Savoury Semolina Loaf with Carrot and Sunflower Seeds | Healthy Snacks

Semolina | Sooji | Rava is great for preparing all kinds of snacks in the Indian Kitchen. I use it for Upma, Rava Idlis, Cheelas (North Indian Style Pancakes), and Dosas (South India Style Pancakes). I also add it to savoury muffins, scones, and biscuits, which I make for breakfast on weekends. This semolina loaf is just a leap away from a savoury muffin. Its a great alternative entree at breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack. In fact, its quite like a quick bread only a lot tastier as it incorporates tonnes of flavour with spices and vegetables. Its wonderfully grainy texture which comes from the semolina allows it to take on a lot more flavour than any flour!!

Asparagus Pepper Rice | Rice Recipes

A simple recipe for a quick lunch today. Though asparagus is a seasonal vegetable, we sometime also get it around the festive period. I love asparagus and if I see it I just can't resist buying it. Usually we eat it sauteed in olive oil and butter with lots and lots of garlic. But sometimes I also make Indian style recipes with it. Asparagus Pepper Rice is one of the easiest ways to use asparagus and any left over rice. It is a great add on item for a family lunch or dinner.

Nimboo Wali Arhar Dal | Lemony Toor Dal

Toor Dal easily qualifies to be the creamiest of dals in Indian cooking. Its also very flavourful and highly versatile. Its delicious on its own but also make for a great base for amti, sambar, khichri, and bisi bele bhaat! I am particularly fond of cooking this dal with ginger and garlic, tempering it with hing, and then adding a big squeeze of lemon into it. Delicious and heavenly!!

Cilantro Millet

Millet is a grain I use quite regularly. I use it as a substitute for rice and sometimes mill it for adding to breads. My last stash of millet finished a few weeks. So off I went to my grocery store, down the organic aisle and to my great surprise - no millet!! Then I chugged off to the local coop - no millet, next came the wholesale organic store - and yet no millet. Oh well, I thought - I'll buy it online. A few clicks later - no millet - no stock anywhere!! Strange coincidence I pondered - all the millet in my part of the world has gone off the market just on the day I need it!!

Moong Dal Tadka | Tempered Mung Dal

As I had mentioned in a previous post, dal is a staple in most Indian homes and ours is no exception. I am making a lot of dals these days. I love my cup of dal in the afternoon and try to mix it around with a variety of lentils and beans all cooked and tempered in many different ways. Today I am sharing a recipe for a simple mung dal that is tempered with ginger and garlic.

Phool Gobhi ki Bhaji | Cauliflower Saute

With the temperatures diving into the 70s, the weather has turned rather autumnal around here. The leaves on the trees are still green, and there is no fall. But the sunshine seems to have acquired that mellow quality that makes autumn so incredibly beautiful. The flowers are still in bloom and we are seeing a lot of bumblebees, geese, and squirrels!! Its wonderful to enjoy the great outdoors and we have been stepping out every evening to enjoy the longer daylight hours too! That often leave me with a rather short window to rustle up a hot and fresh meal for dinner.

Patta Gobhi ki Bhaji | Sauteed Cabbage | Farm Fresh Produce

Cabbage is a wonderful vegetable. Apart from belonging to the family of cruciferous vegetables, it is packed with beta-carotene, Vitamin C, and fiber! My last visit to the farm yielded some beautiful heads of cabbage, kohl rabi, beets, and cucumbers. I was also able to get some glossy banana peppers and some fragrant lemon grass.But more about those later. Today I want to share a cabbage recipe I developed for the farm fresh cabbage I got last weekend.

Chana Dal Takda | Tempered Bengal Gram Dal and a Round Up of Healthy Me and Healthy Us

Dal is a staple in Indian homes - prepared at least for one meal if not two. As I kid I remember enjoying dal for both lunch and dinner. Moong was our lunchtime favourite and for dinner Arhar or Toor Dal always won hands down. Other dals were always included in the diet and my Mum always alternated between making the wide variety of dals and beans that are available in India. Today I follow this tradition of cooking dal at home. Often I use the pressure cooker as it is perfect to get dals ready in a jiffy. But sometimes I like to soak dals for up to two hours before cooking and then slow cook them in a stock pot on the stove!

Panch Phoren Tarke Wali Chana Dal | Bengal Gram Lentils with Five Spices

The first time I came across Panch Phoren was in university. Invited for dinner at a Bengali friend's home, I enjoyed some delicious vegetables prepared with these spices. Of course, this was not the first time I had tasted this spice mix - but it was undoubtedly the first time my attention was drawn to it as a cook!! After dinner my friend showed me a bottle of this mix - a delightful combination of mustard seeds, nigella seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and fenugreek seeds. A bit like a spice combination for a typical pickle from Uttar Pradesh!! No wonder I loved the flavours.

Subz Korma | North Indian Style Mixed Vegetable Korma | No Chili Peppers

There are times when I like to make subzi without any chili powder or green chilies. Just flavor with whole spices, garam masala, tomato, garlic, and cilantro, and you get the most wonderfully flavorful blend!! Today I am adding just such a recipe to my food blog - Subz Korma or North indian Style Vegetable Korma. This dish is not only delicious, but also nutritious and perfect for little ones.

