New Year Wishes

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It seems amazing that 2009 has already come to an end. This has been a year that has gone blazing fast for me, and I am sure a lot of you share the sentiment. Time really does fly :-) I would like to wish all of my readers a fantastic 2010 ! Hope you have a year filled with positive, enriching and joyous experiences.

This site now has a new address....

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I have some exciting news to share with all of you readers. Some of you may have already noticed this, Veg Inspirations now has a new address. The site address has changed to http://www.veginspirations.com/
The transition has been happening for the last three days or so and is now complete.

I wanted to take this chance to thank all of my loyal readers and subscribers who have made this site what it is today. I appreciate your comments and your time on this site.

This will not have a direct impact on most readers because both email subscribers and feed subscribers will continue to get new posts delivered into their inbox or reader as before without having to make any changes to your subscriptions. Also any bookmarks you have made of my recipes will not get impacted and clicking on it will automatically take you to the link on the new site.

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Does the thought of home baked chocolate chip cookies send you into extreme longing to taste and keep tasting those cookies ? Do you feel that just the sight of cookies can threaten your resolve to stay on your diet and make you binge on some sweets? If yes, then quickly look away and scroll to the lower part of the page where you feel find many healthy dishes that will not threaten your resolve to stay on your diet. I know how hard it is to stay on a diet so I did not want to provide my readers who are working hard to stay on a diet, reason to stray from that diet :-)

On the other hand if you are looking for a treat as an occasional indulgence than you have come to the right post :-) These chocolate chip cookies were just that for me too, a rare indulgence that I gave into, in lieu of the festival season. Of course knowing I would be sharing these cookies with others provided me with some comfort that we alone would not be indulging in so many cookies.

Surprisingly I found the recipe for this cookie on the back of Nestle's milk chocolate morsel packet that I bought to make these cookies. I never before looked at the back of packets to see if they printed recipes, luckily this time I noticed it and it saved me the time to search for a recipe. I made a few changes to the original recipe. I used flax seed as a substitute for eggs, used regular sugar + molasses in place of the brown sugar required in the original recipe and reduced the quantity of chocolate morsels just a tad bit. The verdict.....these cookies are among the best that I have ever tasted, they were crunchy , delicious and hard to resist. If your sweet tooth has been ignored for a while try these and indulge a little.....



Here is another view of these cookies....




Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour (Maida)
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) (softened to room temperature)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tbsp molasses (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

3 tbsp flax seed meal (powdered flax seeds/ alsi) + 6 tbsp water

1 1/4 cup milk chocolate morsels

Preheat oven to 375 deg F

Line a cookie sheet or tray with parchment paper and keep aside

In a bowl mix together all purpose flour, salt, baking soda and keep aside.

In another bowl cream together sugar, molasses (if you are using it) and butter until creamy and airy. ( I used my electric hand mixer for this and it took me just few minutes to get the right texture )

Whisk together water and flax seed meal until it becomes gelatinous. Pour this mixture along with vanilla into the creamed butter and sugar and mix well (or use the electric mixer to mix it in)

Add all purpose flour that has been kept aside to the creamed butter + sugar mixture in small increments and it in before adding some more.

Finally add the chocolate chip morsels and mix it in too.

Using a small tbsp sized round scoop place cookie dough an inch apart on the tray. Place the tray in the oven and bake between 9 to 11 minutes or until the cookies are beginning to brown on the sides and the bottom.

Remove and let cool on the tray for 2 minutes and then place on wire rack to cool completely.

Store in air tight container after thoroughly cool.

Yielded 72 cookies

Notes

The yield and baking times of the cookies will depend on the size of the cookies.

The original recipe called for some white sugar and some dark brown sugar, I replaced the quantity of brown sugar with white sugar and added a little molasses instead for some color and flavor. If you want you can use half white and half brown sugar instead or all white too.

The original recipe called for two eggs which I replaced with the above mentioned flax+water

Quinoa and Flax Spice Powder (Chutney powder)

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Quinoa with its numerous health benefits is beginning to appear more frequently in my dishes as I learn new ways to sneak this super healthy grain like seed into our diet. After trying potato curry with quinoa and flax I decided I would love to have quinoa in a chutney powder.

