Spinach Roti

Hey girls!

I made some really healthy spinach roti today, thought i'd share the fun ;) .. I had found so many different recipes but I settled on one and made a few modifications to it.. Came out quite yummy!!

Spinach Roti
2 cups wheat flour
salt to taste

1 bunch spinach - chopped up
2-3 garlic cloves
small grating of ginger
2-3 green chillies
salt

I cooked down the spinach slightly along with the garlic, ginger, chillies n salt in a wee bit of oil. Once its lost almost all its water, I pureed it in the blender. I added this puree to the flour and used a bit more water to make the chapati dough. It came out stickier than usual and needed quite a bit of flour for the rolling out process but was worth it.. Quite nice, more for the health factor than taste even.. We just had it with plain yoghurt n some pickle (i mixed them both up) - was yummy :)

:)

Puran Poli/Bakshalu

Yesterday was Ugadi and every year on Ugadi my mum makes Bakshalu (Puran Poli) as do most telugu/kannada/marathi people I think. When I called to wish my parents and my mum was making them I got very sad cause I wanted some too. My mum told me that she would make me some when I'm home in december, and that she would also freeze a couple from Ugadi just so I don't miss out.

 

I thought about this for the rest of the day, and in the afternoon I decided that instead of pining for something I couldn't get (yes I was actually pining), why not just get off my ass and attempt to make some? Well with a little bit of luck, they turned out very well, considering it was the first time I made them. And to my surprise, it wasn't difficult at all. The whole thing only took an hour.

 

Thought I'd better keep a record of how I made it for next time, and where better to keep track of that than through the sisterhood? :)

So here goes:

 

Ingredients:

1 cup channa dal

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

2 tsp of oil

 

Cook the channa dal with 2 cups water in a pressure cooker till it is very soft and mushy. While the dal is cooking make a dough with the maida, water and a little oil. The dough should be pretty soft. Let the dough rest for a little while. Once the dal is cooked, open the pressure cooker, add in the sugar and the cardamom and start to cook it down till it becomes a fairly dry paste-like consistency. Take it off the stove and let it cool a little. Take a ball of the dough and a slightly larger ball of the channa dal filling. Flatten out the dough to a slightly smaller than palm size, add the ball of the filling and stretch out the dough to cover the filling completely. Flatten out the filled ball (use plenty of dry flour because it was super sticky) with your palm first then roll it out with a rolling pin into small rotis. (don't make them too flat). Cook on the tawa with a little butter on both sides.

 

 

Banana Muffins

I had an over ripe banana so decided to do some baking yesterday. Again tried to cut down the amount of butter and sugar and I was very happy with how they turned out.

Recipe below makes between 6 and 8 muffins based on the size of the muffins in the tray

1 cup self raising flour

1 ripe banana

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1 tbsp butter/margarine

About 6 tsps sugar (I used brown - the muffins weren't super sweet so increase the sugar if you like)

1/2 tsp salt

handful of chopped walnuts (optional - I added them cause I had them around but all they really added was a bit of texture)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Mash the banana. Beat together the egg, mashed banana and butter.

In another bowl mix/sift the flour, sugar and salt

Mix the dry and wet ingredients

Add the chopped walnuts and the vanilla

Pour into a lightly greased muffin tray (about 3/4 way up) and bake in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 20 minutes.

The whole process took about half an hour so was definitely worth it! (and didnt feel super guilty either because I knew the ingredients that went in)

Desi Tofu Recipes

Here are three tofu recipes that i've tried and made a few times, and all of them taste pretty good I think (the first one is my fave)

 

Coconut Tofu

(I know coconut is high in fat, but adding a tablespoon or so will add a lot of flavour and when I use low fat tofu, it's pretty much the only fat I'm adding)

 

1 cup firm tofu (chopped into small - smaller than half inch - cubes)

1 medium onion finely sliced

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp mustard seeds

1-2 tbps grated dried coconut

salt and chilli powder to taste

 

In a little bit of oil or cooking spray fry the mustard seeds for a couple of minutes. Add finely chopped garlic and fry a little more. Add the sliced onion and fry till golden brown (make sure they are really nicely cooked - the caramelization of the onions really adds the major flavour). Add the chopped tofu with salt and chilli powder and fry till the tofu starts to brown. 2-3 minutes before taking it off the stove add the dried coconut.

 

 

Palak Tofu

 

1 cup firm tofu (1/2-1 inch cubes)

1 cup frozen spinach

1 onion (finely chopped)

2 tomatoes (finely chopped)

2 tsp ginger-garlic paste

1-2 green chilles

1 tsp cumin seeds

salt to taste

Optional: 1-2 tsps dried methi, 1-2 tbsp yoghurt

 

In oil/cooking spray fry the cumin seeds and chopped green chilles. Add the onions and fry for a little longer. Next add the ginger garlic paste and the tomatoes and let it cook down. While the tomatoes are cooking, defrost the frozen spinach in the microwave and drain any excess water. Once the tomatoes are cooked down add the spinach and salt and stir. At this point an optional step is to microwave the tofu for a couple of minutes to get rid of excess moisture (because when you buy it, it's stored in water). Once the spinach looks wilted, add the tofu cubes and on a slow flame let the whole thing cook together so the flavours get into the tofu.

