Veggie bean soup

The main struggle for most Moms is to feed the right kind of food to their kids. If you tell them they have a soup with lots of veggies and lentils, I am pretty sure most of them would refuse to touch it. This is a yummy recipe of black beans, pinto beans or garbanzo beans whichever you prefer or all three combined with juicy veggies.

To start off, heat some olive oil in a soup pot or crock pot and add a bay leaf or two with a long cinnamon stick with lots of chopped garlic to it. As it gives out the aroma, add some finely chopped white/yellow onion to it. Make cubes of raw potato and add them to the onion and garlic combo.

As you sauté these, you want to start adding cubes of carrot, celery ,mushrooms to it. Add some yellow roasted corn to it too. As everything in here is raw, you will want to cook everything for a long time. For this reason, a crock pot is a better option. Add a whole can of low sodium chicken/vegetable broth to the mixture and let it simmer.

Go ahead and add the cans of beans as per your taste. I loved black beans with garbanzo combination. To create that rich creamy taste and flavor, try to use home-cooked dried beans as they are less metallic tasting and mushy than canned beans. It is a little effort, but worth the taste.

Lastly, add some pepper and salt according to your taste and let it simmer. Serve it hot with strands of cilantro as garnish.  

Laadi Pav: (honeycomb bread)

Laadi pav is so often eaten on the streets of India with Pav bhaji, wadaa pav or missal pav. But, since I came to the US, I couldn’t find good and non sweet pav anywhere. All the pav/bread was either sweet or very fatty with maida in it.

So, I decided to try out a laadi pav recipe using wheat/spelt flour. The original recipe uses all purpose flour (maida). At least now I know what ingredients go in this recipe and I am happy eating this pav instead of loading myself with butter, maida and sugar.

I have tried this recipe twice- once using spelt flour and second time using durum wheat flour. Both the results were awesome and the pav turned out soft and fluffy.

spelt/wheat flour

spelt/wheat flour

Adapted from Shital's Kitchen
http://shitals-kitchen.blogspot.com/2014/03/pav-bread.html

Ingredients:

3 cups spelt flour or durum wheat flour

1 dry yeast packet

Salt as per taste

2 tablespoons of clarified butter or you can use oil

1 tablespoon sugar

Oil spray to grease pans

The method for both the flours is exactly the same.

Step 1: Mix one packet of dry yeast with 1 ¼ cup of warm water and 1 tablespoon sugar in a bowl and let it rest for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, add a pinch of salt and 3 cups of flour and 2 tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter) in the bowl and mix to form a soft dough. Keep kneading the dough for at least 10 minutes.

Step 2: Now keep the dough aside in a greased bowl and let it rest for 1 1/2 hours. You will notice that the dough has doubled in size. Now start kneading it again and knead well for 10 more minutes.

Step 3: Now, grease the pans in which you will put the pav to bake. After kneading the dough, make about 15-18 small balls out of the dough and lay them in the greased pan about 1 inch apart from each other. Let the balls rest in the pan for about 1 more hour.

Step 4: You will notice that the balls have risen again and doubled in size. Now bake them for 10 minutes till they change color on 400 F.

Eat with Potato wadaa, missal, or pav bhaji.

Rajma (Red Kidney Bean Curry)

One of my north Indian favorite curries is Rajma (red kidney beans). These are a very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber, as are most other beans. In addition to lowering cholesterol, kidney beans' high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising too rapidly after a meal, making these beans an especially good choice for individuals with diabetes.

All vegetarians or all people who are wondering how to replace red meat in your menus, you should know that these hearty beans are a good source of protein, and when combined with a whole grain such as whole wheat pasta or brown rice provide protein comparable to that of meat or dairy foods without the high calories or saturated fat found in these foods. 

After reading all the health benefits, let us get down to the ingredients and recipe of this wonderful curry.

Ingredients:

2 katoris Rajma

1 bay leaf

2 Black cardamoms whole

2 cinnamon sticks

2 dry red chilies

Cilantro to garnish

1 tsp dry fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)

1 small onion grated

1 small tomato

3 cloves of garlic crushed

½ inch ginger crushed

1 tsp coriander cumin powder

Soak the rajma at least for 6/8 hours and then cook it in the pressure cooker until it is soft with black cardamoms, 2 cinnamon sticks and bay leaf in it. In a separate pan, take 1 tsp of oil, red chili and add the grated onion and then add chopped garlic and ginger and sauté. Wait till the onion, ginger and garlic are properly cooked and onions change color. Then add finely chopped tomatoes and cook again for about 5 minutes till the tomatoes are cooked well and turn soft.

Add the boiled rajma to the onion tomato paste and add salt, turmeric, red chili powder, and coriander cumin powder according to taste. After it boils, add kasuri methi to the rajma and turn off heat. Garnish with cilantro before serving. Enjoy with white or brown rice.