Chutney powders like this spice powder(molaga podi) are an essential part of my pantry. A few drops of sesame oil transforms dry chutney powder to a perfect accompaniment for dosas or idlis (crepes and steamed cakes) and this lasts a long time without refrigeration making it perfect for emergency " I don't know what to make to go with this " days :-)

Despite my wariness about the result of this experiment, this quinoa spice powder turned out very well. Its spicy and slightly nutty taste worked very well when I used it in place of the above mentioned Spice powder(molaga podi) . It was also versatile enough that it can be used to spice up curries, to spicing up sandwiches and can even be mixed with plain yogurt to create a quick healthy dip.




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Ingredients and Method to make Quinoa dry spice powder

1/2 cup quinoa
1/4 cup split black gram lentil (udad dhal)
1/4 cup split chick pea (chana dhal)
1/4 cup flax seed meal
approximately 35 dry red chillies or according to taste (see notes)
salt to taste

Dry roast each of the ingredients separately (quinoa, split black gram lentil, split chick pea lentil) until reddish, remove from heat and keep aside seperately.

Dry roast flax seed meal until aroma from it releases and keep aside.

Dry roast dry red chillies until it starts to turn darker and seems crisp, keep aside.

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When all of the above ingredients are cool, powder them in a spice grinder separately at first until it forms a coarse powder.

Then add everything together and grind to a finer powder.

Add salt and give it another turn in the blender/ grinder until it mixes well.

Cool thoroughly and store in an airtight container. This will keep for a few weeks easily without refrigeration, in case you want to store longer keep it in the refrigerator as flax seeds get rancid quickly.

Use this spice powder to spice your curries, or use in place of molaga podi (spice powder ) with a few drops of sesame oil along with dosai/ idli or add it to your soups or sandwiches to spice them up.

Notes
You can skip the flax seed meal and increase the quantity of either of the lentils instead. In case you skip the flax seed meal you can store this without refrigeration.

The red chillies I have right now are not at all very spicy and so I have to use quite a bit of them to get a little spice. Please adjust the quantity of red chillies according to taste and the level of heat you want from this powder.

Vegan Apple Carrot Zucchini Whole Wheat bread

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Thanks to my hectic schedule these past few months, any type of baking has taken a back seat. But with cooler weather and the festive season both arriving, I could not resist the lure of my oven any longer. The thought of my kitchen filled with wonderful fragrances from baking kept swirling through my mind and finally I gave up and decided to bake something immediately.

I had bought some whole white wheat flour some time back as I had heard good things about it and heard that it gave a lighter texture to breads and cakes as compared to regular whole wheat flour. I decided to try using this flour in an apple carrot zucchini bread and I loosely based my recipe on this one . I added a little barley flour, reduced the sugar and increased the quantity of apple to bring some more natural sweetness. The resulting bread was so soft, moist and delicious that it has been disappearing quickly and I know I am going to make a second batch soon. This would make an excellent breakfast bread, but would taste just as good as a snack with tea or an anytime snack. I believe that the picture I was able to take does not do enough justice to this bread, trust me it tasted far better than it looks :-)




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Ingredients and method to make Apple carrot zucchini whole wheat bread

1 cup white whole wheat flour (see notes)
1/2 cup barley flour (see notes)
1/2 cup all purpose flour (see notes)
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup walnut pieces
1 cup grated carrot (from 2 medium carrots)
1 cup peeled and grated zucchini (from 2 medium sized zucchini)
2 cup cored and grated apple (from 2 red apples) (see notes)


4 tbsp flax seed meal (powdered flax/ alsi) + 12 tbsp water
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 375 deg F

In a large bowl mix all the dry ingredients (items 1 through 9) well and add grated carrots, grated zucchini and grated apple and mix well.

In a separate bowl whisk together flax seed meal + water until the mixture blends together a bit and becomes slightly gelatinous.

Mix oil to this and pour the entire oil+ flax seed mixture on the dried flour+ fruits mixture and mix gently.

Grease one large bread loaf tin or dish or two mini loaves tin or dishes and pour this mixture into it slowly.

Bake at 375 deg F for about 30 to 45 minutes for a large loaf or 20 to 35 minutes for mini loaves or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Cool thoroughly, slice and serve. This makes a great breakfast bread or a healthy snack for tea time or any other time

Refrigerate the balance of the bread and use within a few days.

