Soups

These days I'm in the mode of healthy cooking and different variety of soups catch my fancy.

Spinach-peas soup

Ingredients: (for 2)
1/3 packet spinach
1 cup peas
1/2 medium sized onion (2-3 " in diameter)
jeera seeds
black pepper (ground)
salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Boil the spinach, peas (keep some for garnishing) and onion until cooked (or pressure cook them)
2. Blend the mixture in a blender.
3. In a pan, take 1/2 tsp oil, add some jeera seeds and the remaining peas kept for garnishing.
4. To this pan, add the blended mixture, salt to taste and black pepper. Cook for 2 minutes
5. Serve hot, with possibly some cream for garnishing

Tomato soup

Ingredients:
3 tomatoes
1 onion
1/2 tsp cut garlic or garlic paste
1/4 cup peas (optional)
1 cup milk
black pepper (ground)
salt to taste

Preparation:
1. Cut the tomatoes in large cubes and boil them in 3 cups of water.
2. In a pan, take 1/2 tsp oil. Saute the chopped onion and garlic.
3. Blend the tomatoes and sauted onion and garlic together.
4. In a pan, add the blend, salt and pepper.
5. Add the milk to the mixture, and cook for about 4 minutes.
6. You may add some peas to the soup (tastes good).
7. Serve hot.

Vegetable Hakka Noodles

Just a tip, if you use olive oil spray then you would use very less amount of oil in the entire recipe.

Ingredients:
1 packet hakka noodles
1/2 green bell pepper (chopped finely)
1/2 red bell pepper (chopped finely)
1 medium sized carrot - grated
1/2 cup grated cabbage (you could use cole slaw salad instead of cabbage and carrots separately)
200 gms tofu (cut in cubes)
1 tsp black pepper (ground)
salt to taste
olive oil
soya sauce
chili sauce
tomato ketchup

Preparation
1. boil 10 cups of water. Add the hakka noodles to the water and cook for about 2 minutes (or follow the instructions on the back of the hakka noodles packet). Drain the water and add some olive oil to the noodles so that they don't stick to each other. Add some salt and pepper to the noodles and keep aside.
2. In a pan, take some olive oil and fry the bell peppers until brown. Keep them aside.
3. Fry the tofu until brown. Keep it aside.
4. Fry the carrot and cabbage for 1 minute or so on low heat. Keep it aside.
5. Heat a new pan. Add the noodles, all the vegetables and the tofu and mix well. Add some soya sauce (makes it sour), chili sauce (makes it hot) and tomato ketchup (gives it a little indian taste, can be excluded) to the noodles (as per taste) and mix well until all the noodles are coated with the sauces.
6. Heat for 2-3 minutes.
7. Serve hot.