Cold Pasta Salad

This cold pasta salad is such a burst of flavors that it will leave you craving for more! It's perfect for potlucks, dinners, birthdays - you name it. My daughter has been demanding this for her last three birthday parties and her friends love it! (Thankyou for the recipe, Kanika!)

You can make it 4-5 hours in advance or even the night before and refrigerate. It's served cold, so it works out pretty well! 

Serves : 25 

Ingredients:

500 gms pasta

2 cups mayo (avocado mayo for vegans)

2 tablespoon sour cream (only 1 spoon sour cream in 1 cup mayo)

Carrot -1 medium

Apples -3

Celery - 1 or 2 sticks

Bell peppers - 2 

Big cucumber - 1

You can add a pear too (without peeling)

Grapes (only organic), halved - 1 cup 

Sugar - 1- 2 teaspoons

Salt, Pepper, Oregano - according to taste

Method:

1. Dice carrot, celery and cucumbers as small as possible (so that kids don't single them out and throw away.)

2. Peel the apples before cutting. You can add pears too, without peeling. 

3. Halved grapes add a nice touch to the salad. I use only organic grapes and if they aren't available, I skip them. 

Tips:

1. Keep the cucumber diced and ready. Add it to the salad only half an hour in advance, otherwise it will water. 

2.  Make extra dressing and keep it separately. If the salad looks dry before serving (which it invariably does), add the dressing just before serving. If the dressing gets over, you can add a bit of cold milk too.

Gojju Avalakki

Gojju Avalakki

One fine summer evening, my lovely neighbor turned up with a box full of a dish that was a Kannadiga variation of poha. She is from Bengaluru and her Mom was visiting her. Auntie had cooked and sent this for us so thoughtfully. (Don't I love my neighbors!) I couldn't eat it the same day as I had already finished my dinner, so I carried it for lunch the next day. 

I still remember the moment when the deliciousness of flavors burst in my mouth and I shut my eyes to relish each bite better and tried to identify the flavors. It was so yummy and so very different from what I had ever tasted with poha. I have stayed in Bengaluru for around 7-8 years and forget tasting, I had never even heard of this dish. It's not served in Darshinis or restaurants. After a few bites I came to a pleasantly startling realization - it tasted like 'Bhutte ka Kis'- the famous dish with corn that Mom makes so well. But while the Kis takes some effort to cook, Gojju Avalakki is a breeze to make, said Auntie. It also required very few ingredients and did't involve any cutting or chopping. I was dying to have the recipe!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Thick poha 200 gms (Suggested brand - Real)

Tamarind - (Swad brand) - small lemon sized

Sambar powder - a lot

Jaggery - 1.5 tablespoons

Salt - according to taste

For seasoning:

Oil - 2 tablespoons or even more

Asafoetida - a generous pinch 

Bydagi chillies - 2-3

Mustard seeds - A lot :)

Curry leaves - A lot 

Turmeric - 1 teaspoon

Sesame seeds - 1 tablespoon

Dry coconut powder - 2 tablespoons

Way To Go

1. Soak tamarind. 

2. Coarsely grind the poha. Wash it.

3. Strain tamarind. Mix tamarind pulp, jaggery, salt, sambar powder and water to it. Be careful with water. This paste should be on the thick side, not runny. Mix this paste with poha and taste at this stage. If any ingredients need to be adjusted, do so. Leave for a couple of hours or even overnight. The flavor will seep in better. The mix shouldn't be mushy. 

4. Heat oil. When sufficiently hot, add asafoetida, mustard (let it crackle), curry leaves (chop them if your family can't handle whole curry leaves). 

5. Dry roast the coconut powder and sesame seeds separately. 

6. Mix the tadka, coconut powder and sesame seeds with the poha mix prepared in step 3 and its ready to go!

Tips:

1. You can keep large batches of coarsely ground poha ready. Then just add the mix and the seasoning to make a quick meal.  

2. The paste can be kept ready too with dry tamarind (puliyogare style and with seasoning - no water). Just mix everything with warm water to have an instant meal. Auntie used to give it to kids for college days for a quick meal. 

