Carrot Cake

I always try to incorporate some vegetable in the cakes and the muffins I bake. This way when my toddler has the cake I feel happy that he has had some vegetable. I also look for low fat recipes so that I can also have a piece guilt-free. So when I came across this carrot cake recipe at Pavithra's site "Binge on Veg", I was immediately hooked on to it. I tried the cake and it came out so moist and soft. Give it a try and I am sure you will enjoy it. For original recipe click here.

Ingredients

- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 2 nos Egg
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil (I used Mazola oil)
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
- 3/4 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup Grated Carrot

Method

1. Sieve the dry ingredients together in a bowl. I was so lazy I just mixed it with a spatula.
2. Blend the eggs in a bowl. Then add the sugar and oil and blend it until it becomes light yellow color
3. Add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet ingredients and mix it together
4. Add the grated carrot to the batter and mix it toger
5. Meanwhile preheat oven to 360 F. Grease a baking dish.
6. Pour the batter in the baking dish and bake it for 25- 30 min.
7. Check if it has baked by inserting a tooth pick in the cake.
8. Let it cool and slice the cake.

The cake is so delicious and very easy to make.

Palak chole/chick peas

This is a very famous recipe but I tried it with a little bit of a twist. For seasoning I used Panch Pooran a unique spice mix. It has cumin, fennel, methi, kalonj and mustard seeds. It gave the dish a nice fresh flavor.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup cooked Chole/Garbanzo beans/Chick peas (Canned is fine too)
- 3 cups chopped spinach
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 tomatoes chopped
- 1 small piece ginger
- 2 green chilies (adjust to taste)
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp freshly ground cumin & coriander powder
- salt to taste

Seasoning :
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tbsp panch pooran

Method:
1. In a pan add the oil and the panch pooran. Once the mustard seeds in it start to pop add the chilies, ginger and onion. Sauté till the onion turns color.
2. Add the chopped spinach and cover the vessel. The spinach will sweat and start releasing water. It will wilt to 1/3 its original quantity. Now add the tomatoes
3. Saute all these till the tomato turns mushy. Now add the spices - turmeric, cumin corriander powder and chili powder. Add salt and let it all cook for another minute or two.
4. Mix in the chick peas and add water if it is too thick. Cover and let it simmer for at least 15 minutes. If possible keep it for a longer time at a very slow flame. This gives the chick pea's an opportunity to blend well with the spices.

Serve it hot with roti or even rice.

This goes to Healing food hosted by started by sri

Tawa pulao

Have you ever had small pieces of vegetable lying in your fridge. I try to use them all but sometimes it is just too much. My fridge will start filling up with random sized pieces of sorry looking vegetables. The best way in my mind is to make a pulao out of it. There are endless posibilites in creating these. You can make them with leftover subji's and rice and give them a new life. I came across Tawa pulao from Chef in you. She had used pav baji masala. I have never tried this combination so I figured I will make this for my dinner and use up my vegetables.

Ingredients:
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped finely
- 1 carrot grated
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tbsp Pav Bhaji masala
- 1/2 cup frozen french cut beans (The recipe called for peas)
- 2-3 green chillies (or as needed)
- 2 inch ginger, grated
- 1 tsp chili powder (optional)
- about 1 cup cooked rice

Seasoning:
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 3 cloves
- 1 tbsp oil

Method:
1. In a pan add oil and all the seasoning ingredients. Once the cumin seeds starts to splutter add ginger and chiles. Saute for a few seconds and then add the onions. Cook till the onions turn color.
2. Mix in the chopped tomatoes and cover the pan. Let it simmer till the tomatoes turn mushy. Now add the spices - turmeric powder, pav baji masala, chili powder if using and salt.
3. Cook for a few minutes and stir in the beans. In about 30 seconds turn the heat down and mix in the cooked rice. Do not over mix it as we do not want the rice to break. Use a fork and be gentle when you mix in the rice.
4. Finally add the grated carrots in and give it a toss

Serve it hot with subji or raita

Sending this recipe to What's lurking in your kitchen hosted by Nupur of One Hot Stove.
Also sending this to one of my favorite event Tried and Tested hosted by Priya and started by Delights of Cooking

This one also goes to Healing food hosted by started by sri

Fruit and nut poha

There are so many different ways to make the simple poha yet everytime I see a new recipe I get all excited. I got this one from relishing recipes. I absolutely loved her rendition of making the unassuming poha with nuts in it. I always have various nuts in my freezer. As nuts have lots of oil it is preferable to store them in the freezer. I planned to use them up before they become stale and this gave me the perfect opportunity.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup thick poha washed
- 1 carrot gratted
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 small potato cubed and boiled
- 1 tbsp of peanuts
- 1 tbsp of cashewnuts
- 1 tbsp of almonds
- 1 heaping tbsp of raisins
- salt to taste

Seasoning:
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp jeera seeds
- 1/4 tsp of turmeric
- few curry leaves

Method:
1. In a hot tawa add oil and the seasoning. Once the mustard starts to splutter add in all the nuts. Fry till they become slightly brown.
2. Add onions and saute till they turn color. Now add the boiled potatoes and mix them well. If it is too dry add a few teaspoons of water
3. Now add the soaked poha and mix it well with the other ingredients. Sprinkle water if you think it is too dry.
4. Finally add the shreaded carrot on the top. The carrots need not be cooke completely. It adds a beautiful color and a slight crunch to the poha.

