Aloo Mutter Soya Sabzi

The husband and I tasted Aloo Mutter and Soya Sabzi for the first time at Delhi, and we both fell in love with it. I tried making it at home today, and the result was extremely good. Everyone in the family loved it. :)

Ingredients (for 2 people):

4 medium-sized tomatoes
2 small onions
6-7 cloves of garlic (peeled)
Salt to taste
A few coriander leaves, finely chopped
Red chilli powder to taste
Lemon juice to taste
Hing to taste
Kitchen King/Garam Masala/Sabzi Masala to taste
A little oil
A few mustard seeds
A 1-inch long piece of ginger, peeled
1 small cup of shelled green peas
4-5 potatoes, peeled and chopped into large pieces
A handful of soya chunks

Method:

1. Boil some water in a pan and add salt in it. Add the soya chunks to the boiling water. Let them cook for about 5 minutes. Then, take the pan off heat and drain the water from the soya chunks. Wash them with cold water, and squeeze them to remove every trace of excess water. Keep aside.
2. Chop the tomatoes, ginger, onions and garlic. Grind them to a paste in a mixer, without adding water. Keep aside.
3. Heat a little oil in a pressure cooker and add some mustard seeds. After they splutter, add some hing to taste.
4. Add the tomato gravy to the kadhai and let it cook for a while, till the raw smell leaves it.
5. Add salt, red chilli powder, turmeric and masala to taste and mix well. Cook for a while.
6. Add the shelled peas and chopped potatoes and mix well, so that they are coated completely with the gravy.
7. Add the soya chunks and mix well. Let everything simmer together for a few minutes.
8. Add more water if required, and close the pressure cooker lid. Let it cook for about 3 whistles.
9. After the steam escapes, add the chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice to taste. Mix well.

Serve hot with parathas or roti.

Pineapple Salad

I found the recipe for a very different kind of Pineapple Salad on Kavya's food blog, and thought I would like it. I tried it out, without the spinach (palak), and I loved it. Here's the recipe I used, which is just a slight modification of the one at Kavya's blog.

Ingredients:

Pineapple:1 cup(Julienne cut)
Tomato Ketchup:2 spns
Salt:To Taste
Chilli Powder:To Taste
Sugar/Honey:1 spn
Seaseme Seeds:2 spns(dry roasted)
Lemon Juice:1 spn

Method:

1.In a mixing bowl add tomato ketchup,salt,chilli powder,lemon juice,seaseme seeds(save little for garnishing),sugar/honey and mix well.
2.Now add the cut pineapple and mix well. Keep it aside for 5 minutes and then serve. Garnish it with seaseme seeds before serving.

Mushroom Masala

I had always been skeptical of eating mushrooms – right from childhood. Maybe one of the reasons behind this is that my mom always used to refer to them as ‘Naikodai’ (dog’s umbrella). :(

Of late, I started trying out dishes with mushrooms at restaurants, and quite liked them. The better half – eating mushrooms is a relatively new experience for him too – liked them too. I had been wanting to try out some dish using mushrooms at home, and the chance presented itself when fresh mushrooms were on sale at our recent visit to a departmental store. After reading up on the preparation of mushrooms on various sites, I decided to try out a recipe which was a mishmash of some of the recipes I had read. And, I am happy to tell you, it turned out to be delicious. Finger-lickingly, wonderfully yummy. We both loved it, and we are definitely going to cook and eat more mushrooms now onwards.

Ingredients: (for 2 people)
1. 200 grams mushrooms
2. Salt to taste
3. Turmeric powder to taste
4. Chilli powder to taste
5. Sabji masala/garam masala to taste
6. Lemon juice to taste
7. 3 medium-sized tomatoes
8. 2 medium-sized onions
9. A few coriander leaves, finely chopped
10. A little oil
11. 8-10 cloves of garlic, peeled
12. A small piece of ginger, peeled
13. Mustard seeds
14. Hing powder to taste
Method:
1. Clean the mushrooms and chop them into large pieces. Keep aside.
2. Chop the onions and tomatoes finely, and keep aside.
3. Grind the ginger and garlic into a paste. Keep aside.
4. In a pressure cooker, heat a little oil and add the hing powder. Add the mustard seeds and allow them to splutter.
5. Add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté it for a bit.
6. Add the chopped onions and sauté them till they turn brown.
7. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook them till tender, adding a bit of water.
8. Add salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, sabji masala/garam masala to taste and mix well.
9. Add the chopped coriander and mix well.
10. Add the chopped mushrooms and mix well. Add more water if required.
11. Close the pressure cooker and cook for about 5 minutes on high flame, without the weight.
12. After 5 minutes, open the pressure cooker and add lemon juice to taste. Mix well.