Raw mango temporary pickle

I had this pickle at Vijita's place and it was drop-dead delicious! I was amazed at how a few and simple ingredients, when blended in the right manner, can create a burst of yumminess! This recipe is totally my kind of recipe. Minimalistic, very less prep time and high ROI! So, here we go-

Ingredients:

Raw mangoes - 2 mid-sized 

Dried red chillies (Bedige variety)- 12-13 (This is a variety of red chillies that give a hearty red color but are not that hot.You can easily find them in South India. I didn't have them so I used regular red chilies and then added kashmiri red chilli powder for the color)

Fenugreek seeds - 1 teaspoon 

Salt

Seasoning: Curry leaves, mustard seeds, chana daal, asafoetida (heeng), oil for sautéing and tadka.

Method:

1. Grate raw mangoes without peeling. Then pulse in the grinder for a second.

2. Sauté chillies and methi seeds together in 1 tsp oil for 1 minute. Grind them. 

3. Mix this and salt with grated raw mangoes. Put tadka and mix. 

Make sure that the raw mangoes are firm and not mushy. This pickle is best eaten fresh but can be kept in the fridge for 4-5 days.

Serving suggestions:

It can be served with anything, really. Here are a few ideas to pair it up with:

• Parathas
• Pongal 
• Plain rice 
• Pooran poli

Coriander Stalks Chutney

I love chutneys! They have the magical power to elevate a meal to another level. 

I generally use parts of coriander stalks along with the leaves to garnish veggies. At times, only the stalks are lurking behind. I don't feel like throwing them away. So I just add a few more ingredients and make a chutney, which I find so very yummy!

Ingredients:

1. Coriander stalks from 1 bunch coriander - the one we get at an indian grocery store here. 

2. 1 dry red chilly

3. 1/4 jalapeño or 1 green chilly

4.  2 cloves garlic

5. Salt

Method:

Coarse grind. Eat fresh. 

I didn't even add lemon or anything for sourness. It turned out to be totally lip smacking! 

Kaadha aka Herbal Tea aka Magic Potion

Kaadha or Kasaay is a drink that has its origins in Ayurveda. This kaadha is like a manna from heaven during cold weather and has always given me immense relief during my cough and cold spells. I've also had it during covid as my immunity booster. It's delicious too and can easily replace your regular tea :)

Ingredients:

Water - Oh that eternal life giving nectar - 2 cups

Ginger - 2 inches, pounded

Coriander seeds - 2 teaspoons - pounded
Methi seeds - 1 teaspoon - pounded
Black pepper - 1/2 teaspoon powder  or 4-5 pepper corns 

Cloves - 1-2

Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Cinnamon powder - 1/2 teaspoon (Sri Lankan cinnamon is considered the best.)
Gud (Jaggery) - Optional - 2 teaspoons or according to taste
Lemon Juice - 2 teaspoons

Method:

1. Put water on boil.

2. Add ginger to get the potion started. 

3. Keep adding the ingredients except cinnamon, jaggery and lemon. 

4. Add cinnamon midway. 

5. When everything else has been added, let it boil till the water reduces to half. Approx 15 mins. If you're low on patience, instead of half, 3/4th would be ok too. Something is better than nothing!

6. Then if you want, you can add jaggery or skip it if you're watching your sugar intake. 
7. Sieve the kaadha. When it reaches a temeperature where you can drink it, add lemon juice. Vitamin C is sensitive to heat and hence it should not be added to the boiling kaadha. 

Tips:

1. You can add or remove ingredients according to your taste and availability. For e.g. kaala namak or black salt is good against cough and can be added. Similarly, Mulethi (licorice) can be added too. 

2. I avoid adding honey instead of jaggery because honey should not be added to hot drinks. 

3. You can make a larger batch and keep in the refrigerator. Just add lemon juice as shared above. 

4. You can drink this occasionally as an immunity booster or as a welcome drink when youre hosting guests. 

 

Saag Reshmi

 

Saag 

My Mom talked about a delicious sarson ka saag that her neigbor cooked for her. I had a 50-50 organic leaf mix sitting with me which I wanted to cook today. I instantly requested to speak to her for the recipe. The recipe is for sarson ka saag but I tweaked it for my lea and it turned out to be very delicious. I'll be posting both the original and the tweak. Thankyou for your recipe, Reshma!

