Red Pepper and Bottle Gourd Soup | Shimla Mirch Doodhi Soup

 

Red pepper and Bottle gourd soup is one of the easiest soup to make with very few ingredients. Doodhi is used very often in Indian cooking like Curries, Parathas, Sabzi or Halwa. It is known for its nutrition like vitamins, dietary fibers and it aids in weight loss. It is usually found in Asian grocery stores. When combined with red pepper, this soup gets very flavorful and has a beautiful yellow color. You can also make this soup in the instant pot on sauté mode.

Ingredients:

1 red bell pepper

1 medium sized Doodhi/ bottle gourd

1 medium sized onion

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp Jeera/cumin seeds

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp red chili powder (optional)

1/2 tsp pepper powder

Salt to taste

Prepare the veggies:

Chop red bell pepper (seeds removed) into medium sized chunks. You could oven roast the red pepper with little bit oil drizzled on the top and broil for 15 mins. Wash and peel the bottle gourd with the peeler. Cut them into small cubes. 

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a soup pot, add cumin seeds. Add onions and saute until they are translucent.
2. Add chopped red bell pepper and sauté until they are slightly brown in color. Add bottle gourd cubes in the pot and cook until they are soft. The bottle gourd contains more amount of water in it, so it doesn’t take much time to cook.
3. Use a hand immersion blender to blend this mixture into smooth liquid. If you are using a blender, then let the veggies mixture cool down completely before blending and pour the soup back in the same pot.
4. Add salt, garlic powder, pepper powder and red chili powder to the soup and bring it to a boil.
5. Turn off the heat and serve warm soup with croutons or bread.