Broccoli Soup

Broccoli is not a frequently used vegetable at my home and I'm looking at ways to incorporate it into my cooking. I've discovered that a soup is a good way to use it. Paired with a salad or a side dish, a soup is a perfect evening meal too. 

The power-packed florets! Pic credit : Pixabay

This time around, I made shallow fried French fries to go along with the soup. This was to incentivize my daughter (and husband) to have the soup :) They were visibly happy to hear that fries were on the menu. I'm waiting for the day when a soup in itself is a good enough reason for them to dance with joy!

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

Broccoli - 2 medium heads
Onion - Half
Potato - 1 small
Carrots- 2 medium
Garlic - 5-6 cloves
Salt - to taste
Black pepper - to taste
Olive oil - Half tablespoon
Lemon juice - 1/2 teaspoon or according to taste (optional)
Water - (How can I forget this elixir of life!) Enough to cover the ingredients and a little more.

Way to go:

1. Wash all vegetables well. Chop roughly.
2. Heat oil in pressure cooker / saucepan.
3. When it turns warm, add garlic. After a minute, add onions. Add salt. Adding salt at this point helps in browning the onions faster.
4. When onions turn golden brown, add chopped carrots and broccoli. Sauté for 2 minutes.
5. Add water according to the soup consistency that you like. You can add more water later too.
6. When pressure cooker whistles once, turn it off. If you are using a saucepan, bring everything to a boil till vegetables turn soft.
7. Let it cool down. Blend. I use Blendtec and it does its job so well that I don't need to strain.
If you like, you can strain but try to use the leftover pulp for parathas. (You can replace carrots and make the dough with this pulp instead).
8. Adjust water for consistency. 

9. Add a dash of olive oil/lemon juice/cream/parsley/bread croutons for garnish if you so like.

For Instant Pot:

1. Put on soup setting for 5 minutes.

Tips: 

1. You can use butter, ghee (clarified butter) or another oil instead of olive oil.

2. You can add celery stalk to the ingredients. 

Enjoy the green goodness!

Pooran Poli

This post is on demand by my friends who loved pooran polis I made on the occasion of Gudi Padwa (Hindu New Year). Pooran poli is a sweet stuffed paratha, which I enjoy eating with pooran, ghee and  kadhi.

My Mom used to make pooran polis on every Gudi Padwa. I'm keeping the tradition alive. So once a year, if not more, I make this traditional roti. My daughter loves it now, so I might be making it more often. Thanks to my friends, I'm writing the recipe down, otherwise I just call up my Mom, my Google:)

Ingredients:

Serves 4

For pooran:

Chana daal - 1 cup

Jaggery or sugar - 1 cup 

Ghee- 1/2 or 1 tablespoon

Powdered cardamom - 1-2 teaspoons

Saffron- A few strands 

For poli:

Flour or atta

A little oil or ghee

Water

Way to Go:

1. Soak chana daal for half an hour.

2. Add 2 - 2.5 cups of water and pressure cook. Press the cooked daal to see if it is well boiled. It should not have a give. If there is extra water after cooking, strain it. This water can be used to make dough or added to kadhi.

3. Warm up the ghee and sauté the strained daal. Add jaggery to it.

4. Sauté for about 10 -15 minutes on low flame till everything mixes well together. Add cardamom.

5. Now the mix is ready. Let it cool for 15-20 minutes before starting to make the polis.

6. Make dough in the usual manner. You can add a little turmeric to the flour if you want a yellowish look for the finished pooran polis.

7. Take a mandarin sized ball of pooran to make approx. 8" inch round pooran poli.

I usually like my parathas well stuffed, so more the filling, the better it is. Just take care that the stuffing doesn't spill out while rolling out the polis.

8. I like to eat them with a helping of pooran on the side, a small bowl of ghee and piping hot kadhi.

Heaven!

Tips:
1. You can adjust the quantity of jaggery or sugar a bit if you have a sweeter tooth. Make one, taste and then proceed.
2. I would recommend using dark brown jaggery instead of sugar. Jaggery is healthy while refined sugar is not. 
3. It's a good lunch box idea for kids. You can pair it up with  a sweet and sour lemon pickle. 

