Recipes Cooked, Photographed and Written by Praveena

PrepTime:10mins CookTime:15mins Cuisine:Indian

Indian summers are extremely unbearable mainly during the month of May, where we get to feel the heat waves even during the nights. So, the cheapest coolant among all others are water and buttermilk. We find many shop vendors, selling sachets of chilled water and chilled buttermilk.

And many recipes made with curd, buttermilk are included during summer meals. This is one such recipe, which is very easy to make and is very healthy too.

Buttermilk soup / majjiga pulusu.
South Indian Andhra style recipe thats easy to make, gluten free, healthy and is soothing to the tummy.

What is ‘Majjiga Pulusu’:

Majjiga Pulusu / Buttermilk Soup is a traditional soup recipe belonging to Telugu Cuisine of South India. It is perfectly suitable for hot summers as the main ingredient buttermilk serves as a body coolant. Buttermilk is just a diluted form of curd / yogurt.

South Indian way to serve ‘Majjiga Pulusu’:

I always loved the majjiga pulusu prepared by my Mom. And I feel very much satisfied I could replicate the same recipe and taste too. We had it with plain white rice and plain dal / plain lentil stew (recipe link⇒ Muddha Pappu / Dal / Plain LentilStew )

Before starting to cook, don’t forget to see the Tips mentioned at the end.

My Soup recipes collection here⇒ Salads & Soups

My rice recipes collection here⇒ Rice Recipes

Chutney recipes collection⇒ Chutney / Pachchadi / Dip

Ingredients:

Sour Curd / Regular Yogurt – 2 cups
Bottle Gourd / Lauki / Sorakaya – ½ of a medium size
Carrot – 2 medium size
Drum sticks/ Mulakkada – 1 large
Tomatoes – 2 small size
Red Chilli Powder – 2 teaspoons
Turmeric Powder – ½ teaspoon
Coriander – 2 to 3 twigs
Water – for cooking and boiling
Chickpea flour / Besan / Senagapindi – 4 tablespoon
Red Chilli Powder / Kaaram – ½ teaspoon
Salt – 3 teaspoons / as per taste

Ingredients for Tempering :

Mustard seeds / Aavalu – ¼ teaspoon
Jeera / Cumin Seeds – ½ teaspoon
Asafoetida / Hing / Inguva – half of ¼ teaspoon
Dry Red Chillies – 3
Curry Leaves – 5 to 6
Cooking oil – 2 tablespoons

Special Ingredients:

Chickpea flour / Besan / Senagapindi
Bottle Gourd / Lauki / Sorakaya

Step wise pics Procedure for ‘Buttermilk Soup / Majjiga pulusu’:

PREP WORK:

Wash all the vegetables thoroughly and cut them into cube size pieces or finger size length wise pieces.
Slit the green chillies length wise and chop the coriander finely.

TO MAKE BUTTERMILK:

Take the curd/yogurt into a separate bowl. Add 2 cups of water for every 1 cup of thick curd / yogurt.
Whisk thoroughly using a hand blender or fork or regular mixer. Keep aside.

TO MAKE THE MIX FOR THICKENING:

Add the chickpea flour/ besan to ¼ buttermilk ¼ cup which we left behind.
Whisk thoroughly so that there are no lumps. Put it aside.

COOKING:

**Transfer all the vegetable pieces into a** **sauce pan / vessel**. ***Add a teaspoon of salt, and water until they are sunk.* *Let them boil on stove top under high flame until they are softened.***

***Later switch the flame off.* *Add the turmeric powder and remaining salt to*** **the boiled veggies**.

***To the veggies vessel***, add the red chilli powder and rest of the ***buttermilk**. Gently mix everything.*** **Let the soup / pulusu boil for about 8-10 mins, under medium heat on stove top.**

**When the soup/ pulusu boils & raises up to the brim of the vessel/pan (as shown in pic below), simmer the flame. Then, add the chickpea flour-buttermilk mix (which we kept aside) to the same.**

***On the same flame, put a small frying pan and add the ‘Ingredients for tempering’.* *Saute them and switch the flame off once done.***

Tips:

Vegans can surely make the same using coconut yogurt or any other plant based yogurt.
You can make this soup with any plain yogurt, but SOUR curd / yogurt suits better.
Adjust the salt, spice and consistency according your taste.
Do not try to avoid the ‘Tempering’. Instead just add whatever ingredients are readily available, under the ‘Ingredients for Tempering’.
You can serve this soup either hot or cold.
Storage: This, Buttermilk soup / Majjiga pulusu, stays good upto a week when put in refrigerator. Just reheat before serving.

Result:

The taste of this, Buttermilk soup / Majjiga pulusu, is very mild in spice and gives a soothing feel especially during hot summers.
It can be had just as it is with some bread or chips on the side.
We had it with plain white rice and plain dal / plain lentil stew (recipe link⇒ Muddha Pappu / Dal / Plain LentilStew )