Brrr, it's cold! I need soup...

Nothing like a hot bowl of soup to warm those chilly winter evenings. I make tomato soup very often. Just a quick and simple soup. For a thicker and creamier version, I sometimes add white sauce to the soup.

Cream of Tomato soup

2 tomatoes
1 carrot
1 potato
1 clove garlic (optional)

Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1/2 cup White sauce
Basil leaves, for garnishing

Pressure cook tomatoes, carrot and potato with 2 cups water. Once cool, drain (save the liquid) and puree. Meanwhile make the white sauce and keep aside. Heat olive oil, fry garlic (optional), add the puree and the reserved liquid. Season with salt and pepper. Add the white sauce, stir well and simmer for few minutes. Garnish with basil leaves.

Red lentils and brown rice soup

I got brown rice recently and I was looking for recipes with brown rice. 101cookbooks had a nice soup recipe and I made this soup last week. I was telling Mom about this and she told me it sounded like kanji (rice porridge) that she used to have when she was young. She used to eat it plain while this soup is topped with olive oil, cheese, almonds and black olives. This delicious soup makes a great one-pot meal. I followed the recipe closely.

2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
6 cups vegetable stock or water (I used 2 maggi cubes)
1 1/3 cup red lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
salt if required (I did not need to add any salt as the broth was very salty)

For garnish
black olives, finely chopped
cheese

I first soaked the brown rice for 4 hours and the lentils for 1 hour though the recipe did not say anything about soaking. In a pot, combine olive oil, onion, and red pepper flakes. Fry till onion becomes brown. Stir in the broth, bring to a boil, then add rice and the lentils. Simmer for 30 minutes or till rice is cooked. Serve each bowl topped with olives, cheese and olive oil.