Baby Spinach and Beet Lentil Soup

We have been trying many new soups these days. Our traditional Bengali moong masor’er dal got recently a new twist. I happened to have some beet and baby spinach, in pursue of introducing healthy vegetables in to our meals, I decided may be I should go ahead and try adding them in dals or lentils.

Now I am sure everybody has their own versions of these dal or lentil soup. The recipe below is my way of incorporating flavors together. I skip tempering the dal with onion, ginger and garlic, instead I do like to add them right with the lentils and pressure cooks it. It saves whole lot of effort and flavor wise tastes wonderful.

Now to the recipe

Baby Spinach and Beet Lentil Soup

Recipe requirements

• 1 large bowl of baby spinach
• 1 large beet with tender leaves if possible
• ½ cup of massor dal/red lentils
• ½ cup of dhuli moong dal/yellow lentil
• 2-3 tbs of pearl barley
•  1 medium size onion
• ½ inch ginger
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 medium size tomatoes
• 1 tsp of salt
• 2 tsp of crushed black pepper

Method

• Chop and wash beetroots. Wash and clean baby spinach leaves well in water.
• Now chop in garlic, ginger, onion and tomato roughly.
• Clean and wash the lentil mixture of moong and masoor dal , couple of times in water.
• In a pressure cooker, add enough water say about 3-4 cups . Add in lentil mixture, when a white froth appears, scoop out and discard that.
• Now add in all the chopped vegetables- beet, tomato, onion, ginger and garlic and also pearl barley. I have added barley to give a little more filling touch otherwise it’s not necessary to add it. Do not add spinach now.
• Now lock the pressure cooker and put it to cook. One whistle at high, lower the flame – 1-2 mints and then takes it off from the flame.

• Open the lock once the pressure subsides. Add in baby spinach leaves. As spinach leaves are tender, it will get cook easily.
• Now adjust the seasonings, add salt and also add freshly crushed black pepper. This imparts a great flavor.Or you may add cayenne pepper for some extra spice in the soup.
• Let it cool a little bit, then pulse thro half of the soup mixture in a grinder/mixer, reserving the beet root pieces. Otherwise leave it and serve without making a puree whichever way you prefer. Personally I do feel making a puree adds some great color and texture to the soup, making it more creamy sans cream and thick.
• At the time of serving, sprinkle some dried herbs over it. Even Kasoori methi can work great here as an alternative to Italian dried herb or oregano.

Sending this soup recipe to Priya's  Healthy Diet Event- Warm Soup at Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes...............

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These two pictures below were clicked by our DD, while we were roaming around in a park in Cambridge.

Aren't they gorgeous!! 

Well can’t believe entire week has gone and now it’s finally Friday.Enjoy your weekends friends...and 

Happy cooking friends.