A vegetarian food blog with unique and interesting recipes from all over the world mainly focused on South Indian Cuisine.
Let’s get back to our roots and make this healthy and filling breakfast from scratch which is perfect for the summer. It is the Pearl Millet gruel or as we say in Tamil Kambu Koozh. Learn how to prepare this humble millet gruel right from roasting to milling with step-wise pictures below.
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Porridge or kanchi or Kanji is one of quintessential family breakfast. Be it salt ones like kambu koozh or a sweet one like ragi or oats porridge; we love it all. Today I am going to share a diabetic friendly healthy mix or sathu maavu kanchi powder prepared with just five ingredients. With the goodness of barley, green moong dal, whole wheat, boiled rice and roasted gram dal, this kanchi maavu is sure a healthy and fiber-rich breakfast option.
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The third vegan dessert that I am going to share is the Vegan Mango Kesari or Sheera. I did not use any oil/vegan butter or margarine for this recipe, and I prepared this zero oil Kesari in the microwave. Once you have the mango puree ready, you can make this dish in 3 minutes and 15 seconds in the microwave. Yes, that’s the cooking time for this recipe. Dig in further to see the step by step recipe detail.
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Looking healthy alternatives for regular potato fries? How about some fiber-rich Baked Jicama Fries? Yes, that’s what I am going to share today. So what is Jicama(pronounced as hee-cama)? It is an edible root grown in the warm climates of Central America, the Caribbean, the Andes Mountain regions, and Southern Asia, where it’s an essential as well as an extremely versatile food source. It is popularly known as Mexican Yam Bean or Mexican Turnip.
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I always learn a lot of new recipes from this month long marathon. In the previous years, I picked safe themes. But this year, I had to come out of my comfort zone and look, I started to explore the recipes from all over the world now. :-) For the alphabet K, I picked a crispbread recipe which is more like a cracker recipe, from Sweden. It’s the Knäckebröd bread prepared mainly with rye flour.
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The second recipe that I am going to post under the “Holi Recipe” theme is the Ragi Malpua. Malpua is a sweet pancake which is quite famous in Orissa, but it found its way to the other states and now it has become a popular dessert throughout India. Instead of frying the malpua, I prepared them like regular dosa and stuffed it with grated coconut – nut filling. Also, I made it with Ragi flour, Wheat flour, and Oats flour thus making diabetic friendly.
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Holi, the festival of colors is in a couple of weeks’ time, and when I saw Holi Recipes as one of the Blogging Marathon themes for this month, without any second thought, I picked it up. All the chaats and snacks, fall under the Holi recipe category, and I have posted most of them last September. This time, I wanted to keep it simple and healthy yet delicious. So I am starting off with perfect tea time snack – Methi Mathri, precisely Baked Methi Mathri.
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I am wishing a Happy Navratri / Vijaya Dasami/ Durga Puja to all my friends. Today I am presenting a low calorie healthy kheer or Payasam or pudding. I can hear you asking, how can a kheer; a sweet recipe can be healthy and low calorie? What if it’s prepared with quinoa and without any sugar? Here comes my Quinoa Kheer prepared with Truvia® Nectar
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I am sharing a healthy vegan and zero oil chaat recipe for the last day of this Cooking Carnival Blogging Marathon. It’s the sukha bhel recipe with barley puffs. Sukha means dry and basically this is a dry bhel recipe which is an easy grab and go chaat and perfect for mid-day hunger pangs. This recipe calls for a dry bhel chutney that can be prepared well ahead and stocked up. Once we have the dry chutney ready, this bhel can be assembled in no time.
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Kollu kadaiyal or kollu Masiyal prepared with horse gram is yet another unique recipe from the Kongu Nadu. It’s a spicy curry loaded with the flavors of cumin and coriander and needless to say it’s healthy too. A perfect rice accompaniment and also can be used as a side for the Arisi Paruppu Saadam that I posted yesterday.
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Arisi Paruppu sadam or the lentil rice is one of the popular recipes from the Kongu Nadu Region of Tamil Nadu. It’s a quick one pot meal prepared with rice which I replaced with little millet and toor dal. It’s a prefect weekday dinner or lunch box recipe which can be prepared easily. We love this with appalam or chips. But this can be served with pickle or raita or with your favorite veggie. This recipe is a complete meal by itself.
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Wishing You All a Very Happy Ugadi | Gudi Padwa. :-) (New Year Wishes)
Godumai Ravai or Cracked Wheat Upma is a one pot meal that can be used as a rice alternative too. It’s a perfect diabetic friendly recipe. It’s pretty much similar to the regular rava or sooji upma but here is my version that I learn from my mom with no onion but with bay leaf, cinnamon and coconut.
