Sweet Potato Pesto Cutlets

The new year is here. And my only wish is that it is a good year for each and everyone of us. We began 2010 with friends at a hill station and hoped that the year would have a lot of travel. I must admit, I felt a little cheated in this regard. Not only did we not travel all that much, the few trips that I did have planned, I had to cancel for different reasons. Yet, even on that front, I did travel to my favourite cities in India: Bangalore, Madras and Hyderabad. And eventually moved to settle down in my second most favourite city in the whole world. So, while I do feel a little cheated, on the whole, the year turned out just fine.

Coming to this post. How do you like to spend your weekends? My ideal weekend would be one where I wake up at leisure and find breakfast ready whenever I do. I like to laze around more during the day and just have different meals magically appear at different times of the day. But we all know that is not how most weekends of mine turn out (or any for that matter).

On days when we wake up closer to lunch time, I try to make a full south Indian meal for the first meal and then like to make something "snacky" for later in the day. The decision about dinner is usually left for later. Here's one such snack idea. It is perfect as a snack and can even double up as a meal.

2 Sweet Potatoes, boiled and peeled

1 Potato, boiled and peeled 

2 slices Bread, crumbled

1/4 cup Soya Granules, prepared according to the instructions on the pack

2 tbsp Parsley Peanut Pesto
1/4 tsp Chilli Powder
Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Mash the sweet potatoes and the potato together. Add the crumbled bread slices and the soya granules and mix well. Add the other ingredients. Make small balls of the mixture and flatten each to form a cutlet.

Heat a frying pan and place the cutlets in the pan. Add a few drops of oil around the cutlets. Cook for 2-3 minutes on one side. Turn over and cook the other side for a couple of minutes, adding a little oil if necessary.

Drain on absorbent paper and serve with some tomato or chilli sauce.

This was the first time I cooked with yellow sweet potatoes. We enjoyed the cutlets and I'm sure I'll be making these babies again.

Happy and Healthy 2011 all of you!

Rainbow Pulao

Pulaos are my go-to dish. It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is or what time of the day it is. I love the fact that a one dish meal (the fill it, shut it, forget it kind) can be so tasty, so colourful and so nutritious. If all I’m serving along with this meal is a raita, I make sure I add soya chunks to for the protein element. I usually add all vegetables that I can find and there are times when the outcome is a complete hash. There are of course others when the resultant dish is a beautiful medley of colours. This pulao is one such.

I tend to use any spice that catches my fancy and do not have a fixed rule about which spices to add in which dish. As a result of this, it is rare that a pulao I make on one day will taste like the pulao made on another day. But when it turns out great, I always make a note of what went in. This time around, I used a tablespoonful of Tortilla soup seasoning (Southwest Spice Blend) that my friend, D, sent me from the US. When she sent it, I had no idea what tortilla soup was or how the seasoning is to be used. (It is a different thing that such knowledge is as far from you as you are from the nearest internet PC.) The spice mix has cumin and paprika among other things, so it works very well in Indian dishes.

1 cup Basmati Rice, washed and drained

1 Onion, sliced

2 Carrots, peeled and cut into 2” pieces

1 Capsicum, sliced lengthwise and cut into 2” pieces

2 Potatoes, peeled and cut into 2” pieces

15-20 Beans, strung and cut into 2” pieces

1 Beetroot, peeled and cut into 2” pieces

A small head of Cauliflower, broken into florets

½ cup Peas, shelled

½ cup Soya Chunks, prepared according to instructions on the pack

2 tbsp Oil

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

3 1” sticks of Cinnamon

3-4 Cloves

1 tbsp Tortilla Soup Seasoning (Southwest Spice Blend)

½ tsp Turmeric Powder

½ tsp Chilli Powder

Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pressure pan and add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the cinnamon and cloves along with the sliced onion. Fry this mixture for 2-3 minutes. Add the other vegetables, salt, turmeric and chilli powders along with the tortilla soup seasoning (southwest spice blend). Add the soya chunks and fry the entire mixture for another 5 minutes. Add the rice and 2 cups water and mix well. Cover the pressure pan and cook for 2 whistles. When the pressure is released, open the pan and fluff the rice with a fork. Serve with a raita or plan curd.

