When busy and lazy days are  ahead i just think about recipes with only veggies i mean no onions, tomatoes and ginger garlic!  Here is one of them.

All u need is

2 small potatoes cut into small cubes

1/2 of a cauliflower cut into small pieces

1 small piece of capsicum cut into small pieces

1/4 cup frozen peas

oil for frying 1/4 tsp jeera

jeera powder/ cumin powder 1/2 to 1 tsp or can increase or decrease according to your taste

turmeric powder 1/2 tsp or more

redchilli powder (optional according to your taste)

chaat masala (optional to sprinkle)

how to make:

Heat oil in a skillet and add jeera to it. When its brownish add potatoes and fry till the sides are brown. Add capsicum, cauliflowr, and all masalas to it and little water for the masalas to mix and well coat all the veggies. Close and cook till the veggies are done or till the water drains away. Add the green peas and close again till its soft. Garnish with corriander and mint leaves.

What i usually do with this subzi is roll it inside a roti, sprinkle chaat masala on top of the subzi and have it yummm! Its easy to stuff into hubbys lunch box as well!

i also prepare this during iftaar and saves me from the gastric pains due to the heavy dose of masalas in other curries!

Now to the award from my blogger fried Fajida. Thanks a lot dear!

Im passing this award to my wonderful blogger friends

1. Suhaina

2. Priti

3. Raks

4. Shabs

5.Faiza

6. Priya

7.Nilofer

8.Lissie

9.Umm Mymoonah

10. Deepa

11.Yummy Team

This post also goes to Akilas kitchen’s event DNSW:A and Ayeesha’s iftarmoments:hijri 1431

Till now my attempt to make Sambar has been a vain. It never comes in the right texture or taste. Sometimes it will be watery sometimes sour sometimes thick the list goes on! So today i tried Srivalli’s sambar recipe and it came out perfect. It is so easy to follow and with very less ingredients.You can find more yummy sambar reicpes here in her blog.

here is the recipe. I followed the recipe blindly and made some minor changes

Drumstick Sambar

Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : 15 mins

Ingredients Needed

Toor Dal – 1 cup
Drumstick / Munnakaya / Murungakai – 1 or 2 nos (i added a medium sized potato too)
Sambar Onions – 100 gms
Sambar Powder – 1 tsp (i used Eastern so i added more than a tsp till the sambar taste came.)
Tomatoes – 2 medium
Tamarind pulp – small lime size (i used 1 tbsp tamarind pulp)
Coriander Leaves – few chopped
Oil – 1 tbsp (i used coconut oil)
Salt to Taste
Turmeric a pinch

For Seasoning

Mustard Seeds + Urud Dal + Fenugreek – 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves – few
Garlic – 4 pods

Method to Prepare:

Clean Toor Dal and pressure cook it with 2 drops of Oil and turmeric. This makes it cook fast. Keep it for 2 whistle.

Soak tamarind and extract pulp from it.

Chop onions, tomatoes, keep aside. Chop drumstick, the outer skin is also very healthy, so should not be peeled. Chop them into finger length pieces

Boil a cup of water and once it starts boiling, drop in drumstick and potato and cook till its tender. This should not be pressure cooked as it gets over cooked.

To the cooked Dal, add the chopped tomatoes and Sambar powder, salt. Cook for another whistle. Finally add the tamarind pulp along with required water. Bring to boil. simmer it while you temper with seasonings.

Heat oil in a pan, add the seasoning ingredients. Then add chopped onions, Once they are golden in colour, add to the simmering dal along with cooked drumstick pieces.

Cook on high flame for 5 mins, then simmer for 10 mins till its cooked well. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve with rice, dosa,idle

Chatpata chaat is there anyone who doesnt like it? Especially now i love the chatpata taste.. I make my chaats with heaps of chaat masala and lime juice!

here is the simple recipe for this chaat

1 cup chickpeas soaked overnight and cooked till tender

1 large potato boiled and cut into cubes

1 large onion thinly sliced

1 large tomato thinly sliced

3-4 tbso of lime juice (add more of less according to ur taste)

1/2 tsp kala namak or black salt

1 tsp jeera or cumin powder

2-3 tsp of chaat masala (add more or less according to ur taste)

3 green chillies thinly sliced

a small bunch of fresh corriander leaves thinly sliced

salt to taste

• Mix all the ingredients and enjoy immediately!

