Healthy Inspirations Event- Soups Roundup Part 1

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I would like to start by thanking all of you who participated in my first Healthy Inspirations Event. Since this was my first event, I did not know quite what to expect, but the responses truly both overwhelmed and touched my heart. I received a total of about seventy five wonderful creative soups from both bloggers and non- bloggers.

In appreciation of this tremendous response, I thought it would be nice if I could give at least one randomly selected participant, some small gift. After the roundup is complete I will randomly select one participant and send her this hand crafted silver bracelet and earring set as a token of my appreciation.





Since there were so many entries I decided to do the roundup in two parts. I have listed the soups in the order it was received and roughly half of them are given in this part and the balance will feature in the second part. Okay so without any further delay here is the roundup......

Priya kicks off this event with this healthy Green gram soup loaded with veggies and flavored with red chili sauce and parsley, a great way to combine some protein and vegetables in one go !

Divya has sent in this Roasted Beet and Tomato soup and           
Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup both made with roasted vegetables to enhance flavor

My first contribution to this event, Indian Lentil Soup made with whole brown lentils and uses a lot of Indian spices like garam masala, turmeric powder and cumin
 

Jyoti gives a neat twist to the regular tomato soup by adding some protein to it, check out her  Tomato soup with baked beans

Dershana combines pineapples and coconut milk in an exotic combination of flavors in this chunky Pineapple and Spinach Chunky Soup







All moms will approve of this soup that Jayanthi Swaminathan has created to ensure her kids enjoy a variety of vegetables.
moong dal --   1 tablespoon

spinach  -    1 bunch

bottle gourd   -   a small portion

carrots  -   1 big or 2 small ones

tomatoes  -   6
onions    -  2 or 3 as per size

cabbage   -  a small portion

beetroot  - 1

ginger  -  one inch bit

pepper powder

salt to taste

Chop all the vegetables roughly and pressure cook them well. Cool and grind to fine paste. Sieve it through a strainer and add water. Put the whole mixture on to boil and add salt and pepper powder.
While serving, add a bit of lemon juice onto the soup. Adding lemon helps absorption of iron from the vegetables. You may add a bit of butter too, if you are not on a diet. 

This  is a no-fuss soup, easy to make and can be fed to even very small kids

Priya sends in another healthy soup with white bean, bell peppers and corn simply flavored with garlic, pepper and parsley







Deepti sends in three soups for this event. Hearty harvest soup with a combination of pumpkin puree and red kidney beans, a lovely Red Soup that combines tomatoes with beet to get this gorgeous color and a Falafel Inspired soup that has this name because it has all the ingredients of falafel in it.

Padma whips up this quick and delicious Hot and Sour vegetable soup to warm up on a rainy day

Nayna comes up with this Chunky Vegetable Soup , a heartwarming soup made with winter vegetables.Definitely a great soup to chase winter blues away. 

Shubha sends 4 different soups for this event. A zero oil  Vegetable Soup  that is sure to delight dieters, Squash soup made with fresh produce from the farmers market, a very unique combination of carrot and celery in this Creamy Carrot celery soup and a quick and flavorful  Sweet Corn Soup

Priya brings yet another interesting soup with unique ingredients like bamboo shoots and lotus stems , check out her one of a kind  Vegetarian Pekinese Soup

PJ sends in this quick microwave Noodle Soup that she prefers over a more elaborate traditional lunch.

My second contribution to this event, this cumin flavored Black Bean Vegetable Soup that I made to recreate a soup I tasted in a restaurant .

Here is a winter warmer from Priya, a protein rich Horsegram & Coconut milk soup that she devised for dinner to ward off the extreme chill that made a comeback in their area.

SE who loves Mediterranean cuisine and sees a lot of resemblance between Mediterranean and Indian cuisine brings us this Greek style vegetable spinach soup with Orzo  flavored with lemon and pepper flakes.

Nivedita finds a way to sneak spinach in her kids diet with this Healthy Green Soup,  I am sure a lot of us could use all the nutrition, packed in this soup :-)

Kalai's adaptation of  Lentil Carrot Soup  is flavored with a hint of ginger and is topped with yogurt and red chili flakes, definitely a soup that sounds as delicious as it looks :-)

Kavitha and Gayathri contribute four low fat and healthy soups Cabbage Diet Soup, Cucumber Soup, Mushroom Soup and Vegetable Soup that is sure to help anyone wanting to stay on their diet.

Preeti creates a gorgeous Mushroom and Garlic soup and a very unique Chunky Herb Dumpling Soup that  is sure to please the taste buds just as it pleases the eye.

Nandini brings us this healthy and flavorful  Zucchini Soup that is made healthier with her idea of sprinkling flax seeds on it

Indhu presents a very uniquely named  Everything but the Kitchen Sink Soup . This soup is very delicately and simply flavored with only oregano, salt and pepper, so that the flavors of the vegetables and beans can shine through. With a host of vegetables and pasta in it, this soup is hearty and filling enough to become a meal.

