Spinach Soup with Milk

I guess the milk makes a lot of difference.

http://www.jeyashriskitchen.com/2016/11/spinach-soup-recipe-palak-soup.html

Fragrant Crispy Adai with Saunf and Green Leaves

The most successful recipe of late, learned from my colleague Priya - real crispy, fragrant, highly nutritious, protein and vitamin-filled breakfast.

To soak overnight/for a few hours

• 1 glass tuvar dal
• 1 heaped tablespoon urad dal, for texture
• 1 heaped tablespoon uncooked rice, for crispiness

This measure comes for around 9-10 adais.

Grind

• Soaked dals and rice
• 1 piece ginger
• 1 red chilly
• 1 tablespoon saunf (fennel) (you can smell this once it grinds)

Chop

• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 green chilly
• Some coriander leaves
• Some drumstick (muringa) leaves, or any other green leafy vegetable, or spring onion leaves
• Some scraped coconut, optional
• Some grated carrot, optional

Mix

1. Mix chopped stuff and coconut with the ground batter, add salt and water, make it smooth enough to pour on a hot pan and spread thin.
2. The adai should come out really crisp and fragrant.
3. Have with chutney of your choice.

The red chutney in the picture is the North Karnataka sweet and sour green mango chutney my husband makes every year - the easiest thing ever, no cooking needed. 

Oats Dosa/Pancake!

Oats dosas by my friend Venkat, his attempt came out better than mine!

Call it dosa or pancake, a great way to get that blah-oats in and reduce your cholesterol levels, without lowering your happiness levels! And you also eat a green leafy vegetable in the bargain, and you won't even notice it!

I did not use any of the dry powders, it still came out well. Note that the batter has to be watery - you pour it in the centre of a hot non-stick pan, take it off the stove and twirl it until the batter spreads around. Can't twirl only your arm? Neither can I! Just twirl your whole body, it works - just make sure there are no family members with a sense of humour in the kitchen with you! If you've learnt Tai Chi, it helps, you almost get the feeling you're practising martial arts with a pan, not acting cuckoo in the kitchen.

After you have made one dosa, the pan will be very hot. Take it off the stove and wave it sideways a few times to bring it down to bearable heat, before pouring the next ladle of batter. May be wise to keep burnable objects, like people, out of the kitchen :)

Got it from here: http://food.sulekha.com/oat-pancake-id25353-39361-recipe.htm

Ingrediants

1. Oats Powder- 1/2 cup (Just powder the oats well in a mixie! - actually my friend Venkat made it without powdering, came out great he says)
2. Onion- 1/2 chopped finely
3. Tomato - 1/2 chopped finely
4. Finely Chopped Green chilli- 1/2
5. Kasoori methi- 1/2 tsp (dried methi leaves - great for diabetics, you get it in any grocery shop. Don't have it at home now? Be brave, go ahead and make the dosa without it, still tastes good!)
6. Coriander leaves- 1/2 tbsp chopped
7. Red chiili powder- 1/4 tsp (I didn't use any of these powders)
8. Turmeric powder- a pinch
9. Garam masala- 1 to 2 pinch
10. Salt
11. Water- 3/4 cup

Method

1. Take a bowl mix all the ingredients,add water to make it as a batter of pouring consistency.
2. Heat a non-stick pan, spread the batter to make it as a pancake,add oil/ghee if you want - not needed.Cook on both sides.
3. Serve hot with tomato chutney or mint chutney - or chutney powder and curd, or pickle....

Recipe for Venkat's onion-tomato chutney, the one in the photo, here.

Palak/Methi Chapathis

A great way to get that green stuff in! And it doesn't taste as bad as it looks, it's quite nice!

Ingredients

1. A bunch of palak leaves - soak in salt water for a a while and clean well.
2. Atta (wheat flour), 2 cups
3. Jeera powder (Cummin), 2-3 teaspoons, to taste
4. Salt
5. Crushed garlic and green chilly (if you want)

Procedure

1. Grind palak in mixie well.
2. Add it to atta, then add jeera powder and salt, and some crushed garlic and green chilly. Add additional water if needed (add water in mixie and pour that water in here - conserve, conserve!) and mix into a soft dough.
3. Roll out chapathis!

My friend Rekha does it this way: "Take methi leaves fresh, take equal quantity of palak leaves, few strands of corriander leaves, wash and grind them into a fine paste in the mixer. Add this to the wheat flour with jeera , salt and green chillies. Make chapatis and have with plain curds. My son loves these chapatis."

You can have this with your regular vegetables/dal - or just chutney/chuney powder and curd. It does not have a very strong taste, so it is an easy chapathi substitute.

