Celery Dal

It gets boring sometimes using the same vegetable, same dishes. I always used celery in soups. However, in summer you don’t feel like eating soup.

So, it was dal and made it quite thick so we could eat with chapathi. Very simple ingredients, and an amazing dal with goes well with rice or chapathi.

Ingedients:

1. 1 bunch celery washed and chopped if measured it was almost 3 cups
2. 1 cup pressure cooked Moon dal
3. For seasoning – oil, mustard seeds, 1 red chilli, 3 green chillies, curry leaves, hing, salt, fresh grated coconut and lemon juice.

Method:

1. Chop celery and cook them separately with less water.
2. Pressure cook moong dal.
3. Take a pan, heat oil, add all ingredients for seasoning.
4. Add cooked celery, cooked dal, add salt, fresh grated coconut let it boil for 3 minutes.
5. Turn off heat and add lemon juice.
6. Serve with chapathi or rice.

Simple Yellow Squash Vegetable

This year we planted yellow Squash and seeing it grow and giving so many squashes is just truly amazing. We have 5 plants and I see almost 30-40 of them growing.

Until today, I had never brought them or even tasted them. Not sure how I missed especially seeing how much health benefits it has.

I prepared a very simple vegetable/Palya with just 4 ingredients and it tasted just delicious and buttery with chapathi.

1. Wash and chop them.

2. In a pan put 2 tsp oil, when hot add mustard seeds, jeera, red chillies, hing.

3. Add chopped squash. Let it cook. Takes less than 4-5 minutes since it is quite soft.

4. Once cooked, add salt and fresh coconut. Turn off heat.

Serve with chapathi or rice. Buttery Yellow Squash palya is just plain simple and delicious.

Cabbage Chayote Palya

Eating the same food over and over again is sometimes boring. And coming up with new recipes is not easy either.

We had 1/2 cabbage and just 2 chayotes. To be honest, we eat lots of vegetables and I was tired doing the same vegetables or even using the cabbage in Upma or Sambar. So, I decided why not combine both of these vegetables and do a very simple vegetable/Palya on a Thursday.

With less than 4 ingredients, basic seasoning, and less than 15 minutes an amazing palya for Chapathi was ready.

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 finely chopped cabbage
2. 2 finely chopped Chayote or semebadanekayi
3. 3 green chillies sliced
4. 3-4 tsp grated coconut, and finely chopped cilantro
5. Oil, mustard seeds, Jeera, and hing for seasoning
6. Salt to taste

Method:

A. In a microwave I cooked both cabbage and chayote seperately.

B. Heat oil in a pan, when its hot, add mustard seeds, jeera, hing and slit green chillies.

C. Next, add the cooked vegetables and mix everything.

D. Add salt, and grated coconut and finely chopped cilantro.

E. Serve with chapathis.

Kosambari Dosa

What do you do when you have almost 2 cups of Kosambari leftover? You can’t throw it away because of all the good ingredients you have in there like Moong dal, Channa dal, coconut, cucumber, green chillies. We had so much food prepared for Shree Krishna Janmasthami that the entire two varieties of Kosambari was untouched.

We do eat Kosambari a lot at my house, but with all the food that we had, no one touched it. So, I remembered once in my in-laws house they had mentioned grinding it and making dosa. I decided to give it a try and it turned out delicious.

Very simple, add all the Kosambari and 2 tsp rice flour to a mixer jar, grind it and make delicious dosas. Since it already had all the ingredients, I didn’t even add salt to it.

Next time you have leftover Kosambari try this recipe.

Serve with chatni or chatni powder.

White & Moong Beans with Colored Capsicum Sabzi

 

A very interesting and super delicious and protein filled palya or sabzi which goes so very well with Chapathi. You can pick and choose any choice of beans and vegetables.

Ingredients:

1. 1 can white beans washed throughly
2. 1 cup soaked and cooked moong beans ( hesaru Kalu)
3. 1/2 green capsicum ( I used frozen ones from our garden)
4. 1/2 red capsicum ( I used frozen ones from our garden)
5. 1 firm tomato chopped
6. 1 green chilli
7. 1 tsp each red chili powder, cumin powder and coriander powder
8. Salt to taste
9. Coriander leaves and lemon for garnishing
10. Oil, mustard seeds and cumin seeds.

Method:

1. Cook the moon beans (hesaru Kalu) in your pressure cooker
2. Wash the white beans ( I used the can)
3. Chop capsicum into 1 inch cubes, green chillies
4. In a pan add oil, when its hot add mustard and cumin seeds
5. Next, add the capsicum and tomatoes and fry for a few minutes
6. Once you feel the capsicum is cooked, add all the dry masala like red chili powder, cumin powder and coriander powder
7. Add the white beans and cooked moon beans. Add salt
8. Adjust water and let them all cook for 4-5 minutes together
9. Finally, switch off the stove and garnish with coriander leaves and lemon juice
10. Serve with Chapathi along with Yogurt.

Some useful links on various white beans you can use for this dish:

1. white beans

 

Butternut Squash Sweet Potato Corn Soup

You can make soup and many other recipes in minutes if you own an Instant Pot(IP). My daughter loved it so much, she brought a smaller size of the same. I make everything in the IP. From sweet Pongal, toKhara pongee, to bisibele bath, and to soup, I use the IP for almost all of my cooking.