PJ  performs some Harry Potter like magic and transforms a curry into a healthy Spinach Moong dhal soup

Rachana combines coconut milk and some flavorful Thai spices in this unique Hot and Spicy Coconut Soup

Relentless gray skies and cold weather creates the need for comfort food, but Deepti chooses this healthy Gingery Cream of Carrot Soup  over unhealthy choices like pakoras and chaat. Just the color of this soup is enough to make one forget gray skies for a while :-)

Jagruti combines three type of greens in this vibrantly colored soup that she uniquely and aptly names 3G soup

Meena Rajesh Krishnan brilliantly transforms oranges into this warm Orange Clear Soup that is a great appetizer for cold winter evenings.

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Spinach Lentil Curry ~ Palak ka saalan and some humor

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My cousin R sent me an email that contained this humorous piece in it.I completely enjoyed it and thought my readers may like it too !

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A woman writes to the IT Technical support Guy

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and I noticed a distinct slowdown in the overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as
Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NEWS 5.0, MONEY 3.0 and CRICKET 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system.

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ __

Reply

DEAR Madam,

First, keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme. Html and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.
If that application works as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5..

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Silence 2.5 or Beer 6.1.
Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.
You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance.
We recommend: Cooking 3.0 and Good Looks 7.7.

Good Luck Madam!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cool huh, I sure enjoyed a good laugh when I read this piece. Let me know what you all think about it :-)

Moving on, Mughlai cuisine rarely finds a place in my kitchen because all that cream and butter does not quite fit in with my regular cooking. That said, on a spur I picked up Nita Mehta's Mughlai Vegetarian cooking when I visited India last time, hoping I may get around to trying something from that book. Yes, I know,  mostly it was just wishful thinking :-)

Anyway one of the recipes that appealed to me from that cookbook was this simple spinach curry called palak ka saalan. This recipe below is my adaptation of the recipe I found in the book. The curry turned out to be simple,tasty and quick to make. Try this if you like spinach and are looking for something simple to go with Roti ( Indian flat bread) or even plain rice.



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Ingredients and Method to make Palak ka saalan
1/2 cup Split chick pea lentil ( Chana dhal/ kadalai parappu) soaked in water for 30 minutes
1 large onion cut fine (pyaaz/ vengayam)
2 medium tomatoes cut fine (tamatar/ thakkali)
4 cups spinach leaves cut fine(palak/ keerai)
1/2 tsp minced ginger (adrak/ inji)
2 green chilies slit lengthwise and cut fine (or to taste) (hara mirch/ pachai molagai)
1 tbsp oil
3/4 tsp coriander powder ( dhania)
1/2 tsp red chili powder (or to taste) (optional) (lal mirch)
1/2 tsp garam masala (My recipe for garam masala can be found here ) (can be substituted with any other curry powder)
salt to taste (namak/ uppu)
1/2 cup water

Soak chana dhal in water for about 30 minutes.

Cook the chana dhal either in the pressure cooker or on stove top or microwave until soft. Refer to this post for steps to cook lentils in different ways. Keep cooked lentils aside

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

Add ginger and green chillies and stir a few times. Add tomatoes and stir until tomatoes cook and become soft and mushy.

Add coriander powder, red chili powder, garam masala and stir a few times.

Add finely cut spinach, salt to taste, water and let spinach cook for a few minutes.

When spinach is cooked, mash half the lentils and add to the spinach. And add the balance of lentils without mashing. Mix well and heat for a few minutes for the flavors to blend.

Serve hot with Roti of choice or Plain rice

Serves approximately 2 to 3

Notes

You can mash all the lentils and add to spinach too, I just mash half to give it a little texture.

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Avocado Roti (Indian flat bread)

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Avocados, as you may already be knowing are extremely healthy, they contain oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat that helps in reducing cholesterol and also contain potassium, a mineral known to regulate blood pressure.

The best way to select a ready to eat avocado is one that is slightly soft but should not have any dark sunken spots or cracks.A firm avocado will ripen in a paper bag or fruit basket at room temperature within a few days. 

I have always wanted to use more of these healthy fruits but never seemed to get them into my regular day to day cooking. Recently my friend V had invited us over for dinner. She had made an awesome three course meal, and one of the items on her menu was avocado roti. I loved the roti and could not wait to try it myself.

The very next week, avocado went on top of my grocery list and I made rotis with it. Since then these soft flaky rotis appear regularly in my kitchen. The avocados really add a wonderful texture and softness to the rotis, so much so that any additional oil/ ghee, as is usually used for rotis, becomes unnecessary.  



