Spinach Dal (with Moong dal)

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Ingredients:

* 1 cup moong dal
* 2 cup spinach chopped
* 1 teaspoon grated ginger
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
* 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
* 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (adjust to your taste)
* salt to taste

For seasoning

* 2 tablespoon ghee or clarified butter
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
* Pinch of asafetida
* 4 whole red chilies

Method:

1. Pressure Cook Dal with Spinach, ginger, turmeric, salt and 4 cups of water (Add more water to your consistency)
2. Add Lemon juice or garam masala
3. For seasoning, heat oil or ghee, add cumin seeds and once they crack add asafoetida and whole red chillies and pour over Dal and mix well

This can be served with Rice or Roti

Bisibela bath with Broken Wheat

Friday, January 23, 2009

This is a healthy and tasty dish and tastes as good as the one which we make with rice and also good for health to consume wheat more than rice especially for diabetic people. I made this last night and liked it very much and brought the same for today’s lunch too. Easy alternative for chapattis at nights. It is always a healthy idea not to eat rice at nights so we can make dishes with broken wheat or pasta as alternatives instead of spending lot of time for making rotis/chapathis.

Ingredients

1 cup broken wheat
1/2 cup Red gram dal (Tur dal)
Vegetables - Beans, Peas and Carrot - chopped
Tamarind- a small lemon size
1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
1 teaspoon Urud Dal (Black gram dal)
Curry leaves (optional)
1/2 teaspoon Turmeric powder
pinch of asafoetida
Salt to taste
1 tbsp Oil

1 1/2 Tablespoon Bisibela bath mix powder

Or make Bisibela bath mix (paste) with the below ingredients

1 teaspoon Bengalgram dal
1 teaspoon Urud Dal (Blackgram dal)
1/2 teaspoon Coriander seeds
2 whole Red chillis
small piece of Cinnamon
2 Cloves
2 Cardamom
3 teaspoons grated Coconut

Method

1) Clean Dal and pressure cook with broken wheat in 3 to 4 cups of water. It is a good practice to soak Dal for 15 mins to 30mins in water before cooking so that Dal cooks soon and soft.

2) Extract the juice from tamarind and keep aside. Heat tamarind with water in microwave for a min and extract juice immediately instead of waiting for tamarind to soak in water

3) Heat Oil, splutter mustard seeds, add urud dal and once it turns brown add curry leaves, turmeric powder and asafetida and fry for few secs

4) Add chopped veggies fry for couple of mins and then add Bisibela bath mix (readymade or homemade paste) and 1 cup of water and cook until vegetables are cooked. Now add tamarind juice, cooked wheat/Dal, salt. Mix and cook in medium-low heat for another 5 mins.

Garnish with coriander leaves and ghee and serve hot.

Chickpeas Soup

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Chickpeas soup is another tasty and healthy soup i made last night

Ingredients

1/2 cup chickpeas(soaked overnight and pressure cooked)
1 green chilli
small piece of ginger (1 teaspoon grated)
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1) Heat oil and throw in cumin powder and rest of the ingredients, fry for a min.

2) Cool and grind to a paste with some water. Strain the liquid to the same pan with a strainer and add more water if required and bring to boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

server hot with croutons of your choice

Notes

Make sure the green chilli is very small and do not add more than one. We can add pepper to adjust the taste but if chilli is more we cannot do anything except throwing the soup. Even without chilli it will taste good. So think about your spice level and decide whether to add chilli or not

Bell Pepper Soup (Capcicum)

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

This is another soup which i tried and is a big hit. Quick and healthy made with very less & fresh ingredients. I used 1 yellow and 1 red pepper, but it is okay to use both red or both yellow. I felt this is the best way we can consume healthy vegetables. This soup with a your choice of bread makes a complete healthy low fat meal. Good for weight watchers.

Ingredients

2 large peppers chopped, 1 Yellow and 1 red (capcicum)
2 garlic cloves peeled
1 small onion (1/2 cup chopped)
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil
salt to taste

Method

1) heat Oil olive and throw in cumin powder, add chopped onion and fry for a minute and then add chopped red and yellow bell peppers, garlic and cover and cook in medium-low heat for around 10 mins

2) Once the ingredients are cooled, blend them into smooth paste with 2 cups of water and Strain the juice to the same pan you used for frying the veggies.

3) Bring the soup to boil, add salt and pepper. At the end add dried Basil and serve Hot with your choice of bread

Notes:

You can avoid garlic/Onion if you don't prefer to eat

Sword Beans Dry Curry (Chikkudukaya)

Friday, January 16, 2009

There are 2 variations I make this curry. One using the roasted groundnut powder (Podi) other using coconut.

With ground nut podi (Verusenaga podi)

Ingredients

3 cups chopped beans (Top, tail and remove the strings from both the sides)
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida
pinch of turmeric powder
1 teaspoon oil
curry leaves (optional)
salt to taste

For podi (Powder)
1/4 cup dry roasted ground nuts (pea nuts)
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
3 to 4 cloves of garlic
Method

1) Make a powder of the powder ingredients. Make sure the powder is not too smooth

2) Pressure cook chopped beans without water for one whistle and keep in SIM for another 5 mins.

3) Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add asafoetida, turmeric powder, curry leaves, cooked beans and salt.

4) Now add the groundnut powder and stir fry for couple of minutes until the beans are covered with powder.

with fresh grated coconut

1 Tablespoons of grated coconut
1 teaspoon urud dal

Method

1) Pressure cook chopped beans without water for one whistle and keep in SIM for another 5 mins.

2) Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds and then add urud dal and fry until light brown, add asafoetida, turmeric powder, curry leaves, cooked beans and salt.

3) Stir-fry for a mins and garnish with fresh grated coconut