Red quinoa and oatmeal bread

½ cup cooked red quinoa

½ cup cooked steel cut oat

2 cups whole wheat flour

¼ cup millet flour

¼ cup sorghum flour

2 tsp dry active yeast

1 tsp salt

2/12 tsp vegetable oil

3tsp honey

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp flax seed

1.             Cook the quinoa in 2 cups of water for 10 to 15 minutes, until the water is absorbed. Cool to room temperature.

2.            Cook the oatmeal in the water and milk until liquid is absorbed. Let cool. 

3.            Pour the yeast in the mixing bowl.

4.            Add honey, oil into the yeast mixture with a wooden spoon. 

5.            Add 2 cups of the wheat flour and the millet and sorghum flours , flax seeds with the salt and stir well.

6.            Add the cooked quinoa and oatmeal and stir.

7.            When the dough starts to get stiff, turn out onto floured surface and begin to knead. Keep adding flour and kneading until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes with a mixer, or 10 to 15 minutes by hand. Dough should feel slightly sticky but should not be wet and slack. You should be able to form it into a ball and it should hold its shape.

8.             Lightly oil a large bowl with vegetable oil and place bread in the bowl, turning to coat lightly with the oil.

9.             Let bread dough rise in a warm spot until double in size, about 2 hours.

10.        Oil a large loaf pan (9 inches by 5 inches). Punch down dough and shape into a ball. Pat/flatten into an oval shape about the length of the bread pan. Fold long sides in and tuck them underneath as you place the bread into the pan, so that the top surface of the bread is smooth and without seams.

11.        Brush top of load very lightly with water and sprinkle with quinoa seeds.

12.       Let rise in warm place until bread has almost doubled in size. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

13.       When oven is hot, place bread in center of oven. Throw a handful of ice cubes into bottom of oven to create steam. Bake for 30 minutes. Cover bread loosely with foil if the top is getting too brown and bake 15 minutes more. Bread should sound hollow when tapped. 

Adapted from: Marian Blazes

Baked batata (potato) wadaa 

Potato wada is my all time favorite snack and I think it is one of the most popular selling snack item in Maharashtra. There are numerous stalls on almost every big road claiming their wada pav to be one of the best.

Well, this item is tasty and delicious and one of the reasons is that it is fried. This stopped me from making it often even though we loved it so much. The thought of baking the wada was itself so appealing that I had to try it. The idea of baking the wadas is adapted from Shital Ashar’s blog (shital's kitchen). My recipe for the wadaa and cooking style is totally different.

Ingredients:

2 large baking potatoes

Salt as per taste

3 Garlic cloves

3/4 curry leaves

Turmeric powder

Red chili powder to taste

1 or 2 green chilies

For the batter:

3 tablespoons besan/chickpea flour

1 tablespoon of rice flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp coriander cumin powder

Pinch of turmeric and red chili powder

Salt to taste

First of all, you will need boiled potatoes. Peel them and mash them thoroughly. In a small pan, pour 1 tsp oil and add chopped curry leaves, chopped green chilies, and 3 cloves of garlic. Add this to the mashed potatoes once the tadka is ready. Add salt as per taste and a pinch of turmeric powder to the mashed potato mixture. Mix it to a soft dough and keep aside.

In a separate bowl, take 3 tablespoons of besan/chickpea flour and 1 tablespoon of rice flour and mix it with a little turmeric, red chili powder, salt and coriander-cumin powder and make a thick batter with water. Keep aside.

Now preheat the oven to 350 F and grease a baking sheet with oil spray. Just before you prepare the wadas for baking, add a pinch of baking soda and baking powder in the besan and rice flour batter and mix.

Now make small balls/wadas with the potato dough and cover/coat it with the besan batter by dipping the wadas/balls in the batter. Let the excess batter frip off and then put the wada on the baking sheet and bake for 10-15 mins till it changes color on both the sides. If you want it to be little darker in color, broil all the wadas just for 2 minutes later before serving.

Enjoy with pav and garlic chutney.

Non-fried sabudana wadas

All fried foods taste yummy, don’t they? But, what about our health? Nowadays, we had almost given up on fried foods and trust me, giving up on these tasty delicacies was so difficult. But, we noticed that once we stopped eating wadas, sev, farsans and all the other fried foods, we stopped craving them too. Yet, I read on a facebook group about making sabudana wadas in an appe maker and thought of giving it a try. Though the group suggested using some oil, I have tried to avoid it completely using only a whiff of oil spray J

Ingredients: (for 3 people)

Sabudana 2 katoris

Ground peanuts ½ katori

1 Large baked potato (grated)

Salt as per taste

2 Chilies chopped

Cilantro chopped

Cooking Oil spray (pam/Kirkland)

Appe pan  (I have the-Norpro 3113 Cast-Aluminum Nonstick Aebleskiver Stuffed-Pancake Pan)

So, to make these wadas, you will first need to soak sabudana in water for 4 hours. Drain out the water completely after the sabudana is soft and add ground peanuts, chillies (according to taste), cilantro, salt and baked and grated potato and mix it together.