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If you plan to keep for long you can freeze the balance of the bread and thaw it, warm it in the microwave and serve

Notes

The whole wheat flour mentioned above is not bleached whole wheat flour but unbleached flour made out of white whole wheat. This flour has a slightly lighter feel than regular whole wheat flour so the resulting bread is more airy and light.

If you do not want to use either white whole wheat flour or barley flour you can use either all purpose flour (maida) entirely or half regular whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour adding up to 2 cups of flour.

Instead of grating apple, you can also peel, core and cut the apple into small pieces.

Indian Style Cranberry Chutney

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After my previous attempt at making a spiced cranberry chutney, I was very keen to make an Indian style cranberry chutney. Since fresh cranberries are not available all year long I did not want to put off trying this chutney as I would have had a pretty long wait if the cranberry season ended and I had to wait for the next one. In addition every time I went grocery shopping I have been eying these delightful treats thinking up various ways to use them. I scouted around a little for a good recipe and finally decided on this one.

I found in the process of making this chutney that the tartness from cranberries seem to completely absorb the spice from the chillies and a great many green chillies were required to make the chutney mildly spicy. Either that or the current batch of green chillies I have are even more bland than the usual ones I get, but I do not think that is the case.The cumin flavor shines through in the chutney and I thought this chutney would have tasted great with samosas. I used this chutney as a spread in a sandwich along with a spicier version of this curry as filling and totally enjoyed the resulting sandwich.



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Ingredients and Method to make Indian style Cranberry chutney

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (1/2 of a 12 oz packet) (washed and drained)
9 Thai or Indian variety green chillies (or according to taste) cut into small pieces
1 1/2 inch piece ginger (or according to taste) (minced fine)
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera) (see notes)
1 dry red chilli (optional) cut into small pieces
3 tbsp jaggery or brown sugar (or even regular white sugar) I used jaggery
1/2 a bunch of cilantro (coriander leaves) washed, drained and cut fine
salt according to taste
water as required

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add cumin seeds to it.

When cumin seeds crackle add green chillies to it and stir frequently. When green chillies start to turn color, add red chilli and minced ginger, stir a couple of times

Add cranberries,salt to taste and allow the cranberries to cook on a medium heat.

When cranberries begin to soften add sugar and continue to cook.
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When the cranberries turn very soft, add the cilantro stir once or twice and remove from heat.


Allow this to cool thoroughly.

Grind this mixture with water if required into a smooth paste.

Serve this chutney to go with chappattis or dosas or use it as a spread in a sandwich or as a dip for vegetables or chips.

Refrigerate the balance of the chutney and use up within 4 days or so.

Notes
If you do not like a very strong cumin flavor you can scale down the cumin seeds to 1 tsp instead of 2 tsp.

Cauliflower Potato Peas Dry curry (Poriyal)...and a tip

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Poriyal is a south Indian term for a simple stir-fry like dry curry made with most types of vegetables. This one made with cauliflower, potatoes and peas is a simple and perfect side dish for any south Indian meal or even tastes great when served with Chappatti/ Roti (Indian flat bread) too.

Before moving on to the recipe here is a tip I got from my mother in law. You know how sometimes just washing cauliflowers under water is not enough, and we find that there is some insect hidden among the florets. To remove these insects, you can break cauliflower into florets and keep aside. Heat sufficient water to a near boil, add salt and a pinch of turmeric powder to it and submerge the florets in this water for a few minutes. I usually keep it for about five minutes, drain thoroughly and proceed with using it in cooking. This is supposed to help to remove the insects (if any) from the cauliflower florets.




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Ingredients and method to make Cauliflower Potato Peas Poriyal

1 head of cauliflower broken into florets
3 large potatoes peeled and cut into small cubes
1 cup of green peas frozen or fresh ( I used frozen)

1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt according to taste
(a little extra salt and turmeric powder for soaking the cauliflower)

Seasoning
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal)
4 Thai or Indian green chillies cut very fine (or according to taste)
1 dry red chilli cut into two

Heat water to near boil and add salt and a pinch of turmeric powder to it.

Add cauliflower florets to the water and let sit for a few minutes ( I waited about 5 minutes)

Drain cauliflower and keep aside.

In a heavy bottomed pan, heat oil add mustard seeds,when mustard seeds begin to splutter add black gram lentil.

