Green Cold Pasta

Now this is one of my culinary inventions. A few days back I got parsley and Italian basil plants for my kitchen garden. I had to use these in one of my dishes, so here we are, with a new variance of pasta:

Ingredients: Broccoli, Cabbage, French beans, Carrot -- all cut into big pieces- 1/4th cup each
Pasta (penne or spiral preferably) -- 2 cups
Mint, Coriander leaves - 1 cup in all
2 green chilies
Curd - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon
Paneer - 1/2 inch sized cubes - 1/2 cup (should be fresh and soft)
Italian basil and parley - 3-4 leaves of each

How to make:
1) Boil pasta in water. Put 2-3 drops of olive oil so that it doesn't stick to each other. Also put 1 teaspoon of salt while boiling
2) Grind mint and coriander leaves with green chilies. Form a paste, put curd and salt to taste. Add crushed pieces of basil and parsley and mix with the paste. Keep it aside.
3) Shallow fry all the veggies in little olive oil till they are nearly cooked. To keep the freshness don't overcook the vegetables. Also, broccoli florets should remain green - so add it to the veggies only later and cook it for lesser time.
4)While shallow frying the veggies, add Italian seasoning and salt. You can also add red chili flakes if you like it spicy.
5) Add the cooked pasta to the veggies and let it cook on a low flame for about 2-3 mins.
6) Let the pasta cool down. Now add the mint and coriander paste to the pasta.Mix the paneer cubes. Put parmesan cheese powder or simply grate cheese cube on the pasta and put it in the refrigerator.
7) After it has cooled down, serve it with a bread of your choice.

Besan and Atta Ladoo

I call this "Chota bheem" effect! Whenever my daughter watches these series, she demands these ladoos. So I generally have them stocked in my house

What you need: 1) 1 bowl ghee (preferably made at home - as it has a nice aroma)
2) 1 bowl wheat flour (you can take the multigrain wheat flour available in the market)
3) 1/2 bowl gram flour
4) 1/4th to 1/2 bowl of dry fruits of your choice
5) Sugar (as per your taste)

Procedure : 1) Put ghee in wide mouthed kadahi
2) After it heats a bit, add wheat flour and let it roast under low flame while you stir it every now and then
3) After 5 mins, add gram flour and let the ingredients roast
4) Make sure you keep on stirring it and the color of the flour should change uniformly
5) Let it be on the low flame(key is to stir) till it changes its color to brown and you start getting the rich aroma
6) Grind the dry fruits and put it in kadahi along with the rest of ingredients till it becomes a smooth batter
7) Switch off the flame and let it cool down
8) Grind the sugar and add it to the rest of the paste after it has cooled down
9) Make the ladoos and store it in an airtight container

Sprouted Moong Dosa

A few days back I heard that Dosa has a high glycemic index (it is not a good thing is all I know!)
But hopefully this one should qualify better on that!

Ingredients: 2 cups rice, 1/2 cup white urad dhuli daal, 1/2 cup sprouted moong(whole green) daal
Finely chopped 2 medium sized onions, finely chopped green chilies as per your taste, Finely chopped coriander leaves

1) Grind the rice
2) Mix the 2 daals and grind
3) Mix both of them and put salt
4) Let it ferment for 4-5 hrs (Depending on the heat keep it in the fridge. It should not be outside in the summers for long as it tends to make the batter sour)
5) Mix onion, coriander leaves, onions in the batter just before making the dosas
6) Add red chilli powder or black pepper powder depending on your taste
7) Make dosas(pancakes) on the dosa tawa. If you make them thinner, they will really turn out tastier and crispier.
8) Serve it hot with your favorite chutney!

This dosa has a different taste than the regular ones because of the sprouted moong and also it is a healthier version. It also tastes good without onions, chilies and coriander - specially kids might prefer this.

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.