The recipes posted here are very simple, with no hard & fast rule, as I love to cook a variety but with ease. My dishes are such that it is nutritious & easy to cook. Of course one can always change the ingredients according to one's taste & availability. Do let me know which type of recipes are preferred, or in case you've any queries too. Feel free to comment.
I always loved ginger cookies, so tried little with wheat flour and multigrain flour. Ingredients brown sugar 2 tbsp gur/ jaggery 2 tbsp banana mashed 1/4 cup with 1 tbsp curd baking pdr. 1/2 tsp ghee 2 tbsp atta 1 tbsp multigrain flour ( ragi, millets mixed, with which I make my porridge, used that) 3/4 cup approximately ginger pdr. 3 tsp METHOD
mixed well sugar, gur with banana curd mixture, added ghee, flours, baking pdr., mixed well, added ginger pdr. mixed well pre-heated oven at 180 deg. C, greased the oven tray, made small balls of my dough which was a bit sticky( than roti dough), baked at 160 deg. C for 15 minutes, switched off my oven, let it rest for another 2 minutes, tasted one, felt good, hubby asked what was I cooking, gave him one to taste, he liked it too ! got about 16 cookies I think. To be honest, never actually measure ingredients, keep all near by and keep adding, here too for wheat flour or multigrain, you may add little, then add as needed to get the dough.
INGREDIENTS Oil 1 tbsp Ghee 1-2 tbsp jeera 1/2 tsp hing little onion chopped 1 cup carrot chopped 1/4 cup peas 1/4 cup potatoes chopped 1/4 cup spinach blanched 1 cup ( you may use fresh spinach washed and chopped, then add spinach when other veges are 3/4 cooked) tomatoes chopped 1 cup cauliflower 1/4 cup walnuts 1/4 cup salt to taste green chilies chopped 3-4 as per taste or you may slit and use garam masala pdr. 1/2 tsp rice as needed ( I used less than half the quantity of cooked rice in proportion to the vegetable, so that is as per your choice) coriander leaves chopped 2 tbsp turmeric pdr. 1/2 tsp METHOD in a big kadai/ wok, heat oil, add jeera, once it crackles, add hing, green chilies and onion with wee bit of salt to fry quickly to light brown add tomatoes, fry for 2-3 minutes, add all the veges, except spinach, add turmeric pdr., mix well, cook covered on low flame adding salt for veges, stirring every 2-3 minutes, till veges are done, add half the quantity of coriander leaves, walnuts and spinach, cook for another 2 minutes, add 1 tbsp ghee, garam masala, cooked rice, salt to taste for rice, mix well, cook on low flame covered for 3-4 minutes, till rice and veges get well mixed, add rest of the coriander leaves and more ghee if preferred, serve hot with roasted papad or chips and curd, to make it a complete meal. Hubby liked it, as I made for dinner last night. You get protein from milk and walnuts, carbs from rice and vitamins, fibre and minerals from veges. TIP- as mentioned earlier, spinach can be blanched or if using fresh spinach, add when veges are 3/4 cooked. you may add the veges mentioned, or you can make with onion, tomatoes potatoes, peas, spinach too. No hard and fast rule for the veges and the amount you need, you can use what you've, but main ingredients are onion, tomato and spinach. For vegetarians, walnuts provide onega-3 fatty acids, protein and fibre.
INGREDIENTS chana dal 1/2 cup tuvar dal 1/2 cup urad dal 2 tbsp green chilies 3-4 as per taste ginger 1" finely chopped curry leaves finely chopped 1 tbsp coriander leaves finely chopped 2 tbsp
hing 1/4 tsp onion finely chopped 1/2 cup salt to taste oil to fry radish grated 1/2 cup oil to fry METHOD soak dal for about 3 hours with just enough water to soak it grind without water along with ginger and green chilies to a coarse paste in case it is difficult to grind, just sprinkle little water to grated radish, add little salt, mix well, then squeeze out excess water and add to dal mixture, along with onion, curry leaves, mint, coriander leaves and salt. heat oil in a kadai / pan, deep fry the vadas in hot oil till crisp on both sides, drain well and serve hot with chutney. Tip- at times when one grinds for vada, at times, the batter isn't thick as needed, then add some fine rava, mix well and keep it aside for 10 minutes, it will absorb excess water and also you'll get crisp vadas !
