Sunshine and warmer days have returned which means less time in the kitchen and more time outside having fun with family and friends. Though I love spending time in the kitchen, I also don’t want to miss out on the sun and fun by staying indoors or spend money eating out. The only way to do this is to have simpler meals that come together fast. This Sprouted red lentil, quinoa nourish bowl meets all the requirements for a simple healthy meal. It has got protein powered lentil, whole grain, lemony kale, crunchy raw vegetables, and a herby mint chutney. It is bright, satisfying, incredibly nourishing, and super easy to make.
Vegetarian
Pithaud with Chaunke Matar / Gram flour Cakes with Masala Peas
I have more than a dozen gluten-free flours stored in my fridge and pantry, but the bag of besan (gram flour) is the one that needs to be restocked most often. There are many, many ways you can use gram flour in your cooking. Its characteristic nutty flavor gives besan the ability to create tasty, simple dishes that stand on their own with few ingredients. Take this Pithaud recipe for example. It looks simple, right? Well, it is! The delicate golden brown crust and silky smooth interior of pithaud really shines through in this easy dish and is well complemented by simple tomato curry and seasoned sweet green peas. I made this for my friends on Yoga retreat day and they couldn’t stop talking about how good it was.
Tomato curry in a Hurry
If you’re a tomato fan, you’ll love this and if you’re not, well…maybe this will inspire you to try because it serves as a base to get imaginative. The beauty of this recipe is that it is really quick, easy and delicious curry to serve with leftover rice and veggies on busy days. To bulk it up you can add in boiled eggs, chickpeas, seared paneer, tofu, soya chunks, potatoes, whatever you fancy. The additions are endless. You can even puree it and have it as a soup.
Enjoy!
Black Chickpea (Kala Chana) Pulao with Candied Carrot Strips
This pulao combines a tasteful combination of black chickpeas and brown rice. Being low in fat, high in dietary fiber, black chickpea is an excellent source of protein. It can be a good choice to add them to your diet, especially if you are a vegan or a vegetarian. This pulao is my mother’s recipe. My only change to the original is the addition of candied carrots. It is beautifully flavored and deliciously fragrant. The stock is the key ingredient which gives the rice it’s black color and flavor.
Cabbage Kofta Curry
Here, I am with another vegetarian recipe.
While growing up, we had koftas all the time. It was a treat for us. Koftas are delicious, deep fried meat or veggie dumplings. What I like the best about koftas is that they can be made out of anything, as long as you are able to bind the ingredients together into a ball. The most common vegetarian varieties of Koftas made are Lauki (ash gourd), cabbage, mixed vegetable and malai (cheese and potato) kofta. I made these koftas out of cabbage. In Indian household, koftas are mostly served in a curry.
Khatta Meetha Teekha Kaddu/ Sweet, Sour & Spicy Squash
Every time I go back to India in the winters I load up on vegetables as much as I can. Breakfast, Lunch, dinner and snack will all have some amount of vegetable. The reason is because a wide variety of vegetables are available in the winter and they are the freshest and tastiest. After coming from India my body was still going through intense vegetable cravings. So, I cooked the best known winter squash, butternut in Indian style. It is one of my favorite and very simple to prepare. In India it is made with a different squash which is not available here but any sweet and firm flesh squash works for this recipe. This dish has a nice balance of tart, sweet and spicy that will engage all of your senses. It goes really well with roti (Indian flatbread), poories (fried puffed bread) and as a side with lentil and rice alike.
Methi Paneer
Fenugreek leaves, also called Kasuri Methi, is an herb/ vegetable with a bitter but an addictive taste. I find myself adding it to everything from rice, to chicken and also rotis. People often like to mix methi with spinach to mellow out the bitterness. I am sharing a recipe where methi is used as a vegetable and to which paneer is added, and so the sweetness and richness of paneer also mellows out the bitterness of methi. This is a highly fragrant winter dish that goes beautifully with almost any indian bread-chapatis, naans, rotis or parathas or with some daal and rice.
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