Adai with Drumstick Leaves

Drumstick leaves are high nutrition. Here's an easy unobtrusive way of getting them in, especially good to feed people who refuse to eat them - they may not even notice :) :)

Just add them to the Adai - see my recipe here.

Or try this lady's recipe: http://www.cilantroonline.com/2009/03/murungai-keerai-adai-moringa-leaves.html

Adai

This is my version of the Adai, a very simple dosa variation (yellow dosa :)), and high-protein. Not fermented.

Ingredients

Tuvar dal: 1 glass
Dry red chilli: 1
Ginger: A small piece
Salt
Green leafy vegetables, finely chopped, optional. Dill (sabbajgi) is best. Drumstick leaves are also good.

You can make adai with just Tuvar dal. But to increase the nutrition/vary taste, experiment with other dals that need soaking overnight.

For example:
Shelled broken Moong dal (yellow one): Half glass (this one goes best)
Urad dal: Quarter glass
Soya Beans: a few grains. Remember, always soak soya beans separately, and  wash separately before grinding with anything.
Any other dal you have, just a few spoons. Tuvar dal should dominate.
You  can use a little rice too, makes it crispier.

Preparation

Soak dal/dals/rice overnite.
Grind the next morning in a grinder, with chilly and ginger.
Add salt as required.
Make dosas as you normally make, spread thin. This comes out quite crisp.

You can also chop some green leafy vegetables very fine and add to the mix, or spread on the dosa when it is on the pan and cooking.

Tasty ways to eat Green Leafy Vegetables!

We get green leafy vegetables so abundantly in Bangalore - and so fresh, and so cheap (compared to so many other vegetables) - that I am so grateful every time I see a push-cart full of greens coming my way on the road - which is every day :)

And I wonder why so many people don't eat enough of it, or have vitamin/mineral deficiencies when these leaves are so abundantly available.

So have tried to add as many recipes as possible with green leafy vegetables in here - just click on the label Green Leafy Vegetables, and you will see them all. They are all tasty and easy too, believe me!

Please do send any good recipes you have with leaves, will add here and acknowledge you.

Methi-Aloo-Oats Paratha - an Easy Healthy Breakfast!

This one is such a feel-good breakfast on those days when you need a lot of energy/when you have so much work you don't want to be bothered by hunger/late lunch. And I managed to sneak in some oats too, without any change of taste!

And this paratha will not break easily when you roll it out, because there's no onion in it. Even non-experts can make this one!

Ingredients (for 6 parathas)

1. Potatoes boiled in cooker - 3 (The potato basically holds the leaves together and makes paratha soft, you can reduce this quantity and add more leaves. If you add oats, that will also serve as a binder)
2. Methi leaves finely chopped - 2 bunches (Fenugreek leaves). You can also use spinach leaves instead. (Keep the leaves in salt water for a while and wash, so that they are clean. Dry them in a towel after you wash them - if there's water in the leaves, the mix could get watery, and you may not be able to re-use it the next day. )
3. A small cup of oats, powdered (optional - the traditional paratha does not have this, this is just for the health factor!)
4. Coriander leaves chopped (optional)
5. Green chilly, crushed - 1
6. Garlic - a few cloves, crushed
7. Coriander powder
8. Jeera powder (Cummin powder)
9. Salt

Flour for making chapathis - keep dough ready, like you do for chapathis. I add a little soya or ragi flour to the wheat flour.

Procedure

1. Mash potatoes well.
2. Add the chopped methi leaves, chopped coriander leaves, crushed garlic and chilly, coriander and jeera powder (add a teaspoon, mix and add more if you want), powdered oats, and salt, and mix well.
3. Now roll out thin chapathis with the dough - the edges should be thinner than the centre.
4. Add this mixture in the centre, take the edges of the chapathis and close over the mixture, make a ball, then flatten it a bit, and roll it out as thin parathas gently. Gently, so you don't break it!
5. Cook them on a tava with a little ghee. It's okay to have some ghee for breakfast, you'll burn it all away! And since this paratha does not break easily, you don't have to add much ghee.
6. Serve with curd and pickle. Well, I have a friend who eats this with jam and loves it!

Leafy Dals!

Mixing with dals is a great way to eat green leafy vegetables - and a very quick and tasty way to make a balanced dish. Goes great with chapathis and rice.

