Palak Kofta

Ingredients:
1) Veggies whatever you wish to put in a kofta
2) Spinach (3-4 bundles)
3) Moong daal (Yellow) -- half bowl
4) CornFlour (3-4 tbsp)
5) Onion - 1 big
6) Tomatoes - 2 big
7) Garlic Cloves - 10
8) Ginger - around 1 inch

Method:
Boil Veggies, Mash them, add cornflour. Add all the masalas(whatever you wish for taste) and then make round koftas. You can either deep fry, but I would prefer either make them in microwave or shallow fry, to restrict the calorie count.

Boil Spinach along with moong daal. Make a paste in the grinder. Now make a paste of onion, ginger, garlic and tomato.

Put oil in a pan, followed by a few cumin seeds. Put the paste of onion etc. Put turmeric(1 tsp). After the paste turns brown, add the ground palak and moongdaal. Add salt and red chillipowder to taste. Let it boil for a min and then simmer for 5 mins. Add the koftas to this and the palak kofta is ready.

Tip: If the koftas are too soft, its better to add the koftas into the palak curry just before serving.
Also, you can make a paste of a few dry fruits of your choice and add to the palak curry. It gives a rich taste.

Daal with Veggies

Ingredients:
1) 1 small capsicum (or 1/2 capsicum)
2) Around 100 gm of cabbage
Chop the above.
3) 7-8 garlic cloves
4) Ginger - 1 to 2 -inch piece
5) 1 big onion
6) 2 tomatoes
7) Channa Daal - 1 cup
8) Urad dhuli daal - 1/2 cup
9) Turmeric, Salt

Procedure:
1) Put the daals with water, turmeric and salt. Pressure cook them.
2) Put oil in a pan. Crush the garlic and put in oil. Put chopped onions and cook till they turn brown.
3) Put capsicum and cabbage and cook them. You can put red or green chillies depending on how much spicy you need it to be.
4) Put tomato and ginger. Fry them till they leave oil.
5) Mix the cooked daal and let it simmer for 5-7 mins.


Tip -- put good amounts of ginger, garlic, onion and tomato - it enhances the flavor.

Sooji-Wheat Chila/Pancake

A good snack/breakfast specially for kids, with many variants

What you need:
1) 1 cup wheat flour(you can take multigrain atta to make it more nutritional)
2) 1 or 3/4th cup of Sooji (preferably roasted)
3) 1 spoon butter
4)  Some milk
5) Salt to taste
6) Ginger - 1 small spoon grated

How you make:
Mix all the above ingredients. Mix enough milk to make the consistency of that of a dosa batter. Make pancakes or chila on a non-stick fan. It takes a bit of time to cook - but the end result is delicious

Variant -- Butter is optional, you can do away with it. Also instead of milk, you can put 1 large tablespoon of curd and let the batter set for 20 minutes. Use water to thinner it. If you want it spicy, add green chillies. You can also add finely chopped green coriander for that extra taste.

Karela Pasta(Bitter gourd Pasta)

Now this is totally my invention and karela (bitter gourd) lovers would simply love it. Its a unique blend with pasta :-)

You need 1 cup of pasta, some bitter gourd (3 small), 2 table spoon curd and 1 red-onion. If you wish you can add some cheese(grated or can even make use of cheese spread, may be garlic flavour)

Take 2 table spoon of olive oil and put the read onions(cut into long slices). After they have been cooked just say 30% add the sliced bitter gourd. Let it cook mostly on low flame.
Now take around 3 cups of water and put a few drops of olive oil and the pasta along with a little salt. Cook the pasta till it becomes tender. Drain out the excess water after it is cooked.
After the bitter gourd is cooked properly, add the curd and let it cook for 2-3 mins. Now add the cooked pasta and cheese(optional). Add salt and pepper to taste. You can even add some herbs or may be some garam masala powder if you wish(one of the two).

Tip : You dont need to add any sauce or tomatoes as the bitter gourd itself has a strong flavor. You can also add some garlic to enhance flavor.

To reduce the bitterness of bitter-gourd , you need to peel it and keep it soaked in salt-lemon water for 1/2 hr.

Butter Paneer without butter

This recipe I have learned from my MIL. Simply love it because its not high on calories :-)

You need 2 white bread, 2 big red tomatoes, 400 gm paneer, 1/2 cup milk and kasuri methi

Boil the tomatoes in microwave and peel the skin. Put the tomato and bread in a mixer and make a thin paste(if need add a spoon of water). Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a kadahi(deep-pan). Put some ajwain and then add the paste of tomatoes and bread. Let it simmer for 10 mins till it cooks, you can add a bit of water as and when required but dont make it very thin. Put paneer cut in big cubes in the kadahi now, add salt and pepper to taste and let it cook for 2 mins. Add 1/2 cup of milk and let the curry boil. Add Kasuri methi (1 teaspoon) and let it cook for another 2-3 mins.

Paneer Kheer

For this you need home made paneer -- Paneer should be soft without any tinge of sourness.

For making paneer -- Boil 1/2 l of milk and then add a bit of lemon till the milk start curdling. Remove the water from the paneer.

In another pan boil around 1 l of milk. Put some cardamom powder and let it simmer till it becomes say 3/4th. You will need to stir it in between and make sure the flame is low. Add sugar to taste and let it dissolve in the milk. Remove it from the flame and let it cool down. Once it come to room temperature, mix the paneer (by now it would have cooled down). Let it chill in the refrigerator. After it has cooled down substantially, take it out and decorate it with grated almonds and cashews.

Tip: You can change the consistency of the kheer by adding more paneer.

Black Channa kebabs

Very simple but delicious and fattening :-)

Cook black grams in a pressure cooker. Drain the water (you can make a soup out of it). Grind the black grams in the mixie. Mix green chillies, ginger and salt to taste. Add lots of cream something in the ratio of 1:3 (1 cream:3 black gram paste). Mix everything well. Now shallow fry on the tawa. Dont need much oil as the cream will make it soft creamy and non-sticky. Kebabs are ready. These are rich in proteins and calories -- excellent for the kids!