A vegetarian food blog with unique and interesting recipes from all over the world mainly focused on South Indian Cuisine.
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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Are you looking for easy ways to incorporate oats into your diet? Then this recipe is for you. Oats Dhokla is an instant dhokla recipe prepared with powdered oats and semolina in equal proportion. This simple steamed dhokla is a perfect guilt free snack anytime and a perfect party/potluck appetizer too.
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Whenever I think about stir-fry, broccoli always crossed my mind. I love the broccoli stir fry with soy sauce and cane sugar. That subtle sweetness elevates the simple stir fry to the next well. Today I am going to share broccoli stir-fry with tofu. These two pairs very well and you get your daily dose of vegetable as well as the protein. :-)
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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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Welcome to the three day blogging marathon, and this week theme is – “Kid’s delight | Cakes and Cookies”. Holiday season always calls for baking. That’s the main reason for me to chose this theme for kid’s delight event. Join me with you delicious sweet bakes. :-) The carrot saga continues. :-) Today I am going to present a simple and mildly spiced cookie – “Eggless Oatmeal Carrot Cookies”.
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As karthigai deepam is right around the corner, I thought of sharing some of the neivediyam (offering to God) or prasadam recipes. Last year I posted the Pori Urundai recipe and I explained about the festival in the same post. Today I am going to share one of the simplest neivediyam. It’s the kadalai paruppu or the channa dal or the Bengal gram dal sundal. Sundal is nothing but legume stir fry. Sundals are not meant only for Navratri, be it any festival, sundals are one of the easiest recipes to prepare.
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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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This chaat/salad recipe is my all-time favorite and I prepare it regularly. Mine is the super simple version of Delhi fame Kulle chaat or fruit chaat. Traditionally, this spiced up fruit chaat is served in scooped out veggies like bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers. Instead of that, I mixed both my fruits and veggies together and tossed it with chaat masala and added some roasted peanuts for additional flavor. That’s it.
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Today I am posting yet another Gujarati recipe which is prepared with besan – Khandvi. If you notice, the ingredients of khandvi and Dhokla are pretty much same except that, we use yogurt for Khandvi. But the cooking process is completely different. We prepare the khandvi mix with besan and yogurt. This mixture is cooked down to a thick paste and it spread thinly across a flat surface and then rolled up to bite size pieces and then we temper it with spices.
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Sweet Potato Chaat or Shakarkandi ki Chaat is a super simple recipe and it is great alternative to the popular aloo chaat. If you want to avoid potatoes and looking for alternatives, here comes the sweet potato chaat. For aloo chaat, we usually roast or fry the potatoes and toss it with chaat masala and add in the toppings and serve with the dash of lime juice. It’s as simple as that. But for this sweet potato chaat, I boiled them first and cubed them, then tossed them with spices and pan seared until the caramelized crust is formed, making it a guilt free yummy chaat.
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This is a simple and a protein packed pudding prepared with mango puree, milk and with Chia Seeds. Last year I combined mango with couple other fruits and posted the breakfast smoothie recipe -mango, lychee and pineapple smoothie with chia seeds. But this time I just wanted to use mango and prepare this simple and yummy pudding recipe.
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Idli, Dosa, Paratha and Soups are great for sneaking in veggies and greens. Here is one such recipe – Vallarai Keerai dosai. Vallarai keerai dosai is prepared with regular dosa batter which is then mixed with the Vallarai puree and the flavors are enhanced with onions, cumin and black pepper corns.
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Vallarai Keerai Kootu is a gravy prepared with moong dal and spinach(Indian Pennywort) with fresh ground coconut masala. This can be served as a rice accompaniment and also as a side for sambar and rasam rice. Vallarai is spinach variety popularly known as Gotu Kola and its botanical name is Centella Asiatica.
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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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Today is Slow Food Movement Day.
So what’s Slow Food? It is the opposite of Fast Food that’s it. It’s as simple as that.
Slow Food Movement was founded by Carlo Petrini in 1986 and they started promoting it as an alternative for Fast Food. The Slow Food international movement officially began when delegates from 15 countries endorsed this manifesto, written by founding member Folco Portinari, on December 10, 1989. It is an international movement and according to Wiki, “The movement has since expanded globally to over 100,000 members in 150 countries. Its goals of sustainable foods and promotion of local small businesses are paralleled by a political agenda directed against globalization of agricultural products. “
Food, Clothing and Shelter are the basic and the same time important requirements of life. Gone are the days when we used to get farm fresh produce and cook fresh meals every day. We buy fresh food from grocery but who knows how long was in the transit? In this fast pace world, food also has become fast food. In order to balance work and life we opt for the easy and convenient fast food. Food Industry is one of the largest and complex industry and also controversial industry in today’s world. People discuss and debate the pros and cons of everything right from ingredient to the method of cooking. Some of the recent things that I came across was, Microwave cooking is safe or not? Cooking beans in slow cooker without soaking will release toxins? Is it safe to cook in aluminum pressure cooker directly? Can we warm honey? And there are many more questions.
Why do we need these movements, nutrition classes and what is the significance Does that mean do we need to go organic and natural? The next question that comes in our mind is, is it affordable to all? The slow food movement aims at rediscovering the local flavors and regional cuisine. When we buy seasonal vegetables and fruits from the local farmer’s market it is comparatively affordable and at the same time it helps the local farmers and promotes sustainable growth. ? In my opinion these movements brings in the health awareness and helps us to understand what we eat. The Child Nutrition and cooking course helped me to understand and interpret the labels. We need to understand the effect of junk food and sugar in our body.
Food which is the fuel for our body has direct impact on our health. As parents we need to understand what is MSG (Monosodium glutamate), refined carbs, blood sugar, fat and effects of fast food. Can we say no to fast food right away? No. When my work is hectic and when I am not able to cook I go for frozen food or fast food. But I limit it and keep it at the bay. As the proverb goes, “Too much of anything is good for nothing”.
On this Slow Movement Day, let’s try to understand and analyze our food and get back to our roots and see how we can incorporate the seasonal fruits and veggies along with healthy pulses and grains. A well balance diet and Exercise is the key for healthy life. Let’s eat healthy and stay healthy.
Couple of books that I read and reviewed,
Earlier Cross Posted here.
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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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!
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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.
Earlier submitted this recipe for one of the Facebook event called #FFHTeatime. I would like to have munchy and crunchy savory snacks along with tea. I like explore tea with different condiments. You can find about it here. Tea time becomes much more fun when friends are with you. These bite sized bhel cups are mess free and easy grab snacks too.
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Here is a super simple smoothie prepared with all my favorite fruits – Mango , Pineapple and Lychee. This is a super cool and a sweet combination and with the addition of chia seeds and protein powder it becomes a perfect breakfast smoothie.The sweet and sourness of mango and pineapple with refreshing lychee is an amazing combination.
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