TOMATO AND LENTIL SOUP

I love making soups at home from scratch instead of cooking soups using soup packets. When we soups from fresh ingredients it is much more healthier (without preservatives and MSG), tastier and quite easy to make :) Earlier I used to make simple tomato soups (since tomato is my favourite vegetable) but this time I decided to add lentils (Dal) to the soup for a different taste :) It turned out to be delicious and super tasty.

INGREDIENTS:

• 7-8 large ripe tomatoes
• 1 medium carrot (optional)
• 5-6 cloves of garlic(optional)
• 1 large onion
• 2 tbsp dried basil
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp butter  (optional)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2-3 bay leafs
• 1 cup masoor dal
• 2 green chillis
• 3 cups water
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

• Roughly chop the tomatoes. carrot, onion, garlic cloves and keep aside. Wash the masoor dal very well. As i didnot have carrots at home this time I did not use them :)

• I use a pressure cooker to make this soup, however if you want you can use a large pan. Put butter and olive oil in the pressure cooker and add the chopped onions and garlic and bay leaves. Cook till the onions are translucent. If you want you can skip the butter or instead of oil use only butter the taste remains same, I use olive oil to make it healthy :D

• Now add the carrot and the lentils and stir well. You can use any lentils you want, personally masoor dal is my favourite :)

• Then add the tomatoes, the basil, the oregano, salt, pepper,chillis and mix well. You can use any other seasoning you want, I am a big fan of basil and oregano. However I would advice to add less amount of salt here and you can adjust later on. Then add the water.

• I usually let it cook for 3-4 whistles and then cool it for a whlie.
• I do not have a hand blender so I cool the soup before I blend it, however if you have a hand blender you should blend it while it is hot.

• Strain the soup well in order to get a smooth soup. I do not add any flour or cornflour as I always get a very good consistency, but if you wish you can if your soup is too runny.
• Once the soup is blended then adjust the seasonings. 

This recipe can be modified as you wish by adding other vegetables or you can make it non-veg by adding chicken etc. I hope you will try it out and please do tell me how it went.