One of the best things about cooking is making soups. Ahem - if you said, "What's so great in making soups? Its darn easy?" - I would say ," EXACTLY". They make my life so much easier. There have been umpteenth lunches that have been made possible thanks to soup! I have a bad habit of working with a bowl of soup nearby while I am typing away to glory at my comp. But Shhhhhh! Dont tell my better half about it! He will go ballistic "Keypad and warm soup?????"!!! Don't want to give him any more fodder for blaming me for every conceivable issues with the keyboard or computer! His imagination can get pretty creative, much worse than mine!

Anyways, almost anything can be made into a soup and I like them all. If my mother is reading it, her eyebrows will travel all the way to her forehead! The number of tantrums I have thrown for drinking soup till some point in my life has been legendary and probably will go unsurpassed ;) It would prove to be a hindrance esp. during family get together when we all go out to eat. They all order myriad soups for the first course and there I am, sitting forlorn, staring at all their faces!! Then suddenly, I did an 180 and life changed! Tada - the world of soups! If you see my Soup section, you will certainly trust me that I indeed have welcomed it with open arms! So, here's another in that ever growing list. I got these absolutely fresh and aromatic Fennel from the grocery store recently. Until, my advent to the U.S of A, I knew of only the seeds which is used predominantly in Indian cooking. If you notice many of my Indian curries, I go out of my way to use lots of fennel seeds although its not traditionally used in that recipe. The aroma and taste is something which I am fond of. Hence using the plant was certainly intriguing. This soup is slightly on the sweeter side and aromatic. I have given low fat substitutions which also provide almost the same level of sophistication to the taste compared to its richer counterpart. I wanted to keep it simple with minimal ingredients hence the bare bones soup. I wanted to also highlight just fennel. Enjoy this soup hot/warm. When cold the sweeter taste becomes more prominent. Generous sprinkling of pepper makes it extra special and warm.