We had this with some onion raita and lady’s finger chips from Ananda Bhavan.

I’m also very happy to be a part of the Great Vega’n Vegetarian Project that Cynthia has started. My first post came up yesterday and I hope to be a regular contributor on the blog. Tried & Tasted event event is also currently on and The Singing Chef is the chosen blog for March 2010.

Soya Makhani

When we moved to this new apartment, I somehow didn't manage to cook anything decent for the first few days. But we still took our lunch packed in boxes. The lunches usually had soya, paneer, peas, lentils... you get the drift, don't you? Since Amma and Appa were here then, Amma would make dinner each night and that was the only meal which gave us our vegetable fix.

Soya makhani is one such dish that was put together in less than 10 minutes. Thanks to soya chunks and bhuna masala. This is kind of like the vegetarian version of butter chicken, but made completely the cheater's way.

1 cup Soya Nuggets, prepared according to instructions on the pack

1 packet Maggi Bhuna Masala for Gravy Dishes

1/2 cup Milk

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tsp Dried Fenugreek Leaves (Kasuri Methi)

Salt to taste

Heat the bhuna masala in a kadhai and add the chilli powder, turmeric and salt. Fry for a minute.

(If you do not have access to Maggi Bhuna Masala, you could heat a tablespoon of oil, fry the paste of 1 onion along with a teaspoon of ginger garlic paste. After the onion paste is fried for 3-4 minutes, add 2-3 tbsp of tomato puree and cook for 2-3 minutes more.)

Add the milk and bring the mixture to a boil over a low flame. Add the soya nuggets and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the dried fenugreek leaves and take off the flame. Serve hot with rotis.

If you miss the train I'm on...

... you will know that I am gone. You can hear the whistle blow a 100 miles.

I'm sure you're all wondering what these lines have to do with my food blog. Agreed that this is the blog of The Singing Chef and that music has to be a part of this journey. Read on till the end if you want to unravel this little mystery. This is a long post.

I have always talked about why blogs and cookbooks will co-exist. Each fixes a different problem, a different need. There is a certain joy in going through a cookbook, getting inspired by it, cooking something from it and enjoying it. There is a different joy in blog hopping, finding a recipe, cooking it, letting the blogger know (or even seeking inputs where necessary) and then telling the whole world what a nice recipe that blogger put up. Overall, it fosters a sense of camaraderie. This post is my way of saying thanks to my fellow bloggers for putting up some delicious recipes that have added much needed variety to our dinner table. Some of the recipes that I tried (and we loved) are:

Pumpkin Erissheri from the Jugalbandits.

Tomato Spinach Pulao from Nags' Edible Garden.

Indian Style Baked Tofu from Madhuram's Eggless Cooking.

Pasta the forgotten way from Arundati's Escapades.

Mushroom Stroganoff from Aarti's Life Goes On.

Baby Carrots and Thyme from Nandita's Saffron Trail.

Chukku Kaapi from Mishmash

I have told you all that I didn't intend for this blog to become what it has. All this is a bonus. I only hoped to create a repository of recipes that I can access easily. Today, there are so many people who write back and let me know they tried something from my blog. I feel thrilled. When my "forced-to-be-bachelors-for-a-week" friends write in and tell me they cooked a simple meal from my blog which spared them another night of Maggi, I feel honoured. Then there are some folks out there who would make it seem like I am a celebrity (one even said as much!) and have nominated this blog in the Best Baking Blog category in the FoodBuzz 2009 Food Blog Awards!

This post is as much one to thank each and everyone of you who has visited this blog, encouraged me to continue blogging (especially at those times when I felt like giving up). I want to acknowledge the friends who have come into my life through this very medium. I want you all to know that I am deeply grateful for your presence in my life today. To all of you, I say:

I'm on the top of the world lookin down on creation

And the only explanation I can find

Is the love that I've found ever since youve been around

Your love's put me at the top of the world

But why am I singing the song by Carpenters, when I started with that beautiful song by Peter, Paul and Mary?

