Mushroom Celery Soup

Super healthy, simple, and delicious mushroom soup flavoured with celery and garlic. This is perfect for winter and monsoon!

Ingredients :

• Button Mushrooms, finely sliced- 1 cup 
• Celery, finely chopped- ¼ cup
• Butter or oil- 1 to 2 tbsp
• Onion, finely chopped- 1 medium sized
• Garlic cloves, chopped- 5
• Cream- 2-3 tbsp (optional)
• Vegetable stock- 3 cups (or 2 Maggi veg stock cubes + 3¼ cups of water)
• Pepper- 1 tsp  or to taste 
• Salt to taste

Method:

• Heat oil/butter in a pan.
• Add onion, celery and garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
• Add mushrooms and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Reserve 1-2 sauteed mushroom slices for garnishing.
• Add half the stock and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Blend this mixture. You can keep this slightly rough or blend until smooth.
• Put the blended mixture in the pan and add the remaining stock.
• Bring to a boil and season the soup with salt and black pepper.
• Pour cream and give a nice stir. Switch off the gas. 
• Meanwhile, cut the bread slices into long strips. Apply garlic butter or plain butter on them and toast them. 
• Pour soup in the bowl, garnish with sauteed mushroom slices.  
• Serve hot with toasted bread strips. This is a complete meal for dinner.

Valachya/ Pavatyachya Dalichi Amati ~ Val Dal

We eat different types of dals in India like toor dal, mung dal, masoor dal etc. but very few people know about this val beans dal. This dal recipe made only in Maharashtra and Gujarat, but the method is quite different. This dal has different, unique but nice in taste. This dal goes very well with hot rice and fried fish or dried fish. 

Val beans dal (valachi dal):

Ingredients:

• Val dal- ½ cup (You may use Pavta dal instead of this dal.)
• Fresh coconut, scrapped or grated- 2 tbsp
• Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
• Garlic- 4 to 5 cloves
• Onion, roughly chopped- 1 small or  ¼ cup
• Homemade mix masala or Malvani masala- 1 tsp or (½ tsp chilli powder + ½ tsp goda masala)
• Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
• Asafetida (Hing)- ¼ tsp
• Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
• Curry leaves- 4 to 5
• Jaggery- ¼ tsp
• Kokum petals- 2 to 3
• Oil- 2 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped- ¼ cup

Method:

• Wash and soak dal for minimum 2 to 3 hours.
• Griend fresh coconut, cumin seeds, garlic together. Add this ground mixture in the soaked dal.
• Cook valachi dal in a cooker as like other dal. You may take one or two vistles more to cook this dal properly because this dal little tough to cook.
• Open the lid of the cooker when the pressure reduces completely. Whisk well with a ladle so that the dal gets slightly mashed.
• Heat oil in a casserole or kadai (wok). Add mustard seeds for tempering. When the mustard seeds begin to sputter/pop, add chopped onion, curry leaves, hing, turmeric powder and sauté for a few seconds. 
• Add mix masala or (red chilli powder+goda masala) and sauté for a few seconds. 
• Then add cooked dal in this mixture. Add water to adjust the consistency of aamati/dal as per personal choice. 
• Now add salt, kokum and jaggery. Stir it and boil for few minutes. 
• Garnish with chopped coriander. 
• Serve hot with rice.

वालाच्या/पावट्याच्या डाळीची आमटी : हि रेसिपी मराठीतून वाचण्यासाठी इथे क्लिक करा.