Garnish with cilantro and serve it hot. Poha needs to eaten at once for the best taste.

Sending this recipe to healing foods hosted by Priya and also to
What's lurking in your kitchen hosted by Nupur of One Hot Stove.

Capsicum Chutney

This is a easy capsicum chutney that is perfect with dosa and idli. When you are short on time you can put this dish together with very few ingredients.

Ingredients:
- 1 large capsicum chopped to bite size pieces
- 1 small onion chopped
- 1 large tomatoes chopped
- 2 green chilies
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp chili powder
- salt to taste

Seasoning:
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dhal
- few walnuts (Optional)
- sprig of curry leaves

Method:
1. Pour the oil in a hot pan and add mustard seeds and urad dhal. Once the mustard seeds starts to splutter add the walnuts and sauté till it becomes slightly brown.
2. Add the chopped green chilies and the curry leaves. Cook for a few seconds. Now add the onions, capsicum and salt. Sauté 3- 5 minutes.
3. Now add the chopped tomatoes and cook it till the capsicum becomes tender and the tomatoes are slightly mushy. Add the chili powder, turmeric and cook for a couple of minutes.

Garnish it with coriander leaves and serve it as a side dish for dosa.

Sending this recipe to healing foods hosted by Priya.

Ragi Dosa

This is a healthy version of our rava dosai and is a perfect dish for the event hosted by Nupur - What is lurking in your kitchen. I had some left over ragi flour sitting in my pantry for quite some time waiting for it to be noticed. So today it was ragi dosa for our breakfast. I got the idea from this site. This is my way of putting the dish together.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of ragi flour
- 1 cup rice flour
- 3/4 cup curds (Increase this if you like sour dosa)
- 3-5 green chilies chopped
- small piece of ginger chopped
- 1 tbsp cummin seeds
- 2 tsp chopped coriander leaves
- few curry leaves chopped
- salt to taste

Method:
1. Beat the curds with a cup of water. Mix all the other ingredients together until it is pretty runny. It should resemble your rava dosa consistency. I used close to 4 cups of water and the cup of beaten curds. Keep this aside for 30 minutes.
2. Heat up a flat pan. I used the eletric griddle for this and it worked very well. Ladle the batter in the hot pan and form it to a thin layer. Spray some oil and let it cook on one side for about a minute
3. Turn it over and cook the other side for another 45 seconds.

Remove from the pan and serve the hot crispy dosa.

Sending this recipe to What's lurking in your kitchen hosted by Nupur of One Hot Stove.

Simple beetroot curry

We make a lot of curries/subji's in our house. This probably is the most standard way we cook any vegetable. It is easy and healthy way to eat all the vegi's. It also is a perfect accompaniment with rice and sambar.

Ingredients:
- 2 bunches chopped beetroot and leaves (Do not discard the leaves they are highly nutritious and tastes really good)
- pinch of turmeric
- salt to taste

Seasoning :
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dhal
- few curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp hing
- 3 dried red chilies (tear them into half)

Method:
1. In a pan add the oil and all the seasoning. Once the mustard seeds start to splutter and the urad dhal turns to a golden brown color add the beetroot and leaves.
2. Add some water, salt and turmeric and cook till they become tender. If you are in a hurry cook your beet root in the microwave for 10 minutes with salt and turmeric. This will speed up the cooking time.
3. Once the beetroot become tender toss them well and serve it hot.

Note: One option is to to toss in a couple of teaspoons of shredded coconut to this curry.
3. Once the beet root are tender add salt

Delightful Capsicum usli.

Ingredients:
- 3 cups chopped capsicum (All colors are fine)
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 tbsp besan flour
- pinch of turmeric
- salt to taste

Seasoning :
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dhal
- few curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp hing

Method:
1. In a pan pour oil and add the seasoning. Once the mustard seeds start to splutter add the chopped capsicum.
2. Add salt, turmeric, chili powder cover and cook. Capsicum tends to sweat water so just cook without adding water to it in a slow heat.
3. Once the vegi's become tender add sugar and mix well. Slowly sprinkle the besan flour on top and keep mixing. You should see small lumps of beasan through out the curry. Cook for a couple of minutes and transfer to a serving bowl.

The sweetness and the heat of the curry makes it a perfect combination to eat with roti's. The addition of besan to the curry will make it taste more like a parpusuli.