Serve hot with roti or rice.

Oats Vegetable Idli

I found this recipe on Monika's blog, and knew I had to try it out. I did so, a couple of days back, and the result was YUMMY. Everyone at home loved the idlis. What's more - it's very simple and easy to make, and healthy as well.

Here's the recipe, reproduced from her blog, with a few little changes:

Ingredients:

1. Oats – 1 1/2 cups
2. Rawa – 1/2cup
3. Mix veggies – 1 cup (Grated carrots, chopped onions and boiled peas)
4. Sour Curds – 2 cup
5. Corainder leaves – a handful
6. Curry leaves – 6-7
7. Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
8. Chana dal – 1 tsp
9. Urad dal – 1 tsp
10. Oil – 1 tsp
11. Eno Fruit Salt – 1 tsp

Method:

1. Mix oats, rawa and curds and keep aside for 30 minutes
2. Heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds
3. When they crack add curry leaves, channa dal and urad dal
4. Fry till it turns light brown in color
5. Add the tempering to the oats mixture.
6. Add the veggies and salt to taste and mix well.
7. Grease the idly mould and keep them ready.
8. Add the Eno and pour the batter in the moulds immediately.
9. Steam for about 15 minutes and your idlis are ready!

Thanks for the awesome recipe, Monika! :)

Undhiyu

Undhiyu is a traditional Gujarati dish - a curry made out of a lot of vegetables, which is highly nutritious and yummy too. It is sweet and spicy in taste. I LOVE undhiyu, but the better half does not like it one bit. That's sad, but I do cook it whenever he's not around, even though I have to do all that just for myself - cooking undhiyu is an elaborate process, but the end result is totally worth the effort. For me, not making undhiyu at least once in the winter months is sacrilege, with all the peas and fresh vegetables available in plenty now. I have found that different families cook undhiyu in different ways. The recipe that I use was taught to me by my mother who, in turn, learnt it from a Gujarati friend of hers.

Ingredients (for 2 to 3 people)

For the hara masala:

8-10 cloves of garlic
1 inch piece of ginger
2-3 green chillies
A small bunch of coriander leaves
Some dessicated fresh coconut

Peel the garlic and ginger. Chop the coriander leaves. Mix everything and grind to a paste without adding water.

For the vegetables:

2 potatoes
1 medium-sized brinjal
Some elephant yam
200 gms tuvar
200 gms green peas
200 gms beans (avarakkai)
Some carrot
1/2 raw banana

Peel the potatoes, carrot, raw banana and elephant yam. Shell the tuvar and peas. Remove the strings from the beans. Cut all the vegetables into slightly large pieces.

For the muthia:

A little besan
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder to taste
Sugar to taste
Hing to taste
Oil for deep frying
Methi leaves

Wash and chop the methi leaves finely. Drain all the excess water from them, as any retention of water leads to the muthia becoming very bitter in taste. In a large bowl, mix the besan, chopped methi leaves, salt, sugar, hing and red chilli powder to taste. Add a little water and mix to a paste. The consistency of the paste should be neither too watery nor too thick. Heat oil in a kadhai and when hot, put in bites of the methi paste. Deep fry them till brown. Drain the muthia on a tissue paper, so that the excess oil comes off.

For seasoning:

Oil
Dhana-jeera powder (powder of dried coriander seeds and jeera - cumin seeds)
Mustard seeds
A little ajwain
Salt to taste
Hing to taste
Sugar to taste
Lemon juice to taste
A little til

Method:.

