cooker / pan, heat 1 tsp of oil. Throw in the garlic cloves. After a few seconds, transfer in all chopped vegetables along with dried basil and chopped green chilli.
Saute this mix for a minute or so. Add 2 cups water and a tsp of salt. Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles and then keep the flame on Sim for 3-4 minutes. Idea is, to cook it to a mush. (In case you don't have a pressure cooker, you can microwave this or boil it for 30-45 minutes to achieve the mushed up consistency).
Once the cooker has cooled, drain the contents through a colander. Reserve the liquid. Put in the vegetable mush into a blender with some water to make a very fine puree.
Empty the puree into a saucepan, add the reserved liquid and remaining 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil.
Dissolve the flour used in a few tbsp of fresh water and pour it into the boiling soup to thicken it further.
After simmering for a couple of minutes, remove the saucepan from heat. Check for salt. Season with some freshly ground black pepper and garnish with fresh basil leaves from your kitchen garden. I did my first little basil harvest for this soup. It is a wonderful feeling.

Notes

Serve with a salad or a slice of nice crusty bread for a light dinner.

The sweetness of the carrots and beet finely balances the tartness from the tomatoes. Garlic and basil add their respective characters to make a wonderfully nourishing soup, just right to enjoy the bit of winter we are experiencing in this part of the world.

Ideas from the morning after:.

Sitting in the fridge, this one thickens a bit and I realise I can actually use it as a sauce to roll in some spaghetti or use it as a spread on a slice of bread. If it doesn't come across as that thick to you, by all means thicken it up a bit by boiling it with some more flour and you have a wonderful red sauce on hand. Then, let your imagination take over.

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