Ribbon Pakoda

Wish you all a Happy Janmashtami. This is a simple savory recipe that is a fun afternoon snack with a cup of hot tea. Enjoy

Ingredients

- 2 cup Rice Flour
- 2 cup Besan Flour
- 1/2 tbsp butter
- 1/4 tsp asafoetida
- 1 tsp Ajwain/Sesame Seeds
- Salt and Red Chillie powder to taste

Method

1. Mix everything and in the bowl. Add water little by little and form stiff dough.
2. Take a murukku maker and use the one with a vertical slit.
3. Heat oil in a fryin pan. The oil should be very hot
4. Press the dough in the hole on the top. Press the murukku maker in the oil and make flat ribbon shapes design in the oil.
5. Once its brown take the ribbon and drain it in the paper towel

Spinach and cauliflower roti

This was an inspiration from Chef in you. I absolutely loved the idea of adding spinach and cauliflower to a dish. It was soft rotis which you could eat with pickles or raita.

Ingredients:
To make roti
- 3 cups atta
- 2 green chilies (adjust to taste)
- 2 cups spinach
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp ajwain seeds
- salt to taste

Method:

1. Grind spinach, chilies, yogurt to a fine paste. To the flour add some ajwain seeds and the ground mixture and kneed it to form a tight dough. Keep it covered for at least an hour. Meanwhile proceed to make the filling/curry.

Ingredients for the curry:
- 1 medium sized cauliflower finely chopped
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (recipe calls for paneer)
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 potato boiled and pealed
- salt to taste

Method to make filling
1. In a skillet add oil and cumin seeds. Once they start to brown add the cauliflower, chili powder and salt. Cook till they become soft. Make sure there is no water. Keep it aside so it can cool down.
2. Meanwhile mash the potatoes so there are no lumps. Mix the cooked cauliflower, potatoes and the shredded cheese. If the mixture is slightly warm the cheese melts very nicely.
3. Make small balls and keep it aside.

Method putting it all together

1. Take a small piece of the dough. Pull it apart and place a ball of the vegetable mixture. Now bring the sides together. Roll it in your hands to form a smooth ball. Make sure your stuffing is all inside the dough.
2. Dust a flat surface. Place this ball and roll it using a rolling pin. These need not be too thin.
3. Heat a flat pan/tawa. If you like drizle some ghee and place the roti in the tawa. Cook till they become slightly brow on both sides.

Serve it hot with pickles. This was super duper tasty. I am sending this one to Bookemarked recipe - hosted by Priya

Zucchini Pasta

We are getting lots of Zucchini this year. I wanted to try this unique pasta where you substitute your pasta with Zucchini. I tried to keep everything in this dish raw. It was a fun alternative to regular pasta.

Ingredients
- 5 medium sized Zucchini
- 2 tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1 small onion roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp sun dried tomatoes soaked in oil
- red chili flakes add it according to your taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- salt to taste
- few sprigs of basil

Method:
1. Peal your Zucchini into thin strips. I just used a regular vegetable pealer. Save the core to make soup.
2. In a food processor add tomatoes, onion, sun dried tomatoes and pulse it a few times. Do not over process it. You want it to be slightly chunky.
3. Remove and add salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and the chopped basil
4. Toss Zucchini with the sauce just before serving. If you do this earlier it will become very watery.

This is perfect for a nice summer day.

Bread Halwa

This week I tried baking a banana bread with cardamom. I made some mistake and I ended up with a dense and bland tasting bread. So with a big loaf of bread in hand, I searched some blogs to use up the bread. I stumbled on this Bread and Oats Halwa in Priya's Easy N Tasty Recipes. I skipped the oats, as I had a big loaf of bread. This is a very easy recipe and tastes great. My husband was happy that I messed up my bread.

Ingredients

- 6 cup ground bread slices
- 2.5 cup milk
- 2 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1 tsp cardamom
- Orange Food color (as needed)

Method

1. Grind the bread slices coarsely in a blender.
2. Boil the milk in a pan. Once the milk starts boiling add sugar and the food color.
3. After the mixture starts boiling add the bread. Add the ghee and stir continuously.
4. Once the mixture stops sticking to the sides of the pan and comes of the bottom of the vessel easily,add the cardamom.
5. Garnish with some nuts. I used slivered almonds.

Mixed Dhal with Coconut Milk

Today I made some paratha and to go with it I made a mixed dhal subji. This is similar to Dal Makhani but with a slight variation. I used coconut milk instead of cream or milk. The dhal was rich in flavor and had a slight sweet taste because of the coconut milk. I used sprouted moth beans, black uradh dhal and green moong dhal but you can susbtitute with any other beans.I have given approximate measurement of the spices and powder. Please adjust according to the quantity and your taste.

