I am fortunate to stay next to a hotel management institute (NITHM Hyderabad). They have recently started cooking classes on Saturdays and I got to attend the basics of Italian cooking class. The classes were well conducted and I got some good recipes to try. Made this soup on a windy evening and it was the perfect comfort food one could have asked for.





Method

1. For this recipe all the veggies need to be cut with the Brunoise cut. Cut 1 cup of cabbage, 1/2  red capsicum and 1/2 yellow capsicum, 10 beans and 1 small carrot into cuboid pieces.
2. In a deep bottomed vessel, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil. When hot, add 4-5 cloves of finely chopped garlic and saute. 
3. When the garlic is sauteed add 1 medium sized finely chopped onion and saute till the onion is pink and translucent.
4. Now add cabbage, beans and carrot and capsicum and saute for 5 mins till they are all well coated with oil.
5. Add 2 finely chopped tomatoes (deseed and then cut into cubes) and saute well till the tomatoes are soft. Add 1 tbsp of tomato paste.
6. Add 2 fistfuls of macaroni pasta and 2-3 cups of water to cover all the vegetables and the pasta.
7. Add pepper, salt according to taste and a pinch of sugar.
8. Mix well and let it cook till the pasta is cooked. Adjust water and spices according to the consistency you want.
9. Make cheese pesto balls with grated parmesan cheese and finely chopped basil. Add this to the soup just before serving.

Grate some parmesan cheese over the hot soup bowl before serving

Tasted this soup in a restaurant and really liked it. Decided to give it a try. Took the cream of Chicken Tomato recipe and then added the fried okra to try and replicate what I ate at the restaurant. It came pretty close to what I had set out to achieve. Yummy soup - must try!





Method

1. Melt 1 tbsp butter/olive oil  in a heavy bottomed pan. Add 1 bay leaf to the hot oil/butter.
2. Add 2-3 pods of thinly sliced garlic and fry them slightly. Add 2 thinly diced carrots and saute till partially cooked.
3. Add 10-12 mushrooms finely chopped and saute. Add salt and pepper.
4. Add  4 tomatoes thinly sliced, 3-4 cups water and let the whole mixture boil for 20-30 mins on a slow flame. Also add chicken pieces(bigger ones) to the mixture. 
5. Remove from flame, let it cool and then remove the chicken pieces aside. Blend the tomato, carrot and mushroom mixture in a grinder. Strain it for smoother texture and then again put it on the flame for cooking
6. Shred the boiled chicken and add it to the soup. Let it boil again.
7. Add pepper, adjust the salt and you can also add oregano/italian seasoning for additional taste
8. Pour in 1 to 2 tbsp of cream to the soup and keep aside
9. Thinly slice okra (bhindi) and deep fry it in oil. You can also deep fry bread crumbs sliced into cubes.
10. Serve the soup with fried bhindi topping and bread crumbs.

I like vegetable clear soup and recently cooked this for my 8 month old. She loved it too - so guess I will make this more often from now on.

Method
1. Heat 1 tsp ghee and 1 tsp butter in a pan. Add 1 finely chopped small onion and saute till pink.
2. Add 2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped and saute. Add 3-4 tsp each of carrot finely chopped, beans finely chopped, cabbage finely chopped, sweet corn chopped into smaller pieces and saute the vegetables for 2-3 mins.
3. Add 3 cups of water to the pan and let the vegetables cook.
4. When the veggies are almost cooked, add 3 tsp of cornflour mixed in water (such that there are no lumps) and add it to the pan.
5.Mix the corn flour with 5 tsp's of water without any lumps and add it to the pan.
Adjust the salt according to taste and let the soup cook for more 4-5 mins,

6. Add  pepper powder according to taste and garnish with spring onion greens and serve.

For my baby, I took out some soup before adding the pepper and spring onions - she just loved the taste.

Whenever I travel, I make it a point to mostly eat the traditional recipe of that region. I do not like ordering the usual dishes which I can eat in my hometown when travelling. When I visited Sikkim and Ladakh, we ate a lot of Momos and Thukpas everywhere. One taste that lingered is that of Thukpa….this dish comes close to Maggi cooked with vegetables.

Hubby and me had an adventure when we visited Pangong Tso lake - We had planned to stay on the banks of the lake however the weather did not permit the stay and hence we had to return back. It was impossible to have reached Leh that night and hence we had to look for accommodation for night stay. All the rooms were booked in a small town of Tangtse and we were forced to stay with a family in a home-stay. Here I saw the lady of the house cook this dish and liked this wholesome meal.


Here is my version of Tibetan Veg Thukpa – this serves two people

Method

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan
2. Add 4 cloves of finely chopped garlic
3. Add 1 inch of ginger chopped into juliennes
4. Add 4-5 spring onion whites (that is only the onion part) and saute
5. Add 1 potato diced into cubes. Add 1 tomato finely chopped and saute
6. Add 1 dollop of butter (yak butter is used in Ladakh but we can add Amul butter :) )
7. After 5 mins, add 1 tsp garam masala, a pinch of haldi, 1 tsp red chilli powder and salt. Cook for 2 mins
8. Add 2 cups of noodles (I mostly cook with maggi without the seasoning that comes with it)
9. Add veg stock or water according to your taste. I like this like a soup and hence add more water
10. Cover and cook till noodles are almost done
11. Add 1 tsp soya sauce, a bunch of Palak roughly chopped and handful of spring onion greens roughly chopped and cook for 2 mins
12. Add freshly ground pepper and adjust salt if needed.

Hubby and me like to eat this soupy dish when we return from office all hungry and yet want to retain our appetites and hence I make it in small quantities. I particularly like this dish because of the palak in it. The palak gives the dish a very different flavor than normal veg maggi.