Make small balls out of the dough or the mix. The mix will be sticky because of the potato and wet sabudana. Use the appe pan to cook these wadas with just a whiff of oil spray enough to cook them. Flip them once they change color on one side and wait till they turn golden brown. Use oil spray as and when the wadas look dry. Cook them on medium heat as you want them to be cooked on the inside too. The wadas should be dry and cooked well from the inside too.

Moist and delicious dark chocolate and Beet cake:

Beet raita is one of my favorite among all raitas. Till now, I remember eating beet only in the form of raitas or steamed and cut into cubes. One day I read an interesting recipe using beets in a cake and the idea just fascinated me and I had to try this one out and not once, but twice in succession. This recipe is adapted from green kitchen stories a blog about healthy vegetarian cooking. Of course, I have made some changes according to my palateJ

The original recipe asks for sunflower or coconut oil, but I used olive oil once and the second time I used vegetable oil. Both worked great.

The best part about this cake is that it does not contain sugar nor butter and yet it tastes so moist and heavenly.

Adapted from: Green kitchen stories

Ingredients:

1/3 cup vegetable oil/olive oil

½ cup honey

50 g dark chocolate (70%)

2 cups raw grated beetroots

1 egg

1 ½ cup multigrain/ wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp cocoa powder without sugar

1 pinch salt

Mix all the dry ingredients-wheat/multigrain baking flour, salt, baking powder, and cocoa powder in a small bowl and keep aside.

Take a pot and warm the oil on low heat and add the dark chocolate cubes to the oil. Turn off heat once the chocolate starts melting and then add honey while it is still warm. Add the grated beets and then add the whisked egg to this mixture. 

Start adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly and then mix with a spoon. Pour in a greased baking mould and bake in a pre-heated oven on 350 F for about 25 minutes. This is a pretty moist cake so it won’t be completely dry on the outside too.

Red Quinoa, chickpeas and kale patty:

1       onion

½ bell pepper green

1 large carrot grated

2      garlic cloves

¼ cup organic quinoa red

Cilantro

Salt

Chili powder according to taste

1 can organic chickpeas

Breadcrumbs/baked potato

Canola oil spray

Cook the red quinoa in 1 cup boiling water for about 15 minutes. Drain the water and keep it aside to cool. Chop the white onion finely and add some chopped garlic cloves to the onion. Add finely chopped green bell pepper and grated carrot to this and cook all this on medium heat in a pan with 1 tsp of oil.

cooked red quinoa

Mash the organic chickpeas after straining the preservative water from the can. Add these while you are cooking the onion mixture. Don’t forget to add salt and chili powder according to taste. Chop some kale leaves roughly and keep aside. Once the onion mixture is cooked, add the cooled and cooked red quinoa and then add the kale leaves too. I added a baked potato for binding, but you can always add breadcrumbs while making the patty. Form the patty using hands.

Take a frying pan and use the cooking spray and put the patty on the pan. Cook it till you see the brown color on the patty. Please note that you have already cooked all the ingredients and so you won’t need to cook these for a long time. You can also bake these patties if you wish.

Enjoy these with hummus or artichoke spread on whole grain bread with lots of veggies. My favorites are tomatoes, cucumbers, baby spinach leaves and raw onion slices.

Sandwiches: Veggie tofu sandwich

As we were driving near Stinson beach one day, we went to a restaurant on the beachfront to have something light. We were greeted by lovely aroma of fish and garlic fries. Not wanting anything heavy, we opted for a veggie tofu sandwich. It was decorated with lots of greens on the side and fries of course. The best part of this sandwich was that it was not just a slab of fried tofu and greens but it also had a hint of sweet sauce. Here is my version of what we ate that day.

To start with, I make these sandwiches with multigrain bread slices and tofu that is not fried. You can just heat the tofu a bit on the pan with some oil spray that will still give it a touch of crispiness and yet not make it unhealthy.

Greens are a major part of our daily meals and I have found a new connection with kale and spinach. I think the salad dressings are either fatty or they have lots of calories in them and if you go for the low calorie ones, they taste bad. So, I have started using oil sprays in the pan and adding just a dash of sesame seeds to the spray. Add the kale into this slightly hot pan and steam is lightly for about 5 minutes till the kale shrinks. They just taste wonderful. 

Toast the multigrain slices and coat one side with hummus (we usually like the red pepper or garlic hummus) and on the other spread some orange or mango marmalade (to add that touch of sweetness). Spread basil and baby spinach leaves on top with some avocado slices to create a nice bed of greens and light crunch. You can also add cucumber wedges or mushrooms, red bell pepper, carrots or any other veggies to this layer.

Lastly add the tofu slices that you lightly heated on the pan with oil spray. And, voila you have a wonderful dinner ready with greens and tofu for your protein.

You can have a bowl of corn or bean soup to go with this dish.