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Ingredients and method to make Avocado Roti
2 cups whole wheat flour (atta)
1 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
2 Indian or Thai variety green chilies slit lengthwise and cut fine (optional)
1 large avocado peeled, deseeded and mashed well. (yielded approximately 3/4 cup mashed)
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro (coriander leaves)
water as required (approximately 3/4 cup)

In a large bowl, mix together whole wheat flour, salt, red chili powder, cumin powder , green chilies, finely chopped cilantro and keep aside.

Peel an avocado, cut in half , remove the seed and mash the avocado into a pulp.

Mix the mashed avocado into the flour, add water as required and knead to form a soft and non sticky dough. It took me almost 3/4 of a cup of water, but you may need a little less or more depending on the size of your avocado and the type of flour you use.

Cover the dough and let sit for at least 30 minutes or so.

Divide dough into equal lemon sized balls.

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With the help of flour roll out the dough into a circle of desired thickness ( I make mine pretty thin but even a thicker roti would taste just as good)

Heat a flat pan/ griddle/ tawa on medium heat. Place the rolled out dough on the tawa and cook on one side. When small light bubbles appear on surface and the lower side starts to get light pinkish/ brownish spots turn over and cook the other side.

When the other side begins to get light brown spots, remove from heat and serve hot with curry or dhal of choice.

This quantity of dough yielded me about 12 to 14 fairly large rotis. Yield will depend on the thickness and size of each roti.

Notes
This avocado roti is so soft as it is, that there is no need to use any oil/ ghee on it at all.

This Avocado Roti is off to the Healing Foods Avocado event  being hosted by Siri

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Kadambam Saadam- A one dish meal with rice, lentils and veggies.

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Kadambam saadam  is a cross between Bisi Bele Bath and plain ole Sambar Saadam . Saadam is a Tamilian word (Tamil in an Indian language) for rice. Kadambam means an assortment of flowers tied together, in reference to this dish, it means an assortment of vegetables and flavors coming together.

This simple to make, tasty single pot dish is well balanced with brown rice, lentil protein and vegetables, and is great for quick lunches or dinners. Just serve it with some papads/ appalams or chips and a raita or any other salad  to complete the meal.



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Ingredients and Method to make Kadambam Sadam
1 1/4 cup brown basmati rice
1/2 cup split pigeon peas (tur dhal/ arhar dhal/tuvaram parappu)
small gooseberry sized tamarind soaked in water for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Vegetables required (see notes for substitutions)
2 onions (pyaaz/vengayam) cut fine (see notes)
1 green bell pepper/ red bell pepper (simla mirch/koda molagai) deseeded and cut into small pieces
1 large carrot cut into small pieces
1 cup frozen or fresh green peas ( I used frozen thawed to room temperature)

For the masala
1 1/2 Tbsp split chick pea lentil (chana dhal/ kadalai parappu)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi dana/ mendiyam)
1 1/2 Tbsp coriander seeds (dhania)
4 dry red chilies (or to taste)

Seasoning
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds (sarson/rai/kadagu)
a pinch of asafoetida

Optional ingredients
1 tsp sambar powder (or to taste)

Garnish (optional)
Handful cilantro (coriander leaves) cut fine.
a few drops of clarified butter/ ghee/ neil (optional, omit for a vegan version) 

In a bowl or utensil add brown basmati and lentils, mix well. Add water to the rice and lentils, swirl a  few times with your hand and drain water. Then add  4 cups of water to it and let soak for about 30 to 45 minutes.

Pressure cook this brown basmati and lentils until soft (My pressure cooker requires about 4 whistles )

Soak the tamarind in enough water to submerge it for about 20 minutes or so Press tamarind to extract juice from it and pour the juice into another container. Cover the tamarind pulp with equal amount of water as first time and press tamarind again to extract juice from it, pour juice into another container. Repeat the earlier step one more time. Discard the pulp and seeds of tamarind and only retain its juice.

In a large heavy bottomed pan, dry roast the chick pea lentil stirring frequently, when the lentils give out a slight aroma and begin to become slightly reddish, add fenugreek seeds and stir until it begins to turn color.
Then quickly add coriander seeds, stir a few times and add dry red chillies. Stir this entire mixture a few times and then remove from heat and keep aside.

When cooled to room temperature grind to a smooth powder in a spice grinder. You can make this earlier and keep in an air tight container and use when required, or you can make double or triple the quantity and keep for future uses to make the process even faster the next time.

In the same pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds begin to splutter, add asafoetida if using, stir once or twice, then add onions and saute until onions turn translucent.

Then add all the other vegetables, sambar powder if using and stir a few times. Add tamarind juice, salt to taste and simmer until veggies are cooked and the tamarind juice loses its raw smell. .

Remove the cooked lentils + rice from cooker when the cooker is ready to opened and gently mash the two together,not completely just slightly for them to blend just a bit.

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Pour this rice + lentil mixture into the tamarind+ vegetable mixture, add water if required to achieve required consistency. Adjust salt to taste if required, then add masala powder and simmer for a few minutes until the flavors mingle, remove from heat.