Ingredients

Tuvar dal/Moong Dal/Any other dal of your choice. Tuvar is the best for this, I find. (Dal = Pulse)
Sabbajgi (Dill - the thin needle-like leaves - very high in iron, and fragrant)
And/or Methi (Fenugreek leaves)
And/or Palak (Spinach)
And/or Drumstick leaves (highly nutritious) and any other leaf you get in the carts of the leaf-vendors.
Tomato
Garlic
Green Chilly
Onion (optional)
Jeera/Ajwain (Cummin seeds/Om seeds)
Hing (Asafoetida)
Turmeric
Salt

Procedure

You can do this 2 different ways - and the tastes are slightly different.

Method 1

Cook dal in cooker, with the chopped leaf of your choice. With Tuvar dal, sabbajgi, methi, and palak go very well, either all together or individually. Add a pinch of turmeric while cooking.

When dal is cooked, add some oil in a deep pan and add the seasoning.

You could try jeera, then a chopped green chilly, then the hing, then a chopped tomato and fry a bit. If you have the time, chop and onion and fry after the jeera.

Crushed garlic can be added before the chilly if you like the taste, or you can add it right at the end, after the dal is ready.

Now add the cooked dal+leaves to this, add salt and boil just a little. Leafy dal is ready!

Method 2

Cook dal alone in the cooker, with turmeric.
Add the chopped leaves in the seasoning, after the tomato, and stir-fry for a little bit until the raw look has gone.
Now add the cooked dal to this and boil a little.
Here the taste of the leaves will be stronger. I quite like it this way too. The green will remain dark green this way, so the curry looks nicer.

Methi Chicken

Recipe from my friend Poorna - she's tried it out, says it's great:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRDBbwI0_sA

Methi = Fenugreek leaves

Pack a healthy lunch the Mix & Match Kichdi Way!

I take kichdi for lunch every day - and there's so many varieties of it, I haven't yet run out of combinations! If you can get your kids to eat this, you don't have to worry about them not getting enough nutrition anymore :)

Ingredients

The basic concept is this:

• Half glass rice
• Half glass broken wheat (you get this in packets in grocery shops). Or millets - you get millets so easily these days.
• One dal/Soya Chunks/Frozen peas/Frozen corn (Soya is very good if you are feeling tired - it gives instant energy)
• One Vegetable
• And/or one Green Leafy Vegetable

So it's as healthy as it can get, and it's all cooked in one go in a cooker! And you can mix and match with all the vegetables/dals you like - just see if you can sneak in some green leaves also, to complete the nutrition.

I usually have this with pickle or some chutney, so the kichdi by itself is bland - though you can always try out various kinds of seasoning to change that.

Procedure

The measurements in here should give you enough kichdi for 2 people, for a meal. So I just cook once in 2 days for my lunch box, I just vary the pickle/chutney to change the taste.

Heat a pressure cooker (the small one in which you cook directly) and add a little oil and add a seasoning of your choice. Jeera is a good option. Also Panch Phoren, described earlier in this blog.

Add a split green chilly and/or some crushed garlic, which is optional. Or add a chopped tomato and fry a bit. If you have the time, fry a chopped onion and then the green chilly and then the tomato. I normally do only the chilly and tomato.

Now add whatever chopped vegetables/green leafy vegetables you want. You can add sabbajgi (dill - those spiky needle-like leaves very high in iron), drumstick leaves/methi leaves/spinach. Just stir-fry for a few seconds.

Vegetables - carrot/potato/cauliflower are the most obvious, you could try others too.

Then add the washed rice - half a glass, or even a little less than that.
Dal - half glass. You can use Tuvar dal/Moong Dal/Soaked Green gram/any other soaked dal you like.
Or/and some frozen peas/corn, or soya chunks which you have already soaked in boiling water with salt, and drained and washed.
Half glass broken wheat

Add 3.5 glasses of water to this - this measurement leaves it just the correct consistency without making it dry or watery.

Add salt to the water and taste - add half a teaspoon and then adjust. It is very important to add the salt - this makes sure the kichdi does not get watery.

Put lid on cooker, and cook for 2 whistles.

Eat this with pickles/chutney/leftover sabji from previous night's dinner :)
Non-vegetarians can add some leftovers from their chicken/meat/prawn/fish dishes in the end, after the kichdi is cooked.

You can also crush some garlic and mix in the end - you get the full medicinal benefits of garlic if it is taken raw, so this will be almost raw, but slightly cooked because of the heat.

To make this more like a biriyani, you can use some ginger-garlic paste along with the seasoning, and add some cloves/cinnamon etc. Or of course, some ghee at the end.

