Black Eyed Pea Soup

Black Eyed Pea is one of the most nutritious and potent beans with high content of calcium, and also iron and protein. This soup is a good comfort food for cold winter days.

I made this soup for my hubby as he’s been down with cold and flu for past few days. He doesn’t get sick very often but this cold and flu really knocked him down. I wanted to make him feel better so I made all these dishes to help him bounce back to health.

I’m big on home made remedial concoctions to heal and cure ailments as I grew up using these remedies.

For this black eyed soup, I used lot of carom/thyme seeds (jwano) as these are believed to be good cure for cold and flu. My mother used to make this concoction of carom/thyme seeds with lots of ginger, salt and turmeric to relieve us whenever we had cold and flu.

The black eyed soup is very delicious, yet nourishing too.

If you are feeling under the weather or just need something to nourish yourself, please try this recipe.

Ingredients

350 grams of Black eyed peas (soak it overnight or if not soaked, required to cook longer)
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
100 grams of bacon
3 tablespoon of carom/thyme seeds
2-3 bay leaves
1 large tomato cut into cubes
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
2 teaspoons of cumin powder
Fresh Garlic and Ginger paste (4-5 garlic cloves and thumb sized piece of ginger. Pound it in mortar pestle to make a paste)
1 litre of chicken stock (or water)
Salt as per taste
2 tablespoons of oil

In a pot, heat oil and pop carom/thyme seeds. Add chopped onion and sauté for 2-3 minutes until it softens. Add bacon and sauté it until golden brown.

Add salt, cumin powder, turmeric powder, bay leaves and garlic ginger paste.

Cook for spices for 1 minutes and add tomatoes. Mix well and cook tomatoes until soft.

Add black eyed peas and liquid into the pot. Stir it and cover it with lid. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until black eyed peas are soft and mushy but still holds its shape.

Serve hot soup with a rustic bread or on its own with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt.

French Toast with Strawberry Coulis (Father’s Day Special Breakfast)

It is my hubby’s first Father’s Day this year. And what a great father he has been.

He used to be one of those men who wasn’t very fond of babies. When I became pregnant, he had self doubt in his parenting skills . But boy were we so wrong. He was the first one to hold the baby. When he did, the look on his face was so priceless. He was simply in an awe (I think he was fighting back tears). It is the most precious and unforgettable moment in our lives.

Since then it’s been a roller coaster ride being new parents especially baby having infant eczema. It had been trying times at the most. But my hubby’s relentless dedication and optimism to manage and care for our baby has been most inspiring to me. I believe it may just be why my baby’s skin condition is now fully healed.

I’m so thankful to have a hubby like him. So to celebrate his first Father’s Day, I made him his favourite special breakfast.

I believe everyone knows how to make a French Toast. Here’s my version and it’s such a delicious recipe.

Ingredients
4 Eggs
4 pieces of rustic white bread
60 ml of cream
2 tablespoons of raw sugar
Pinch of salt
Dash of Black Pepper
4 tablespoon of Olive oil
1 stick of cinnamon
2-3 cardamom whole

Strawberry Coulis
12 (250 grams approx) of Frozen Strawberries or fresh ones if available
2 tablespoons of raw sugar
1 teaspoon of Vanilla essence

Crispy bacon
4 slices of Bacon

Whisk eggs, cream, sugar and salt and add dash of black peppers.

Spread the mixture thoroughly on the bread and set aside let it soak.

In a bowl, add halved strawberries, sugar and vanilla essence. Pop it in a microwave for 2-3 minutes until the strawberries are mushy and syrupy. Set aside for plating.

Heat pan and add tablespoon of olive oil. Add cinnamon stick and cardamom to infuse oil. Add a slice of bread and fry it gently on low to medium heat. When it golden, flip it to cook the other side. Repeat same process for all the other slices of breads.

When breads are done, fry bacon slices until crispy. Remove it from the pan and dab off the excess fat in a paper towel.

Slice french toast in triangular shapes. Serve it on a plate with strawberry coulis and crispy bacon.