Ingredients for Sarson ka Saag:

Mustard Greens - Sarson - 1 bunch

Spinach - 1 bunch

Bathua - 1 bunch

Garlic - 1 small pod or 10-12 cloves

Onion - 1 big or 2 medium

Tomatoes - 3-5(depending on the size)

Green chillies - 2-3

Ginger - 2 inches.

Ingredients for my Leaf Mix Saag:

Leaf Mix - 1 box - 450 gms (16 oz)

Radish leaves - tender - 6-7, without stalks

Radish - 3 inch piece - chopped

Onion - 1 big 

Tomatoes - 2 big

Green chillies - 2 

Garlic - 10 cloves - chopped in a manual chopper

Ginger - 2 inches - grated

Mustard oil - 3 teaspoons 

Ghee - a bit, for the final tadka

Red chillies

Salt, turmeric, red chilly powder

Method - 

1. Cover and boil the leaves and radish in very little water. Let the mix cool.

2. Chop onions and tomatoes. You can puree 3/4th of tomatoes and leave 1/4th  as roughly chopped. I used a manual chopper for garlic, onions and tomatoes. 

3. Heat mustard oil. You can use any other oil but mustard oil for mustard greens sounds just right!

4. Add garlic. Then onions. After a while,  add grated ginger and chopped green chillies. Add salt and let them turn golden brown. Add tomatoes. After 5 minutes, add turmeric and red chilly powder. 

5. I used the chopper to roughly grind the boiled leaves. Even if you use a mixer, do not make a fine paste. Add the coarsely ground leaves to the mix. Let it simmer for at least 10 minutes. The longer you simmer, the creamier the texture. If it's mustard greens, simmer for 45 minutes. This will help the curry to get a creamy texture. You can add garam masala. (I did not)

6. Prepare the final baghaar. Heat a teaspoon of ghee. Add 2-3 dried red chillies and add this mix to the saag. You can season this in butter or oil too. You can use more ghee or butter. It will definitely add to the taste but I did away with the additional fat.

7. I simmered it exactly for 45 minutes. The taste was perfect! Edit: I've made this by simmering for just 10 minutes and it tasted good. 

Tips:

1. There's no jeera or mustard seeds in the seasoning. Heeng can be added but I did not.

2. I could have added more radish leaves. I have a few kohlrabi. radish and beetroot leaves in my fridge. Wonder if I can try this recipe with that blend:) 

3. Do not add methi leaves to the mix. It will give a bitter taste. 

4. Try to boil the leaves in minimal water. 

5. I was curious about what all was in my leaf mix. Here it is! Very interesting :) 

Teheri

Comfort food for a cold evening :) I just felt like eating a hearty teheri today and it turned out lip-smackingly satisfying!

Ingredients:

(Serves 3 Adults)

Basmati Rice - 1.25 cups

Ghee - 1.5 spoons

Potato - 1 medium - big chunks

Onion - 1 medium, cut thin lengthwise (skip them if you're short of time)

Garlic - 6-8 cloves

Ginger - 1 inch

Peas - 1/2 cup

Carrots - 1 big, julienned

Beans - chopped 1 inch pieces

Coriander leaves - chopped, a handful

Khada Garam Masala - 1 bayleaf (tej patta), 2 cloves, 1 open cardamom (elaichi), cinnamon powder.

Cumin seeds, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, black pepper powder, salt.

Method:

1. Heat ghee. 

2. Add cumin seeds and then khada garam masala. 

3. Add pounded / grated garlic. 

4. Add onions and salt. Sauté for a while. 

5. Add ginger, potatoes, peas, beans, carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes. 

6. Add chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, jeera powder. Mix well and sauté for another couple of minutes. 

7. Add soaked rice. Turn and mix. Add 1.5 cups water in 1 cup rice. One whistle in cooker. In IP - either rice setting or 5 minutes on manual. Let it cool. Add dhaniya patta. 

You'll love it! Eat with dahi, raita or a pickle of your choice. 