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with a few drops of clarified butter/ ghee/nei on top with papads/ appalam/ chips and raita/ salad on the side.

Notes
If you have pearl onions, peel and use about 2 handfuls of pearl onions instead of regular onions, pearl onions enhance flavor in this dish.

You can substitute the rest of the vegetables with 3 to 4 cups of any other seasonal vegetables like green beans, cauliflower (gobi) , potatoes (aloo) , zucchini, bell pepper (simla mirch/koda molagai)  etc.

You can cook the rice and lentils on the stove top too, just place the rice and lentils along with water in a large heavy bottomed pan and cook on low flame, stirring frequently and adding water as required until both the lentils and rice cook to softness.

You can make this with white rice too instead of brown rice. If you do use white rice, and you do not want it too spicy you may want to scale down the quantity of red chillies used in the recipe because white rice doesn't need as many chilies for heat as brown rice does :)

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2 minute Microwave Badam Pedha ~ Indian Almond fudge

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When things go wrong, every additional nuisance that can happen will probably happen and make things worse. At least that seems to be the case with me, I was already having a bad day with other stuff and then I entered the kitchen and  was looking forward to a soothing cup of tea and the tea cup slipped from my hand and my tea got spilled ! " No please not my tea " was the first thought that ran through my mind. Then to make matters worse, when I started dinner I found that my pressure cooker malfunctioned and decided to spew dhal water all over my stove and my counter tops.Bah ! I hate when this happens....

So what do I do next, well first I clean up the entire area and restore my kitchen back to spic and span order.Then in addition to making dinner I make dessert ! Surprised as to why I would add to my work load when I have already had such a bad day....Well a little sweet always seems to make things better. No wonder stressed spelled backwards is desserts ! And this pedha is very quick and  can be made entirely in under five minutes. Pedhas as I mentioned in  this post are a family favorite and I made this hoping that a quick sweet treat makes my day just a little better and more bearable.

 


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Ingredients and Method to make 2 minute almond pedha
1/2 cup almonds
1 1/4 cup instant non fat dry milk (fine milk powder)(I used carnation milk powder) (see notes)
4 to 5 cardamom seeds powdered fine
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
3 tbsp plain milk
2 pinches of good quality saffron (optional)
3 to 4 tsp of clarified butter (ghee/nei) (optional but recommended )

Powder 1/2 cup almonds along with skin to a fine powder in a spice grinder using pulse feature on blender. Try not to over grind as the nut butter will cause the almond powder to start clumping together.

In a shallow microwave safe dish, mix together almond powder/ almond meal, non fat dry milk, cardamom seeds powder, saffron (if using)  and mix well.

Add sweetened condensed milk, milk and clarified butter (if using) to this and mix well. This will cause a kind of lumpy mixture.

Place the shallow dish in the microwave and heat on high for 1 + 1 minute, stirring frequently or until the mixture can be rolled between your fingers. Cool slightly and shape into round balls and flatten slightly to form the typical pedha shape.

Cool thoroughly and place in an airtight container and use within a couple of days of making it, or refrigerate and use within 4 days or so for freshest taste.

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Yield approximately 14 to 15 pedhas

Notes
Since microwave strengths will vary,cooking times can also vary, so it  may take you longer or shorter so keep an eye on this when it is getting done. My microwave strength is 1000 watts, so if yours is more powerful you will need to microwave it for lesser time and if yours has less strength it will take a little more time.

Also since I used a shallow dish, my cooking time was faster, if you use a deeper dish it may take you a bit longer

If the milk powder you have has a very thick granular texture, give it a turn in the blender/ mixer to grind it to a fine powder

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Spinach Lentil Soup ~ Palak Moong Soup

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Spinach is a kind of wonder food, and you may find it surprising to know that it has some amazing and unusual health benefits. By eating spinach you can protect yourself against osteoporosis, heart disease, colon cancer and arthritis among other things. I have always associated carrots as being beneficial for good eyesight, so it came as somewhat of a surprise to me, to learn that spinach and other greens like kale and broccoli contain Lutein, something that protects against eye diseases such as age related macular degeneration and cataract. Of course spinach is also a great source of iron, folate, magnesium,potassium and fiber making this a very difficult to ignore vegetable, and a must have in any healthy diet.

I try and include this wonder food as often as possible in our diet. In addition to a variety of curries, I also make a lot of soups with spinach in them, one of which is this spinach lentil soup. The combination of lentils and spinach makes this well balanced and the lentils add a touch of creaminess to this soup that makes the need for cream redundant. This soup tastes good with or without the garnish and its vibrant color makes it an inviting addition to the dinner table :-)

Before moving on to the recipe, a gentle reminder to my readers, if any more of you have planned to send in soup entries for the soup event, the last day for it is just around the corner, so request you all to send those in soon.