Basically, the whole point is that you can mix and match, just make sure you have the basic concept in place :)

Spinach Cutlet

Not yet tried out, but sounds like a great way to get that spinach in :)

http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2010/04/21/spinach-cutlet/

Spinach and Mushroom soup

My friend Poorna's recipe - delicious! And so easy, and so nutritious. We had it both hot and cold - good either way.

http://gourmetgubbie.blogspot.com/2009/03/cream-of-spinach-soup.html

Palak Tambli

A curd preparation, easy and light good for summer -

http://www.aayisrecipes.com/2009/02/24/palak-tambli/

Tomato Chutney with Coriander

Ingredients:

• Onion – 3
• Tomato – 2
• Red chilies – 3
• Garlic – 3 pieces
• Coriander leaves – two strings
• Hing (Perungayam) – a pinch
• Mustard and urad dhal – 1 tspn
• Curry leaves – a string
• Oil and Salt – As required

Recipe:

1. Heat Oil in a pan. Add Red chilies, Onion and Garlic, fry till it turns into golden brown.
2. Then add Tomatoes and fry till it becomes soft.
3. Once it cools off, grind all the fried items with Coriander leaves, Hing, Salt in blender.
4. Heat 2 or 3 tspns of Oil. Add Mustard and Urad dhal. Once it splutters add Curry leaves and the ground mix, fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Potatoes with fenugreek leaves and dill, from Punjab and Sindh

This is aloo methi with dill. Lots of green leaves, very healthy. If you want to shorten cooking process, boil potatoes in cooker first and then add. There is very little chilli in this, so it doesn't kill the taste of the other ingredients. Goes very well with chapathis, also with rice.

You can make this dry subji, the moong dal recipe I posted above this, and make chapthis and/or rice, probably some curds too - and you have a complete meal.

Ingredients

250 gms, potatoes, preferably new (you can use those baby potatoes too for this)
3/4 cup fenugreek leaves (methi leaves)
salt
3 tablespoons oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 green chilli, chopped
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
4 stalks of fresh dill, chopped (sabbajgi, those thin needle-like leaves)
1 tablespoon chopped coriander

Procedure

If not using new potatoes, peel and cut into bite-sized pieces. New potatoes can be left whole with the skins on.

Soak the fenugreek leaves in a bowl of water with a pinch of salt for 30 mins. This will remove the slightly bitter taste. Then drain and chop.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add the garlic and chilli. After a few seconds add the fenugreek leaves and fry for a minute.

Add the potatoes, turmeric powder and salt to taste and stir-fry for 2 minutes, then add the dill and coriander leaves.

Cover, reduce the heat to very low and leave to cook for 15 mins or until the potatoes are done. If necessary sprinkle just a little water.

From: '50 Great Curries of India', Camellia Punjabi, Rupa Books (2006)

Easy Mutton dish with Mint & Coriander

Saw this in a Malayalam magazine, a Malabari recipe, haven't yet tried out, but sounds delicious - and easy.
................................................
Ingredients
Mutton - 500 gms
Onion - 200 gms
Green Chilly - 10
Coriander leaves - 50 gms
Mint leaves - a bunch
Pepper - 10 gms
Garlic - 10 gms, ground
Ginger - 10gms, ground
Shajeera powder - 2 teaspoons
Coriander powder - 2 tablespoons
Lemon - 1
Steps
Grind - coriander and mint leaves, chilly, pepper, onion.
Add - ground ginger and garlic, shajeera powder.
Mix 2 tablespoons of the mixture with the mutton pieces, add salt, keep for 15 mins.
Then fry the mutton in a little oil, stir well for 10 - 15 mins.
Then add remaining ground mixture and stir for 10 mins.
Now cook mutton well - am guessing this has to be in a cooker, with at least 2 whistles? Wasn't mentioned specifically in the recipe.
Add lemon in the end, when it's ready to serve.

Greek Salad

Forgot where I found this.

Ingredients
. Cos Lettuce/Iceberg Lettuce. 300 gms. Tear into small pieces
. Tomatoes: 200 gms. Cut into eight wedges
. Cucumber: 1- deseeded, cut into small cubes
. Small red onions: 2
. Black Olives: 40 gms - Pitted and halved
. Feta Cheese - 80 gms- CrumbledCan also use soya chunks instead

For the dressing
. Extra Virgin Olive oil - 60 ml
. Dijon Mustard - 15 gms
. Fresh lemon juice - 25 ml
. Seasoning - as required

Method
. Mix lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, red onions and black olives
. To make the dressing, whisk together the mustard, olive oil, lemon juice and then season it with salt and pepper.
. Pour the dressing over the salad
. Toss gently until ingredients are coated with dressing, serve soon.