Bitter Fact About Bottle Gourd (Lauki) That Could Save your Life

Although bottle gourd is a very popular vegetable in Indian cuisine, there's a surprising fact about it, which people hardly know. A bitter bottle gourd could be fatal. 

Who would have thought that an innocuous-looking bottle gourd could make you rush to emergency?

A few years back, my sister-in-law had to rush to a doctor due to this. She had cooked a bottle gourd curry and it tasted bitter. Disregarding the bitter taste, she took another bite. Soon after, she started vomiting. The doctor told her that it was due to bottle gourd poisoning.

Recently, a friend again brought it to my attention. Her acquaintance landed in ICU due to this poisoning. Though my friend is an avid cook, she never knew about the probability of a bitter lauki wreaking such havoc. She insisted that I write a piece on this and finally, here it is!

A veggie full of goodness can turn fatal if bitter.

Also known as lauki, doodhi and ghiya,  bottle gourd has a mild, bland taste. But one in thousands can be bitter. 

The bitterness in bottle gourd is due to the presence of a toxin called Tetracyclic Triterpenoid Cucurbitacin. This toxin could lead to stomach cramps, vomiting, diarrhea and gastrointestinal bleeding. 

Before using a bottle gourd:

1. Taste a small piece of bottle gourd from both ends.

2. If it tastes bitter, spit out the piece and throw away the gourd.

3. Drink bottle gourd juice in moderation. If consumed in leass quantity, around 50 ml, the poisoning can be managed better. If consumed over 200 ml, bitter juice can turn fatal. 

4. If you make juice out of bottle gourd, don't mix this juice with any other vegetable juice. Drink it neat!

For e.g. if bottle gourd juice is mixed with bitter gourd juice (lauki mixed with karela), the bitter gourd juice could mask the taste of bottle gourd in case the bottle gourd is bitter. Quite a tongue and mind twister, this! Read again :)

The same holds true for gourds, cucumbers, squash, pumpkin and melon family. If they taste bitter, don't use them. 

Symptoms:

In case a person complains of discomfort or starts vomiting blood after consuming a bottle gourd, don't take it lightly. 

The symptoms can be immediate or can take a while.

Rush to emergency and let the doctor know about the quantity and level of bitterness of bottle gourd consumed. Take a sample of bottle gourd/ juice with you if you can. 

This poisoning needs immediate medical attention. If left untreated, a person can lose his life. 

Treatment: 

There is no antidote for it. The patients are generally treated with intravenous fluids and a thorough checkup of all vital organs is carried out. 

Prevention is the Best Cure:

Spread the word amongst your family and friends. Speak to your cook.  

It is also important for emergency doctors to know about this poisoning and interventions required. 

By spreading awareness, you could save someone from an unpleasant, life-threatening experience. 

Using Watermelon Whites

With each grocery trip being like returning from a war-zone, there's a new found respect for food! A good fallout of the pandemic is that people are rethinking their food habits and ways to maximize the output from fruits and vegetables. 

As you grow conscious about what you toss in the bin, you start wondering about how it could have been avoided in the first place.

Eating a watermelon means dealing with a ton of rinds. While I haven't ventured to experiment with the outer rind yet, the whites below the rind have been looking at me with imploring eyes. I don't have the heart to toss them in the bin, even if it's the compost bin!

My Mom makes a curry with the white parts but I'm not a big fan of this curry. So I was on a lookout for other uses. 

The green of the rind goes to the compost bin. Pic courtesy: Pixabay

Watermelon Whites

I figured out that if the whites could be blended in a gravy or paste, that would be good. I decided to add them to a lentil pancake batter. 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients : 

Moong daal (small yellow lentil) - 1 cup

Watermelon whites - 2 cups

Tomato - 1 medium

Onion - 1/2 

Coriander - A fistful along with stalks

Ginger - 1 inch

Garlic (optional) - 3-4 cloves

Green chillies (optional) - 1-2

Lemon juice - Half a lemon

Spices - Red chilly powder, cumin seeds, salt, amchoor (raw mango powder) or lemon juice.