Garam Masala Paste - Marathi Style

A few days back, I had posted a recipe for mix-daal in which a homemade garam masala paste is used. This paste gives this daal a unique flavour. My friend gave us a live demo for preparing this paste, which is her Mom's signature recipe. Thank you Pooja and of course Auntie, for this recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Cloves - 15-20
2. Black pepper -15-20
3. Black cardmom - 2
4. Green cardamom - 10-12
5. Cumin seeds - 2 tbsp
6. Black Cumin (Shah Jeera)  - 2 tbsp
7. Star anise - 5-7
8. Cinnamon - 3-4 small sticks
9. Sesame seeds - 3 tbsp
10. Opium seeds - 3 tbsp
11. Dry coconut powder - 5 tbsp
12. Water to grind

Ain't it pretty!

Way to go:

1. Sauté all ingredients (other than coconut powder) on a low to     medium flame.
2. Add coconut powder just towards the end, when other ingredients have been sautéed.
3. When done, let the mixture cool.
4. Add water and grind the mix to a smooth paste.
5. Freeze the mix and it can easily be used for a couple of months. Make a fresh batch every 2-3 months.

                               All sautéed and ready for grinding

                              The paste is ready!


Uses:

1. Add a tablespoon of this masala towards the end in any bean curry like rajma, black eyed beans, black grams, whole moong, mix daal etc.
2. This can also be used to thicken gravies, in case any gravy turns watery. 

Go ahead and enjoy the goodness of spices. 

Carrot Parathas or Gajar ke Parathe

One day when I wanted to eat parathas but didn't have potatoes, my cook Monti, conjured these carrot parathas. I was quite skeptical but they turned out to be quite yummy. Well, they couldn't dethrone aloo parathas for me but they are quite delicious, like theplas!

Ingredients:

Carrots: 5-7 medium
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Gram flour - 1/2 or 1 cup
Dahi (optional)- 1-2 tablebspoons
Oil or ghee - 1 tablespoon
Fennel seeds - 1-2 teaspoons
Salt - according to taste (more than you add to regular chapati dough)
Chilly powder - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala - 1 teaspoon
Green chillies - 1-2, finely chopped
Coriander leaves- 2 tablespoons, finely chopped

Way to Go:

1. Roughly chop carrots and boil in a little water. Use this water for kneading dough later on.

 2. When cool, mash carrots and knead along with all other ingredients. 

  

3. Roll into parathas.

4. On a griddle, roast on both sides with oil or ghee.

5. Serve and eat hot with a raita, pickle, green chutney or a  sour-sweet tomato sabzi.

Ridge Gourd and Moong Sprouts Dry Sabzi

This recipe is courtesy my friend Smita from Udupi. When I ate this lovely curry at her place, I was mesmerized at the way ridge gourd could taste. Let me accept it - I'm not a big fan of this gourd. I hesitate to buy it and if bought, it languishes in the refrigerator for a while before it sees a pan.

As I am from the north of India, south Indian flavors are very different and enchanting for me. I hardly use coconut in my day to day cooking. 

Another friend from Udupi told me that she uses seven coconuts a week. I use seven coconuts a year!

Thanks to this recipe, I do reach for ridge gourd much more often now. 

Ingredients:

Ridge gourd (turai) : 2 medium
Moong beans : half cup, sprouted 

For dry spice powder:

Coriander seeds: 1tbsp 

Cumin seeds : 1 tsp 

Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp 

Garam masala : 3/4 inch cinnamon

Cardamom : 1

Cloves : 3

Red chillies : 1-2 

First dry roast chillies, then add rest of the stuff and dry roast all ingredients.

For paste:

Onion: 1/2 onion

Garlic : 3-4 cloves

Grated coconut: 1-1.5 cup  

Grind it with as little water as possible. Add to the above ground masala. 

Seasoning:

Oil: 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds : 1 tsp

Curry leaves : 10-12 (I chop them so that they aren't visible and hence can't be fished out! Curry leaves are extremely beneficial for health.)

Urad daal: 1 tsp

Onion : 1 medium, chopped 

Tomato: 1 big, chopped

Way to go:

1. For dry spice powder, first dry roast red chillies, then add rest of the stuff. Grind them together.

2. For paste, grind all ingredients together with as little water as possible. Then add to the above powdered dry spice powder.

