Saturday, January 12, 2008

Arusuvai Friendship Chain: Amaranth Spinach Tomato Mushroom Soup

The secret packet that Bhags sent me contained Amaranth seeds also called Rajagiri -- completely unknown territory to me. In fact, Bhags took pity on me and told me what it was!! I found a recipe which I altered a wee bit and it turned into one of my favorites: A hearty, healthy soup meal!

You will need:

1 cup amaranth seed
3 cups water
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 bunch spinach (or young amaranth leaves if available - I used spinach)
2 ripe tomatoes, skinned and coarsely chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms (I used 6-7) stemmed and sliced
1&1/2 teaspoons basil
1&1/2 teaspoons oregano
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tbsp onion, minced
Salt and pepper to taste (the original recipe called for Sea salt or a salt substitute)


How to:


A good place to start was to stick up the recipe on the kitchen wall.


Add one cup amaranth seeds to 3 cups of boiling water



And cook for 12-15 minutes. This is how it will look...a bit messy.

While amaranth is cooking, stem and wash spinach, then simmer until tender. Drain and chop it. Blanch tomatoes in boiling water to loosen skin, then peel and chop. Mince the onion and garlic.



Heat oil in a pan over medium heat and add garlic and onion. Saut̩ approximately for 2 minutes. Add tomato, mushrooms, basil, oregano, salt, pepper. Add tomato. Cook for 10 Р15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Lightly mash tomato as it is cooking.

Then pour the amaranth into the spinach-tomato mixture. Raise flame to high and let the whole mixture come to a boil, adjust for seasoning, remove...



...and treat yourself to a hearty soup, with bread of your choice.

    Thanks due to U for loaning me his cam...photos (a bit blurry) up on Timid Cook for the first time.

    Thanks to A, for bravely tasting it altho' spinach and tomatoes are a no-no for him and he is kind of allergic to mushroom :-(

    Thanks Bhags...I found out that I could!

    And lastly.......

    Umm...what a load of dishes to be cleaned....

PS- I know I have to pass it on....but blogging has taken the wind out of my sails....I will get around to it shortly....so, in this post, I don't have two names to pass it on to...yet.

PPS - Sushma of Cookspot is the next link in the Arusuvai Friendship Chain. I have sent her a secret packet and am waiting eagerly to see what she cook's up!

9 comments:

Unknown said...

woweee i am for once speechless

the wanabe chef R

bha said...

OMG Sukanya.....this is real innovative cooking.....nevr would have imagined cooking Rajgira in such a marvellous dish....way to go gal....

Anonymous said...

That sounds fantastic. I’ll have to give this a try

Srivalli said...

really very innovative...Bharathy and I are co-ordinating on the arusuvai list. so abt passing on to others...do let me know if you know somebody to whom you can send, else I will help you out with that.

Rachel said...

very innovative...I have never heard of amaranth seeds..how ignorant of me!!1

Sukanya C said...

Hi Rachel,

Neither did I (if that's any consolation)! I see that you are fully occupied taking care of your toddler ... otherwise, I would love to invite you to participate in the arusuvai food chain. Let me know if you are...It would be nice to have you join in and if I could figure out what the pack contained and cook something edible...so can you and do better than me, I am sure :-)

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

Hi, My first time here.
Quite an interesting dish you came up with. Congrats. I thought one used amaranth seeds to grow amaranth leaves!:D
I will be doing my Arusuvai post soon. Have delayed it long enough.

Suganya said...

Never knew amaranth seeds can be cooked. Thanks for the recipe.

Rachel said...

hey I am a part of the chain and did mine quite a while back..check my blog :)