Vegetable medley with lentil curry

The idea for this curry came to me when I was on the phone with my mother in law. She made a curry with eggplants, carrots and spinach, and her description of the curry sounded very interesting. It is not a combination of vegetables that I have ever tried together, especially the part about combining spinach and eggplant made me very curious and I was very keen to try it and see how it works out.

I decided to add some chick pea lentil to the curry too so that I would get some protein too. I thought this curry truly earned the name vegetable medley just because of the variety of vegetables used in it. It's got eggplants, carrots, spinach, onions, tomatoes, spinach and a good quantity of cilantro.

Even though I did not use many spices to flavor this curry, the resulting curry was bursting with natural flavor from the vegetables used in every bite. This is the first time I used so much cilantro in a curry and I have to admit that it made quite a difference, it really added a great deal of additional flavor to the curry. This curry was perfect for phulkas but I could easily imagine that it would work just as well with just some plain steamed rice.

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Vegetable medley with lentil curry
3/4 cup split chick pea lentil (chana dhal/ kadalai parappu) soaked in water for 20 mins
2 large carrots cut into 1/4 inch pieces
2 medium tomatoes cut very fine
1 large onion cut very fine
5 medium sized Indian eggplants cut into 1/4 inch pieces
6 oz (approx 170 gms) Spinach (palak) cut fine
2 tbsp oil
1 inch ginger minced
3/4 tsp minced garlic (or to taste)
3 Thai or Indian green chilies cut very fine (or to taste)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chili powder (optional or to taste)
1 cup loosely packed finely cut cilantro (coriander leaves/kothamalli)

Prep the vegetables. Pressure cook the soaked lentils until soft yet not mushy. (this can also be done on the stove top) Keep the lentils aside.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add onion and saute until onions turn transparent. Add green chilies, minced ginger and garlic and stir for a few seconds. Add tomatoes and stir until tomatoes become soft and mushy.
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Add turmeric powder, eggplant, carrots, salt to taste and water as required and allow the vegetables to cook until soft. Add red chili powder if using.
When vegetables are cooked, add cooked lentils, water as required to achieve required consistency and allow to simmer for a few minutes.

Add spinach and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes or until spinach cooks.
Finally garnish with cilantro and serve hot with phulkas/ rotis/ or even on a bed of plain steamed rice

Egg free Oatmeal Raisin Cookie and a question :)

Recently when I was at the grocery store, I noticed rutabagas on sale. Now I have never tried rutabagas at all, but I have to admit that I am curious about this vegetable and how it can be used.  Wiki explains that rutabagas are actually a kind of turnip. In fact rutabagas are also known as Swedish turnips and are said to be rich in fiber, potassium and vitamin C. So here's my question for my readers, have any of you used rutabagas? If yes, I would love to hear how you use this veggie and how much you like it, so do share your experience with this veggie:-)

Moving on, another thing that recently caught my eye was oatmeal raisin cookies in the bakery section of my grocery store. I resisted the temptation to buy it at the time, but I came home and kept thinking about it. Since I haven't baked any cookies in a long time, I gave in and decided to whip up a batch. I referred to this recipe, but I changed things up a bit from the original recipe. I halved the quantity of butter, used flax seed meal as a substitute for eggs, used more raisins and used white sugar instead of brown. The result was a delicious, crisp cookie that was difficult to resist.



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Ingredients and Method to make Egg free Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
1 1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar 
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp flax seed meal (powdered flax seeds/alsi/ali virai)  + 6 tbsp water
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup dark raisins

Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Line a cookie sheet/ tray with parchment paper and keep aside
Whisk together flax seed meal and water until it is gelatinous. Keep aside for at least 5 mins.
In a large bowl, add rolled oats, all purpose flour, salt , ground cinnamon, baking soda and mix well. Keep aside.
Cream together butter and sugar, I used an electric hand mixer for this. Add the whisked flax seed meal mixture and mix well.

Add the flour + oatmeal mixture in small quantities and mix well. Add oil and mix well. Finally add the vanilla extract and raisins and mix well.
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Spoon mixture about two inches apart on the lined tray. Place in oven and bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until light creamy golden on top (see notes)

Yielded approximately 20 medium sized cookies.

Notes:
I like my cookies crisp so I had them bake almost 17 minutes to get the right crispness. In case you like a softer and chewier cookie you may want to remove it a little earlier.

This recipe is off to the Kids Delight event hosted by Priya this month and originally started by Srivalli