Tomato Red Pepper Saar

Soups and I have had a long lasting affair. So, it is really no wonder that I picked Soups and Salads as a theme for this month's MBP. Given that summer was upon us, I thought I'd pick a cold soup or a salad as spending even a few minutes over a pot of soup didn't seem very exciting. It was something I could have done without. But then the weather changed. All of a sudden, it was a pleasure to slave in front of the stove. The storm that we've been having for this past week has given us a wonderful respite from the heat. And so, all I wanted was to get my hands around a bowl of soup and feel warm. Since S was out most of the week before last and I was out on a camping trip later, we were out of vegetables. I had just what it took to dish out Nupur's Tomato Red Pepper Saar. I know for a fact that this will be made often. The addition of onions and red pepper to my ordinary Tomato Saar took it to a different level.

I modified Nupur's recipe a wee bit and we had it with some Pulao and Egg Curry.

4 Tomatoes, chopped

1 Onion, diced

1 Red Pepper, diced

1 tsp Oil

3 pods Garlic, chopped

2 Green Chillies, sliced

100 ml Coconut Milk (about 2/3 cup)

1 tbsp Jaggery

Salt to Taste

Heat the oil and fry the onion, garlic, chillies and red pepper. After 3-4 minutes, add the tomatoes along with 1/2 a cup of water. Cook until soft. (Alternatively, you could do this in a pressure pan and pressure cook for 1 whistle.) When cool, blend in a liquidizer and strain. Add the coconut milk, jaggery and salt and bring to a boil.

I skipped the seasoning that evening, but will make it as a traditional saar the next time. Thanks Nupur for a simple and fantastic recipe.

Today is the last day for this month's MBP: Soups and Salads. If you haven't already sent in your entries, now is the time to do so.

Methi Mutter Malai

Everyone who has been following this blog with any regularity would know by now that I have a weakness for colourful things. I like my dishes to look like they were inspired by a rainbow. And if I can’t manage them in one dish, then I try to get my plate to look multi-coloured by making dishes in contrasting colours. This craze extends beyond food. (No, I don’t dress like a rainbow everyday.) I just love shopping for vegetables in winter when every fruit and vegetable shop in sight is bursting with colour. I think I end up buying more fruits and vegetables just because they appeal to me visually.



I bought a lot of greens last winter and tried to use them in a variety of ways. I spent many weekends cleaning mounds of fenugreek and spinach. One day, I cleaned two bunches of fenugreek and then attacked the bag of peas. I was wondering how to pair the two and I remembered the Methi Mutter Malai that I’d eaten in Hyderabad. I decided to make it the very next day. The other dish that I regularly ordered there was methi Chaman Hariyali. I hope to find the recipe for that someday.


This dish turned out to be very good and I can’t wait for the leafy greens to come back into season.


2 cups Fenugreek Leaves, washed and chopped
½ tsp Cumin Seeds
½ cup Green Peas, cooked/boiled
½ cup Milk
2 tbsp Cream
¼ tsp Sugar (optional)
1 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste


To be ground to a paste:


1 Onion
2 Green Chillies
½” piece Ginger
2 cloves Garlic
2 tbsp Cashews
1 tsp Poppy Seeds



Heat the oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the fenugreek leaves and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the paste and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the milk, cream, sugar, salt and green peas. Cook for 3-4 minutes. Serve with rotis.

No one's taking any rest on the 7th day and the Recipe Marathon is going strong:

Lakshmi: Mint Rice

Srivalli: Lunch Box Series

Arundathi: wontons

Dhivya: Beet Hummus

Ranji: Papdi Pizza

Siri: Egg Puffs

Swati: Dimsums

Divya Vikram: Reva Kesari

Vegetable Focaccia

My father-in-law gifted me a book called "Everyday Light Meals". I have no idea why he picked out a book that has less than 10% devoted to meatless meals. It has 4 main sections: Poultry Meals, Beef Meals, Pork Meals and Seafood Meals. The section on Meatless Meals is almost an afterthought. But it is a gift and while I may never have picked such a book up for myself, it is not like I am going to return it. I might as well make good use of what I can.

I leaf through the Meatless Meals section quite often and one night I decided to make this Vegetable Focaccia. We wanted pizza but didn't have any cheese at home. This seemed like a great way to have pizza with no cheese. I modified the recipe as I didn't have all the ingredients on hand that night.

1 cup Flour

1 cup Wheat Flour

1 tbsp Fresh Yeast

1 tsp Salt

1 cup Water, warm

1 tbsp Olive Oil

For the topping:

3 Tomatoes, chopped

1/4 cup Mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup Capsicum, chopped

1/4 cup Olives, sliced

1/4 cup Onion, chopped

3 tbsp Olive Oil

2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar

3/4 tsp Salt

1 tsp Garlic Paste

1/4 tsp Oregano

2 tsp Cornmeal

1/4 tsp Pepper

For the dough:

Take a huge mixing bowl and place the oil and salt in it. Add the water and mix well. Add the yeast and mix well. Add the flours and knead into a dough. Place the dough in a greased vessel and cover it with a damp muslin cloth. Set aside for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the topping and keep aside.