Optional parts: Towards the end, add some yoghurt to make it creamy (another idea is to all 1/3 cup of soy milk - which adds extra protein + gives it a creamy texture - this is a good trick for any curries that need milk/half-and-half). If it's yoghurt you added, it should get absorbed pretty quickly, if it's milk, you will have to let it reduce down. Just before you remove it from the heat add the dried methi

 

 

Capsicum Tofu

 

1 cup firm tofu (1/2 - 1 inch cubes)

1 onion (finely chopped)

1 chopped capsicum (whatever colour)

2 tsp ginger garlic paste

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

1/2-1 tsp garam masala powder

salt and chilli powder to taste

 

Again here too, you can microwave the tofu for a couple of minutes to get rid of the excess moisture. In oil/cooking spray fry the onion and let it brown. While the onions are cooking add the ginger-garlic paste. Once the onions are browned, add ketchup and stir it so it gets mixed into the onions. Add in the chopped capsicum and let it cook for 2-3 minutes - don't want it to get soft. Add the tofu cubes with salt and chill powder and stir and cook for a few minutes. Towards the end add the garam masala powder.

 

 

 

Hope you like 'em!

 

xo

M

 

 

Easy to make high protein lunches

I have started to make some major changes to my diet and eating habits. I found that it is actually easier to make and implement these changes when living by your self and cooking for your self.  I do shopping just for me.. so no more 'oh maybe I will take some of this home for Prudy'.. hehehe.. It is hard to make these changes though.. as I am finding it pretty hard to look for recipes specially for lunches. And here are the reasons why:

• I want something I can make in bulk and store.  But when I do eat them they should still seem just as fresh! (or almost)
• I want the recipes to be somewhat indianized because I know I will not be able to adhere to fully european meals every lunchtime. So it has to have some of that Indian flavour.
• I dont want to be using many pots and pans partly becuase I dont have any. No blenders/graters etc either.. so quick one pot meals preferred.
• Simple ingredients.. since I dont have a full kitchen and I wont be able to either (since the flat I stay in the kitchen is tiny as!).. no indian stores so need to have readily available ingredients.
• Meals can have some carb in it but need to source some very high in protein ingredients.

Anyway after much research, trial and error.. I have come up with two recipes that fit all of the above mentioned criteria.  The major ingredients being soya chunks (like those nutralla nuggest) and chickpeas.  Doing some online research, soya chunks actually have a lot of protein! I never realised. And chickpeas although a bit high in carbs, most of the carbs are in the form of fibre rather than sugars and they are also higher in protein than other lentils. So first recipe because there is lots of protein in soya chunks and not much carbs, I am adding brown rice to it. Since every meal needs to be 40-40-20 (protein-carb-fat).  The second recipe only chickpeas used as major ingredient since it has carbs and protein.

 

First recipe, soya chunks and brown rice pilau:

• Using spray oil I lightly grease the bottom of the pressure cooker, add in onions, chopped tomato, coriander powder, cumin, chopped chillies, chopped ginger and garlic, salt.. (the usual basic spices).
• Cool the masala/onion/tomato mixture well
• Add in pre-soaked soya chunks (I love them so I add liberally :)) and pre-soaked brown rice. I dont add in much brown rice, although the recipe says its a pilau (which usually is more rice than vegies.. its more like soya chunks and mix veg with sprikling of rice)
• At this point I also add in chopped brocolli, chopped carrots and peas (or any other vegetables I have in the fridge, like mushrooms, capsicum)
• Mix everything, add in water (twice the amount to brown rice since there are heaps of veges too) and pressure cook it all together.
• Add chopped coriander at the end and store in containers.

 

Second recipe, chana chaat (chickpeas)

• Cook chickpeas separately in pressure cooker. Can cook with a piece of cinammon stick and black cardomom to add some flavour.
• Chop onions, tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum (and anything else you think will go with chickpeas)
• Drain the chickpeas well, add chopped ingredients and mix well.
• Add chaat masala, little lime juice and chopped coriander.

Sunday and Wednesday evenings are my cooking days, so I make enough for three lunches and store in the fridge.  The thing with these recipes is that they taste alright if I reheat and eat (I dont reheat the chana chat, just bring it to room temperature and eat).  Because they are vegie I dont have to worry abt it going bad etc like for meats.

 

Now the challenge is to find some similar recipes for Dinners! Dinner will be extra hard since carb content will have to be very low...

 

Any suggestions girlies.. on similar lunch/dinner recipes that fulfil the above criteria!? Help needed!! :)

 

Bread ki Kheer

 I was inspired by Double Ka Meetha - which I so *love* but it has so much butter that I'm also scared of it

So decided to come up with something else yesterday. I made this for breakfast - so kept it a little lighter on the sugar - but you can up the sugar content to make it more dessert-y. I will say that it was a very comforting breakfast on a winter sunday morning.

Ingredients:

3-4 bread slices (remove the edges and tear into bite sized pieces)

2 tsps butter (i used the butter substitute thing)

1.5 cups milk

pinch of cardamom

2 tsps cashew nuts/almonds

3 tbsps sugar (honestly i'm not sure of the exact amount of sugar i used - just added and tasted)

Put the milk to boil in a pot with the cardamom. At the same time, melt the butter in a separate pan and fry the pieces of bread in it till they turn golden. In the same pan fry the nuts/dried fruit (whatever you wish to add)

Once the milk has started to boil, turn the heat down and add the fried bread pieces. Stir till the milk starts to get absorbed. Add in the sugar and keep stirring till the sugar melts in. Keep it on the stove on low heat for a while, till you get the consistency you like - could be more milky (which is how we had it) or wait for it to get more 'halwa like'

That's it...very easy. And we finished the whole lot in one sitting. Would definitely make it again!