Dhaba style Aloo-Gobhi

 Nothing beats winter blues like comfort food like aloo gobhi..  

This recipe is supposedly Dhaba style. Here aloo and gobi is shallow fried before making the curry. I was not doing this before. I loved the fried taste of aloo and gobhi. 

Aloo-Gajar-Matar Sabzi

Generally when you make North Indian dals or curries like chana/ rajma, you need a vegetable accompaniment to make it a complete meal. South Indian style sabzis(palyas) don’t go well with this theme, you need north Indian style sabzis. Aloo-gajar-matar fits the bill perfectly. My cousin Archana suggested me to try this particular recipe for its simple taste and easy execution. There is actually no masala in this except for tadka + ginger + green chilies, but this is sufficient to bring out all the vegetable flavors in the dish. My daughter just loved this and kept asking for more and more. 

Do try!   

Zucchini stir fry

My cousin, a novice gardener, started growing crazy big zucchinis and gave some to me :) I hardly use zucchini in my everyday cooking. So I got creative and googled for recipes… [that’s the creative best I can get :D]. I found this recipe in one of my favorite blogs. I was sure it is going to turn out great. Basically you just toss sliced zucchini in spiced besan flour and pan roast it. I might’ve used more besan than necessary, hence mine tasted more like zunka. Tasted exceptional nevertheless. Do try and include zucchini in your everyday cooking. 

Broccoli Stir fry

Not everybody likes broccoli. But what if you make pakodas with it? *ding-ding. What if you don’t deep fry but make a sabzi instead, with the same spiced besan mix? *ding-ding-ding-ding. Bingo! 

Broccoli actually doesn't taste as bad as all the kids make it out to be. It goes really well in Indo-Chinese dishes as it tends to take up all the flavors and becomes juicy when stir fried. I was surprised when my daughter kept asking for more and more broccoli from noodles. So I browsed for more broccoli recipes, and I came across this sabzi from showmethecurry. I suppose jhunka is prepared in a similar fashion.

This is an extremely simple recipe, and tastes great - more like a healthy version of pakoda. This would be a great way of introducing broccoli in everyday Indian cooking. Do try! 

Dantinasoppina bassaru-palya - Method 2 (Amaranth Leaves Curry-Sabzi)

This is a slightly different way of making bassaru-palya which I found online. Bassaru - is rasam made from dal stock, and the dal is then used in making sabji(palya). This uses 2 kinds of dals as opposed to one in drumstick leaves bassaru-palya posted previously, which can be found here. Dantina soppu(amaranth leaves) definitely enhances the taste of this palya - saaru combo. This recipe, I believe, is made in gowdra style.  

Nuggekayi soppu bassaru/ Drumstick leaves rasam

Bassaru is saaru(rasam) made from strained water after cooking dal. Bassaru is generally made with an accompanying palya/sabzi. In the previous post, I wrote about making palya/sabzi, here I give how to make bassaru. 

Enjoy some hot and healthy nugge soppu bassaru - palya with some rice and ghee. 

Do try!

Nuggekayi soppu Palya/ Drumstick leaves sabzi

Continuing with my streak of healthy recipes, today I present to you nuggesoppu(drumstick leaves) palya-bassaru combo(sabzi-rasam combo) in two posts. I didn’t know that some leafy vegetables(spinach, dill etc) can be eaten in basaaru-palya combination until my friend Lalitha told me about it.. 

Last summer I had some knee issues and thankfully I got to know that drumstick leaves/nugge soppu is some wonder food which helps in this area. So I browsed for recipes and came to know that bassaru-palya is a popular way of consuming it. Taking the leaves out of stalks was little tedious, otherwise making saaru-palya was relatively easy. Tasted heavenly with rice! 
Link for bassaru(rasam) here.

Do try!  

Tomato Bhaji/Gojju

Often times I am at loss as to what to cook as side dish for Chapathis on regular days, just for us. I’m not the kind who is inclined to make Curries all the time. I just make regular palyas(dry vegetable sabzis) and dals. 

I came across this particular tomato bhaji recipe online and the simplicity of it caught my attention. Tomato and chapathi even otherwise go together really well.   

The bhaji came out really good. Jaggery’s sweetness along with groundnut’s nuttiness complimented tomato’s sourness very nicely. This is going to be a regular in our house from now on for sure. 

Note that there is no onion or garlic in this recipe. 

Do try!

Gobi Sabji (Gobi ka kheema)

This is one flavorful sabji that goes really well with Chapathis. I enjoyed every bite of it. 

Grated gobi gives this a very spongy texture, and when cooked in spiced tomato puree it soaks up all the masala making every bite burst with flavors in your mouth...

You can either use simple tomato puree or make spiced tomato puree for this. I would suggest making the spiced one as that little extra nuance from the spiced puree makes a lot of difference. 

This is not a quick recipe. Grating gobi is a tedious and a messy job. It tends to fly everywhere. Making spiced tomato puree is also extra work. But the end result is very well worth the effort. 

Do try!

Low Fat Okra Fries

Happy New Year!!

Made any resolutions yet? Is losing weight  one of them by any chance ;) ..
It was always on my list until one fine day I decided not to believe in making resolutions anymore :) If it’s going to happen.. it’s going to happen.. right? I don’t need to reserve one day for making resolutions and then the whole year for regretting for not keeping up with it ;) 

Anyways, if you are still making resolutions, and if eating healthy is one of them, then please do try these low fat okra fries.. they are yummy!

Okra has always been hit and miss for me.. okra dry sabzis are okay, but the moment you introduce any water into it, like in sambar, they become very slimy.. sometimes very very slimy, and this after taking all precautions that I know of.. 

So when I came across this promising recipe of okra, I tried it immediately.. and boy oh boy! does it taste good!! There is almost no oil in it, and still it tastes so crispy and crunchy!

My daughter just kept asking for more and more.. 

This is definitely a keeper of a recipe!

All you need to do is toss cut okra in bajji/pakoda flour and microwave them.. it’s that simple.. 

Do give it a try!