Banana Walnut Cake Bars | Eggless Baking

The other day I was reading an article about how Banana Bread is having a moment!! Well, why not - there really is nothing like a bread, bake, or cake made with ripe, sweet bananas!! This is a recipe for Cake Bars and the traditional much loved combination for Banana Cake Bars tends to be chocolate chips. Since we are clean out of those and we are working with what is in the pantry, I decide to go with an ingredient that is much underestimated but truly delicious - walnuts. Walnuts really do very well in baked goods - they give bite, texture, and a flavor to them. If you have never tried baking with walnuts, this a recipe you might want to try!!

Dates and Walnut Cake | Eggless Baking

Date and Walnut was and continues to be one of my favorite cakes. I remember baking it as a kid in high school. We always ate it with hot custard or vanilla ice cream. This recipe is heavily tweaked from my original as it had no eggs and is made with a mix of all-purpose and whole wheat flour. The eggless version comes out really well - great crumb, it slices well, and is incredibly moist and delicious.

Cumin Seasoned Warm Quinoa Salad with Broccolette, Carrots, and Kale | Farmers' Market Days

Summer is here and its time to make salads. I love shopping at our local farmers' market for fresh organic produce. Starting May the market is outdoors and so the pleasure of visiting it just doubles. The sunshine and vendors with bright flowers, fresh fruits, herbs, vegetables just makes shopping such a satisfying experience. Chatting with the farmers who grow the produce and getting to know is a the best bonus that one can ask for.

Banana, Butterscotch, Cardamom Blondies | Eggless Baking

Last weekend I made a super delicious cake. It had all the flavours I love including cardamom, banana, and caramel!! Yes I made the unbeatable Banana, Butterscotch, and Cardamom Blondies!! The aroma of this cake as it baked in the oven was so wonderful that I could not wait to get a pot of water going to enjoy with it. But I resisted the temptation as I had a little time on my hands and decided to use this to glaze it.  To make it especially pretty I pulled out a box of sprinkles and decorated it with some pink and purple sprinkles on the top. Doesn't it look beautiful. Yumm!! This cake is superb with afternoon coffee - the flavours seem made for each other. We loved this cake and its going to be a keeper in my recipe box:)

Chocolate Chunks Cookies | Eggless Cookies

I like to bake cookies. Apart from the taste, I love knowing exactly what they are made of - no artificial ingredients, no colors, nor preservatives, no hydrogenated fats!! This is not to say that I am not occasionally partial to the biscuits I grew up eating in India. Its more that I am now more comfortable with the home baked versions. You can put them together so quickly and most of them can be stored for up to ten days, provided you can keep your hands off them.

Daring Bakers April 2012: Armenian Nutmeg Cake (Eggless)

This month's Challenge from the Daring Bakers was one of the best yet. Jason who writes at the Daily Candor was our host and he chose two traditional recipes from Armenia. We could do both or just one. Though I chose to do only one for the Challenge: the Armenian Nutmeg Cake, I know I would like to make the Nazook too some day!!

Daring Bakers October 2011: A Savoury Take on the Povitica

This Daring Bakers Challenge was interesting albeit after the festive season in October, I could barely stand to see more sugar!! So I decided to tweak this challenge a little to suit our tastes as well as make it savoury!! The filling for this savoury version of the Povitica is a delicious Spicy Walnut Paste, made with walnuts, parsley, green chilies,pomegranate molasses and garlic!! I have also not used egg in the bread or the filling.I could have replaced the egg with some oil for the filling and that's the reason why the whirls are missing on the inside of the bread! These changes aside, I have followed the bread recipe as is.

Banana Walnut Cake (Eggless)

Back to some baking!! The banana-walnut combination is what I always describe as sterling for cakes. The sweetness of the banana is set off perfectly by the oily nuttiness of the walnut. Needless to say, Banana-Walnut Cake ranks as one of the favourites in our home. I developed this recipe for an eggless cake many years ago when I wanted to stop adding eggs to my bakes. Though I still bake with egg whites, I like to avoid them wherever I can. This cake comes out so soft, spongy, and moist, you will never know that it was made without eggs!!

Crunchy Vegetable Salad with Yogurt Dressing

I just crave the taste of garden fresh vegetables in the winter. Though we are under 9 inches of snow here and it is bitterly cold here, we are lucky to get crisp and juicy salad vegetables in our favourite stores. Last week, I bought sweet bell peppers: red, yellow, and orange, crunchy cucumbers, and some beautiful tomatoes for a salad. This is a salad I love - it has a light home made dressing that I make with yogurt and lots of nuts and seeds to add to the crunch!!

Daring Cooks: Spicy Bean, Walnut, and Sun Dried Tomato Pate with Honey Wheat Bread

Pate and bread!! Perfect combination that always reminds me of Michaelmas in London. Brightly lit streets, exotic foods in creatively decorated containers, and loads of colour and warmth all around. Pate is in-season and and so are herbed crackers that go with it. Then again pates remind me of summer in England - they make a wonderful addition to any picnic basket - whether you plan to watch the boat races or head off to the Wimbledon Greens for a day out!!

Warm Pasta Salad with Lima Beans, Bok Choy, and Walnuts

Pasta salads are always fresh, vibrant, and full of taste. They are wonderful in summer when one really does not want to go anywhere near hot food!! But what do you do when you get that pasta salad craving and you are in the middle of cold spring showers? Make a warm pasta salad, of course! They are just as delectable, comforting, and delicious. I made mine with warm macaroni, oven grilled soysage (soya sausage), lima beans, bok choy, onions, and walnuts!!

Avocado & Pepper Salad with Lime-Roasted Cumin Dressing

We are seeing a lot of avocados in the market this winter. Avocados are a beautiful pear shaped green fruit, a berry really, with a soft buttery flesh. They are seen most popularly in guacamole, but you can eat avocados in sandwiches, sushi, use it pureed to thicken curries, in milkshakes, ice creams, and desserts. In a salad, they are divine! Pick a ripe but firm avocado for this salad. For the dressing I used a classic lime dressing with olive oil and honey. The roasted cumin adds great flavour and depth to its taste.

Bean & Walnut Macaroni

Yup!! We have all tried mac & cheese. Undoubtedly a delight for any kid, I have known many adults to succumb to this wholesome and hearty dish. But hey, macaroni is not just for kids. And melted cheese is key to the comfort food that I believe is best set aside for a cold winter day!!

Pasta and innovation just go hand in hand. So here's another original for you from my kitchen. The story behind this is that this year I have created for myself a lovely kitchen garden!! I decided to do this a bit late in the season, so I am enjoying the lovely vegetables a bit later that they would normally have appeared. At present, I have beautiful yellow, almost golden plum tomatoes, yellow wax beans, basil, and cilantro.