Chinese Sweet Corn Soup | Indo Chinese Kitchen

We were suddenly faced with some rather inclement weather last week - rain, thunder, storms, and high winds!! It was pouring for 2 days straight which sent the temperatures tumbling. I decided we needed some good hot soup to make up for the chill. As were not in the mood for any creamy and heavy stuff, and I was clean out of tomatoes (tomato soup is my favourite), I decided on some sweet corn soup Chinese style. It never sits on the stomach but can fill you up too. As I got the ingredients together I realized that it has been ages since I made this soup. Luckily I had saved a tin of creamed corn in my pantry just for such a moment!!

Artichoke, Ricotta, and Chickpea Calzone | Italian Kitchen

Calzones make for a hearty and filling snack in a picnic basket or an entree for a meal on a hot platter. I love making calzones as they are so easy to put together, can be refrigerated for up to three days and taste super hot or cold!! Just add a salad and a cup of milk and you are good to go.

Chow Chow Curry | North Indian Style Chayote Squash Curry

 

Chayote Squash or what is commonly known as Chow Chow is not a vegetable I was familiar with in my childhood. I don't remember seeing Chow Chow in a big vegetable markets in Delhi, though I am sure some smaller vegetable vendors might have carried it regularly to customers accustomed to using it. I remember eating a lot of Doodhi (Bottle Gourd) and Karela (Bitter Gourd) but Chow Chow was never on our platters. So it comes as a sort of irony that today I can buy Chow Chow in any supermarket or farmers market I visit, but I get to see the best quality Doodhi and Karela only in season at my local farm.

Masala Matar | Green Peas Masala

Regardless of season I always keep green peas in my refrigerator or freezer. They are perfect for adding to pretty much any curry or dal and also make great stuffing for parathas, pooris, and kachoris!! Fresh peas tend to be so sweet and delicious that I generally make very simple recipes with peas. They taste best when they are just a little undercooked and not over seasoned. But once in a while I like to indulge and make curry rich dishes that include peas. My brothers visit last weekend was one such occasion and I wanted to make loads of special food to spoil him.

Whole Green Lentils and Kale Kootu

Its been the most incredibly busy week. Its also been some time since my last post and I have been trying to get this recipe out on the blog for the last 4 days!! Anyway, I guess its better late than never. This is a deliciously nutritious recipe for whole green lentils with kale. You can enjoy this quite simply in a soup form or with rice.

Bandhkopir Charchari | Cabbage Fry

Cabbage is an extremely versatile vegetable. When cooked correctly, it can hold its own to pretty much any other vegetable. This of course means  - no boiling cabbage. I had read about boiled cabbage in so many English books but could never actually fathom how the vegetable could be eaten in this form. In my humble opinion, cabbage is not a vegetable that takes kindly to being boiled. It tends to wilt in the most unsavoury fashion and acquires the most unappetizing grey pallor!! To make matters it tastes pretty much like nothing on earth, a fact that I discovered in person when attending a conference in Northern England not too many years ago! Needless to say the experience confirmed my belief that soggy cabbage is inedible, but it did not dent my love of this vegetable.

Whenever I do a grocery round, I make a point to buy a nice head of cabbage, but I always try and make a different recipe with it. As cabbage is pretty much generic to cuisines across the world. especially India, this is not at all a difficult task. Today I am sharing a recipe that I have wanted to share for a long long time. It is Bandhkopir Charchari, a Bengali classic!! A simple and delicious vegetable to accompany Indian flatbreads, particularly the sinfully deep fried pooris!!

Great Northern Beans Curry | White Beans in a Tomato Gravy

Simple gravies that go well with flat breads and rice are a staple of the Indian kitchen. I love cooking with beans and use a great variation of gravies to curry them Sometimes its just being creative with whatever is on hand. Sometimes its a pre-planned project complete with roasting spices, grinding, frying, and then boiling the beans in the said curry.

Beans Moongphali ki Bhaji | Green Beans Curry with Peanuts

Green beans are a staple in my home! I purchase organic green beans at a local store and now that we are in spring we are getting wonderfully tender beans. I usually make green beans in one of the many ways my Mum cooks them. But I do experiment with them a lot and you will see a good number of green bean recipes on this blog.

Brussels Sprouts ki Bhaji | Brussels Sprouts Stir Fry

I like a light weekday lunch, usually a roti, a cup of dal, and vegetable. Brussels Sprouts just fit the bill for a simple vegetable on the lunch menu. Though Brussels Sprouts are the bane of many a cook's existence, and often saved for a Christmas meal, at which time they are supposed to be a delicacy, I rather like their bitter nutty taste. This was one vegetable that I loved cooking throughout the year back in London. It really quick, very nutritious, and wonderful with chappatis!

Hara Matar Kootu | Green Peas Kootu

Here is a simple and healthy recipe for you and your family. A mix of yellow moong dal, green peas and a freshly prepared spice mix, this kootu is simply heartwarming. I love to make this recipe in the winter when its snowing outside and so cold you would not want to budge. The ultimate in comfort food, enjoy this kootu with hot rice and dollop of ghee on the top!!