A creamy, healthy, nutritious Butternut Squash and Tomato and Red Lentils soup made in Instant Pot, with just the right ingredients like ginger, garlic, turmeric for chilly winters evenings
1/4tspRed Pepper Powder/Cayenne Pepperor as required
1/4tspBlack Pepperor as required
1/2tspCumin Powderoptional
1Bay Leaf
1-2 tspOlive Oil
Salt to taste
Instructions
Wash and soak red lentils in water for 10 minutes. Finely chop ginger and garlic. chop tomatoes and onions if sing whole onion. Add only half of it.
Switch on the Instant Pot in saute mode. Set the timer for 5 mins. to medium heat.
Add oil when it is hot enough, add finely chopped ginger and garlic and saute till the raw smell of garlic goes away.
Add finely chopped onions and saute till light pink.
Add chopped tomatoes, cubed butternut squash and soaked red lentils.
Add the spices(garam masala/curry masala, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder) and salt.
Add water. I added around 2-3 cups of water initially, then can add more water as per required consistency of soup.
Cancel the saute mode, and switch to pressure cook mode. Cover the lid and seal. Pressure cook on high for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, do a quick release, open the lid and blend the soup with the immersion blender or in batches in a regular blender until creamy and smooth.
Serve the hot soup with garnished with cheese/ nuts of choice with some garlic bread or steamed rice or on it's own.
Notes
You can add some cheese or cream while blending the soup to make it more creamy and cheesy. Add some fun to soup for kids, serve the soup with some goldfish crackers for the crunch factor in the soup.To make the soup in the pressure cooker, add all the ingredients as per the recipe and cook the soup till 2-3 whistles. Blend the soup with immersion blender or in batches in a regular blender and serve hot.
Keyword Butternut Squash, Gluten-free, Instant Pot Soup, One Pot Meals, Red Lentils