To Proceed:

Grease a pizza plate. Spread the dough over the plate and prick all over with a fork. Bake at 475F for 5 minutes (or until browned). Top with the vegetable mixture and bake for another 10 minutes.

We had this with some red wine and were very satisfied with our "guilt free" pizza dinner. This vegetable focaccia is also off to Anupama's Sandwich festival.

Running strong on Day 6 is the Recipe Marathon. The recipes for today are:

Arundathi: Raspberry and Blueberry
Srivalli: Onion chapathis Lakshmi: Kashayam
Divya: Cauliflower-Peas Poriyal
Ranji: Simple Jhovan
Swati: Mint Coriander Chutney
Bhags: Baked Chapathi
Dhivs: Vegetable Chips
Siri: Tomato Coconut Chutney

Pizza Style Sandwich

Thank God I overcame my fear of yeast last year. I have been baking bread, pizza and rolls regularly since then. Each time I make a yeast bread, I wonder why I hadn't started earlier. Pizzas have become weeknight regulars at our place. The weather ensures that my dough rises to the occasion. I baked a pizza a couple of weeks ago and had some sauce leftover. (Lightning does not strike liars, does it?) No, I didn't have sauce leftover. I kept aside some sauce so I could make sandwiches for breakfast later on.

4 slices Brown Bread

1 tbsp Butter(optional)

2 slices Low Fat Cheese

For the sauce:

1 Onion, sliced

2 medium Tomatoes, chopped finely

1 Capsicum, sliced (I used small portions of green, red and yellow capsicum)

2 tsp Chilli Flakes

1/8 cup Sweet Corn

1/8 cup Paneer, cubed

3 pods Garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp Tomato Ketchup

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Fresh Parsley, finely chopped

1 tsp Fresh Basil, finely chopped

1/2 tsp Pepper

1/2 tsp Olive Oil

Salt to Taste

For the sauce:

In a pan, heat the oil and add the garlic and onions. Fry for a minute or two. Add the capsicum, paneer, and corn and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the parsley, basil, oregano, chilli flakes, salt, sugar and pepper and fry for another minute. Add the tomatoes and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the ketchup and cook the mixture for a couple of minutes.

To proceed:

Place a slice of cheese on a slice of bread. Place 2-3 tbsp of the sauce over it. Cover this with another bread slice. Repeat with the other 2 bread slices as well. If using butter, apply some butter to both sides of the sandwich (outer sides) and grill in a sandwich maker.

This is great at breakfast time as long as you are able to eat pizza in the morning. (My brother and I can eat pizza at any meal and as many times.) Else, you can have it as a snack or a light meal.

This is off to Anupama's Sandwich festival.

This is Day 5 of the Recipe Marathon and my fellow bloggers have posted:

Siri: Hash Brown Melts
Lakshmi: Mango Fool

Arundathi: Bell Peppery curry

Srivalli: Andhra Mutton Pepper Fry

Dhivs: Fried Herb Mozarella

Swati: Aloo n Gobhi

Divya: Carrot rice

Ranji: Banana Chips

Bhags: triangularly yours

Vegetable Dosa

I have been advised by many people to keep dosa batter ready at all times. I try to do this every once in a while, but I'm not sure I'm anywhere close to having it in there all the time. And I don't ferment my dosa batter because I love the taste of dosas made out of freshly ground batter. (I am told I am breaking a cardinal rule here, but then that's just me!)

Sometimes the batter lying in the fridge does get sour. And by day 4 or 5, it is ready for uttapam style dosas. I add vegetables to the batter to make this a meal by itself (OK, almost!)

1 cup Dosa batter

1 Carrot, grated

1/4 cup Beans, finely chopped

1 Onion, finely chopped

1 tsp Ginger Paste

1 tsp Chilli Paste

2 tbsp Coriander Leaves, chopped

Salt to taste

Steam the beans and carrots or cook in a microwave for 2 mins with a little water. Add this mixture to the dosa batter. Add the onions, chilli paste, ginger paste, coriander leaves and a little salt. Mix well.

Heat a griddle (tawa) and smear a little oil on it. Simmer the flame and pour a ladleful of the batter in the centre of the tawa and spread it a little to form a circle. Add a little oil on the sides and centre, usually not more than 1 small spoonful per dosa. After a couple of minutes, carefully turn the dosa over and allow the other side to cook a little. Serve hot with some chutney or molagapodi.

I'd made this for Srivalli's Dosa Mela, but couldn't post it then thanks to some constraints. Since it has been in my drafts forever, I decided now might be a good time to share this easy recipe with all of you.

