Tamatar Chawal | Easy Seasoned Tomato Rice

Rice is the easiest of foods to prepare in a rush. Today's recipe involves cooked rice, so its the prefect recipe if you have some rice ready to use in your refrigerator! This Tomato Rice is a yummy treat for adults and kids alike. I like to serve it hot with chutney and plain yogurt. Alternatively, this is a great treat to carry in your lunch box or for a day out too.

Semolina Carrot Quick Bread Revisited | Healthy Snacks

Semolina Quick Breads are a tasty and healthy alternative to heavy, oily snacks. They are nutritious, filling, and if you are particular about your baked goodies - eggless! Earlier this year I posted my favorite recipe for Semolina Loaf. The recipe was loaded with vegetables and made for a delicious and dense bread. Since then I have tried many permutations of the recipe, and off late we have settled on a somewhat lighter version of the same.

Sada Namkeen Seviyan | Savoury Indian Vermicelli Noodles

I always to try to keep our refrigerator and stocked up with fresh home made meals. Yet every so often I also need to rustle up a really quick meal. Something easy yet delicious that we can enjoy hot off the pan. Seviyan or Indian noodles are my one on my favorite quick cook foods. With a pack or two in the pantry I assure you, you too can feed your family a hot meal in minutes. There are so many ways of preparing the seviyan - just go with your mood and instinct.

Lemon Oats Bhaat | Savoury Lemony Oats

After publishing the Oats Pohe recipe earlier this month, I got many requests from my readers for more Indian Style Oats Recipes. I use Oats in so many recipes that I was surprised to see only two Indian Oats recipes posted to this blog! So here goes another favourite at my home - Lemon Oats Bhaat | Savoury Lemony Oats. In this recipe, I substitute old fashioned oats for rice in the traditional South Indian recipe of Lemon Rice. The result is delicious.

Oats Pohe | Oats Poha | Savoury Beaten Rice and Oats Porridge

In my last post, I mentioned the Oats Pohe we had for weekend breakfast. Pohe is a breakfast or brunch favourite at my home. Its the go to breakfast food whenever we tire of cereal and milk, or toast and spread. I usually use thick rice flakes to make pohe. I also love making it with a super thick beaten rice called Dagdi Pohe which we sometimes get in the stores here. While both do justice to the pohe by not disintegrating while cooking, the latter is a more robust flake of beaten rice and takes up the flavour of the spices in the pohe really well.

Gajar Adrak Chatni | Carrot and Ginger Chutney

Sunday breakfasts are always slow and lazy. I always like to make something slightly different and special. I believe that cereals and milk were just not made for the weekends, were they? Working with this theme, I made some Oats Pohe last Sunday. Filling, super tasty, and nutritious, they made for a wonderful weekend breakfast. As an accompaniment, I made some delicious Carrot and Ginger Chutney.

Tamatar Kanda Pohe | Tangy Tomato Pohe

Back in the day when we were still in school, Mum made yummy tiffin every day. I still marvel at the thought that she would prepare such a variety of tiffin for us early mornings, before we all rushed to the school bus. One of my favourite packed lunches was pohe. While North Indian style pose with onions, potatoes, and cilantro was a regular on weekends, Mum would make delicious Tomato Pohe or Peas Pohe for tiffin.

Arisi Upma | Rice Rawa Upma | Savoury Cream of Rice Porridge

Arisi Upma | Rice Upma | Savoury Cream of Rice Porridge is one of my favourite dishes for breakfast. I love serving it up with raita, plain yogurt, and a variety of chutneys. Its simply the most comforting food on cold winter mornings with a warm cup of tea on the side. This upma is a wonderful variation on the traditional upma but is a lot less heavy. It is easily digestible and also has a lighter taste.

Palak Uppu Kozhukattai | Spinach and Cream of Rice Dumplings

Kozhukattai is a steamed dumpling. It can be made with pretty much any type of flour but it is most commonly made with rice or ragi. It can also be savoury or sweet. I love kozhukattai in all its forms. I make the rice flour and ragi flour one at home for snacking all the time. I also love making the Uppu Kozhukattai. Its got a moreish texture that adds so much to the flavour. Today I made these steamed dumpling with spinach. The were perfect with some delicious zucchini kootu!!

Lemon Quinoa | Lemony Quinoa Pilaf

South Indian style lemon rice is probably one of my favourite rice dishes. It is a delight both to make and to eat - the fragrant tempering, the hot and sharp tastes, and the beautiful yellow colour are so inviting! Its also so easy to make that it can be ready in a snap. It is also great to make if you have left over rice from a party or get together. Lemon rice is one of the dishes I love to make when we are planning a road trip or a picnic. It travels so well, tastes delicious hot or cold, and you never have to worry about the accompaniments.

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.

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.

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!!

Quinoa Pongal with Kale and Peas | Savoury Quinoa Porridge

If you are looking for a quick whole meal there is nothing like kichidi (kedgree) or pongal (porridge)!! Both are very similar savoury complete meals that combine and cook together lentils and rice often with a medley of vegetables and spices. When I was growing up, kichidi was a favourite meal at least once a week. Pongal is something I was introduced in my college days over shared tiffins!!

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!!

Uchche Posto Jhuri | Khus Khus Karela | Bengali Style Bitter Gourd with Poppy Seeds

Karelas or Bitter Gourd have just started coming in at our local farm. We went Karela hunting last week, and got ourselves a stash of eight wonderfully fresh and tender karelas!! This apart from green beans, okra, and some wonderful beets!! My first karela recipe is Khus Khus Karela - this is bitter gourd made in a typically Bengali style with poppy seeds. It is a very simple recipe with just a few spices, but the taste is mind blowing!

Masala Tamatar Bhaat | Spicy Tomato Rice

Whenever I want to make tomato rice, I hunt around for the tangy yet sweet pink tomato!! Piled high at green grocers in the big vegetable markets of New Delhi, these tomatoes were firm yet wonderfully juicy. No winter salad would be complete without them. Tomato purees and tomato paste was not widely available in those days and my Mum and Grandma made do with the fresh version for all those wonderful winter recipes.