If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone

You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles,

A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles,

You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles.

Lord I'm one, lord I'm two, lord I'm three, lord I'm four,

Lord I'm 500 miles from my home.

500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles, 500 miles

Lord I'm five hundred miles from my home.

Because Lord I'm one, lord I'm two, lord I'm three, lord I'm four, Lord I'm 500 posts from my home. And to reach this wonderful milestone on the day that S and I celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary makes both the celebrations that much sweeter! Happy Anniversary Sachin. You've made the last three years so memorable and I look forward to all the memories we will create together.

Baked Soy-Vegetable Cutlets

Cutlets in some form make their way into our lunch boxes at least once a week. Sometimes they get inside a bun and take the form of burgers, sometimes they’re a snack and not the main meal. And while I pan fried them initially, I found that baking takes far less effort. And I can get other things done while the cutlets are baking away. Healthy, effortless and quick, these tasty cutlets are great at any time of the day.


1 cup Mixed Vegetables, cooked
1 cup Potatoes, cooked
1 Onion, chopped
2 tsp Ginger Chilli Garlic Paste
2/3 cup Soy Granules, prepared as per instructions on the pack
3 tbsp Bread crumbs
Salt to taste
1 tsp Oil + oil for greasing the baking tray


Heat the oil and fry the onions for 2-3 minutes. Add the ginger chilli garlic paste and fry for another minute. Add the potato and vegetables and mix well. Add the salt and mash the mixture.


Drain the soy granules and add to the vegetable mixture. Add the bread crumbs, mix well and shape into cutlets.


Grease a baking tray and place the cutlets on it. Bake at 200F for 15 minutes, turning once after 10 minutes.


Serve hot with sauce or chutney. I got around 12 cutlets from this recipe.

Soya Mutter ki Sabzi

Have you woken up one morning to find that you are totally out of vegetables. Or have you woken up 30 minutes too late one morning only to find that you have forgotten to chop any vegetables before hand and have no time to start chopping? I have faced both situations and I have to be grateful for that bag of frozen green peas that sits patiently in my deep freeze compartment. This dish helps us say "no" to the dabba at work rather effortlessly. Adapted from one of Tarla Dalal's recipe, this dish would come under the category of lifesavers if there ever was one.

1/2 cup Soya Chunks, prepared as per instructions on the pack

1/2 cup Peas, cooked

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 Tomato, finely chopped

2 tsp Ginger-Garlic-Chilli Paste

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tsp Coriander Powder

1 tsp Oil

1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds

A pinch Asafoetida

1 tbsp Gram Flour

1/4 cup Curd

Salt to taste

Coriander Leaves for garnish

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds and the asafoetida. When the cumin seeds crackle, add the onions and fry for a minute. Add the ginger-garlic-chilli paste and tomatoes and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and fry for another minute or two.

In a small bowl, beat the curd along with the gram flour and 1/2 cup of water. Add this to the onion-tomato gravy. Add the drained soya chunks and the peas. Bring to a boil over a low flame, stirring continuously. Garnish with chopped coriander. Enjoy this hot with rotis.

Curry in a hurry? When you're running a marathon, you must hurry, at least a little. Are my friends a little out of breath? Find out here: Anu, DK, Siri, Srivalli, Ranji, PJ, Curry Leaf, Medha, Priya, Bhawna, Raaji, Ruchii, Kamala, Roopa, Divya Kudua, Rekha, Divya M, Lakshmi, Lakshmi Venkatesh , Sripriya, Viji, Kamalika, Pavani

Sharing the excitement

I hadn't been blogging regularly, but I had been cooking. I was mostly cooking the same stuff that I'd already blogged about. When I did make new stuff, I forgot to take pictures. When I did take pictures, I forgot to load them to my laptop. And when I did load them to my laptop, I figured I didn't have the time to blog after all. Now since some of you have been missing my posts and have urged me and encouraged me to start posting again, I feel totally enthusiastic about writing here again. Who knows, I may be a regular after all!

