Banana Step Soup

Banana Stem / Plantain stem are very good during summer, as it has so much of water content. Usually we make Kootu / Poriyal. This time, our sweet neighboring mami who has banana tree at her home garden, gave few big pieces of Banana stems. We made poriyal and kootu, but still we had a big piece left out. So I made this soup. All of them enjoyed it home.

This is easier to prepare because we need not remove the fiber from that, which is a big task with banana stem usually.

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

·         Banana / Plantain step -  1 hand span length

·         Curry leaves – 1 fistful

·         Garlic– 3 to 4 pods

·         Jeera powder – 1 tsp

·         Butter milk – 1 cup ( or you can mix a tbsp. of curd in a cup of water)

·         Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp

·         Water – 3 cups and more

·         Salt to taste.

·         Pepper as preferred

Method:

Remove the outer layer of the banana stem, till you reach the strong middle portion.Cut them into circles. You need not remove the fibers from it while cutting, as we will strain them later. This doesn't take much time.

Add a cup of butter milk and turmeric powder and pressure cook it for 3 whistles.

Once it is cooled down.  Grind it smooth along with garlic and curry leaves. Don’t discard the water which was used for cooking. We will use it for the soup.

Drain the pulp. You should actually squeeze the pulp well to get more juice from it. Now discard the pulp.

Add 3 cups of water to the strained juice, take it in a deep vessel. Also add the water which was used for cooking. Heat the mixture and bring it to boil.

Add Jeera powder, salt and pepper. Let it boil for 5 mins.

Serve hot.

Note:

Banana stem itself has no taste, here  I added garlic and curry leaves for the flavor. You can do variations based on ur taste. Options are endless.