Looking for something new to experiment with from the veggie mart today, I notice there have been a lot of what I would call turnips in the market lately, so I grabbed two of the long white root vegetables.
The radishes I grew up on were small and had quite a bite that my childhood tastes didn’t like. But my mother always grew them in our little vegetable garden in New Hampshire. (Guess they were one of these veggies that grew well in that climate.)
Later, I would come to identify this as white radish or daikon radish, having nothing to do with turnips and also not tasting nor looking at all like an American radish!
Diakon Radish didn’t show up until much later in my adult life and it was associated with Japanese food.
I don’t measure much, it’s mostly by sight. So feel free to adjust spices, herbs, oils and even vegetable amounts to suit your palate.
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
- Food blender
- Food Strainer
Ingredients
- 1 cup Fresh spinach Blanched
- 1 cup Bottle gourd Cubed
- 1 cup Daikon Radish Cubed
- 2 tbsp Ghee
- 2 tsp Fresh Ginger Grated
- 4 pieces cloves
- 2 pieces Star Anise
- 2 cups Vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp Coconut milk
- 2 tbsp Fresh heavy cream
- 1 tsp Himalayan pink salt
- 1 tsp Fresh black pepper
Instructions
Prepare Vegetables
- Clean spinach; cook on low heat until leaves are wilted, strain and cover with ice water.
- Clean, peel and cube the bottle gourd
- Clean and cube the daikon radish
Add to Pressure Cooker
- Heat the ghee in a pressure cooker. Add the ginger, cloves and Star anise stirring constantly over medium heat.
- Add the cubed bottle gourd and cubed daikon radish.
- Add salt. (I use a mixture of Pink Himalayan and Celtic Sea salts.)
- Add the spinach, and continue to cook and stir a few more minutes.
- Add the vegetable stock, cover with pressure cooker lid, turn heat on high and cook three whistles. After three whistles, remove cooker from heat and allow to cool.
Blending the soup
- Once the pressure cooker has cool enough to remove the lid, add the ingredients to a food blender, (remove any of the whole spices you can find) along with the coconut milk and blender 20 – 30 seconds until smooth.
- Strain through a food strainer (this should remove any of the whole spices and also makes for a nice smooth soup.
- Add strained mixture to a sauce pan and add the cream. Cook 'til a desired consistancy is reached.
To Serve
- Place several cubes of Spicy Pan Fired Paneer in a bowl and ladle the soup over it. Serve with Spicy Cauliflower.
Video
Notes
Indian Fusion Spinach Soup with Spicy Pan Fried Paneer. My son was not feeling well having eaten street food the prior day. So I thought this would be a great time for me to try out this new recipe, since I would be the only one eating. However, the aromas coming from the kitchen were enough to whet his appetite and cure his nausea. Since I wasn’t sure how this would turn out, I was not expecting to serve it. But he wanted to try it. And he loved it! The soup served over Spicy Pan Fried Paneer cubes, with a side dish of Spicy Cauliflower, was amazing!