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Ingredients and Method to make Spinach Lentil Soup
1 onion cut fine
1/2 cup split mung lentil (yellow moong dhal)
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 dry red chillies (or to taste)
9 oz /(225 gms)/ 1 pkt of spinach leaves cut into halves or quarters (see notes)

Optional garnish
Few drops of lemon juice per serving
crushed black pepper
croutons

Rinse and drain mung lentil (dhal). Place mung lentil either in a microwave safe container or a shallow glass dish, add sufficient water to up to 1/2 an inch above the lentils. Place in microwave and cook on high in two minute increments until the lentils are soft and mushy. Stir and add water in between as required.


Alternatively place lentils in a heavy bottomed pan with enough water and cook on stove top until soft and mushy, stirring frequently and adding water as required. Or place the lentils in a container with sufficient water, place in pressure cooker and cook until soft, usually for me that is about 2 to 3 whistles. (This time I used the microwave)

Keep lentils aside, retain water if any too.

Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add cumin seeds and when it splutters add dry red chillies.

Stir the dry red chillies a couple of times, then add onions and saute until onions are transparent.

Now add spinach, salt to taste and sprinkle a little water, keep the pan covered with a lid and allow spinach to cook. This takes a few minutes. Remove from heat and allow the spinach to cool to room temperature.

Place the spinach and onion in a blender and blend/ grind into a puree.

Remove and keep in a large bowl.

Puree the half the cooked lentils in the same blender and add to the pureed spinach.

Mash balance of lentils and add to pureed spinach+ pureed lentil mixture.

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Place soup in heavy bottomed pan and place on low heat until the soup is hot. Serve hot with garnish of choice and some crusty bread or vegetable sandwich.

Serves 2 to 3

Notes

I mashed half the lentils and pureed half the lentils because I wanted the soup to have some texture. You can just as easily puree the entire cooked lentils for a more smoother feel to the soup.

I garnished my soup with lemon juice, crushed pepper and croutons, but even without the garnishes this soup tastes good.

In case you have very tender spinach leaves you can add them whole, cook them and then puree them, you do not need to cut it in that case.

This soup is off to the Healthy Inspirations Event- Soups going on here.....

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Vegan Orange Cranberry Wheat Bread

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For some time now I have been wanting to try different egg substitutes that I haven't used yet, to see what kind of results I get with each of them. Usually my default egg substitute is flax, because it is both healthy and works as a great binding agent in bakes. In the past I have also used corn starch, soy flour, bananas and other fruit purees as egg substitutes successfully.

I came upon a reference to apple cider vinegar as an egg substitute in some book some time back, but I am not able to recall the name of the book and decided to give it a try in this bread. I loved how the vinegar gave the bread a very light and airy texture which was great but just vinegar by itself is not too much of a binding agent and resulted in a more crumbly bread.

So for my second try, I made this bread with both flax and apple cider vinegar and it worked out perfectly. If you liked this Orange flavored oatmeal bar then you will surely like this bread too, so go ahead give this one a try, it is really quite simple to make despite its long list of ingredients that  make it seem quite daunting:-)




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Ingredients and Method to make Orange cranberry wheat bread

Dry Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup whole white wheat flour ( Read more about this flour here)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp powdered dried orange (optional) (see notes)
3/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp orange essence

In place of 1 egg
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar+ 1 tbsp oil + 1 tsp baking powder (whisked together)

In place of the second egg
1 tbsp flax seeds/alsi + 3 tbsp water (flax seeds powdered fine and whisked together with 3 tbsp water)

a few extra drops of oil to grease the loaf pan

Pre heat oven to 350 deg F. Grease a loaf pan and keep aside.

In a large bowl add all the dry ingredients and mix well.

Powder 1 tbsp flax seeds in a spice grinder and whisk it with 3 tbsp water and let this mixture sit for about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl mix together orange juice, orange essence and oil.

Then whisk together apple cider vinegar+ oil + baking powder together and add to this mixture.

Add the flax seeds + water mixture to this and mix well.

Quickly add this entire wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix in gently with a spatula.

The resultant mixture looks lumpy and just enough wet.

Pour this mixture into pre greased loaf pan, place in oven and bake for 35 to 40 mins until toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes clean.

Remove from oven and cool thoroughly before slicing and serving. Use within a couple of days. Refrigerate or freeze the balance of the bread if you will not use it up within a couple of days.

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 Notes

I regularly keep a stock of sliced oranges dried in the oven at 200 deg F for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, read more on how to do this here So for this recipe, I just powdered one such slice and added it to the dry ingredients for a more orangey flavor. The earlier time I made this I tried it with only 1 tsp orange essence for flavor and it worked well too, so the powdered dried orange is entirely optional.