I had a recent mishap in the kitchen when something I was frying exploded in my face as I was trying to turn it over. Fortunately, in addition to a proficiency badge in Cooking, I also hold one each in Firs Aid and Ambulance Man (slightly more advanced than First Aid). And more fortunately, S is a clinical pharmacologist and knew exactly what medication to use. A week ago, my face was part burnt and I had a series of burn marks on my face. Today I am much better and about 95% of the scabs that formed on the burns have fallen off.

Now, I shall share with you some of the things I've been cooking from your blogs.

There's this lady we all know. She lives in a cold and rainy port town with a beautiful view of the port and the mountains. While she shares pictures of lovely Seattle, she also puts up some very classy pictures that can make you drool. I don't cook any meat and yet when I look at the pictures she puts up, I feel I absolutely have to try them out. I bought a packet of fake chicken legs and I will try some of her chicken recipes soon. I had planned to recreate Sig's Chilli Chicken with paneer, but I decided to make it with Soya chunks. I followed her recipe for most part. I omitted the tomato ketchup and added some cornflour mixed in water to the dish. It was so tasty that I ate most of it from the pan. Thanks Sig, this is a keeper recipe.

I talk with great pride about adding new vegetables to my repertoire and one such vegetable is the very humble cluster bean. Last year, just as the season for these vegetables passed us Delhi/NCR folks by, Anita put up this wonderful recipe. I never did care much for these beans, but her pictures made me want to eat it right then. This year as soon as the beans came into season, I asked Anita if I could pick up a small amount of the Goda masala she'd made, as by her own admission, it would make or break that dish. She graciously agreed and handed it to me when we met briefly in August. It just so happened that I never seemed to find tender cluster beans. When I finally did, I made it for dinner when S was returning from one more of his trips. I can't tell you all what a comforting meal it was. Thanks Anita. The recipe and the masala are both much appreciated and I'm forever grateful.

I served the nutty cluster beans with some varan-bhaat. I started following Nupur's recipe as it seemed closest to the varan Amma used to make when we were kids. But I got distracted while adding the curry leaves and ended up with a tempering of mustard, red chillies and curry leaves. So I ended up with a cross between Dali-saar and Varan. No one was really complaining. Thanks Nupur.

My namesake, Arundathi, took some of this stuff to the Chennai food bloggers' meet. I thought it was normal mor kuzhambu with tomatoes instead of ash gourd. Then when we were discussing a party menu, she decided to make this again. I was intrigued. Though I never did ask her even once how this dish was made, I waited for her to post her recipe. I made it that very weekend. And it was a hit. S declared it "the best yogurt based dish I'd ever made. We had it with rice and vazhaikkai karumadhu just as we would have had normal mor kuzhambu (even with some yelai paruppu on the side). The next day, I made some instant idiappam and we had those for breakfast with the leftover tomato mor kuzhambu. I know, now, why she considers such a great party dish. It is bound to be a hit. The colour of this dish and the flavours are so nice that everyone will end up licking their fingers, plates and bowls. Thanks Anu.

Mixed Bean Soup

I've talked about how I'm on my way to soon becoming Ms. Bean! One of the things that I made recently was this: Bean Cutlets. I had some mixed beans leftover from this exercise and decided to try out this soup. It tasted more like a not-so-spicy Indian bean dish than a soup. But we had it with some toast and it felt like a full meal for S and like a soup for me!

1 1/2 cups Mixed Beans, soaked and cooked

1 tbsp Oil

1 Onion, sliced

1/2 cup Potato, diced

1 Carrot, chopped

1 tsp Green Chilli Paste

1 tsp Garlic Paste

1/2 tsp Coriander Powder

1 tsp Chilli Powder

3 cups Water

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a pan. add the onion, potato and carrot and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the chilli and garlic pastes and cook for another minute. Add the coriander powder, chilli powder and the water. Bring this mixture to a boil and cook for 20 minutes. Stir in the mixed beans and season with salt and pepper.

