Mulligatawny Soup

It came as a bit of a surprise for me that the origin of this Anglo-Indian soup is our good old rasam. Mulligatwany comes from the Tamil name, Milagu Thanni - meaning Pepper Water. Looks like the British took the recipe of the Rasam and made modifications to suit their tastes and preferred ingredients - with versions having chicken, meat and the like. For the Europeans, our rasam would have tasted like a soup  - well, when we think about it rasam is indeed a soup - though we typically have it as a sort of curry. This version here is a vegetarian one. Just like rasam which triggers your appetite, this one is also ideally suited for  stimulating your taste-buds.

Ingredients:
1 onions, chopped
1 carrots, chopped
1 potato,chopped
1 zucchini,chopped
1 big or 1 and1/2  medium tomatoes
3/4 cup  red lentils
1"ginger
4 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp fennel powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tablespoon ground black peppercorns
3 to 4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
1 to 1 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
Green onions and cilantro to garnish

Method:
In a pressure cooker, saute onion along with minced ginger and garlic. When they turn translucent, add all the powders, saute for a minute. Now add the vegetables, stock and lentil along with the tamarind paste. Pressure cook this for 6 minutes. Once the pressure is released, open the lid and using a blender, puree the contents. Garnish with cilantro and green onion. Serve with any Indian flat-breads, preferably naan.