Watermelon whites added to lentils to make a savory pancake (dosa)

Way To Go:

1. Wash the lentils well and soak for at least 2-3 hours. You can soak them overnight too. Blend all the ingredients together. You can add more watermelon whites or water to make a consistency like pancake batter. Taste the batter and adjust spices.
2. When the griddle is hot, season it with some oil. Pour the mix on hot griddle. Keep it on medium-high flame. Flip the pancake when well done from one side. Let it sauté lightly on the other side. 
3. When done, enjoy it hot with ketchup or a dip of your choice. 

The watermelon whites made the batter very light and fluffy. I loved the fact that the volume of the batter went up without a change in taste. 

Here are some other ideas to use watermelon whites.

Add whites to a:

1. Smoothie

2. Soup

3. Dip or Chutney

4. Lasagna

5. Pasta sauce, Pasta veggies

6. Daal or Sambar

7. Paav Bhaji

8. Dough

9. Curry

Tips:
1. You can refrigerate or freeze the whites, because chances are that you won't be able to use them all at once. 

If you use the whites in some other way, do let me know. 

Till then, cheerio!

Sweet Potato Snack

When looking for long lasting vegetables during this pandemic, I added sweet potatoes to my list. While potatoes are our all time favorites, sweet potatoes also provide a nice change.

Sweet potatoes come in a huge variety. In India, we generally get the white fleshed ones. In the US, I buy the orange fleshed ones. 

Sweet potatoes are quite rich in Vitamin A. I use them roasted and also for halwa (a dessert).The recipe I'll tell you about can be served as a snack. Paired with a soup, it can double up as light dinner. This is also a vrat (fast)-friendly snack. 

Sweet Potatoes. Picture Credit : Pixabay 

Serves 3 

Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes - 3-4

Ginger - 1 tablespoon crushed

Green Chillies - 3-4

Oil of your choice- 1 tablespoon

Cumin Seeds, Salt, Black Pepper, Lemon juice, Coriander leaves.

Way To Go:

1. Wash and peel sweet potatoes. Cube them.

2. In a kadahi (wok), take oil or ghee.

3. When the oil is hot, add cumin seeds. When the seeds splutter, add green chillies and ginger paste. Sauté for 30 seconds and add cubed sweet potatoes.

4. Add salt and mix well. Cover and cook on a low-medium flame. Keep turning.

5. After the sweet potatoes are done, add black pepper, lemon juice and chopped coriander leaves. Mix well. I let the coriander leaves cook a little as I'm avoiding raw stuff during this time.

Look at the beautiful color!

Tips:

1. Add chaat masala or top with a green chutney. I like coriander-gooseberry chutney or coriander-mint-raw mango chutney. 

Dry Kale Sabzi

When it comes to superfoods, kale is right up there in the greens pantheon. I have to admit, I don't buy kale too often. Even when I buy it, it lies around in the fridge for 7-10 days and then I cook it just in time to retrieve it from the waste graveyard. 

This time around too, the leaves had started turning a tad yellow. I knew I had to act fast or soon it would be a lost battle. Then I cooked it with the recipe I use for mooli (radish) leaves. It worked wonders!

Look at the luscious green! Pic Courtesy: Pixabay. 

Ingredients: 

Kale leaves

Oil - I like to use mustard

Spices like asafoetida (heeng), mustard seeds, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder and salt.
Sifted gram flour (besan) - According to taste. I generally use around 2-3 tablespoons.

Way To Go:

1. Wash the leaves well. Chop both the leaves and stalks. 

2. Pressure cook using very little water. If using IP, pressure cook for 3-4 minutes. Natural release.

3. In oil, add heeng, mustard seeds and chopped kale leaves. 

4. Add spices - turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder and salt. 

5. When slightly done, add a tablespoon or two of besan (gram flour). Keep sautéing. 

6. In the end, add amchoor powder. You can replace amchoor with lemon juice or amla powder.

The sabzi turned out to be so yummy that even my skeptic husband couldn't help appreciating it. I ate a bowlful as my dinner. 

But the best part? I wouldn't hesitate buying another bunch of kale again! 

Asparagus-Carrot Soup

Do you ever feel that though there is a humungous variety of food in this world, we all fall in a rut and ever so often, can't figure out what to cook? 

