Chettinadu Cauliflower Soup

This is a simple and flavorful soup with Indian spices and the recipe I noted down long time back from a Tamil Magazine.
This soup can be either served as an appetizer or can be mixed along with white rice like rasam with some veggie fry.
Its a kind of healthy and  balanced food,moong dhal is used for thicken the soup and its a complete meal if it is served with toast or rice.
I personally prefer to have it with white rice for a comforting lunch,but today I had it like soup along with some toast as I have severe cold.Off to the recipe......................

Basic Information

Preparation Time ~ 10 minutes
Cooking time       ~ 20 minutes
Serves ~ 3 (generously)


Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Cauliflower(small florets)	11/4cups
Moong dhal/paasiparuppu	3tbs
Onion(finely chopped)	1(medium size)
Tomato(chopped)	1(medium size)
Garlic/poondu	3 cloves
Green chilly/pachamilgai	4-5(cut into strips)
Ginger/inji	1/2' piece
Turmeric powder	1/4tsp
Curry leaves/karivepillai	1 sprig
Coriander leaves/kothamalli	1tbs(chopped)
Lemon juice	1-2tsp
Salt	1tsp
Oil	1tbs

For the tempering

Ingredient	Quantity
Cloves/lavangam	4
Cinnamon/pattai	1 ich piece
Star anise	1
Bay leaf/biriyani ilai	1
Fennel seeds/sombu	1/4tsp
Cumin seeds/jeeragam	1/4tsp
Black stone flower/kalpaasi	1

Method

Cook the moong dhal with enough water in a pressure pan or cooker 3-4 whistles.Put the  cauliflower florets in boiling water with a pinch of salt and turmeric powder.Cook the till the cauliflower is 3/4th done,drain the excess water and pound the garlic and ginger in a mortar,keep it aside.
Heat a pan with oil and do the tempering with the ingredients given add the onion and green chilly.Saute it till transparent,then goes i the ginger and garlic.Cook it till the raw smell goes off.

Now add the chopped tomato,cook it until mushy,then add in the cooked and mashed dhal.Add in around 11/2- 2 cups of water.

Add the salt and let it boil for 3-4 minutes,now add the cooked cauliflower florets.Cook it 3-4 minutes in a medium flame,finally add the coriander leaves and lemon juice.Put off the fire.

Cauliflower soup is ready.

Enjoy.................................................................

• Remove the bay leaves and other whole spices from the soup before serving.
• Here I used only green chillies for the spiciness if you want it to be spicier for rice add 1/4 tsp of chilly powder or can increase the number of green chillies.

This is off to Cooking from Cook Book Challenge November week 2.