Chatpata Salad ~ Moong and Veggie

This crunchy & crispy salad was so so crunchy and chatpata. I might incorporate this into our daily meals.
I am not a big salad fan when it comes to mixing all kinds of veggies since I prefer eating them separately any time of the day. But, one salad I love the most is the one that is served in Thai restaurant near my house. Basically the dressing is what that lets you enjoy the salad and they use some kind of sweet cilantro dressing. We go there atleast once in a month and enjoy eating that salad.

I was badly looking for some Indian flavored kind of salads and just then I found some recipes on Hindu Site. There were four recipes all together made in restaurant style and since I had all the ingredients for this, I chose to make this first. I was so apprehensive about the taste but me and my family members enjoyed eating it..

Cabbage, carrot and moong dal salad

Printer Friendly: Moong and Veggie Salad

Ingredients

Cabbage, finely sliced: 1 cup grated
Red carrot, grated: 1 cup
Capsicum, finely sliced: 1/2 cup
Moong dal: 2 tbsp
Lime juice: 1 tbsp
Coriander, chopped: 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Soak the moong dal in water for 2 hours. Immerse all the vegetables in ice cold water for sometime. This retains the crispness of the vegetables. Drain excess water. Mix the vegetables and the soaked moong dal. Add lime juice. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Serve garnished with chopped coriander.

Recipe Source:
www.thehindu.com

Carrot Balls

Carrot Balls

Besan: Gram Flour

This one is a great dish to those who don't like to eat Carrots, esp kids. And an awesome appetizer for any day.
Printer-Friendly Recipe: Carrot Balls

Ingredients

2 Carrots, grated
1 Onion, chopped
1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
few Curry leaves, chopped
few coriander leaves, chopped
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 green chillies, chopped
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
oil for deep frying
Besan, as needed for binding

Method

1. Heat oil for deep frying.
2. Take a bowl add the rest of the ingredients except Besan and mix well.
3. Keep adding besan little at a time to form a stiff dough.
4. Make small balls out of the dough and deep fry.

Serve hot as is or with Ketchup.

Veggie Murmure Stirfry

All last week my food mainly consisted of carbs and fats with very less fruits and somedays with no fruits at all. I was badly in need of some nutritious vegetables and I came up with this one. Didn't want to add rice to it but added a cup of murmure (puffed rice) and this was quite crunchy and tasty. And a cup of orange juice with this bowl of vegetables made me full.

You need...

2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables (add as many veggies as you like)
1 cup murmure/puffed rice (put these in the colander, sprinkle some water and remove)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 roma tomato, chopped into big chunks
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
1 tsp of lemon juice
salt to taste
sev and cilantro for garnishing

1. Heat oil in a pan. Fry onions for a minute.
2. Add veggies and stir fry for 3-4 mins.
3. Add tomato chunks and stiry fry for another minute.
4. Add tumeric, chilli powder, garam masala and mix.
5. Add murmure, salt and sugar and cook everything for 2 mins. Add some lemon juice to it and remove.
6. Sprinkle both sev and cilantro and serve hot.

4:3:2:1 Lunch Box!

This is my entry to "Show your lunch box" event. I looked at the deadline just last night and I started preparing this for the lunch early in the morning. I had to get up early for one more reason as I had to cook lunch for the potluck at Ravi's work place. I cooked Chole and made some peas and carrots Pulav as an accompaniment for Chole.

My lunch box got ready in no time since most of them are taken directly from the refrigerator, washed and arranged in a box. The only effort I put in was for Dhokla, put the batter in pressure cooker for 12 mins on high and cut them into different shapes, hearts and flowers with cookie cutter and made diamonds with a sharp knife. And in parallel, I put baby potatoes, peas and carrots for roasting in a toaster oven. By the time I finished making Chole, my roasted veggies and Dokhla got ready and here you see my awesome lunch.

Used the 4:3:2:1 ratio of Japanese Bento method with Dhokla, roasted Veggies (baby potatoes, green peas and carrots), Fruits (strawberry and grapes), and I replaced Dessert with dried fruits Walnuts and Cranberries. We eat few walnuts and cranberries everyday as walnuts are supposed to increase the good cholesterol and decrease the bad one and cranberries for their anti-oxidant properties.