Many of us go for our weekly grocery and pick out the same veggies week after week! So for a change, I wanted to do my grocery shopping with a fresh pair of eyes. I saw a bunch of asparagus, which I don't cook often, and in it went in my basket.

My friend Pooja shared this recipe with me. Since then, I use asparagus for a hearty soup. 

Asparagus that we see in the veggie section is the young shoot of the plant. Asparagus is packed with nutrition. It is low in calories and high in fibre. It's also rich in vitamins A, C and K and folates. Though available the whole year round, they're abundant in spring.

How to pick good shoots?

Pick the shoots which are firm, compact and yet tender. They shouldn't be limp. 

The tips should be closed. The spears can be thick or thin. Here, the deciding factor should be the freshness and your requirement. 

For a soup, thick stems should be fine as they give you more goodness per bunch, especially if they are priced per bunch. 

Green Goodness! Pic Credit: Pixabay

How to prep the shoots? 

I wondered how much of the stem to use. If the bottom part looks woody, snap that off. The rest can be used. Research showed that the stem can be lightly peeled too.

Now for the soup.... 

Ingredients:

Asparagus - 250 gms
Carrot -1medium

Onion - 1 medium

Garlic cloves - 4-5

Masoor lentils (washed, soaked for a few minutes)-2 tablespoons

Salt, pepper, lime juice, any other spices that you like!

Way to go:

• Dice asparagus and carrot.
• In a little butter/ oil/ ghee, sauté chopped garlic. After a minute, add onions.
• When the onions are golden brown, add asparagus, water, and salt. 
• If doing in IP, pressure cook for 2 minutes. If in a pressure cooker, cook for 1-2 whistles. 
• I use Blendtec for blending and there's no need to strain. If there's a stray fibre that isn't blended, I just take it our while drinking the soup.
• Add salt, black pepper, and lemon juice.

Asparagus-Carrot Soup Served With Sweet Potato- Beetroot Chips

Tip:

• I also added jiravan - a kind of Indori chaat masala. You can add regular chaat masala. I like to play with spices to make things more interesting for my daughter. The first time around, she didn't like the soup. Hence, I added some spices this time. She said that she wouldn't mind drinking it again. It was a victory of sorts :)
• You can make this soup with just asparagus. It tastes delicious that way too but I liked it with a carrot. 

Guava Chutney / Amrood ki Chutney

    Pic courtesy: Pixabay

Guavas remind me of childhood. There was a guava tree right outside my house. The sight of fruits hanging from the tree was quite a familiar one. The battle was to save the fruit from countless parrots and other birds. Sometimes the birds won and sometimes us! If we won, we enjoyed the spoils by sinking our teeth in the firm, sweet and tangy flesh. If we didn't win often, we could always buy guavas from many vendors. 

This chutney is one of those unusual recipes which make you sit up and exclaim 'Never knew it could be used this way!' My Mom used to make this chutney when guavas got overripe and nobody was ready to sink teeth in the gooey flesh. 

Recently my husband got small guavas from Walmart, which weren't sweet. The guavas looked like this. For their size, they had quite big, stony seeds. 

  Pic courtesy: Pixabay

We grudgingly ate a couple but the rest were lying around. Then I remembered this chutney and instantly called up Mom to get the recipe. Here it goes...

   

Ingredients:

Guava - 4-5 medium ones. Ripe.

Salt - common and black

Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon

Green chillies - 1-2

OR

Red chilly powder - half a teaspoon

Lemon juice - half a lemon

Ginger - 2 inches

Jaggery or sugar - 1 tablespoon or according to taste.

Adjust lemon juice, chillies, and sugar....well let's say, almost all ingredients ;) according to your taste.

Way to go:

1. Wash and cut guavas. Put everything in a blender. Add very little water.

2. Blend till it becomes nice, chutney-ish consistency.

3. Sieve the mix through a soup sieve to separate the seeds out. Those seeds are tough. Even my Blendtec couldn't grind them.

