Last dinner for dinner my younger teen asked for a ‘soupy kinda meal’. It resonated with what I was feeling ,battling a sore throat as I was. So I rustled up a tomato-onion soup with brown bread baked croutons, some pan-fried potato croquettes and a herbed butter shell pasta. It made for a simple, homey and satisfying meal.

For the soup ( this makes 4 generous servings)
6-7 large ripe tomatoes
3 large onions
Salt to taste
½ tsp black pepper powder
A pinch of sugar

Pressure cook all of the above ingredients with a glass of water. Cool, blitz in the mixer-grinder and strain.

Put the pot on the stove again and adjust seasoning if needed. Add some herbs, fresh or dry. I added some oregano and fresh parsley.
Serve steaming hot topped with some grated cheddar cheese or cream and some baked croutons.

For the croutons, toast 4 slices of brown bread in the oven till they were crisp and brown. Lightly butter them and cut into squares. Done!

For the croquettes

5-6 boiled and mashed potatoes
2 onions and a large green chilli, both chopped fine 
Salt 
Pepper 
Some Lal mirch, amchur powder and a pinch of garam masala
4-5 slices of brown bread ground to a coarse powder in the mixer
Combine all of the above.
Shape as you like and pan-fry on a non stick pan till well browned from both the sides.
Serve hot!

For the pasta
Boil 200 gms pasta
Heat a tsp of butter and let it brown slightly.
Throw in the pasta.
Add salt, pepper and any herb of your choice.

That’s it! You have a soul-satisfying meal ready to serve. It took me all of 30 minutes to get it together too 😀