Low Calorie Vegetable Soup

In this soup ,there is no blob of butter,no milk cream and no High cal thickeners.This is a vegetable soup prepared with vegetables like bottle gourd which is often looked down as poor country cousin of much preferred vegetables like potatoes and cauliflowers.Bottle gourd is one of the most recommended vegetable in Ayurveda because of its wonderful healing properties.

Ingredients

Bottle Gourd/Lauki(Hindi)/Suraikkai(Tamil)/Doodhi Bhopla(Marathi) (cut portion of length 5-6 inches)

Tomatoes 1 or 2

Ginger 1/2 inch piece

Carrot 1

Sweet corn coblets 2 tbsps

Mint leaves Hand ful

Salt

Black Pepper powder

Method

Take 1/3 rd part of a medium sized bottle guard.Keep the remaining portion aside(the one shown in the ingredients photo ).

Cut the smaller portion into small pieces,cut tomatoes,carrot also into small pieces,add all the other ingredients except pepper and pressure cook the vegetables by adding little water (maybe upto 2 whistles).

Take the boiled vegetables and make it a coarse paste in mixer,few corn coblets can be kept as it is without grinding for garnishing.Add water to this mixture till it reaches the consistency of a soup,boil it ,add pepper powder and salt to taste.Sweet corn acts as a thickener and adds to the taste.Serve Hot.

Dhaba Crispy Cabbage Salad

Cabbage salad described here is prepared in Roadside Dhabas in Gujarat.Hence the title.:)
Preparing this salad is very easy.
Ingredients
Shredded Cabbage 2 cups
Lemon 1
Green chillies 3(depends on taste)
Salt
Coriander leaves for garnishing
For seasoning
Oil 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds/Jira
Asafoetida/Hing
Turmeric
Method

In a Kadai,add oil, mustard seeds, jira, hing, turmeric, green chillies slit lengthwise, add shredded cabbage, salt, toss all the ingredients well and add lemon juice and again mix the salad well and switch off the gas immediately and close it with a lid till serving.(Don't cook the cabbage) .Crispy cabbage adds to the taste.Garnish with coriander leaves.While serving can heat it slightly either in microwave oven or gas.