We paired the chutney with aloo parathas. You can eat it with pakoras, sandwiches, carrot or cucumber sticks. It can also be used as a salad dressing. The options are as vivid as your imagination:) I  licked the chutney one spoon at a time and emptied the whole bowl. It was heavenly! I wonder if I can make a refreshing drink out of it. Will figure it out and will let you know the results. Till then, enjoy the chutney!

Coriander-Mint-Raw Mango Chutney

I love chutneys! A well-made chutney can lift a dish to another dimension. Mix it with rice and curry, eat it with a savory, add it to a chaat or relish with a paratha. Sometimes, when the sabzi is listless, a good chutney can effortlessly carry the meal to its finale. I am fascinated with chutney recipes and  if I ever write cookbooks, a book on chutneys will be the first in line. 

Yesterday I had invited family-friends for dinner and made bread rolls for starters. As it is mango season, a keri-dhaniya-pudina chutney was a natural choice to accompany the starter.

If you ask me, the holy trinity of a good chutney is green chillies-black salt-lemon. It gives that zing to chutney, which make your taste buds sing. While coriander, mint, coconut or any other veggie gives body to a chutney, it's this trinity which brings out the flavors. 

    Raw Mango, Pic Courtesy: Pixabay

    Mint Leaves, Pic Courtesy: Pixabay

  Coriander Leaves, Pic Courtesy: Pixabay

Ingredients:

Coriander leaves (with stalks) - 1 medium bunch

Mint leaves (without stalks) - A handful

Raw mango - 1 big

Green chillies - 4-5 small ones

Black salt - according to taste 

Common salt - according to taste

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice - If the chutney isn't sour enough

Water - Just a little 

Way to go:

1. Wash all leaves thoroughly in running water.

2. Soak leaves and green chillies in vinegar for a few minutes. Wash again.

3. Peel and roughly chop raw mango. Add all ingredients and toss in a blender. I use my Blendtec.

4. Grind to a paste. After the chutney is blended once, taste it and adjust the ingredients. Once you're in chutney land, just play with ingredients and have fun! 

Notes:

1. Remember to remove stems from mint leaves as otherwise they impart a slight bitterness to the chutney.

2. This chutney can be made in bulk and frozen for later use.

Paneer Butter Masala

How food evokes memories! Each dish I cook has been learnt from someone and I always think of that person while cooking it. 

Many moons back, when I and my husband were still newly weds and living in the UK, a friend got married and moved there with his lovely wife, Sarika. 

Now I can't stop gushing about Sarika as she is a lady of many talents. She has a great sense of humor, is an amazing raconteur and is immensely creative. Our friendship has blossomed over the years, and I can't thank her husband enough for marrying her and bringing her into my life:)

When Sarika invited us for dinner for the first time, she cooked paneer butter masala and I was massively impressed. Though I had been married for a couple of years then, I was still a novice in cooking and she could cook exotic dishes as a new bride! It was time to learn :)

So this is how paneer butter masala made its way into my recipe booklet and has been a faithful friend since then. Whenever I cook this, I make a quick trip to those lovely days of yore.

Ingredients: 

Cottage cheese - 300 gms of cottage cheese

For the gravy:

Onions - 2 (peeled and halved)

Tomatoes - 4

Cardamom - 2

Cinnamon - 1 stick

Cloves - 2

Bayleaf - 2

Ghee (clarified butter) - 1 tsp

Cashew nuts: 8-10

Sugar - 1 tbsp - adjust according to taste

Salt - 1 pinch

Butter - 1 tablespoon

Kasoori methi - 1 tsp

Way to go:

1. In a cooker, put whole tomatoes, onions, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, bayleaves and a teaspoon of ghee. Boil for 10 minutes or 1 whistle.

2. Sieve water and save it. Let the vegetables cool down. Peel tomatoes. Then grind mix  to make a fine paste.

3. Soak cashews in the saved water.

4. In a pan, add butter. When it warms up, add the ground paste and let it simmer on medium or low flame. Add salt. Keep stirring.

5. The mix will thicken in 15-20 minutes. Add cashew paste to it. Mix.

6. After a while, add milk and let it simmer a little more. You can also add the sieved water if the gravy looks too thick.