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One more slow cooker soup recipe but this time it is a diabetic friendly and an oil free soup recipe. This recipe has the goodness of pearl barley and split pigeon peas / toor dal and veggies of your choice. It is easy to prepare. I have provided the pressure cooker method in the notes section.
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Looking for a quick, healthy and filling breakfast or an alternative to the regular dosa? Then here it is – Instant Oats dosa, prepared with oats, rice flour, wheat flour and rava with the addition of onions and tadka. You can make this fiber rich dosa in just under 30 minutes. Check out the detailed recipe below.
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Millets are small grains, as we say in Tamil it is called Siru Dhaniyangal. Millets are one among the oldest food known to humans and very popular in villages but in recent days because of high nutrition they are gaining popularity. This time when I went to Chennai to my mom’s place I got a chance to visit restaurant called “Pasumai” and its close to Tambaram Sanatorium (Chitlapakkam). Its very small fast food joint but they serve only small grain foods. That aroused my curiosity and also recent posts by Mullai made search these millets in US. (I couldn’t bring them from India) I thought being in BayArea it shouldn’t be difficult and yes I found all the millets here in Bay. I didn’t need to export it from there. For people in Bay Area, you can find all short grains in Madras Groceries in Sunnyvale. Not sure if they take online orders will check and update. In India it shouldn’t be a problem as India is one of the largest producer of these millets.
Today’s theme is One pot meal and I wanted to try pongal with these short grains. So the first millet that I am trying here is FoxTail Millet / Thinai or Tenai in Tamil and Kangni in hindi.
I think I have written enough about quinoa so let me now write about Foxtail Millet. When I was surfing I came across this article from Hindu which talks about foxtail millet and diabetes. According to this article, “foxtail millet releases glucose steadily without affecting the metabolism of the body. The incidence of diabetes is rare among the population which consumes foxtail millet diet.”
| Crop / Nutrient | Protein(g) | Fiber(g) |
Foxtail millet | 12.3 | 8 |
Quinoa | 24 | 12 |
| Source : Wikipedia | ||
For me this venpongal always reminds me the prasadam that we get in Venkateshwara/Perumal temples. IMO the hot pongal served in Dhonnai is the yummiest pongal. Nothing can beat that taste. I have stood in the queue multiple times for getting those prasadam. So what are these Dhonnai?
Dhonnai is an eco-friendly disposable dried leaf bowl which is mostly made up of dried banana leaf and these dried banana leaves are called as Sarugu in Tamil. They are also made of Mandara leaves. (I am still looking out for exact English name for the mandara tree)The prasadam are served in Dhonnai in temples. This time I got these dhonnai in bulk from Thaayar Diary in Ranganathan Street, T.Nagar in the effort of saving some trees and being more eco-friendly.
For this pongal I skipped rice completely and used ½ cup of quinoa and ½ cup of foxtail millet and ½ cup of moong dhal with loads of cumin seeds. So here is the protein loaded diabetic friendly ven pongal served in Dhonnai. Add everything to pressure cooker and pressure cook it with four cups of water. The serving size is 1 cup and it yields close to 3 cups.
Detailed recipe below:
1) If you are not able to get quinoa you can ignore and use 1 cup of foxtail millet itself.
2) Or you can also use 1/2 cup of barnyard millet and 1/2 cup of foxtail millet. Mix and match with what you have.
3) You can ignore the tadka step and add all the cumin seeds, pepper and ginger in step 2 itself making it oil free. :-)
Sending this entry for Valli’s breakfast event.
Yes, this week Diabetic friendly theme is outdoor grilling. Summer is here in full fledge and the weather is perfect for BBQs and grilling. As I don’t have a grill, thought of baking asparagus. In Calif we get asparagus till May and luckily I found this in the supermarket last week. Asparagus is a perfect veggie for grilling, roasting and of course baking. Asparagus has sufficient source of Vitamin K and Vitamin B and its know for its health benefits. You can read about the benefits of asparagus here. Including balsamic to this recipe give an unique flavor and enhances the taste of asparagus. According to google, “Balsamic has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties which can make it an effective remedy for treating infections and wounds. Folk healers used balsamic to cure body pain and as energizer.” The other benefits are listed here.
