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.

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.

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 :)

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)