I had a bag of frozen butternut squash, sweet potatoes and several boxes of frozen corn. I wanted to make something warm, not too spicy, and a dish with no onion or garlic.

This soup was super delicious and very filling.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of frozen butternut squash
• 1 large sweet potato – washed, peeled and cubed
• 1/2 bag of frozen sweet corn
• 1 tsp – cumin powder
• 1/2 inch ginger finely grated
• 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper
• 3/4 cup – Almond milk(optional)
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp Olive oil

Method:

• Turn on the IP to sauté, add oil crushed red pepper
• Add sweet potatoes and fry for 2 minutes
• Add frozen squash and corn and fry again.
• Now add cumin powder, grated ginger and mix well.
• Add salt, water to completely cover the vegetables
• Turn the IP to soup setting, and the time was 30 minutes
• Once the vegetables are cooked, blend with a immersion blender
• If you don’t have one, you can blend in your mixer once the soup is cool
• Next, add almond milk ( optional) and bring to a slow boil
• Serve the soup with some crushed black pepper and some olive oil

Spinach Dosa

This is the most healthiest Dosa you could ever eat. It is made up of Spinach, Ground Oats, Jowar flour and Chickpea flour or wheat flour. I have made the dosa once with Chickpea flour and once with Whole wheat flour. Both work well.

Very simple, and loaded with lots of health benefits and perfect if you are dieting.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup spinach chopped finely and cooked
• 1 Cup finely ground Oats
• 1 Cup Jowar flour
• 1 Cup Chickpea Flour or Wheat Flour
• 2 green chillies
• Salt to taste.
• 1 tsp Jira
• Oil to make dosa

Method:

1. Cook the spinach and let it cool.
2. Put all the ingredients spinach, all flours. salt and green chillies in a blender and grind until smooth.
3. Take out in a bowl, and add jira.
4. Oil a pan and make Dosa.
5. Serve with Chatni or Chatni Powder.
6. Enjoy the most healthiest dosa.

Carrot Beetroot Soup

It is getting cold day by day, and the body and mind craves for something hot, spicy and yet healthy everyday. My daughter gave me the recipe for this yummy soup which is full of nutrients. I was given the Instant Pot(IP) by Ms. Vani (Extended Sister) and I have been using it religiously since.

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots – washed and cubed
• 1 large Beetroot – washed and cubed
• 2 medium size onions – chopped
• 1 tsp each – turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder
• 3/4 cup – Almond milk(optional)
• salt to taste
• 1 tsp Olive oil

Method:

• Turn on the IP to sauté, add oil and fry onion
• when onions turn translucent, add turmeric, coriander, cumin and red chili powder and fry.
• Add carrots and beetroot and fry for 2 minutes
• Now add salt, water to completely cover the vegetables
• Turn the IP to soup setting, and the time was 35 minutes
• Once the vegetables are cooked, blend with a immersion blender
• If you don’t have one, you can blend in your mixer once the soup is cool
• Next, add almond milk ( optional) and bring to a slow boil
• Serve the soup with some crushed black pepper and some olive oil

 

Warm Quinoa Salad

Healthy eating is tough, is challenging, is boring, and is quite expensive. However, when you apply a little bit of creativeness in preparing your meal, it is no longer tough, challenging, boring or even expensive. You might have seen several recipes I have been posting, I know it is not typical Indian food we all like to eat. However, it is important to have a list of recipes we can use and what better way to memorize them than this blog, right?

I prepared this warm quinoa salad after being a little bored of eating Oats for almost two weeks. My daughter had a box of Organic Quinoa and she asked me to try it.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup quinoa, yielded 2 cups of cooked quinoa.
2. 1/2 onion
3. 1/2 each green, yellow and red capsicum or bell pepper
4. 1 tsp olive oil
5. 1/2 tsp jeera
6. 1 tsp red chilli powder
7. 1 cup cooked Channa or Garbanzo beans
8. Salt to taste

Method:

• It was easy to prepare, 1 cup of quinoa, cooked in 2 cups of water. Yielded quite a bit of the same. Follow cooking instructions on the package.
• In a non stick pan, heat oil and add jeera
• Once it  starts cracking, add onion and all colored peppers.

• Saute until Onions turn translucent.
• Add garbanzo beans, channa.
• Add red chilli powder, salt. and the cooked quinoa.
• Simmer and let it all mix together.

• Serve warm.
• You can add lemon if you wish, I don’t like, so skipped.

Jowar Upma

Everyone I know here in the United States have been eating healthy. When we had this conversation in our Satsangha, it was surprising to see everyone using millets, oats and jowar kernels. My Sister Suma said she prepared this Jowar Upma the next day and shared the picture and recipe. Here it comes, the most tasty, healthy and delicious upma.

Thanks Suma for an amazing recipe.

• Soak Jowar overnight.
• Wash and cook Jowar in pressure cooker.
• 1 cup jowar added 1 and half cups of water.
• Cut all color peppers, carrots, onion, small cucumber and green chili
• Heat Oil and add mustard, Chana and urad dal, chili
• Added onion first, mixed and then the cut vegetables
• Added cooked jowar it still had water I didn’t add that water
• Added little water and salt and kept on stove for a good 15 mins
• Added 🍋