Instant Soup / Instant Chaaru (No Powder)

Recipe Cooked, Photographed and Written by Praveena

Prep Time:2 mins   Cooking Time:10 mins   Cuisine:Indian

In Telugu cuisine we call soup without lentils as ‘chaaru’. Generally, a spice powder called ‘ chaaru podi’ specific to this South Indian Soup is added to this recipe. It adds flavour, aroma and improves the taste of this recipe.

But, when, there is not much time to make the fresh chaaru podi/ spice powder or when the powder is out-of-stock in the pantry, Amma (Mom) used to make this quick fix soup/chaaru. This requires very few basic ingredients, where in black peppercorns play the main role.

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

You might find my other Soup recipes here⇒ Salads & Soups

Related Posts: Mukkala Pulusu/ Dhappalam / Indian Vegetable Soup , Tomato Dal / Lentil Stew / Tomato Pappu , Sorakaya-Pesarapappu / Lauki-MungDal / BottleGourd-LentilStew

Ingredients:

• Water – 4 cups
• Tomatoes – 2 (medium)
• Black Peppercorn / Whole Black Pepper  / Miryalu – 2 to 3 teaspoons 
• Salt – as per taste
• Red Chilli Powder / Paprika / Chilli flakes – ¼ teaspoon
• Turmeric Powder / Pasupu – ¼ teaspoon
• Sugar / Jaggery – 3 teaspoons
• Tamarind pulp – 2 tablespoons
• Chopped Coriander leaves – 2 tablespoons
• Drumsticks / Munakkada – 1 (optional)
• Rice flour – 1 tablespoon (optional)

Ingredients for Tempering : (optional)

• Mustard seeds / Aavalu – ¼ teaspoon
• Jeera / Cumin Seeds – ¼ teaspoon
• Asafoetida / Hing / Inguva – half of ¼ teaspoon
• Dry Red Chillies – 3
• Curry Leaves – 5 to 6
• Cooking oil – 1 tablespoons
• Crushed Garlic – 1 teaspoon (optional)
• Nuvvulu / Sesame Seeds – ¼ teaspoon (optional)

Special Ingredients:

• Black Peppercorn / Whole Black Pepper
• Tamarind

Procedure:

• Firstly, wash the tomatoes and drumsticks.
• Chop the tomatoes finely and drumsticks 1 inch length wise.
• Take them into a steel vessel / sauce pan.
• Add the water, salt, turmeric powder, sugar, tamarind pulp and red chilli powder / paprika.
• Give one gentle stir, put the vessel/pan on stovetop under medium flame.

  

• Take the whole black pepper in between 2 kitchen towels, crush them coarsely, with the rolling pin on kitchen counter.
• Add all of it into the vessel/ pan on stovetop, along with a tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves.

  

  Final stage of Chaaru / Soup

• Bring the soup to boil until it forms bubbles, just like the pic above.
• Switch the flame off and garnish with one more tablespoon o chopped coriander!
• If you wish to do the tempering,take all the ‘Ingredients for tempering’ into a small pan onto the stovetop, and fry them until the mustard seeds start to splitter splatter and switch off the stove. Done!!

  

  Instant Pepper Soup / Miriyam Chaaru ready to be served

Tips:

• Adjust the salt and spice as per your taste.
• You can adjust the consistency, by reducing the water quantity.
• Addition of drum sticks can be skipped, which might not vary the taste of this soup / chaaru.
• By adding rice flour, the soup becomes a bit thick.
• Avoid the ‘tempering’ section to make it oil-free.
• This is preferable food, taken to get relief from cold, cough, flu etc.

Result:

• This Soup / Chaaru is very light on the tummy but gives an absolute soothing feel to the throat.
• Just add some steamed rice or cooked noodles or any bread on the side, which makes it even more filling on the tummy.

  

  Instant Pepper Soup served in a bowl, along with some Indian savoury on the side

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