The first time I made this I used just apple cider vinegar, oil and baking powder to replace eggs and found that the resulting bread was quite crumbly so I would suggest using at least one tbsp of flax + water and not replacing both eggs with apple cider vinegar + oil combination.

This bread turned out soft fluffy and just right as far as moisture is concerned for me. If you want to have a more moist bread, replace apple cider vinegar + oil mixture with another tbsp of flax seeds + 3 tbsp of water,to be powdered and whisked with water, as has been described earlier.

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Mixed Vegetable Chutney

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There are some days when I plan out the menu for dinner, for each evening, at least 3 days in advance. Then there are those days when I literally enter the kitchen with some vague ideas in my mind as to what's for dinner and then just kind of improvise from there.

On one such evening recently when I planned to make sandwiches along with soup for dinner, I found that my stock of cilantro (coriander leaves) was abysmally low. Since that ruled out this chutney, I took stock of the rest of the ingredients and decided to come up with a mixed vegetable chutney.

Sure enough that is just what I did, I made a chutney using onions, carrots, tomatoes and celery. I did not use very strong seasoning or flavorings as I wanted the natural tastes of the vegetables to shine through. Between the sweetness from the onions and carrots, slight tartness from tomatoes, earthy taste of celery and  heat from chillies, this chutney had it all and turned out to have a perfect balance of flavors. It tasted wonderful with some home baked whole wheat bread (will be posting that soon) and also in this sandwich



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Ingredients and Method to make Mixed Vegetable Chutney
1 medium onion cut fine (pyaaz/ vengayam)
1 large carrot cut fine (gajar)
1/2 cup diced tomatoes (tamatar/thakkali)
2 stalks celery ends removed cut fine (can be substituted with one additional large carrot, see notes)

1 Tbsp oil
1 thin sliver ginger cut fine (adrak/inji)
3/4 tsp cumin seeds (jeera/jeeragam)
3 Thai or Indian variety green chillies (or to taste) (hara mirch/ pachai molagai)
1 dry red chili (or to taste) ( optional)
salt to taste

approximately 1/2 cup water

Heat oil in a medium sized heavy bottom pan. Add cumin seeds to it, when cumin seeds begin to splutter, add green chillies and dry red chili (if using).

Then add onions and saute until onions become transparent.

Then add ginger, stir a couple of times and add tomatoes and saute until tomatoes turn soft and mushy.

Now add carrots and celery, salt to taste and water and keep the pan covered, stir occasionally  until the vegetables become soft and cook.

Remove from heat and keep aside until the vegetables cool down to room temperature

Using a blender/ mixer grind this mixture until it forms a smooth paste.

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Serve along with dosai/ idli or use as a spread in a sandwich or as a dip for vegetables or chips

Serves approximately 2 to 3

Refrigerate the balance in an air tight container and use within a couple of days.

Notes :
If you cannot find or do not have celery you can use an additional large carrot in place of celery and proceed with the rest of the recipe in the same manner.

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Hot And Sour Soup

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Have you met anyone who is super prepared to face anything the day throws at them. These are the girls/women who tote rather large bags/ purses that contain everything from a small sized hand lotion to hand sanitizer to even a clothes stain remover. Amazing isn't it, I always admire such people, they seem to anticipate every possibility that could come their way in a day. 

Recently when I was in a buffet style restaurant which serves soups and salads, I observed this couple that sat at a nearby table. Like everyone else they too had filled their plates with salad. Then the girl whipped out a large tote and removed a couple of bottles from it. It seemed to contain olive oil and soy sauce which she proceeded to use to flavor her salad. I could not believe my eyes, I have seen a lot of well prepared people but never so well prepared that they carry their choice of sauces and oils to add to their salad when eating out.I think if there was ever an award instituted for being the most well prepared for the day, that girl definitely would qualify for it :-)

Moving on, here is a hot and sour soup that belongs to the category of Indo-Chinese or Indian-Chinese cuisine. I have already mentioned about this type of cuisine here and here so I will not go into it again. Suffice to say this soup with its blend of spice, tart and sweet flavors is one of our favorites. When served in restaurants this tends to be thicker with lesser vegetables, but when I make it at home I make it a little lighter with far more vegetables. One of the best things about this soup other than its taste, is that it is very quick to prepare and can easily be made in under thirty minutes.





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Ingredients and Method to make Hot and Sour Soup

2 large carrots cut fine (yielded 1 1/2 cups of cut carrots)
8 button mushrooms sliced thin ( yielded about 2 cups cut mushrooms)
1/4 head cabbage cut fine (yielded about 2 1/4 cups of finely cut cabbage)
1 tsp salt ( or to taste)
approximately 5 cups of water or stock ( I used water)

7 tbsp Light (reduced sodium) soy sauce (or to taste) (see notes)
3 tbsp chili sauce (Chinese style ) (or to taste)
3 tbsp Tomato ketchup
1 tbsp Vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp Corn starch (Corn flour) mixed well in 1/4 cup of water so that there are no lumps

Add all the vegetables, salt and water to a heavy bottomed pan and allow it to come to a boil.

