Spinach and Angel Hair Pasta

This is a simple and flavorful recipe from Honey, What's cooking The best part was the use of whole wheat pasta, spinach and nuts which are all very good for your health.

Ingredients:
- Whole wheat angel hair pasta (I used a box)
- 1 packet (about 10-150z) washed baby spinach chopped (You can use frozen too)
- 1 cup chopped walnuts and almonds
- 1 small onion chopped (I am not a big fan of garlic so I use onion)
- 1 tsp red chili flakes (adjust to taste)
- 1/2 cup chopped basil leaves
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tomato chopped
- salt to taste

Method:
1. Cook your pasta as per the instruction in the package. When you drain the pasta reserve some of the cooking liquid.
2. Heat a small pan and add the nuts. Toss them till they start to crisp. This takes a couple of minutes. Now keep this aside.
3. Meanwhile heat a big pan and add the olive oil, onion and the red pepper flakes. Cook till the onion is slightly brown. Add the toasted nuts.
4. Add spinach, salt and cover to cook this. The spinach will start wilting in the heat in about 3 minutes.
5. Add the cooked pasta and toss it well with the spinach. Add the chopped basil and tomato. Toss it till the tomato heats through. Serve this hot.

Note - If you like you can grate some fresh Parmesan cheese on top. I wanted it to be a healthy dish so I avoided it.

Sending this to Bookmarked Recipe's hosted by Priya.



and to Hearth and Soul

Whole grain pasta with Spinach pesto

I have to apologize for the poor quality of the picture. But let that not deter you from trying this awesome spinach pesto recipe. The good thing is I did not use much oil and neither did I use any cheese. So it is perfect for a vegan meal and on top of it the whole dish comes together in about 15 - 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

- 4-5 cup of whole wheat pasta (Penne or shell should work)
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 tsp of pine nuts and walnuts for garnish

For Pesto
- 1 cup spinach (I used baby spinach)
- 1/2 cup basil leaves
- 1/3 cup roasted walnuts
- 1/3 cup pine nuts
- 2-3 sundried tomatoes in oil (1 used about 2 tsp of oil that comes with the tomato)
- 1 onion chopped and sauted to golden brown.
- garlic (if you like)

1. Cook your pasta as per the instruction in your package. Toss the pasta with the olive oil. Reserve 2 cups of the cooking water from the pasta.
2. Grind the ingredients for the pesto to a smooth paste. If you need to use the cooking water for the pasta.
3. In a big saute pan pour add the pasta and the pesto sauce and toss it around. If you feel it is too dry then add the reserved cooking water from the pasta. Mix them sauce until the pasta is well coated.
4. Sprinkle the pasta with the pine nuts and walnuts. This adds a crunch to the pasta.

Optionality serve it with some fresh grated parmesan cheese.

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

Kerai mor kootu ( spinach with buttermilk)

Ingredients:
- 5 cups chopped spinach
- 1 cup butter milk
- 1 tspn rice flour

Seasoning:
- 1/2 tspn oil
- 1/2 tspn methi seeds
- 1/2 tspn mustard seeds
- 1 tspn channa dhal
- 3 red chilies

Method:
1. Boil spinach with salt till it becomes tender. Then puree it in a blender.
2. Mix butter milk and rice flour in a bowl.
3. In a pan add all the seasoning ingredients and fry till channa dhal turns into a light brown color.
4. In a pot add the spinach, butter milk and the seasoning ingredients and let it simmer. Make sure it does not boil too much because butter milk has the tendency to curdle at high heat.

Serve it hot with rice.

Variation:

Instead of rice flour you can use 1/4 cup shredded coconut, 1 tspn channa dhal and 3 red chilies. Grind it to a paste with the butter milk and pour it with the spinach puree. Use the same seasoning except the red chilies.

Kerai kootu with coconut and pepper

Ingredients:
- 5 cups chopped spinach
- 1/2 cup coconut
_ 1/2 cup toor dhal
- salt to taste

Fry
- 1 tspn peppercorn
- 2 tspn urad dhal
- 1 tspn jeera
- 4 Red chilies

Seasoning:
- 1/2 tspn oil
- 1 tspn Jeera
- 1 tspn mustard seeds
- 1 tspn urad dhal

Method:
1. Pressure cook toor dhal.
2. Boil chopped spinach with salt till it becomes tender.
3. Grind coconut and the fired ingredients to a fine paste.
4. Add toor dhal and the coconut paste to spinach and let it boil till kootu thickens.
5. In a separate pan add oil and all the seasoning ingredients. Pour this on the top of the kootu before serving.

Serve it hot with rice.

You can do the same dish with other vegetables too. We add carrots, bell pepper, potatoes, zucchini and spinach to this kootu.

This is my entry to Healing Foods:Spinach an event by Siri and hosted at present by Divya

Keerai Pulita Koottu (Spinach with Tamarind)

Ingredients

• 3 cups spinach chopped finely


• 1 small size lemon (extract the juice to get 1.5 cups water)

For thaduka


• 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds


• 1 teaspoon Methi seeds


• 3 Red Chillies


• 1 teaspn Oil

Method

1. Boil the chopped spinach in tamarind extract with salt till they are cooked.


2. Add oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then add methi seeds and red chillies. Once they are brown add them to the boiled spinach. Let the spinach boil for another 3 minutes.

Server it hot with rice and poritcha Koottu.

Poritcha Koottu

Toor (or) Thoor dhal or Pigeon pea is a legume that is used widely in Indian cooking. In my culture we start our lunch with hot rice mixed in with cooked toor dhal and ghee. To know more about this wonderful legume click here.

This is a simple recipe where vegetables are cooked in a freshly ground spice mixture and mixed in with toor dhal to create a complete nutritional wonder. We typically serve this kootu with hot rice.



Ingredients
- 2 cups of mixed vegetables (carrots, Peas, potatoes, beans, brinjal, tomatoes) cut into bite size pieces
- 1 cup spinach chopped finely
- 3/4 cup cooked thoor dhal/Pigeon pea
- 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric
- pinch of hing

Roast in a dry pan and grid to a fine powder:
- 1 tbsp urad dhal
- 2-4 red chillies
- 2 teaspoon jeera
- 2 teaspn pepercorns

Seasoning:
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp jeera
- few curry leaves


Method:
1. Boil 3 cups of water and add the ground powder. Add hing, turmeric and salt to it. Let it boil for 2- 3 minutes. This will get rid of the raw smell.
2. Now add the hard vegetable like potatoes,carrots and beans. Once they are half cooked add the rest of vegetables and cook until all the vegetables are tender.
3. Once the vegetables are done add thoor dhal and let it boil for 3-4 minutes at medium heat.
4. Now heat oil in a separate pan, add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add jeera and the hing powder. Fry till they turn brown. Finally add curry leaves and immediately add to the boiling koottu.




This recipe finds its way to my legume love affair hosted by mirch masala