Normally when we cook radish or cabbage, the whole neighbourhood will come to know. Here is a trick to reduce the strong smell of these two veges, add about 1 tsp of ginger or more depending on the quantity that you're cooking and add mint finely chopped !
INGREDIENTS radish grated 1 cup peas 1/2 cup onion 1 big chopped tomato chopped 2 cinnamon 1" cloves 2-3 green chili 3-4 slit or finely chopped ginger finely chopped 1 tsp OR (you can make a paste of cinnamon, cloves, green chilies,ginger and tomatoes) turmeric pdr. 1/2 tsp ghee 1 tbsp oil 1 tbsp jeera/ cumin 1 tsp hing 1/4 tsp salt to taste coriander leaves finely chopped 2 tbsp mint/ pudina finely chopped 2 tbsp rice cooked 2 cups or uncooked rice 1 cup METHOD you may either use cooked rice and make the veges in a pan / kadai and mix with rice, or you can saute the veges, add rice, water and pressure cook like you'll cook rice. the choice is yours. In a pan / kadai add oil, add jeera, fry till it crackles, add whole spices or the spice paste after you fry the onion till light pink, add the paste and fry for 2 minutes, add radish, add turmeric, half the quantity of coriander leaves and mint, cook covered along with peas till the veges are done. Add rice, salt, ghee, remaining coriander leaves, mint, mix well, serve hot with cucumber raita and papad. OR In case, you want to pressure cook, fry jeera, onion, add the paste, fry for a minutes, add radish, peas, turmeric, salt, add washed rice and double the quantity of water and pressure cook like what you'ld normally do for the rice. Once the pressure is released, add coriander leaves, mint, ghee, mix well and serve hot with cucumber raita and roasted papad.
INGREDIENTS besan 1 cup spinach blanched and puree 1/4 cup salt to taste green chili-ginger paste 1 tbsp Eno fruit salt 2 tsp garlic paste ( optional) basil leaves torn with hand few tomato slices chopped as needed cheese grated as needed oil to grease the baking dish water to mix METHOD In a big bowl, add besan, spinach, paste, salt, mix well, add water little by little to make sure there are no lumps, add enough water to make batter like for dosa, neither thin nor thick. add Eno mix well, grease a micro safe dish, pour the batter, arrange tomato slices, basil leaves and sprinkle some cheese, microwave for 3-4 minutes. to test done, when you poke in the centre, the knife should come out clean, if not bake for another 1-2 minutes. You may take out of the microwave, add some more cheese while still hot on top, so it will melt in the heat. Serve hot with green chutney or tomato ketchup.
INGREDIENTS tuvar/ arhar dal cooked with enough water as needed 1 cup carrot grated/ minced in mixie 1/4 cup walnuts 2 tbsp gur/ jaggery 3/4- 1 cup as per taste ghee for cooking all purpose flour( maida) or atta alone or a mix of both flours for dough with little ghee and turmeric pdr. METHOD I chopped the carrots, put in the mixer jar and minced it, added the walnuts, then as my dal was already well cooked and mashed, I didn't put the dal in the mixie, but you may grind the cooked dal too. In case, you feel that your gur has impurities, then cook with little water, strain it, then add to the ground dal-carrot-walnut mixture, cook stirring till dry, you may add cardamom pdr. or grind cardamom along with the carrot. Keep the mixture to cool, then roll into lemon sized balls Make a soft dough with the flours, take a small lemon sized ball of the dough, flatten or shape like a cup, put the stuffing ball, cover well from all sides, roll as thin as possible, dusting with some flour. Cook on hot tawa, once brown spots appear on both sides, add some ghee to cook it, remove, serve hot / cold. ps- I had cooked tuvar dal to make with spinach. As the cooked dal was there and also for Bhogi/ Lohri festival, we make puran poli, so with more than half the cooked dal ground ginger and green chilies, added hing, and salt and cooked for spicy poli, as hubby loves it. Then realised, with me having a sweet tooth, not enough dal, so added carrot, walnut and about 3 tbsp of oats to make the sweet filling. So, in case, you've less cooked dal, one can always substitute with what you've, may be even fine rava/ semolina. Voila ! you get a different puranpoli. So, got a healthier version with omega-3 fatty acids, beta-carotene and fibre from oats ! So, I can eat it without feeling guilty !
My stuffing ready