My beans were mashed earlier and I think this soup is likely to taste much better with the cooked beans left whole.

Soyabean Curry

I think I’m on my way to becoming Ms. Bean! I’ve started including beans and lentils into meals at least twice a week. I find the resulting dishes simple, tasty and healthy. I was clearing out a shelf when I came across a bottle of pigeon peas. I set to work and made bendi. I found this bottle of white soyabean right next to the pigeon peas. The only thing I’ve ever had with white soyabean is bendi again. I didn’t want to make the same dish twice in the same week. But I soaked the soya beans anyway.


Armed with my bottle of Aashirwad Multipurpose Cooking Paste, I set out to make this very simple side dish.



1 cup Soya Beans, soaked overnight and drained
3 tbsp Multipurpose Cooking Paste
1 tsp Oil
1 tsp Chilli Powder
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Kitchen King Masala
Salt to taste

If you do not have this paste or would like to make the paste yourself, this is the recipe.

2 Onions, sliced

1 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste

1-2 tbsp Oil

2 Tomatoes, blanched and sliced

Heat the oil in a kadhai and fry the onions along with the ginger-garlic paste. Add the sliced blanched tomatoes. Fry this for 2-3 minutes.


Heat the oil in a pressure pan and add the cooking paste. Add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and the kitchen king masala along with the salt. Fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the soya beans and enough water to cover the beans. Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles.

You could garnish this with coriander leaves if you wish. I forgot to do any of that. This dish was really a treat at lunch time and I’ll be sure to make this often.

Egg Biryani

Biryani. The very word makes my mouth water. Made differently in each state in India, I've often heard people say, "This isn't authentic, ours is." Well, I've always loved Egg Biryani and have ordered it as often as possible. I never attempted making it at home (without a readymade mix, i.e.). And somehow, my food never smells good. I know some people whose kitchens start spreading aromas almost as soon as they’ve placed the pan over the flame. With my cooking, it almost never happens. Until a week ago, I could safely say, “It never happens”, but my biryani changed all that. For the very first time in all these years of cooking, the aroma of my cooking actually made us drool. So, I don't know if this authentic or not. I didn't cook it in layers, I didn't cook the rice separately from the rest of the stuff and I didn't marinate anything and I most definitely used no curd.


But nonetheless, I think it was great and I’m sharing with you my very first attempt at a biryani.

1 cup Basmati Rice, washed and soaked
4 Eggs, boiled, peeled and halved
¼ cup Soya Chunks, soaked and drained (optional)
4 Fake Chicken Drumsticks, cooked (optional)
2 tbsp Oil
1 Bay Leaf
3 Star Anise flowers
1 Green Cardamom
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 Onion, sliced
Salt to taste

To Garnish:

¼ cup Fried Sliced Onions
2 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped

To be Ground to a Paste:

1 tsp Cumin Seeds
1 tsp Coriander Seeds
1 tsp Poppy Seeds
1 tbsp Cashews
1 tbsp Peanuts
1/4 tsp Carom Seeds
1 Onion
4 pods Garlic
4 Red Chillies
1 tsp Fennel Seeds

Heat the oil. Add the cumin seeds, star anise, cardamom, bay leaf and onion. Fry for about 3-4 minutes. Add the paste and fry for about 5 minutes. Add the rice, soya chunks, fake chicken, eggs and about 1 and ¾ cup boiling water. Add salt to taste. Pressure cook for 3 whistles on a low flame.

Garnish with the fried onions and coriander leaves. Serve with a raita.

This is off to Think Spice - Think Star Anise hosted by Sunita. I brought Star Anise from Madras as I was forced to. I needed it to make Sig's Kadala Curry. I couldn't find this spice in any shop then (despite drawing it for the shop keepers) and I am so happy that I could use it now.

