From childhood we were told that soups, borscht and other first courses must be present in the diet of every person, and especially a child. They are easily absorbed, have high nutritional value and are useful for the digestive system of the body. But the soup is different. For example, a hodgepodge or pickle can hardly be called useful. But lentil soup masurdal is a completely different matter. We will tell you how to cook it correctly in our article.
Lentil soup: both tasty and healthy
Most of the inhabitants of India are vegetarians. To make their dishes more nutritious, they cook them mainly on the basis of legumes. So, in India, dal is very popular - a thick soup with lentils, chickpeas, beans, mash. Such a dish very well satisfies hunger and warms, as many traditional Indian spices are added to it. The red lentil soup is called Masoor Dal. Today, his recipe is popular not only in India, but throughout the world.
It is safe to say that masurdal soup is good for the body, because it:
- provides the body with vitamins and minerals important for its work;
- prevents the development of iron deficiency anemia due to the high content of iron in red lentils;
- normalizes the digestive system;
- helps to reduce excess weight;
- improves well-being and improves vitality.
The first dish of lentils is the best and most useful alternative to the soups and borscht familiar to us. Moreover, cooking it is very simple.
Features and cooking secrets
To make the masurdal soup tasty, before you start cooking, it will be useful to get acquainted with the tips from experienced chefs:
- For cooking, only red lentils are suitable. Usually it is sold in chipped form. Lentils of this variety, unlike others, do not need to soak, because it is very quickly boiled.
- According to the same recipe, you can cook a delicious cream soup. To do this, before adding cream, you should grind the almost finished dish with a submersible blender, then return its pan and introduce the last ingredient. The soup will be amazing.
- If the dish is not prepared for vegetarians, for example, on meat broth, you can serve it with separately fried thin strips of bacon. The taste of smoked meats will make the soup even tastier.
- Vegetarians can make croutons or crackers for soup.
The choice of spices for the dish
In the original recipe for masurdal soup, one of the main ingredients is garam masala seasoning. It is a mixture of spices traditionally used in Indian and South Asian cuisine. Seasoning can be bought in specialized stores or made independently. To do this, separately in a dry pan, fry all the spices that make up its composition, and then grind them to a powder.
To prepare the seasoning for gara masala you will need:
- coriander seeds - 4 tbsp. l .;
- caraway seeds - 2 tbsp. l .;
- black pepper peas - 2 tbsp. l .;
- cardamom seeds - 2 tsp;
- cloves - 2 tsp;
- cinnamon - 2 sticks.
After mixing the ingredients, the resulting powder should be poured into a dry jar and tightly closed with a tight lid. Use for cooking as needed.
List of ingredients for masurdal soup
Despite the abundance of spices in the composition of the dish, not only adults enjoy it. Soup is prepared from the following ingredients:
- red lentils - 250 g;
- onions - 150 g;
- carrots - 150 g;
- tomatoes - 200 g;
- cream with a fat content of 20% - 50 ml;
- ghee - 3 tbsp. l .;
- ginger root (grated) - 1.5 tsp;
- garam masala - 3 tsp;
- turmeric - 1 tsp;
- ground chili pepper - 1 tsp;
- garlic - 3 cloves;
- salt to taste.
From the amount of food indicated in the recipe, 4 servings of the dish can be prepared. As for the calorie content of the masurdal soup from lentils, it is 476 kcal (per 1 person). Nutrition value of 1 serving: 15.9 g of protein, 26.2 g of fat, 40.9 g of carbohydrates.
How and how much to cook lentils?
Red or Egyptian lentils, as they call it differently, are ideal for making soups. It boils much faster than any other varieties. If we talk more precisely about how much to cook the lentils until cooked, then the cooking time is no more than 10-15 minutes. It all depends on the intensity of boiling and the amount of water.
Now in more detail about how to cook lentils. The step-by-step cooking process is as follows:
- Rinse the lentils under running water, transfer to a suitable pan and pour boiling water over them. You can use vegetable broth instead of water - it will turn out even tastier.
- Bring the contents of the pan to a boil, then add garam masala (1 tsp) and a pinch of salt.
- Simmer the lentils for 10 minutes.
During this time, you need to prepare other ingredients for the soup.
Fragrant vegetable frying
Despite the fact that the main ingredient of the dish is lentils, the taste of the soup depends on the vegetable dressing, to which the main spices are added. It is important that in the process of frying onions, carrots, aromatic seasonings, it is ghee that is used (preferably ghee), which does not burn and does not become toxic when exposed to high temperatures. Thus, the soup is especially useful.
You can start frying vegetables immediately after boiling lentils:
- Heat ghee in a pan.
- Add grated ginger and the remaining spices (garam masalu, chili, turmeric) to it. Hold them for about 1 minute in a pan so that they reveal their aroma. Do not forget to stir the spices intensively so that they do not burn.
- Grind onions and garlic with a knife, cut carrots into cubes.
- Put vegetables in a pan for spices and fry them for 5 minutes. If the mixture is too dry, you can add a little more melted butter.
- Peel the tomatoes, dropping them first in boiling water, and then in cold water. Dice the tomatoes.
- Add tomatoes to other vegetables.
- After 1-2 minutes remove the pan from the heat. The roast of vegetables and spices is ready.
The decoration and presentation of the dish
Lentils are almost cooked, vegetable frying is ready - you can proceed to the final stage of cooking masurdal soup. There is no doubt that it will turn out delicious.
So, 10 minutes after boiling the lentils, vegetables fried in ghee can be added to the pan. After this, the soup needs to be boiled for another 5-10 minutes. At this time, the whole room will be filled with unusual aromas and there will be no strength left to endure longer than the set time. This means it's time to add cream to the soup. After another 30 seconds, the pan can be removed from the heat.
Serve the soup in deep plates, sprinkling it on top of finely chopped cilantro or parsley. When masurdal infuses, it will be even tastier. The next day, it’s enough to just warm up the soup and you can serve it to the table again.
Yelli Lentil Instant Soup
How to cook the first dish in 20 minutes? This is quite realistic if you use a pack of instant soup. Its composition is 100% natural: lentils, dried tomatoes, onions, garlic, parsley and Indian spices. The dish turns out to be satisfying and warming.
The following step-by-step instructions tell you how to cook masurdal soup from lentils:
- Boil 1.6 l of water, vegetable or meat broth in a saucepan. You can take less liquid, but then the first dish will turn out to be thicker, about like a stew.
- Pour the contents of 1 package of soup into water. Allow to boil, then reduce heat to a minimum and cook for 25 minutes under the lid.
- 5 minutes before cooking, add salt to the soup to taste.
- Remove the dish from the heat. When serving, sprinkle soup with fresh herbs.
One package of soup will be enough to feed a hearty family of four.
Lentil Masurdal Soup Reviews
The recipe for the first course, taken in steps, was to the liking of both vegetarians and meat-eaters. It turns out to be moderately thick, mouth-watering, palatable. Some housewives reduced the number of spices in the dish to make the soup less spicy (this applies to ground chili). Also, some did not have enough potatoes in the recipe, which they added at their discretion, along with vegetable frying, after which they cooked the dish for another 15 minutes.
As for the Yelli instant masurdal soup, this dish also had a lot of fans. Reviews about him are only positive. It is easy and fast to cook, it has a natural composition and a pleasant taste. Nevertheless, some people did not like the spices added to lentils and vegetables. Otherwise, the soup turns out to be very tasty and it is much easier to cook it than from individual ingredients. But you can consider Yelli masurdal only as an option for a quick dinner when there is no time to cook a full meal.