Green lentil soup/ Mung Dal

Lentils are source of proteins. There are several types of lentils available in the market and each one of them looks and tastes very different form each other. Today, I am using green whole mung dal for this soup.

Ingredients:

150 Gms green mung dal (soaked overnight)

1 Onion (chopped)

1 Potato pealed and cut into small cubes

2 Cloves of garlic (finely chopped)

2 Tsp ginger (finely chopped)

1 Tomato (chopped)

2-3 Green chillies

1 Tsp cumin powder

1 Tsp coriander powder

1/2 Tsp turmeric

1/4 Tsp red chilly powder

Salt to taste

Oil for frying (2 tbsp)

Optional:

Cube of butter (the dimensions of the cube-> I will leave it your imagination ;))

Cream for garnish

Fresh coriander (handful, chopped)

Method:

The method is quite simple and easy if you are comfortable using pressure cooker. Heat the oil in the pressure cooker, add the ginger and garlic to it and fry well. Now add the onion and fry till golden brown. Add the tomatoes, all the spices and keep cooking for 2 minutes. Now add the potatoes mix well and cook for a minute or so. Make sure all the potatoes are coated well with all the spice and onion tomato mixture cooking in the cooker. Now add the soaked dal to the mixture give it a good stir and then add 300mls of boiling water, add salt to your taste, mix well then cover the cooker and let it cook till 3 full whistle and then turn off the heat. Do not open the pressure cooker immediately let the cooker release the pressure slowly and when its done then open the cooker. Give it a good stir again, check the seasoning and most importantly the consistency of the dal. You can add more boilling water to to make it dilute or boil the dal for few more minutes to increase the consistency. It really depends on you and how you would like it. Add the green chillies now and serve hot with rice or bread of your choice.

You can make it a richer by adding cream and butter before serving the dal. Now how much cream and butter to add? That's really up to you. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander and serve it hot.