Lower heat and allow the vegetables to cook until slightly soft

Add soy sauce, chili sauce, ketchup and vinegar. Taste test and add some more if required.

Add the corn starch mixed with water to this soup. Allow  it to simmer for a minute or two for the flavors to mingle.

Serve hot.

Serves approximately 2 to 3

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Notes:
If you want a thicker soup you can increase the quantity of corn starch to 2 tbsp or 2 1/2 tbsp depending on how thick you want it. Usually restaurants serve this soup with a thicker gravy, I like mine light, so if you want restaurant style soup you might want to increase the quantity of corn starch/ flour.

You can garnish this soup with finely chopped green part of green onions

I used reduced sodium, light soy sauce, if you use regular soy sauce you may need lesser quantity of it, as it may be stronger.


This soup is off to the Healthy Inspirations Event - Soup that is currently going on here...

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Lima Bean Kurma ~ Lima bean curry

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A couple of quick updates before I move on to the post. I have been on a mission to update some of my older pictures. The latest pictures I have updated are for Minestrone Soup, Split pea with barley soup and Indo-Chinese Chowmein. Take a peek at these posts for the latest pictures if you have a minute.

The other thing I wanted to mention was that since yesterday I have disabled anonymous comments on my site. I have been regularly getting anonymous spam comments, and it has become a nuisance now. So I decided to follow my friend Cham's example and stop allowing anonymous comments on this site at least for a while.



Moving on, usually I make this curry with lima bean since it does not require coconut milk and I rarely have it at home. But this time, since I had coconut milk on hand, I made a kurma style curry with lima bean. Everybody seems to have their own style of making kurma, this is my take on kurma.

 


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Ingredients and Method to make Lima Bean Kurma
1 large onion cut fine
3 small tomatoes cut fine
4 1/2 cups of  frozen baby lima beans thawed to room temperature (= 1 lb of lima beans)
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp coriander (dhania) powder
1/2 tsp cumin (jeera) powder
salt to taste

2 tbsp oil
1/4 cup coconut milk (optional, see notes)
handful cilantro (coriander leaves) cut fine
Water as required ( I used approximately 1 1/2 cups of water)

For the masala
Dry roast
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera/ jeeragam)
1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf/ sombu)
1 tsp coriander seeds (dhania/ kothamalli virai)
 and grind this along with
3 Indian or Thai variety green chilies (or according to taste)
1 tsp chopped ginger (adrak/inji)
4 tbsp fresh or frozen grated coconut ( if using frozen thaw to room temperature)
1 dry red chili (optional ) or to taste

Dry roast cumin, fennel and coriander seeds until they start to slightly turn golden brown and give out an aroma. Remove, cool to room temperature and grind the seeds along with green chilies, ginger, coconut and dry red chili adding a few tsp of water as required until it turns to a fine paste. Keep this masala aside.

In a large heavy bottomed pan, heat oil, add onions and saute until onions turn transparent.

Add tomatoes and stir until tomatoes become soft and slightly mushy. Add turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, chili powder and stir once or twice.

Then add baby lima beans, water as required and salt to taste and allow it to come to a boil.

Then lower heat and allow this mixture to simmer for a while until the lima beans are cooked and soft.

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Now add the ground masala, coconut milk (if using)  and allow the kurma to simmer for a few minutes.

Remove from heat, garnish with cilantro and serve hot with roti (Indian flat bread) / plain steamed rice

Serves approximately 2 to 3

Notes:
The coconut milk is optional. I have made this curry both with and without the coconut milk and it tastes great either way, the coconut milk adds a little more richness and creaminess to the gravy, and without it the gravy feels a little lighter. If you plan to leave out the coconut milk, reduce the green chilies slightly if you wish as it can feel a little spicier without it, alternatively you can add about 1 tsp of sugar for this quantity of curry to balance the spices a little more.

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Fruit Chaat Salad

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My pantry always has a stock of dry roasted unsalted peanuts that I buy from local groceries. I find it most convenient to have this on hand, it definitely speeds up the process when I am making either this cilantro chutney or this khichdi. And I always thought that dry roasted peanuts would contain only peanuts, so imagine my surprise...err shock when I glanced at the label on the container, just as I was removing some peanuts to munch on, and found that my dry roasted peanuts contains among other things.... mono sodium glutamate or MSG, gack !

A controversial ingredient, MSG is used in Chinese and Indo chinese food. In all the times that I have made Indo Chinese food I have studiously avoided using MSG because I have heard bad things about it. So imagine my shock to find out that these innocent looking peanuts , that have been lying in my pantry for a while now contains this dreaded ingredient. Usually I am pretty good about reading labels when I shop for groceries, so I am still trying to figure out how this item got into my cart without my noticing this ingredient.  Talk about leaving a bad taste in my mouth.....:-(   This reinforces what I mentioned in this post about reading labels at all times...

