Choosing the correct vegetables and the correct spices go a long way in ensuring that soups are indeed mouth watering.
 
Tomato soups are healthy and taste delicious. Cook half a dozen tomatoes; remove the skin, and mash in a mixer. Filter and keep aside. Pour a little oil in a kadai, add ginger pieces and diced chilies and fry for a couple of minutes. Add a spoon of rice powder, desired salt and fry again. To this add the pureed tomato, about 2 cups of water and let it boil for sometime. (If you have a couple of paneer cubes, add them along with the tomato.).Serve hot in bowls. Sprinkle a bit of pepper powder, add a little butter, and you have a nutritious bowl of goodness before you. Dip soup sticks and enjoy the soup.
 
If you belong to that class which likes green vegetables, the creamy spinach soup beckons you. Wash spinach well, grind into a paste and keep aside. Pour a little oil in a kadai, fry onions till they are soft. Add the spinach paste, vegetable stock, salt, pepper powder and allow it to boil for a while. Cool the mixture, strain and heat again. Mix cornflower and milk and add to it. When it thickens, remove and serve hot. Decorate with a little cream. Creamy spinach soup is ready.
 
To satisfy the taste buds of those who prefer sweet dishes, moong payasam is a good alternative. Soak a cup of sabudana in water for about an hour. Take a cup of moong in a container, soaked sabudana in another, add enough water to both the containers and pressure cook for 5 minutes. Remove form cooker, and mix the contents of both the containers. Heat for five minutes along with water, add jaggery as desired and remove when the mixture starts to thicken. Add cardamom powder, fried cashew bits and raisins and mix well. A delicious payasam is ready.
 
If you feel that soups are not filling enough go in for fresh salads. Combine boiled Kabuli chenna, diced cucumber, onion and capsicum rings, add a tablespoon of honey, a dash of salt and a dash of pepper.

A few grapes, a few slices of orange and a few pieces of mango added to the above mixture will produce a light, flavored and healthy salad. This is not all. Just go ahead and cut your favorite fruits and vegetable, garnish with nuts, add lemon juice, a few herbs and hey presto, the lightest of salads is ready in minutes.

Low fat yogurt is always a good dressing option. Grind carrot, cabbage, cucumber and raw mango coarsely, add thick yogurt, a pinch of salt and you get the lightest of recipes full of goodness and health. Whatever seasonal fruits are available always make good dessert. Slice bananas, apples, pears, plums and put into a bowl. Mix custard powder with cold milk and boiled for a couple of minutes. Pour this thick mixture over the fruits and cool if desired. This fruit mixture is good for health and light too.

A quick healthy alternative to ice cream is fresh fruits blended with fruit juice to which a little honey and low fat frozen yogurt has been added.
 
If you use whole wheat bread and lots of fresh vegetables for your sandwich, it will be the next best thing to a full meal plus you get the added advantage of it being light and healthy at the same time. Pastas with shredded vegetables, herbs, olive oil and even low fat yogurt provide light and healthy nourishment.

 So cooking light recipes is not really as difficult as you think. A little imagination, a little effort and a little culinary restraint go a long way in providing nutrition without compromising too much on taste..