12 Cloves of Garlic

Today, the marathon cooks are getting serious about eating their vegetables, and their fruits and their grains too.

Some of the recipes use well-known and well-loved vegetables like corn in corn bhajia, peas in matar curry, okra in stuffed bhindi, mushrooms in mushroom methi, peppers in stuffed bell peppers and eggplants in vangi pohe.

Some of the vegetables are rather unusual and exotic ones and may not be familiar to all of us, like the jalapeno peppers in mirchi ka salan, lotus root in not-a-banana-stem curry (read the post to know why the curry gets that name), bitter gourd in bitter gourd juice and bitter gourd chips, snake gourd in snake gourd and egg curry, butternut squash in a butternut squash sambar, pumpkin leaves(!) in a spicy tarkari and arbi in arbi hamman.

Vegetables all mingle together in vegetable biryani and vegetable kung pao.

Today, fruits and vegetables find their way into desserts too, in a carrot raisin cake, pumpkin bread pudding, lime meltaways, blueberry sheera and blood orange cake.

Next come the legumes, featuring in kara kuzhambu with canary beans, quick kali dal, split pea dal, dal makhani with pilaf and moong ka chilla.

Flour power is prominent in these recipes for mixed flour dhiradi, jolada rotti and cheese bread.

Milk and "Milk": We have a helpful how-to post on making vegan "milks" at home from nuts, seeds and grains. And we'll end on a sweet note with some cold milk chocolate fudge.

Click on the links above to visit the marathon cooks and read their beautiful posts, look at drool-worthy pictures and see the innovative recipes for yourself.

Following the trend, I went with a vegetable recipe too, and this is the vegetable/condiment that is a pantry staple for most of us: garlic. The best part about reading food blogs, for me, is that the posts are made of more than ingredient lists and directions for cooking. It is the tangle of emotions and memories with the taste and aroma of food. I bookmarked this recipe because of the sweet essay that preceded it, of student life and roommates and tasty meals that are cobbled together almost from thin air.

So that's Recipe #7: Garlic Soup. I used a full dozen cloves of garlic and followed the recipe quite closely. I cut down on the flour and added a chunk of stale bread to thicken the soup (the new trick that this old food blogger learned a few weeks ago). I added rosemary instead of parsley- fresh rosemary is very potent and I needed only a tiny sprig. And I finished with a bit of lemon juice.

For something made with a few basic ingredients, the garlic soup was so rich and flavorful. This soup brings out the best side of garlic. We enjoyed the soup with some freshly baked pizza that was overloaded with mushrooms.

The marathon is going so well, and I can't wait to see what fabulous recipes emerge on day 3. See you tomorrow!