Mixed Vegetable Poha

Poha is one of favourite breakfasts. And I make it quite often, not just for breakfast, but for dinner as well. And I add as many vegetables as I possibly can while making it. Potatoes were a standard in the one Amma made. My Mami added peas to it. I add whatever I can lay my hands on. I love eating colourful stuff and the addition of a variety of vegetables results in a rainbow like dish and I kind of love it. Many months ago, I was looking at one of Nandita’s videos and I saw her add soya granules to her poha. Then Rajitha came up with soy as the ingredient for this month’s WBB. I thought about the various ways in which I could sneak in soya in a breakfast dish. I thought about a banana shake with soy milk. I thought about soya beans in gravy to go along with toast. But I remembered that I had a packet of Soy Day granules. So in that went into my poha on a chilly morning. I made a very heavy breakfast so that I could do with something light for lunch.

1 cup Beaten Rice (Poha)
1/3 cup Soy granules
1 Carrot, cut finely
3 Spring Onions, chopped
2 tbsp Corn
2 tbsp Peas
1 tsp Oil
¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
¼ tsp Mustard Seeds
¼ tsp Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Chilli Powder
1 Green Chilli, slit
Salt to taste

Wash the beaten rice and drain it. Add the salt, chilli powder and turmeric powder and keep aside.

Soak the soy granules in water (or prepare them as per the instructions on the pack. I use Soy Day as the effort involved from my side is minimal. It soaks in ordinary water.)

Heat the oil in a kadhai and add the mustard, cumin and the asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the green chilli and the spring onion whites. Add the curry leaves and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the carrots, peas and corn. Add some salt and then cover and cook for a few minutes. Add the beaten rice and soy granules. Garnish with the spring onion greens. Enjoy this as soon as it is made.

Off this goes to Rajitha in celebration of Soy this month.

Mixed Vegetable Curry

I have been busier this past week than I have been in a long time. So, much as I promised to be regular and all that, I have not managed a single post in an entire week. While work did keep me occupied a great deal, I also had my cousin and family visit me from Bombay. They returned to their base last morning. Having a three year old in the house can be a lot of fun and it can also be a very trying experience. Especially if the little one doesn't enjoy mealtimes. I have been thinking an awful lot about how I became a non fussy eater. How did I learn to not just eat what was placed in front of me, but also relish it? I made a pizza on the day the family arrived. My niece did not even look at it. (On another day, we went to Pizza Hut, and she devoured a double cheese pizza.) I baked vegetable buns and chocolate chip buns. She didn't even look at them. I tried telling her that she should try things out before deciding whether she likes them or not. Did I succeed? Not entirely. Which also means that I didn't entirely fail. I got her to look forward to milk time. She tried chocolate milk and strawberry milk and found that milk was not all bad. She enjoyed a fluffy cheese omelette for breakfast one morning. The entire episode got me thinking and I figured that I am this way because of my parents and their attitude towards food. If my parents had nurtured strong likes and dislikes in me, I may very well have fallen into the category of fussy eaters. For this 3 year old, meal times meant dal-rice and curd rice. In many ways, I couldn't help but empathise with her for not enjoying meals. But it got me thinking nonetheless.

I also wonder why meal times have to mean rice or rotis. There was this one time when we'd invited a bunch of people over for dinner. I'd made several items and served biscuit rotis as appetizers. We had a 3 year old who devoured them. He ate three and a half rotis and then had a bowl of tomato soup. Quite a meal for someone who'd just turned 3. In fact, quite a meal for someone who turned 30 as well. Despite this, his mother fretted over his not having eaten rice and made him eat a serving of peas pulao and then some curd rice.

While I have been wondering about all this, you must be wondering if I have been cooking at all. I assure you, I have. I am not in the cracker and milk mode and have a decent meal each night. I am also having very decent breakfasts and lunches. I have not had a chance to buy fruit and that's the only item missing from my daily diet and I will fix this very soon.

I made this mixed vegetable curry to go with rotis some time ago and liked it a lot. I made it again today with mushrooms and soya and had it with some jeera rice. I didn't click a picture, but since the recipe is the same, I decided to write about this one. I just put in whatever I could find in the mixie jar and made this paste. This has no onions and no garlic. So it is ideal fasting/festival food.