Day 4 of the Recipe Marathon saw the following posts:

Srivalli: Kasara Kaya Vepudu

Lakshmi: How to set Curd.

Dhivs: aromatic bread

Arundathi: two lovely dipping sauces
Swati: Neelam ji ki Teekhi aur Meethi Methi wali Kaddu ki Sabzi

Divya: Moong Dal Sundal

Ranji: Methi Dosa

Bhags: comfort food with 'seven' veggies

Siri: Moroccan Spaghetti

Raw Jackfruit Curry

I have always liked raw jackfruit a lot more than the ripe one. So when someone goes gaga over ripe jackfruit, as they did at the JFI last May, I cannot relate to that feeling at all. I also prefer breadfruit to jackfruit. Both were not easily available when I was growing up. Yet, I managed to rank them in my order of preferences. It was not like there was ever a situation when I had to pick one over the other. No, I’ve never been asked, “Would you like this or that?” Outside of the fritters, that always manage to make me go weak in my knees, I have not attempted making anything with jackfruit or breadfruit. I have eaten sukke, an amchi dish, but that’s it. I remember having eaten other dishes, but I am unable to recall them. Chips made out of raw jackfruit, I eat regularly. My colleague recently brought back a big bag from Kerala and we devoured them.

I have this lady in my team: D. She HATES cooking and on days when her cook doesn’t turn up, she’s really one big mess. But I find her lunch the best on days when her cook doesn’t turn up. That’s because D is a wonderful cook. I always tell her, “If this is how you cook when you HATE cooking, I wonder how you’d cook if you actually loved it.” She brought this dish in her lunch box a couple of times last month and I was tempted to try. Since raw jackfruit is sold precut, she finds it easy to prepare. I took the ease to a different level altogether by making it in a pressure cooker. I also added asafoetida to the preparation because I didn’t want to fly back to Gurgaon after work on my own. I’m not too sure of my landing skills yet.


250g Raw Jackfruit pieces
2 Onions, sliced
1 Tomato, chopped
¼ tsp Ginger Paste
¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
1 tsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Coriander Powder
1 tsp Garam Masala
1 tbsp Oil
¼ tsp Asafoetida
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
Salt to taste



Heat oil in a pressure pan and add the cumin seeds. When they crackle, add the asafoetida and the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and ginger paste. Fry the entire mixture for 2-3 minutes. Add the raw jackfruit pieces and the salt and fry for another 2-3 minutes. Add a little water and pressure cook for 1 whistle. When done, add the garam masala and cook for a minute before serving.



This pairs very well with rotis and I know I’m going to make this very often. One more of the tasty and quick recipes, so hard to resist. And with this post, I have reached a mini milestone on this blog. This is my 250th post.

On Day 3 of the Recipe Marathon, these recipes have been put up:

Srivalli: Majjiga Mirapakaya/Dahi Mirchi

Ranji: A Blueberry Muffin

Lakshmi: Onion Kulchas

Dhivya: Spicy Rotis

Arundathi: Grape Jam

Swati: stuffed bell pepper with makhani gravy

Divya: Sour Cream Corn Cranberry Muffins

Bhags: Vegetable stock

Siri: Middle Eastern Appetizer

Chickpeas Sundal

Memories of sundal usually involve Navaratri or the beach. Earlier I never made festival food at any time outside of that festival, but now I make it whenever I wish. With a little planning, this requires almost no effort and is a great dish to make when you’re rushed. Makes for a great breakfast or lunch by itself, though it can also be served as a side dish.


1 cup Chick Peas, soaked overnight

1 tsp Oil
7-8 Curry Leaves

1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds

1/4 tsp Urad Dal

1/4 tsp Chana Dal

1 tsp Green Chilli Paste

1/4 tsp Ginger Paste

1 Red Chilli

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

1 tsp Dry Mango Powder (Amchur) or 2 tbsp Chopped Raw Mango

1 tbsp Coconut, scraped

Salt to taste

Pressure cook the soaked chickpeas with salt for 4-5 whistles. Drain when done.

In a kadhai, heat oil. Add the urad and chana dals, mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves, ginger and chilli pastes, and the red chilli. Fry for a minute. Add the cooked chickpeas, dry mango powder or raw mango bits, and a little salt. Cover and cook 4-5 minutes. Garnish with the scraped coconut and enjoy.


Arundati of Escapades, is hosting this month's Weekend Breakfast Blogging # 22, the theme of which is Mango Madness. WBB is the brainchild of Nandita of Saffron Trail and since I make sundal for breakfast, this is off to Arundati this month.

My friends in the recipe marathon have posted for Day 2:

Lakshmi: Coconut Dosa

Srivalli: Sambhar Powder

Dhivya: Peas Pulao

Swati:Bread Upma

Bhags: Coffee Cake

Arundathi: Pierogies

Divya Vikram: Vegetable Puffs

Siri: Kosambari