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.

Tikki Pav

I got this pav from Harris Teeter's fresh bakery thinking of making Pav Bhaji. But, things changed and we wanted to eat Vada Pav instead but we didn't want to deep fry anything. We are attending so many parties these days and eating all oily and unhealthy stuff, we thought let's make Aloo Tikkis and use them as vadas, that is how this new recipe, a cross between a sandwich and vada pav was born.

And actually Ravi made this dish (I should have taken pictures of the tikkis he made, he is a perfectionist, I showed him how small the pav was and he made the correct size that would go with the pav and he made exactly 24 for the 24 pavs I had), I only shallow fried them in little bit of oil and arranged the tikkis in pavs.

We made this from organic russet potatoes from whole foods and some green peas.

To make this you need...

3 pototoes

1 cup green peas

1 tbsp red chilli powder

1 tbsp garam masala

1/2 tbsp amchoor powder

1/2 bunch coriander

1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

a pinch of turmeric

half juice of lemon

salt to taste

oil for shallow fry

pav bread

1. Boil pototoes and peas separately, remove skin from potato and mash both potatoes and peas.
2. Add powders like red chilli(you can add green chillies if you like), turmeric, garam masala, amchoor and salt.
3. Add shredded cilantro, lemon juice, and ginger garlic paste and mix everything together.
4. Make small patties of the mixture and keep aside.
5. Heat a pan, put a tbsp of oil and smear evenly on pan.
6. Depending on the size of the pan, cook all tikkis together or some at a time until the tikkis are brown on both sides and remove.
7. To arrange, cut pav into half, put some butter to the sides (we avoided this step) and toast. Smear green chutney and garlic chutney on one side and put the patties on the bottom side, top it with the other side of the bun and press a bit.
8. Do the same for the remaining buns. I made 24 small tikki pav's with this mixture.

Serve with onions and some ketchup or sauce. This was very close to Vada Pav recipe but a healthy one without a lot of oil.

Our Sunday's brunch

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.

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Ingredients
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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.