Ingredients:
Steps:
That’s it. Yummy baked asparagus is ready. :-)
When I heard that this week DFT theme is mock tail I was super elated. To get acquired to green tea I have mixed and matched various combinations. So immediately I thought I will do a green tea mock tail. We all very well know the health benefits of green tea. Green tea is rich in anti-oxidants and according to WebMD Green tea seems to help keep blood sugar stable in people with diabetes.
As it is a party mock tail I made into a spritzer by adding non-alcoholic unflavored sparkling water. But you can always ignore and go without it also. Also berries, citrus fruits and juicy fruits like cherries, apricots and plums go well with green tea. I got home grown plums and apricots so included them along with some raspberries. You can find the health benefits of each and every fruit here.
Before getting into today’s recipe the successful mix and match green tea combinations that I have tried and worked out are,
For today’s recipe this is what I did.
Steps:
Before serving remove the fruits and add the sparkling water.
<em>Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or dietitian. My knowledge and information is based on my research and reading from different resources. Please consult your doctor or dietitian before making any changes to your diet.</em>
This week Diabetic Friendly recipe is a Father’s Day Special recipe. I wanted to try some low calorie sweet and when I was thinking what to prepare I found this “Delicious Diabetic Recipes – Low Calorie Cooking” book by Tarla Dalal. I don’t know how I missed this book for such a long time. Its great book with detailed information about diabetes, types of diabetes, causes and diagnosis. These invaluable information was shared by Dr. R.B Phatak, an eminent diabetologist.
I slightly modified this recipe by ignoring sugar completely and went with fat free milk. Make the apple you are using is sweet and not sour. Sour and sharp apples may spoil the milk. If you feel its not sweet enough try adding 2 tsps of sugar or honey. I am not a big fan of artificial sugar so I am not suggesting that. Now my new cooking and eating mantra is “Moderation”. Will talk about in a separate recipe post soon.
Creating Recipes with a Cause!
I am a proud DFT blogger. To learn about DFT, read this link. To view more DFT recipes, Click here!
Here is the simple apple rabadi recipe. Its a four ingredient fix.
Ingredients:
Steps:
Simple and yummy rabadi ready. Serve cold with nuts and raisins.
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or dietitian. My knowledge and information is based on my research and reading from different resources. Please consult your doctor or dietitian before making any changes to your diet.
Here are the recipes from other DFT members
1. Anu
http://easybitesonline.com/apricot-cashew-and-coconut-bites-diabetes-friendly/
2.Swati
http://www.letscookhealthytonight.com/oats-cinnamon-berry-baskets/
3. Shailja
https://shailjatomar.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/fresh-fruit-popsicles-dft/
4 . Paro
https://crackleandtemper.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/vegan-gluten-free-brownie-bites-diabetic-friendly-thursdays/
5. Chahat
http://gorgeandserve.com/2015/06/17/watermelon-kiwi-pops/
6. Prachi
http://divinespicebox.com/2015/06/17/cinnamon-scented-oats-tart-with-dark-chocolate-ganache/
7. Aprasa
http://eatingwelldiary.com/2015/06/17/pineapple-kesari-a-fathers-day-special-for-diabetes-friendly-thursdays/
8. Sonal
https://simplyvegetarian777.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/badaam-anjeer-ki-kheer-almonds-figs-pudding-diabetes-friendly-thursdays/
9. Suchi
http://sus-healthy-living.blogspot.ca/2015/06/fruit-bouquet-fathers-day-special.html
This week DFT theme is “Tex-Mex”. I am bringing one more stew recipe but not with quinoa. But this stew is also loaded with protein. I always see ways to add protein into our diet. Being a vegetarian that is always a difficult. I have to keep doing my protein math at least for my kiddo. So coming to this recipe it is loaded with three different kind of beans (Black beans, pinto beans and Red Kidney beans) which are good source of protein and fiber. Also we add corn which gives the carbs and bell peppers and chili powder the other essential nutrients.This making it a complete balanced meal and diabetic friendly too. I prepared this without oil too.You can see the benefits of bell peppers and red chili powder here.
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This week DFT theme is “Oil-free Cooking”. I was planning to prepare some salad first but then I went back to my favorite soup. I agree I am obsessed with this little grain quinoa. :-) A small grain loaded with protein and fiber. One thing I need to admit is that it took me some time to get adjusted to quinoa taste. It’s purely acquired. I started with this quinoa black bean salad. And then slowly started to mix it rice. I mix 1.5 cups rice with 1/2 cup of quinoa and cook them as usual in pressure cooker. Then I started adding them in bisi bele baath and other variety rices.
