Refreshing vegetable and pasta soup

I got the recipe for this from my friend Arundati's blog and tweaked it according to my taste. The original recipe is here.

I have always loved soup. It is always associated with our trips to be with our parents, and one recurring memory ... whenever we used to sit down to eat our soup, our little sister had to narrate the story of her first soup-making adventure in kindergarten ..."...I cut the carrots, Tamara and Bushara cut onions , Vineeta and Vinay cut the ....'blah..blah' ..and then Mrs.so and so put all the vegetables and made soup and we all ate it with fried bread...it was VERY tasty ....!!

It has been atleast 20 years since she left KG behind, but we all got to hear the 'Soup story ' so often, that I am sure my mom, dad, brother and atleast my dad's elder brother who was in Doha and had to bear a lot of her chatter, must remember some of it..!!!

So for my version of this very refreshing soup,

Boil a cup of pasta and keep aside. My friend used noodles, but I prefer pasta. If you dont mind the extra starch, you can cook the pasta with the veggies.

Onion - 1/2 cup (cut into cubes)

Tomato - 2 medium sized (cubed)

Veggies - cut into bite sized portions - 1 cup (I used carrots, cauliflower, capsicum and a potato)

Butter - 1 tsp

Oil - 1/2 tsp

Crushed pepper - 1/2 tsp

Garlic - 3 cloves (crushed and finely chopped)

Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Soy sauce - 5 to 6 drops

Dried thyme and chives - 1/2 tsp each (you may add fresh mint, parsley etc...)

Salt to taste.

In a pressure cooker, heat oil, add the butter, saute the onions till golden, add all the veggies and the rest of the ingredients (even the pasta).Hold the salt.

Add enough water , pressure cook to one whistle . Once the steam is gone, open and add the precooked pasta , a squirt of lemon juice and the salt.

It was so good, that I have already made it twice. Some garlic bread with the soup would make a good meal.