Keep stirring lentils for a few seconds, when the lentils begin to turn reddish, add green chillies and stir for a few seconds.

When green chillies begin to turn whitish, quickly add red chilli and turmeric powder.

Then add cauliflower florets, potatoes and green peas, salt to taste and mix everything well.

Close the pan with a lid and let the vegetables cook on a low to medium low heat.

Sprinkle a little water if required ( I did not use any as the veggies usually cook well with their own water)

Stir occassionally for even cooking.

Serve hot with rice and sambar or rasam or any type of roti

Serves approximately 3

Creamy Peanut Butter Soup with Northern Beans

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With the temperature falling to freeze levels and below each day for the last few days, hearty soups seem so appealing right now that they feature often in my dinner menu. I made this soup inspired by a recipe that I recently saw in a cookbook called 1001 vegetarian recipes that I found in my library.

I tweaked the recipe quite a bit and loved the simplicity and taste of the soup. I have never used peanut butter in a soup before so I was not very sure how that would work, but my fears turned out to be groundless. The peanut butter added an interesting taste and imparted a nice creaminess to the soup. I thought a little pearl barley would have been a great addition to this soup, but I did not add it this time, I will be sure to add it the next time I make this....



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Ingredients and Method to make peanut butter soup with northern beans

3/4 cup dried northern white beans soaked in sufficient water with a pinch of soda for about 8 hours or overnight (the soda is optional)
2 medium onions cut fine
2 large carrots cut into small pieces
3 stalks celery cut into small pieces
1 inch ginger minced
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
3 cups vegetarian vegetable stock or water ( I used stock)
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or any other oil)
salt according to taste
1 1/2 tsp chilli powder ( or according to taste)
1/2 tsp paprika (optional)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp lemon juice

Soak the white beans in sufficient water with a pinch of soda (soda is optional) for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Drain the beans and fill with fresh water and either pressure cook the beans or cook on stove top in a large heavy bottomed pan until the beans are soft but not mushy.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, add onions to it and saute until the onions are transparent.

Add minced ginger and minced garlic and stir for a few seconds.

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Add celery, carrots, spices, salt and vegetable stock or water and let it simmer until vegetables are cooked.

When the vegetables are cooked, add cooked beans, salt if required and water to achieve required consistency and simmer for the flavors to blend together

Mix peanut butter with half a cup of water and whisk together, pour this diluted peanut butter into the soup.

Let the soup simmer for a few more minutes.

Finally add lemon juice to the soup and serve hot with bread of choice.

Yields approximately 2 to 3 servings.

Suggested Variation
Add 1/4 cup of pearl barley along with the vegetables and allow it to cook with the veggies. Proceed with the rest of the recipe as mentioned above.

This hearty soup is off to the Monthly Mingle event- Soups being hosted by Sunshinemom and originally started by Meeta

Cabbage Roti (Indian flat Bread) and some amazing pictures...

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Have a look at this picture, can you guess what it is



This is a sculpture made with pencils......amazing isn't it ? What fantastic creativity and talent to be able to come up with something this beautiful....Here are a couple more of these pencil sculptures. Surely, this artist has taken pencil art to a whole new level, right?



And a closer view of the picture



I received these pictures in my mail and wanted to share these with my readers.

Moving on to the reason for this post....cabbage roti. My food processor surprised me recently.....usually I use it for grinding, grating and making stuff like this oat and nut fudge, I have never used it to cut cabbage or other vegetables. But recently when I was in a rush and had to cut a great deal of cabbage, I was desperate enough to give it a try and found that it works in a pinch and it also cuts very fine.

When I saw the finely cut cabbage, it struck me that I could easily use this in a roti and it would really work well. And since there is no better way to know for sure than to try it out, that is just what I did....and loved how it turned out. The cabbage adds a light crunch and texture to the roti that we thoroughly enjoyed. Both the Ajwain (carom seeds) and Shah jeera(caraway seeds) added a very unique flavor to the roti and the flax seed meal added an extra burst of nutrition.