Moving on here is a fruit salad that always leaves a very very good taste in my mouth :-) Unlike the usual fruit salads made with custard, this one is not rich and definitely does not have much sugar, except the sugar naturally contained in fruits that is .....If sweets are not your thing and something spicy is what you are looking for, then this fruit salad  with slightly sweet, slightly tart and slightly spicy flavors will definitely pique your interest .





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Ingredients and Method to make fruit chaat salad
1 apple cored and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 pear cored and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups of pineapple cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3/4 cup dried raisins
1 1/4 cup red seedless grapes washed and drained
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice (equivalent to juice of 1 lemon)
1/2 tsp red chili powder (or to taste) (optional but recomended)
1/8 tsp salt (or to taste)
2 tsp chaat masala powder (available in most Indian groceries)
1 tsp sugar (optional)


In a large bowl mix together all the fruits.

Add lemon juice, salt, sugar, chili powder and chaat masala and toss well.

Chill for a few hours and serve chilled.

Serves approximately 2 to 3

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Notes
Any combination of seasonal fruits can be used to make this salad

I used the sugar and chili powder just to enhance the sweetness of the fruits and bring out a better contrast with the heat of the chili powder, if you are avoiding using chili powder then you can probably skip the sugar too

This salad is off to the Show me your Salad event being hosted by Divya

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Indian Eggplant Stir fry curry ( Podi Kathrikai )

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We had snow this past weekend. In our area when there is snow, everything pretty much comes to a standstill. Since the snow arrived late Friday night and continued falling through Saturday, that meant all outdoor activities came to a stop and we had to hang out at home.

I have to admit, snow can be quite a hassle, especially when it has half melted and you have to worry about the slush re freezing, black ice and bad road conditions, etc etc. But it is also so very beautiful, the sight of our entire neighborhood blanketed with snow was such a beautiful sight, it almost made it seem worth it, to have the hassle that went along with snow. Our area looked like a winter wonderland:-)

Being snowed in meant that I got a chance to tinker around my kitchen and make some of our favorite stuff over the weekend. One of my favorite vegetables is eggplant, I like eggplant in all its forms but I especially love it in this south Indian style stir fry with ground masala powder known as podi katrikai.

Usually my podi katrikai has four ingredients in its ground masala, but this weekend when I was making this curry it struck me that I wanted a change and I tried some additional ingredients in the masala. The resulting curry has become my new favorite, give it a try and see, maybe it will become yours as well :-)





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Ingredients and Method to make Indian Eggplant Stir fry curry ( Podi kathrikai)

8 medium sized (small variety) Indian eggplants washed, cut off the crown and sliced lengthwise
This yielded about 5 cups of loosely packed eggplant slices
salt to taste
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

handful cilantro (coriander leaves) for garnish cut fine

Seasoning
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp split black gram lentil (udad dhal)


For the masala
2 tbsp split chick pea lentil (chana dhal)
1 tbsp coriander seeds (dhania)
2 1/2 tbsp brown sesame seeds (ellu)
1 thumb sized piece of tamarind
3 dry red chillies
1/2 tsp dried curry leaves (optional)
4 tbsp fresh coconut (this has to be dry roasted until reddish seperately)

Dry roast each of the ingredients under the masala list in a large heavy bottomed pan on a low to medium low heat starting with the split chick pea lentil. Dry roast split chick pea lentil (chana dhal) until it starts to redden a little, then add coriander seeds, stir for a few seconds, then add brown sesame seeds. When the sesame seeds begin to pop a little, add tamarind, then red chillies and stir for a few more seconds until the red chillies become a little stiff and crisp, finally add dried curry leaves stir for a few seconds. Then remove the entire masala ingredients and place on a plate to cool.
 
Separately dry roast grated coconut until it is reddish, remove and add to the rest of the masala ingredients to cool.

When these have cooled, powder them in a spice grinder/ blender until it turns to a fine powder and keep aside.

In the same pan heat oil, then add mustard seeds, when the seeds begin to splutter, add split black gram lentil and stir it until it begins to redden.

Quickly add turmeric powder to the oil, stir once or twice and add the sliced eggplant to the pan followed by a little salt.

Keep stirring the eggplant until it gets cooked completely and becomes soft.

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Then add the ground masala, stir it in  and allow the curry to cook on a low flame for a minute or two longer.

Finally garnish with cilantro and serve hot with either plain roti or with rice and dhal or sambar or rasam.


This curry along with Sweet Sesame Rice and  Savory Sesame Brown Rice ( Ellu Saadam) is off to the Cooking with seeds-Sesame event hosted by Priya



Sweet Sesame Rice



Savory Sesame Brown Rice ( Ellu Saadam)

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