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.

Quinoa Eggplant rice

This recipe is a total inspiration from Priya's blog. This one was a brilliant use of the super nutritious quinoa in our traditional cooking. I got her inspiration but I used my mom's method of making this dish. I would have never guessed quinoa to go well with eggplant but this dish was super yummy.

Ingredients :
- 2-3 eggplants cut to bite size pieces(I used the Japanese eggplant)
- 1 cup quinoa
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- salt to taste

Seasoning :
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dhal
- 1/2 tsp jeera
- pinch of hing
- peanuts (optional)
- curry leaves (0ptional)

Method:
1. Wash the quinoa and then add two measure of water for one measure of quinoa. Microwave it for 20 minutes. The grain will turn into a glossy color. You can fluff this with your fork.
2. In a large pan add the oil and the seasoning ingredients. Once the urad dhal turns brown add your chopped eggplant. Add turmeric and salt and cook till the eggplant becomes soft. Now add the curry masala and mix till the spices coat the eggplant well.
3. Turn the heat down and add the cooked quinoa and mix it well. Use a fork for this other wise the quinoa breaks a lot.

Serve hot with raita or papad.

Sending this recipe to
Bookmark recipes created by Priya of Mharo Rajasthan and and hosted by US masala.
Cooking with whole grains guest hosted by Priya Mitharwal and started by Kiran

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.

Quinoa Chocolate Zucchini muffins

I wanted to bake something with quinoa. I had some sorry looking zucchini in my fridge and so I decided to try out a vegan version of zucchini bread. I hunted down some zucchini bread recipe's but my only issues with them were that they used too much oil. I try to cook with as little oil as possible so I started to modify the recipe and ended up with a pretty tasty version. Here is the link to my original inspiration. I used apple sauce instead of oil or eggs.



Ingredients :
(Yields 18 muffins if you bake in the standard 12 muffin pan)
- 1 cup qunioa flour
- 1 cup flour (I used 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 whole wheat flour)
- 2 cups apple sauce (As there are no eggs or butter you need quite a bit of apple sauce)
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (If you don't want your bread too sweet then half cup will do)
- 1/2 cup walnuts (optional - they give a nice crunch to the muffin)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
- 2 tbs unsweetened coco powder
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 cups shredded zucchini

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F degree
2. In a bowl mix all the ingredients until they are all incorporated. If you find your zucchini is not moist then add a little bit more apple sauce.
3. Now fill the muffin tin to about 2/3rd and bake them for 20 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean when you insert it in the middle,

Serve them warm with a hot cup of tea.

Note: If you don't have quinoa flour just take the 3/4 th cup whole qunioa and grind it in a mixer till it becomes a smooth powder. If you don't have chocolate chip then increase your coco powder.

This one goes to Whole Grain Baking Event – Quinoa hosted by Maduram's eggless cooking and to Bake-off event at Versatile Kitchen.

Kerala delicacy puttu and channa

Puttu is a staple Kerala breakfast items. It is a healthy and a very filling dish. I used the ready made wheat puttu flour to make this. Instead of using the traditional puttu maker I just steamed my puttu in the idli vessel.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup puttu flour
- 1.5 cup shredded coconut
- boiling water with salt added

Method:
1. In a vessel add the puttu flour. Drizzle water and start mixing it. You are looking for a beach sand with water like consistency. When you add water to beach sand you can mold it but at the same time they break down easily. That is exactly what you are looking for. The puttu flour will look like the picture below.

2. In your idli mold first layer your coconut. Then add the puttu flour and press it in. Now add another layer of coconut. Press this in and add your final layer of puttu flour and pack all the layers tightly.
3. Pour water in the bottom of your idli vessel and place the idli molds on top. Let it steam for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and let it rest for a few minutes.
4. Remove it carefully from the mold and serve it hot.

The best accompaniments for puttu is banana and sugar or channa dhal (Kadali kulumbu)

Note: Puttu dries very easily so make sure you make it just before serving.



This recipe finds its way to Dil se - Sunday snack evnet

Quinoa upma

I am becoming a big fan of Quinoa and this time I tried making a south indian style upma. It tasted really good. Give it a try...

Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa
- 3 cups of mixed vegetable
(I used peas, carrots, capsicum, potatoes, beans, frozen black eye peas)
- 1 tomatoes
- 1/2 tsp hing
- salt to taste

Seasoning
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp urad dhal
- 1 tsp channa dhal
- 2 green chili slit into half
- 1 tsp of minced ginger
- few curry leaves
- 1 tsp oil


Method:
1. Clean Quinoa a couple of times. In 2 cups of water add the Quinoa. Once it comes to a boil reduce to a simmer and cook it covered for 15 minutes or until the water evaporates. (or) In a microwave safe bowl add the Quinoa and 3 cups of water and cook for 25 minutes.
2. In a skillet pour the oil and add the mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start to splutter add channa dhal, urad dhal and fry till they turn brown. Add the chillies, curry leaves and ginger. Fry till it becomes soft. Add tomatoes and all the other vegetable and cook till it becomes soft.
3. Add the cooked quinoa and mix it well. Cook for another 3-4 minutes.

Garnish it with cilantro and serve it hot. Can serve it with sambar, thogayal or just plain pickle.



This recipe finds its way to Dil se - Sunday snack evnet

Quinoa pulao

I got the idea to experiment with quinoa after I read Susan's fatfree vegan cooking. Thank you for your suggestion. It turned out to be a fabulous dish.

Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa
- 3 cups of mixed vegetable
(I used peas, carrots, capsicum, potatoes, beans)
- 1 onion
- 1 tomatoes
- 3 cloves
- 1 tsp jeera
- 2 green chili slit into half
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp oil
- salt to taste

Method:
1. Clean Quinoa a couple of times. In 2 cups of water add the Quinoa. Once it comes to a boil reduce to a simmer and cook it covered for 15 minutes or until the water evaporates.
2. In a skillet pour the oil and add the cloves, jeera. Once the jeera turns brown add the chillies and onions. Fry till it becomes soft. Add tomatoes and cook till it becomes soft.
3. Add the other vegetables and cook till they turn soft. Add the garam masala and salt. Cook for another 3 minutes.
4. Add the cooked quinoa and mix it well.

Garnish it with cilantro and serve it hot. I ended serving this with some leftover sambar. Tastes almost like cracked wheat.