1 cup Carrot, cut into long pieces

1 cup French Beans, cut into long pieces

1/2 cup Soya nuggets, prepared as per instructions on the pack

1 tbsp Oil

Grind to a paste:

2 tbsp Cashews

2 tbsp Peanuts

4 Red Chillies

1 tsp Coriander Seeds

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder

1/4 tsp Kashmiri Chilli Powder

Salt to taste

This dish tastes great when prepared over the stove as well as in the microwave.

Stove Top Version:

Pressure cook the carrots and beans.

Heat the oil in a kadhai. Add the paste and fry for a few minutes. Add the vegetables and the soya nuggets. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.

Microwave version:

Place the carrots and beans in a microwave safe bowl. Add a little water. Cover and cook on high for 5 minutes. Keep aside.

In another microwave safe bowl, place the oil and heat on high for a minute. Add the paste and cook on high for 2-3 minutes, stirring after every minute. Add the vegetables and soya nuggets. Cover and cook on medium for 5-7 minutes. Allow for a few minutes of standing time.

Enjoy this dish with rotis or rice or even bread. I am sending this to Suganya for her Vegan Ventures event.

I am also sending this to Srivalli for her Microwave Easy Cooking: Side Dish Series.

We are off to attend the wedding of S's friend in Agra. And after we get back, we have 5 other weddings to attend this week. That definitely means almost no cooking at home. I hope that doesn't mean no blogging. I have not even thought about RCI this month yet and there's the JFI entry that I have to post. There's the big issue of WBB as well. I will get back to this blog as soon as I can. See you soon.

Soya/Paneer Capsicum

This is what happens when you forget that you have a blog and then remember when most of the food is gone that you have to take a picture. This is a dish that I made twice in the same day. With paneer in the morning and with soya in the evening. I remembered to take a picture of the dish when my guests had finished eating most of what I'd made. A pretty simple dish that I made without referring to any cookbook. Just going by taste and figuring out the ingredients that might give it the flavour I want.

Ingredients:

1 cup Soya Chunks or Paneer Cubes

2 Onions, sliced

1 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste

1-2 tbsp Oil

2 Tomatoes, blanched and sliced

2 Capsicums, sliced

1 tsp Cumin Powder

1 tsp Coriander Powder

1/2 tsp Garam Masala

1 tsp Chilli Powder

1 tsp Turmeric Powder

1-2 tbsp Tomato Puree

Salt to Taste

Chopped Coriander leaves for the garnish

If you are using soya chunks, prepare them as per the instructions on the pack.

Heat the oil in a kadhai and fry the onions along with the ginger-garlic paste. Add the capsicum slices and the sliced blanched tomatoes. Fry this for a bit. Add the spices and salt and fry for 1-2 more minutes. Add the tomato puree and a little water if need be. Add the soya chunks or paneer pieces. Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes and then garnish with coriander leaves.

This dish goes very well with phulkas and we have eaten it with rice as well (Rice always saves me cooking time and effort!).

Fusilli with stir fried vegetables

I am always looking for one dish meals that would fit well in our lunch boxes. This is something that I make very often and is tasty as well as nutritious.

Ingredients:

1 packet Fusilli Pasta (I use Bambino)
2 onions, sliced
2 tomatoes, sliced thinly
1 capsicum, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup Soya chunks, soaked in water or cooked, depending on the type
2 tbsp and 1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp each of oregano, thyme, pasrley and basil
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp garlic paste
2 tbsp tomato puree
Salt and pepper to taste
A few sprigs of fresh Parsley

Boil the fusilli in a pot of water with a little salt and 1 tsp olive oil till it almost done. Drain and wash under running water.

Heat the 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and add the chilli flakes, garlic paste and onion slices. When the onions are translucent, add the tomatoes, mushrooms and capsicum and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the soya chunks, herbs and the tomato puree along with the salt and pepper and cook for another minute. Add the boiled pasta and mix well. Garnish with parsley and serve.