Ingredients

- 1.5 cup mixed dhal (I used sprouted moth beans, black uradh dhal and green moong dhal)
- 1 Onion chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 Jalapeno chillie
- 4 tomato chopped
- 1 tbsp Panch poran
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1.5 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp red chili powder
- 2 tbsp coconut milk
- 1 tsp oil
- Salt to taste

Method

1. Pressure cook the dhals untilt he dhals gets cooked.
2. Heat oil in the frying pan. Add panch poran once the oil is hot.
3. Once it splutters add onion,garlic and the green chillie. Fry until onions becomes soft and translucent.
4. Stir in tomatoes and fry until the tomatoes get soft.
5. Then add the cooked dhal and mix it well.
6. Add cumin,coriander,garam masala, red chillie powder and salt.
7. Add the coconut milk and let the dhal simmer for 5 minutes
8. Serve it paratha or roti.

Spicy Sprouts

I love to buy mung sprouts from my store. I always have huge plans on how I will use it but I end up making this sprouts curry. Sprouts spoil very easily so I make it a point to use it within a day or two. The curry is very simple, very healthy and very tasty. Try it next time you have a bag of sprouts or some leftover from other recipe for a quick snack.



Ingredients:
- 1 packet sprouts
- 3 dried red chilies
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dhal
- 1/2 tsp hing
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp oil
- salt to taste

Method:
1. Set a wide sauté pan at hight heat. Add the oil and mustard seeds. Once it pops add the urad dhal. Tear your dried chilies and add it to the oil. Saute for a few seconds. Now add hing and turmeric powder. Cook for 10 more seconds.
2. Now add the sprouts. Stir it continuously and try to keep the heat high. If you reduce the heat sprouts will start releasing water and it will become mushy. Cook this for 3 minutes. Add salt and give it a quick mix. The sprouts will be slightly limp but it will should still be crunchy.

You can eat this as is as a healthy mid afternoon snack. I like this better then the raw sprouts.
I am sending this to Priya's Easy N Tasty - Let's sprout event.

Peach Thokku

Our neighbor has a great yard and he has planted a Peach tree. During the season time the tree was filled with peaches. Some of the branches of his tree fall in our yard side. Our neighbor was very generous and asked us to use the peaches that fall in our yard. In such a small branch we would have collected over 30 peaches. Since I am the the only person who eats fruits, my MIL suggested peach thokku. It is a very tasty thokku. Sweet,sour and spicy it goes very well with dosa,chapathi or idlis.Here is the recipe. Adjust the spice level according to your taste.

Ingredients

- 4 big Peaches
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1/4 tsp hing
- 2 tbsp red Chille powder
- 2 tbsp salt

Method

1. Cut the peaches in bite size pieces.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan. Once the oil is hot add mustard seeds, fenugreek and hing.
3. After it splutters add the peaches.
4. Simmer in medium heat until the peaches become soft and mushy. Using a ladle or a masher, mash the peaches.
5. Add the chillie powder and salt and let it simmer for 10 -15 minutes
6. Taste the thokku and adjust the seasoning.

Serve it with dosa or idli.

Sprouted Baked Channa

Continuing with my interest in sprouting the other day I started some kala channa, black channa dhal to sprout. The black channa dhal are smaller in size and it is used a lot in south indian cooking. This is one of my favorite's for making sundals. We also make a yummy kulubu out of this channa. I was browsing Mallika Badrinath's 100 Masala's and Kuruma recipe and came across this one. It tastes pretty good almost like a chhat but it also tasted good as a side for roti.

Ingredients :
For the channa
- 2 cups black channa sprouted (white/canned chick peas will work great too)
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 2 green chilies slit
- 1 potato (cut this in big cubes)
- 2 tbsp oil
- salt to taste

For the chutney (Grind these to make the chutney)
- 1 bunch corriander/cilantro leaves
- 1/4 cup mint leaves
- 1/4 tbsp jeera or just use ground jeera powder
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
- 3 green chilies (adjust to your taste)

For sweet sauce (Grind this to a fine paste)
- 1 cup water from the tamarind juice
- 2 tbsp jaggary/Brown sugar
- 3 pitted dates

Method:

1. Cook your sprouted channa until it becomes soft. I used my slow-cooker for this. I had to boil my sprouts for 8 hours at a low heat to get the required consistency.
2. Set your oven to broil (400F degree) and broil your potatoes for 10 minutes or until it is golden brown. The recipe calls for deep frying but to avoid the oil I decided to broil it.
3. In a pan add oil and fry the green chilies and onion till they become golden brown.