3. In a pan, add oil for seasoning. 

4. When oil is hot enough, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and urad daal. 

5. Then add chopped onions. When they turn translucent, add tomatoes. 

6. When tomatoes turn mushy, add moong. 

7. Around the time moong beans are half cooked, add chopped ridge gourd. 

8. Add spice mix and turmeric. 

9. Cover and cook for a few minutes. When ridge gourd  turns soft, this lovely curry is ready to be devoured.

Karela (Bitter Gourd) with Peanuts and Tamarind

We all have a relationship with this gourd. And mercifully, it's uncomplicated. We either love it or hate it - there's no middle path here! Thankfully, I belong to the karela fan club. I don't remember how and when I fell in love with this bitter version of gourd but I do have my Mom to thank, as she always made me eat whatever was cooked. I have a very fond memory of this sabji.

This gourd is considered very good for diabetes. So, add it to your table to keep diabetes at bay.

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

Bitter gourd - 4, peeled and cut in rounds
Peanuts - A handful, roasted and crushed
Tamarind - lemon sized ball, soaked and strained
Jaggery or sugar - 1 tablespoon or according to taste
Oil - 1 tablespoon
Spices - coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, 


Way to go:

1. Peel and cut bitter gourd in round pieces. You can mix the roundels with salt and leave for a while. Wash them thereafter.
2. Add oil in a heavy bottomed pan. When oil is warm, add jeera, fennel seeds and curry leaves.
3. Add bitter gourd. After 5 minutes, add salt, red chilly powder.
4. When it's almost done, add coriander powder.
5. Towards the end, add coarsely grounded peanuts. Add tamarind juice. Add jaggery or sugar.
6. Cover and let cook for a while. Eat with hot chapatis.

Mix Daal

On a lazy, normal day, I heard a knock at my door. When I answered, there was a bunch of friends, springing a belated birthday surprise on me! Now, who doesn't love surprises? I was overjoyed with this loving gesture. The thought was so touching and beautiful. 

They came armed with cake, gifts and food. We had a lovely time, chatting and lunching together. There was homemade cake, appas, puliyohara, paneer, mix daal, kheer and tandoori roti. Everything was delicious. I took recipes and whenever I make them, fond memories are sure to waft around, along with delightful aromas :)

Thankyou for this recipe, Pooja!

Ingredients:

All whole lentils and beans available at home. For e.g. black gram, chickpeas, black eyed beans, whole masoor, whole moong, split toor, chana, kidney beans, pinto beans, whole dried peas, black urad, dew gram. 

Onions - 2, chopped

Tomatoes - 2, chopped

Garlic - 6-7 cloves

Ginger - 1 inch

Green chillies - 2

Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)- 1 teaspoon, crushed

Oil or ghee - 1 teaspoon

Bayleaf - a couple
Raw mango powder - 1/2 teaspoon (I substitute raw mango powder with dry gooseberry powder or with lemon juice).

Way to Go:

1. Soak lentils overnight. 

2. In a pressure cooker, heat ghee. I use an Instant Pot - which is a programmable electric pressure cooker. 

3. When ghee gets warm, add cumin seeds and chopped garlic. Sauté garlic for 10 seconds. Add onions. When onions turn transparent, add tomatoes, ginger and green chillies. 

4. Add spices like coriander powder, cumin powder, salt, red chilly powder and turmeric. Add bayleaves. 

5. When the mix is well cooked, add lentils. Add water so that it is two inches over and above the lentils. 
6. Cook in the same way as you would cook daal makhni. First a couple of whistles, then let it simmer on low flame for a few more minutes. Or put it on Bean/Chilly mode for 40 minutes  . 
7. Add raw mango powder towards the end. My friend also adds a magic paste made by her Mom. I'll update it when I get to know the ingredients for the same:) Edit : I just posted a recipe for this garam masala paste.

8. The consistency can be as desired. A little loose if you want to eat with rice or just mushy, to be eaten with piping hot chapatis. It's an excellent and filling meal for cold winter days. 

Tips:

1. You can use it as ragda for ragda patties.

2. It can be eaten as a chaat on its own. Add a bit of curd, coriander chutney, tamarind chutney, chopped onions, tomatoes, shredded carrots and garnished with chopped coriander. Yum!!