7. When the paste looks done, add paneer cubes and sugar. Let it simmer for 2 minutes. Add kasoori methi just before switching off the flame.

8. Enjoy the dish with hot parathas, tandoori roti or naan.

Notes:

1. Some cooks add food color to get a restaurant like look. I don't like to add any artificial color to my dishes. 

2. This dish can be cooked without onions and still taste great.

3. Paneer cubes can either be sautéed or kept raw. I generally add them raw to save time.

4. It's a very kid-friendly dish as most kids love paneer. It's also low on spices.

5. I like to make my own cottage cheese. You can easily make it or buy it to reduce cooking time.

6. If you keep the gravy frozen, you can quickly make a curry by just adding paneer cubes. 

Ridge Gourd Peels Chutney

Our parents' generation used resources more efficiently than our generation does. My Mom and Aunts could make a mean curry or a side, using things that we now discard without a second thought.  

Pumpkin skin, raw mango pits, white flesh of watermelon were reinvented into curries. Watermelon, musk melon, and pumpkin seeds were dried in sun and we kids spent a few happy hours in summer-break peeling and eating those seeds.

As I have green leanings, I worry endlessly about the waste I create. One of the best ways to get rid of kitchen waste (or any other waste, for that matter) is to reduce it in the first place. 

If we didn't create as much food waste, we wouldn't just help fight the food crisis, we would also help mitigate global warming. Food waste, when dumped in landfills, rots and creates methane, which is 72 times more potent in trapping heat in our atmosphere, than carbon dioxide. 

In honor of World Environment Day, I decided to do a series of posts, which use ingredients that would have been otherwise dumped. Here's the first one with ridge gourd peels. 

By adding this ridge gourd peels chutney to your repertoire of recipes, you're not only doing a great favor to your taste buds, but you're also fighting global warming. How cool is that! (pun intended)

  Ridge Gourd or Turai, Pic courtesy: Pixabay

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

Ridge gourd peels - From 1 ridge gourd, chopped 

Onion - 1/2 medium, roughly chopped

Tomato - 1

Garlic - 2 cloves

Ginger - a little

Green chilies - 4-5

Grated coconut (fresh or frozen) - 4-5 tablespoons

Oil Gingelly or any) - 2 teaspoons  

Asafoetida - a pinch

Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon

Urad daal - 1 teaspoon

Peanuts - 10

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Coriander leaves - 8-10 sprigs

Way to go:

1. Wash ridge gourd thoroughly. If a vegetable isn't organic, I usually soak it in vinegar-laced water and then scrub it under running water. If you are using homegrown gourd or are assured of its organic origins, you can skip soaking it in this water.

2. Peel the ridge gourd. Discard peels from the very end which are close to the stalk, as they can be chewy. You can make a delicious ridge gourd-sprouted moong sabzi with the flesh while keeping the peels for this chutney.  

3. Heat oil. Add and sauté ingredients in the following order: asafoetida, mustard seeds, urad daal, peanuts, curry leaves, onion, chopped skin of ridge gourd, salt, tomato, green chillies, garlic, ginger and cilantro, grated coconut.

4. After adding grated coconut, switch off the flame. For any coconut based stuff, coconut should be added towards the very end to retain its delicate flavor.

5. Let the mix cool down and grind.

Tips:

1. Taste the ridge gourd and discard if it's bitter. 

2. You can also add a couple of slices of ridge gourd to the peels or make the chutney using the whole ridge gourd. Basically, you can play around with the parts and proportions of ridge gourd in any which way.

3. You can add a bit of tamarind to increase the tangy flavor of chutney.

This chutney is so yummy that my daughter has gone gaga over it twice. Once, when she was only 3, a Telugu friend gave a small box of this chutney and my little munchkin gobbled it all! Now, when she is 7.5, she had it at a friend's place with wheat dosa. She loved it so much, I had to call up my friend and ask her the recipe for this magical chutney (thank you Vijitha and Swarnameena for this!) This chutney turned out to be an old acquaintance, whom I now want to turn into a dear friend. 

Do share how it turns out for you. Also, let me know of any interesting ways in which your family cooks vegetable parts, which would have been otherwise discarded.

Happy cooking for a greener world!