There is no recipe to provide for Dokhla as that is made with Swad Instant mix (recipe is on the box) and I will make another post for Roasted Potatoes very soon...

Quick Mixed Veggie Rice

What do you do when you are lazy and don’t feel like cooking?
Those days when you are tired from work and don’t feel like eating out and you want to eat something healthy?

I picked up a packet of Mixed Vegetables and started making this quick dish with left over rice. Good that we get pre-packaged veggies here in this country and no hassle of cutting veggies when you don’t feel like.

Sprinkle some water on the rice and heat in the microwave. This way the grains will be separated.

You need…

2 cups of mixed vegetables (add potato, green peppers or cauliflower)
1 onion, medium, chopped
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 tbsp chilli powder
2 tbsp oil

1/2 tbsp garam masala
few green chillies (optional)
shahjeera (optional)
a pinch of turmeric
few springs of pudina/mint
coriander for garnishing
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil in a cooking pan.


2. Add chopped onion, shahjeera and try them until brown.


3. Add green chilies, ginger garlic paste, pudina and try them until the raw smell goes.


4. Add mixed vegetables and stir fry them for 5 mins.


5. Add turmeric, red chilli powder, garam masala and mix all together for a minute.


6. Finally add rice and mix the whole thing well until the masala coats the rice.

Garnish with coriander and lemon wedges and serve hot with yogurt.

Ready to eat in less than 20 mins.

Akki Roti

I got so excited after seeing this recipe at Supriya Krishna's blog that I was determined to try this out soon after coming home. I saw this just before leaving the office tonight and on my way I was thinking if I had the right ingredients at home but this recipe doesn't need a lot of stuff, just the regular variety like onions, carrots, curry leaves etc..

I came home and asked Ravi what he wants to eat, he said anything that you want to make or let's order a pizza if you are not interested to cook. I immediately asked him if he likes to eat "Akki Roti" he was like, sure, why not? And then I asked him, do you know what that is, he said no I don't! but I am sure it must be good. And that's how I went down to make this recipe and this was ready in minutes. My first 3 rotis have come really in nice shape but the later ones got broken. May be because the dough became cold after a while. I kept the remaining dough in a container to make some more, may be tomorrow.

Thought of adding more veggies but since this is rice flour that we are dealing with, I thought it would break if I add too many, so I didn't bother. I just went with the recipe posted on http://supriyakrishna.blogspot.com. Please refer to the recipe over there.

Mixed Veggie Soup

I was trying to make this soup from a long time. My colleague made this for our Women’s network potluck at my work place and this was a hit. Since then, I was thinking of making it but finally I did it today and changed almost 50% of the recipe, so this is not her recipe anymore but the ingredients are still the same. And wow! This was so tasty that I ate 2 bowls of it and on top of that it is nutritious with so many vegetables going into it.

--------------
Ingredients
--------------
1 cup mixed vegetables frozen (carrots, peas, beans, corn)
½ can cooked Rajma/Kidney Beans
1 cup cooked Conchigliette Pasta
3 tbsp EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
1 tbsp crushed garlic
½ medium onion
½ medium green peppers
2 or 3 small bell peppers (optional)
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
Salt to taste
3 cups water
1 tbsp Coriander powder
1 small bay leaf

1. Heat the pot, add EVOO and garlic. Let garlic be cooked for a minute and put onions and cook for 3 mins.
2. Add boiled mixed vegetables, green peppers, small bell peppers (I had these in the fridge; I chopped them and added them). You can boil all these in microwave too.
3. Add Italian seasoning (thyme, rosemary, parsley), some coriander powder, a bay leaf (remember to remove it once the cooking is complete), some salt and put about 3 cups of water and bring all to boil.
4. Take a cup of boiled veggies, blend them and put the puree back in the soup, I did this way to get soup little thicker (plus to make my brother eat the veggies, otherwise he throws away some).
5. In the mean time, make tomato puree by boiling tomatoes or get canned tomatoes and add them to the soup.
6. Finally add a spoon of cornflour mixed in water, add cooked Rajma (kidney beans). Let that cook for 10 more minutes, add pasta just before serving. Serve hot.
   
   It tasted even better on the second day too.
   For my soup loving friends out there, please try this when you find time.