1. Heat a little oil in a pressure cooker and add the mustard seeds. Allow them to splutter.
2. Add til and ajwain. Add hing to taste after they get a little brown.
3. Add the hara masala and mix well. Do not overcook the masala, as it leads to the smell of the curry going off.
4. Add the chopped vegetables, salt and sugar to taste, dhana jeera powder to taste. Add red chilli powder if required. Mix well. Add the required amount of water.
5. Close the cooker and pressure cook with the weight on for about 15 minutes.
6. After the steam escapes, add the lemon juice to taste and the muthia. Mix well and cook on a low flame for a bit, till everything mixes properly.

Notes:

1. If you want the curry to be healthier, you can avoid putting in the muthia.
2. You can also make more hara masala and stuff the vegetables with it. That is how authentic Gujarati-style undhiyu is made. I normally do not stuff the vegetables due to lack of time. While undhiyu with stuffed vegetables tastes awesome, it tastes equally good if made without stuffed vegetables.

Pav Bhaji

I am a big fan of Pav Bhaji, ever since I learnt to eat out. :) I was more than happy when the better half's office boy taught me this recipe. Now I make it at home, and the better half loves it. It's simple to cook, healthy and tasty. I love such one-pot meals, a single dish which is a complete meal in itself.

Ingredients: (for 2 people)

Slices of bread

For the bhaji:

1. 2 large cups of vegetables - peas, corn, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, carrot, etc.(pressure cook with salt to taste)
2. 3-4 medium-sized tomatoes, finely chopped
3. 1/2 capsicum, finely chopped
4. 3 onions, finely chopped
5. Salt to taste
6. Lemon juice to taste
7. Pav Bhaji masala to taste
8. Red chilli powder to taste
9. Turmeric powder to taste
10. Coriander leaves to garnish, finely chopped
11. Hing to taste
12. Mustard seeds for tadka
13. Ginger-garlic paste to taste
14. 6 medium-sized potatoes, pressure cooked with salt to taste, peeled and mashed

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a kadhai, and add some hing and mustard seeds. Allow the mustard seeds to splutter. Add the ginger-garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes away.
2. Add the finely chopped onions and cook for a while, adding more oil if necessary. Cook till the onions start turning brown.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for a bit, till the raw smell goes away. Mash the tomatoes till they lose their shape.
4. Add the boiled vegetables, removing the excess water from it. Mix well.
5. Add the capsicum and boiled potatoes, adding salt, pav bhaji masala, turmeric powder and red chilli powder to taste. Mix and cook well.
6. When it is almost done, add the chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice to taste. Mix well.

Toast the bread slices lightly on a tawa, adding butter. Serve the bread with the bhaji, garnishing with finely chopped onions.

Mixed Vegetable Soup

Come winter, and soups start making an appearance on our dining table. Both the better half and me like having a bowl of soup in cold winter days with fried rice or noodles, or just as a starter before dinner. We do like the easy-to-make packed soups available in stores, but I personally prefer this home-made version. It's just as easy to make, and healthier. This recipe was taught to me by my mother, and I can't thank her enough for it.

Ingredients:

1. 1 tsp. wheat flour
2. Mixed vegetables - peas, cabbage, corn, carrot
3. Salt to taste
4. Pepper powder to taste
5. Coriander leaves - chopped finely
6. Butter - 1 tsp.

Method:

1. Pressure cook the vegetables, adding a little salt. After releasing the steam, remove the boiled vegetables and keep them aside. Do not drain the water from the vegetables.
2. Heat a kadhai and add the wheat flour. Dry roast the flour a bit, till it becomes slightly red in colour and a good smell emanates from it. Keep the flour aside.
3. In a kadhai, heat the butter. After it melts, add the finely chopped coriander leaves and fry for a minute.
4. Add the boiled vegetables, along with the water used for boiling them. Add more water if necessary, and mix well. Add more salt if required. Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes.
5. Take the roast wheat flour in a small bowl and add a bit of water. Mix well, and add this mixture to the soup. Mix well and allow to simmer for a while.

Tastes good when served steaming hot with bread sticks or with soya sauce and tomato sauce mixed in.