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Ingredients and Method to make Cabbage Roti

3 cups Whole wheat flour
2 cups very finely cut/shredded cabbage
2 tbsp flax seed meal (powdered alsi)

salt according to taste (approx 2 tsp salt)
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp Ajwain/ Omam (Carom seeds)
1/2 tsp Shah jeera (Caraway seeds)
1/2 tsp Dhania powder (Coriander powder)
3/4 tsp Jeera powder (Cumin powder)

approximated 1 cup of water to form the dough
2 tbsp oil

a little extra flour for rolling the dough
a little extra oil/ ghee( clarified butter) to apply on rotis

In a large bowl assemble the wheat flour, flax seed meal and all the spices, mix well.

Add finely cut cabbage and mix it in with the flour.

Add water a little at a time and knead to form a stiff dough. Add oil and knead for a few more minutes.

Unlike other rotis for cabbage roti make the dough a little more stiff as the dough tends to soften because of the cabbage.

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Keep dough covered and let it rest for about 15 to 20 minutes. Knead again for a minute or so and divide the dough into equal lemon sized balls.

Heat a griddle/ flat pan/ tawa.

With the help of a little flour roll out the dough into a circle of desired thickness.

Place the rolled out dough on the griddle/ tawa/ flat pan and let it cook on one side for a minute or two. Flip and cook the other side.

Apply a few drops of oil/ ghee on the top side of the roti and flip over and apply oil to the other side as well.

Cook both sides for an additional few seconds until brown spots appear on them.

Remove and serve hot with raita / or curry of choice.

Notes

Yield will depend on the size of the roti.

Balance of dough can be refrigerated for a day or two. In case you refrigerate the dough and find that the dough has become considerably looser, you can add a little more of whole wheat flour and re-knead it before using it again.

Matar Paneer ( Indian curry with Peas and Cottage Cheese)

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I just woke up this morning realizing that we are already into the first week of December, can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday when we rang in the new year and had the whole year ahead of us and already we are seeing the end of the year. Of course I feel that way most years, as if the time just flew away. But this year especially it just seemed to zoom by, almost as if each hour of each day consisted of just five minutes instead of the usual sixty. I feel like I could use at least a couple more months in this year to complete some of the things I planned to before the year comes to an end. Sigh ! talk about wishing for the impossible....

Anyway moving on, here is a classic dish from nothern India called matar paneer which is a curry made out of green peas and Indian cottage cheese. This very popular curry is served in most Indian restaurants around the world. This curry is always a sure winner when included in party menus and is reasonably simple and quick to make too. Usually the paneer (cottage cheese) is deep fried before being added to the curry but I shallow fry these to reduce the oil content and find that it does not impact the taste in any manner.



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Ingredients and method to make Matar Paneer

3 medium tomatoes blanched and cut fine (see notes)
2 medium onions cut fine
1 12 oz (340gms) pkt paneer cut into cubes
3 cups green peas (either fresh or frozen) ( I used frozen thawed to room temperature)
6 tsp broken cashew pieces
3/4 cup plain yogurt (curds/dahi)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp chilli powder (or according to taste)
3/4 tsp cumin powder (jeera powder)
3/4 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
4 pinches of kasuri methi (optional but recommended)
2 tbsp oil + a little extra for shallow frying the paneer
water as required to cook and achieve required consistency

Powder cashew pieces in a spice grinder or blender until it turns to fine powder. Add the yogurt to the powdered cashews and give it another spin in the blender so that the yogurt and cashews blend together. Keep this mixture aside

Heat a flat pan/ tawa/ griddle, add a few tsp of oil to it and place the cubed pieces of paneer on it and heat on a medium heat turning frequently until the paneer is light brown on all sides. Continue this process until all the paneer cubes are evenly browned and keep aside.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, add onions and saute until onions turn transparent.

Add tomatoes to it and continue to stir until the tomatoes turn soft and mushy.

Add all the spices and stir for about a minute.

Add green peas, salt to taste and a little water and let it cook until the green peas turn soft but not mushy.

Add paneer cubes, a little water and let it simmer together for a few minutes.

Add the yogurt + cashew mixture and let simmer for a few minutes.

Serve hot with naan, roti or rice.

Serves approximately 3

The process of blanching is to place tomatoes in a large bowl and fill it with hot water. Let soak for a few minutes usually about 5 minutes or so, remove the tomatoes from the hot water and place in cold water for a few minutes until the tomatoes are cool enough to touch. You would be able to see cracks on the skin of the tomato and you just need to peel the skin of the tomato.