Putting this together

Coat an oven proof bowl with oil. Add a layer of the cooked channa. Top it with the onions and chilies. Now add a layer of the chutney. Top it with the broiled potatoes. Add another layer of channa and top this layer with the sweet sauce. Bake this in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. Garnish with chopped raw onions (optional) and cilantro and serve it hot. If you are using this as a side to roti I would try to use more of the chutney and less of the sweet sauce.

Sending this one to book marked recipes hosted by Priya(Yallapantula) Mitharwal.
I am also sending this to Priya's Easy N Tasty - Let's sprout event.

Sweet potato buns and Minestrone soup

This months tried and tested event features vegi inspiration. I had a few recipes I had book marked and I decided this was a good time to try these. I picked two of her recipe to make a light dinner. The first one is Sweet potato buns. This was a simple and a healthy bun to prepare. Made very few changs to the original recipe.

Ingredeints:
- 3/4 cup oat flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour ( atta)
- 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
- 1 1/2 tsp bread machine yeast
- 2 tsp brown sugar
- 1 cup mashed cooked, mashed sweet potato
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
- red chili flakes to taste
- 2 tbsp oil
- ground cumin and whole pepper, flax seed

Method:
1. Mix the oat and wheat flour with salt.
2. Add the ground cumin, black pepper and flax powder. Mix in your crushed red chili flakes with salt and brown sugar.
3. Now add the salt, and yeast (as I am using bread machine yeast I typically skip the proofing part). Add the sweet potato and now kneed the dough with required water until you get a soft and a pliable dough. I kneeded mine for 10 minutes.
4. Add 11/2 tbsp of olive oil and kneed it more until the dough absorves all the oil. Coat this soft dough with more oil and keep in a clean bowl that is twice the size of the dough.
5. Keep this in a dry place and let it rise for an hour or so. It should double its original size.
6. Now take the dough and seperate them to small balls. The size depends on how big you want your bread to be. Now line these dough balls in a greasd baking sheet. Let it raise for another hour.
7.Meanwhile preheat your oven to a 375 degree. Bake these buns for 20 minutes. Adjust temp to suit your oven.

Serve them hot with a soup which is exactly what I did. I made a minestrone soup to go with these delicious bread which was another recipe from veg inspiration. Here is a link to the original recipe. I had the day to myself and I was planing this soup for dinner. So I used a cast iron pot and simmered it all day. When I served it at night it was very flavorful and the vegi's had become very tender.



Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup white beans (I used lima beans) cooked
- 1 cup dried pasta ( I used shell pasta)
- 1 medium yellow onions
- 2 medium carrots chopped
- 2 stalks of celery chopped
- 3 very large tomatoes
- 1 tsp each of dried basil and oregeno
- 1 tsp red chili flakes
- 1 tsp of black pepper
- 1 tbsp of sun dried tomatoes (I used the one soaked in oil)
- 3 tbsp of tomato paste (I used this because I did not have vegetable stock)
- 1 tbsp oil
- salt to taste

Method:
1. In a large cast iron pot add oil and saute your onions. Once they become translucent add the carrots and celeray.
2. Cook them for a couple of minutes. Now add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and 2 - 3 cups of water, salt and let it simmer. I let this go at a low flame for an hour.
3. Now add your sun dried tomatoes, and all the spices. Add more water if needed. Mix in your boiled beans.
4. If you have time then I suggest you keep the cast iron pot in a low heat and let it cook through out the day. Otherwise try to use a vegetable broth. In spite of not using vegetable stock cooking it in a low flame just made the soup very flavorful.
5. About half an hour befoe serving add the uncooked pasta and cook till the pasta becomes aldente.

Garnish with parsley and serve hot with a som bread or bun. This was a real easy and healthy dinner.

Sending this to Tried and tested hosted by the taste space – steam, bake, boil, shake!

Sprouted Wheat berry salad

Did you know you can sprout wheat berries? Wheat berries are whole wheat kernels which have had their husks removed. They are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber, and to me sprouting them could only make them better. I made a salad with these sprouts. I did not cook these berries so they were a little chewy. The common way to use this berry is to boil them for an hour. I took the alternate route of sprouting them.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup sprouted wheat berries
- 1/2 cup nuts _ I used a combination of pecans and walnuts
- 2 stalks of celery chopped
- 1 green onion chopped
- 1/2 cup craisins
- 1/2 cup cilantro - Keep 2 tbsp aside
- 1 tbsp lemon juice (Add more if you would like this tart)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- black pepper and salt to taste

Method:
1. In a small bowl whisk the olive oil, pepper, salt and lemon juice to make a salad dressing.
2. In a bowl toss all the ingredients except the nuts and the 2 tbsp of cilantro. Mix in the salad deressing. Refrigerate this for an hour.
3. Before serving toss in the nuts and garnish it with the remaining cilantro.

Serve it chilled with a hot soup and bread. Perfect for a hot day.