3 large potatoes boiled and mashed. Alternatively you can also microwave at high for 4minuts.

green chillies 3 thinly sliced

lime juice 1-2 tbsps (add or reduce according to your taste)

chaat masala 1/2 tsp

2-3 tbsp grated carrots  (optional)

Mix all the above ingredients and make tikkis.

Heat the oven to 220 C. Oil the baking dish. Also spray some oil on top of the tikkis. Bake for 20 mts for crisp tikkis.

**You may also shallow fry the tikkis in a non stick skillet**

Don’t you think sometimes you need a full vegetarian meal? And that too with almost all all all the veggies in it?? LOL!! I felt like that few months back! Yes this is from a draft long long back. I still remember i was craving for all the veggie curries I’m not good at cooking kerala veggies. I opened my cook book after a long time and started searching for these recipes. I hardly take a look at the books now becase i find everything in GOOGLE now! LOL! but i think if u need anything authentic tried and tested and tasted you have to open those books which you have treasured or passed from ur mom or aunt or grandmaa… the list goes on! So here goes the recipes.

Avial is a vegetables with coconut and yogurt. I add all my favorite vegetables to it like potatoes, raw bananas, carrots, yam… yumm yumm!!

Carrot – 1 medium size
Potato – 1 medium size
Elephant Yam -1 cup
Raw Bananas – 1 large
long Beans- 1 cup

• All veggies cut in 2 inch long pieces.

Coconut-1 cup
Green chillies-2 nos
Cumin seeds-1 tsp

• Grind into a fine paste

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Curry leaves 1-2 springs
Coconut oil for tadka
Sour curds-1 cup
Salt to taste

• Cook the vegetables in a skillet with little water.
• Add turmeric and salt to it.
• When the veggies are soft add the coconut mixture to it.
• After a boil add the beaten curd to it and turn off the stove.
• Heat coconut oil in a separate tadka pan and add mustard seeds and curry leaves to it.
• Serve with rice

Olan is beans mixed with winter melons in coconut milk. I love beans and winter melons but not really a fan of coconut milk. I had to buy it because this recipe is incomplete without it!

Small red beans – 1 cup soaked overnight
Winter melon -1 cup

• Pressure cook the beans till its half done and then add the melon and salt and cook again till soft.

Coconut milk- to taste around 1/2 cup.
Curry leaves 1 spring
Coconut Oil for tadka

• Add coconut milk to the cooked beans and melon and let it boil for few minutes.
• In a tadka pan add coconut oil and mustard and curry leaves and add the the beans.

Spinach is the only veggie my kids will eat everyday! So i try ot make it often and in the simplest way! I make Cabbage also in the same way.

Heat coconut oil in a skillet. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter add chopped spinach/cabbage to it. Add salt to taste and mix well. Wait till the veggies are done. Usually these veggies are cooked within 5 minutes if u chop them finely.

Okra Curry is one of the easiest curry for me.. why?? because one can cut the okras into half and and still it will be soft after a boil! Also i roast gring a large packet of coconut and freeze it so its easy for me to add the coconut also. Please note that the roasted-grinded coconut doesnt not really freeze and become hard in the freezer. It will be still like a powder if you dry grind them.

10-12 okras cut in to any size
1 small onion chopped finely
1 small tomato optional
a lemon size tamarine ball soaked in 1 cup of water
2-3 tsps of coriander pwdr
1 tsp of red chilli pwdr
coconut oil for frying onions
salt to taste

coconut 1/2 cup
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
fennel seeds 1/2 tsp
curry leaves 1 sppring
turmeric pwdr 1/4 tsp
shallot 1-2

• roast all till dark brown and dry grind.

In a skillet add coconut oil and fry onions. If you are using tomatoes add them after the onions turn brown. Add chopped okras and fry then for 2-3 mts. Add the tamarine water and spices to it.  Cover and cook till the okras are soft. Add the grinded coconut to it and adjust the spices if u need more. And bring to a boil. Turn off immidietly after boiling.