This South Indian Style Quinoa stew with veggies is another attempt to try quinoa in a different way. This is a make ahead meal and I usually make soups in bulk and have them for lunch for at least 3 to 4 days. A great filling and balanced meal. You can use the veggies that you have in hand. This is perfect for kids too. You can add whole grain pastas along with quinoa and make it to pasta and quinoa soup.
Creating Recipes with a Cause!
I am a proud DFT blogger. To learn about DFT, read this link. To view more DFT recipes, Click here!
Ingredients:
Steps:
That’s it yummy quinoa is ready :-) Serve hot with bread or crackers.
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or dietitian. My knowledge and information is based on my research and reading from different resources. Please consult your doctor or dietitian before making any changes to your diet.
Here are the other entries.
My Paniyaaram Saga continues.. The proud DFT team brings the indulging dishes made in Appe/Paniyaram/Abelskiever Pan! Indulge with Appe/Paniyaram/Abelskiever Pan Goodness!
You can find my traditional sweet and savory paniyaarams in the below links.
This is yet another paniyaaram dish but with a twist to the traditional one. The batter is completely different. No Rice and No Urad dhal at all. I am using red poha/flattened rice, oats, quinoa, toor dhal, moong dhal and flax seeds.
I usually try adai with this mix but this time thought why not try paniyaaram?? I also added the veggies that I had in stock and eureka!!! Here is the multigrain paniyaaram with veggies. You can add any veggies that you have in hand. Its a filling and healthy meal/snack loaded with veggies and grains. You can serve this with the tomato onion chutney or with any spicy chutney that you like.
Creating Recipes with a Cause!
I am a proud DFT blogger. To learn about DFT, read this link. To view more DFT recipes, Click here!
Ingredients:
For the batter:
Steps:
For the Veggie Masala:
Steps:
Thats it the masala for paniyaaram is ready. Now mix this with the batter.
Making the Paniyaarams:
Thats it. Yummy Multigrain paniyaaram is ready.
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or dietitian. My knowledge and information is based on my research and reading from different resources. Please consult your doctor or dietitian before making any changes to your diet.
Here are the other entries.
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Posting after a week :-). I do need to post lot of non-recipe articles which I start from hopefully tomorrow. This week theme for DFT is kebabs and tikkis. So now coming to today’s Diabetic friendly recipe, this is a baked version of vegetable tikki and here I have used green zucchini with spinach and corn kernels. Zucchini is a light and versatile veggie and we all know the health benefits of spinach. So thought of combining the both and to be honest, for the first it came out well. I am a big time pearl onions or shallots lover. So I prefer them over regular onions. But you can go for regular onion or even try without onion. Here is the recipe that I tried.
Creating Recipes with a Cause!
I am a proud DFT blogger. To learn about DFT, read this link. To view more DFT recipes, Click here!
Ingredients:
Steps:
Thats it. Soft and crisp zucchini tikkis are ready.
You can use these tikkis as patties for your sandwich which makes a nice meal too. :-)
Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist or dietitian. My knowledge and information is based on my research and reading from different resources. Please consult your doctor or dietitian before making any changes to your diet.
Here are the other entries:
Anu’s Black eyed bean kebabs
Shailja’s Peanut butter kabobs
Sonal’s Kamal Kakdi & Shami kebabs
Advance Mother’s Day wishes to all the moms out there :-)
What would I say about my mom? This is entire blog is dedicated to her and I am here today posting recipes only because of her. Thank you amma :-)
In previous post I mentioned that this month is going to be coding month but not cooking but here I am within two days with a recipe. ;-) As this is for DFT and as its mother’s day special I didn’t want to miss it. Bisibelebath is one of the comfort food and my mom makes it from scratch. I have already posted easy one pot dish bisibelebath but this one is going to be with quinoa, rice and masoor dal instead of toor dal and this recipe is also from scratch. We prepare the masala fresh and add it to the dish.
We all know the health benefits of quinoa. A small grain loaded with protein and fibre and a great substitute for rice. But in this recipe I am not using only quinoa but adding rice too. Quinoa is an acquired taste so when you are starting its better to add it along with rice and slowly you can wean the rice. I personally feel masoor dhal is light and easy to cook and you can find the benefits here.
For this recipe I am using marathi moggu or kapok buds which is widely used Mangolorean and Chetinad cuisine. Its optional but if you have do try it with that. :-)
Here is this simple recipe.
Ingredients:
For the masala:
Other Ingredients:
For Tempering:
Method:
Thats it. Yummy quinoa bisibelebath is ready.
Serve hot with raita.