• You don’t have to add all the coconut to it. Adjust according to how thick you want the curry. Freeze the un used coconut if any.

Enjoy the kerala meal with kuruva rice!

Im overjoyed to receive this award from Malar Gandhi.

And im passing this to Srivalli, Faiza Ali, Pajusha, Yasmeen, Lubna, Lissie.

After Ramadan its back to normal life. We all miss the fasting, waking up for sehri, the iftaari… Eid was on Sunday in Singapore ans the next 2 days we had lot of gettogethers and lots of friends visiting us..  So only today everything turned to normal. Another thing is we started with Extra Virgin Olive oil for cooking. Im still looking out for whether its compatible with Indian cooking.. so far no taste difference and i’m loving it!

i wanted to cook something very simple today so this came up in my mind..  a very simple recipe which will go well with roti and rice.

3-4 large potatoes peeled and cut and boiled. But should not be soft and mushy.

1 tsp jeera / cmin seeds

1 medium size onion chopped finely

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp red chili pwder

1/2 tsp turmeric pwdr

1/2 coriander pwdr

1/2 tsp roasted cumin pwdr

salt to taste

olive oil fr frying

Heat oil in a heavy bottom vessel. Add jeera and onions together. When the onions are brown add the ginger garlic paste. Keep on stirring and add red chilli pwdr and turmeric pwdr and mix well. After this add potatoes, coriander, cumin pwders and salt and mix well.

Close and cook for another few mts.

Ramadan day 8

Whole Cardamons, cloves, pepper – 4 each

A small piece of Cinnamon stick

A bay leaf

1 tsp heaped ginger garlic paste

3 medium onions

3 heaped tsp coriander pwdr

1 heaped tsp chili pwdr

1/2 tsp turmeric

1 tsp fennel pwdr

1.3 kg chicken

2 large potatoes

4 tbsp oil

salt to taste

Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add the whole spices. When they begin to release the flavour add the ginger garlic paste. When they turn brown add the onions. When the onions are brown add the powdered spices. Mix for 2-3 mts and add the chicken  and potatoes and leave the cooker open for 5 mts. Keep mixing the chicken till the masala coats the chicken pieces. Add coriander leaves, water and cover and cook till the chicken is done.

This curry will have a very strong  flavour of the spices. Another post goes for the Ramadan Event

“Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth”.  source Wikipedia

When im lazy to cook or eat something solid food soups come to the rescue! One of the soups which i make during dinner time is this one.

It is easy to prepare and and very healthy as it as chicken breast, carrots, celery, potatoes, spinach and a lot of spices to spice it up!

So for this soup you will need

200-300 grams of chicken breast

1 medium size potato

1/2 of a spinach bunch

1 small carrot

1 celery stalk

Cut everything in to small pieces and boil together for 2 hours. Blend it with a hand blender into a fine paste or as per you like. Garnish with black pepper, marjoram,basil,oregano,crushed red pepper and salt!

This soup is really filling and you can also change the choice of veggies, u can add corn, green peas, tomatoes, or any other veggie.

Now a days im just in a mood to make different types of pulavs because my devar is here and he loves pulavs.. any type!!

So this saturday i was in a loss what ti make.. so i just put the veggies my son loves and made a twist in the normal pulav and then came out the 3 ‘p’ pulav! LOL!!!

here goes the recipe..

2 cups basmati rice washed and socked for 20 mts
11/2 tbsp ghee
1 heaped tsp ginger garlic paste
5 cardomons
5 cloves
1/2 inch cinammon stick
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp jeera
1 medium onion
1 medium potato sliced
3/4th cup paneer cut into small pieces
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 handful of corriander and mint leaves
1 green chilli

Heat the ghee in a non-stick kadai and add the ginger garlic paste till its brown. then add the spices and onions.

When the onions are tranculent add the potatos and the paneer till slightly brown.

make a paste of the corriander and mint leaves and green chillli. DO add more green chillis if u want it spicy.

add the paste to the potatos and fry for 2 mts.

Add water and salt to it. When the water boils add basmati rice to it.

Close and le tit cook in low fire for 15 mts.

mix well before serving!

this entry goes for the Rice Mela hosted by Srivalli.