Healthy Spinach Soup

It was a Friday nite and that meant no tiffin for the next day. I had a little dosa batter left and so I quickly made 3 dosas for hubby. I had to eat something too and as we had just got some spinach from Rainbows I decided to try a Spinach soup receipe that I had seen on the net.

Here is what I did:-
Ingredients - 1/2 plate spinach leaves (well washed)
1/2 onion
3 pods garlic
1/4th cup milk.

Heat oil in a kadai, once hot add garlic pods. Once garlic gets a little brown add the onions, salt and sautee. Now fill this with 3/4 cup water and add the spinach leaves. Heat till spinach and onion leaves are tender(about 7 mins). Blend this to liquid in a blender. No need to add extra water while blending.
Remove the water from the kadai. Add this spinach puree and 1/4th cup milk, salt and pepper to your taste and let it simmer for a few minutes.
Server this healthy and tasty appetizer in a bowl.
I had my nutritious soup today, you can try it too, very simple and tasty.

I submit this to the Weekend Herb Blogging.Link to the site is here. Link to Susan's website is here

Brushetta - A Quick Snack

This Fri evening after we returned home from office I wanted to fix up a quick snack for hubby and the snack had to be something of bread as we got that lots now. Also the shelf life of bread not all that long I had to fix up something.

Not wanting to make the usual ghee toast I tried a something different yet easy.

Here is what I did:- Take 8 pieces of bread and set them out on a baking tray. Coated them with garlic paste. Dropped a few drops of olive oil and then added some cheese on top.

These went in the oven to be baked at 350F for 14 minutes.

As they were getting baked I made the toppings, cut 1 finely chopped tomato, mixed salt, pepper and oregano.

Once the bread was crisp and out of the oven I topped them with these toppings and some cilantro leaves and served them to hubby dear who gobbled them up as fast as he could.

This goes to the bread mania event by Bayleaf. Find the link here

Quick Weekend Eat!

It was Friday evening and after lazing till 9 Gopi tells me we have to go to the casino in an hour. We needed to eat and I needed to cook something real fast. 

I rumaged in the fridge and found some (leftovers) califlower and capsicum staring right into my face.

I would be throwing them anyway if I would not use them today and so I quickly made a crispy capsicum and cauliflower crunchy veggie which went very well with some hot chapatis.

Here is how it went:-

In a kadai, heat some oil , once hot add some cumin seeds, add the cut cauliflower and capsicum, sprinkle some salt, pepper, some soya sauce and let it cook for a few minutes.

That's it-- your dish is ready.

I am sending this Crispy Capsicum Cauliflower dish to the Receipe for the Rest of Us- Dinner Theme. ALso linking to the One Page CookBook"

I am also sending this to the JFI:Cauliflower event here.Link to Indira Mahanandi's post

Fresh Pasta :)

Now that I have also started blogging along with the cooking, it gives me great pleasure to make things on my own rather than use ready made shop material. I would love to bake my own cakes, pastries, pav, naan, bread ........the list is endless and sooner than later it will all be in my blogging site. Oh Yes!!
Feb 1st 2009 was the Super Bowl Sunday and as I wanted to watch the match I thought of making pasta. Ah ha not ready made boil pasta and add the sauce, but actually make the pasta.(inspired by one I got on the net) So here is how my version went:-Ingredients:-
All purpose Flour - 1 cup
Eggs - 3
Salt
Butter
Pepper
Cheese(optional)
Olive Oil

First I took 1 cup of flour and made a well. In that I added 3 eggs and salt. Then with a fork I mixed the egg first, then slowly mixed the flour with the egg. Then I kneaded the dough well for about 5 minutes. It was a little dry and so I added some olive oil, mixed for some time and then kept it for an hour covered with a wet cloth.
After 1 hour I rolled it into thin sheets and then cut with a knife. That's all, my fresh pasta was ready.
All I had to do was put it in boiling water for a few minutes with salt and it was ready to eat!
For the sauce I took some butter and melted it, added some cheese and pepper to this.Took this in a bowl and added th cooked pasta , tossed with some more pepper.

My pasta was not very spicy, you can try the pizza sauce I made and use it here or ready made pasta sauce.
However you do it , it would be a great eat :)

Karela Curry - My Style

I do not like karela a lot and I never eat it much as a kid. Now that I know it's nutricious value I try to add it in my meal. So this Friday when we went to the Indian store and I saw some really fresh karela, I bought it and Saturday nite for dinner we had some tasty pavakhya kozhambhu.

Here is what I did:-

Heated oil in a kadai and put some mutter to splutter and some red chillies and curry leaves. Added some garlic and sauteed finely chopped onions with salt. To this I added some sambhar powder, bitter gourd and let it mix well. Once the karelas were fried well I added  1 cup of water with tamrind juice and let it boil. To this I added jaggery and let it cook for some more time. Now I still found this bitter and so added more jaggery. You can adjust the salt, pepper to your consistency.

Finally it turned out to a very tasty dish with the sweet and spice mixing well.

P.S:- Would not have completed this post if it was not for Priya asking me this receipe:)

My Legume Love Affair

This receipe goes for the My Legume Love affair.

Also linked to Susan's Event Page

My Rajma Masala

Ingredients:-

Rajma soaked for 4-5 hours atleast.

1 Onion

1 Tomatoe

Chillies

Garam masala

Salt

Coriander Leaves

Butter(optional)

Pressure cook the soaked rajma with salt. I normally keep for 3 whistles on medium flame. Dont want the rajmas to get very mashy.

In a kadai take oil, put cumin seeds, finely chopped onions, salt and saute, once onions are brown add half spoon of garam masala. Fry for a minute, now add a little water from the pressure cooked rajma. This is so that the spices mix with the rajma water, gives more taste.

Now add finely chopped tomatoes, chopped green chiliies, salt and red chilli powder as per taste. Close and let the tomatoes cook well. Now open and add the boiled rajma with the water and cook for few minutes. Garnish with butter and corainder leaves.

Yummy rajma masala is ready.

Pizzalicious!!

This weekend was Pizza time. I had seen this receipe on the net and it looked so easy, I decided to try it out. Saturday I went to Cub Foods and got some Capsicum, Jalapenos,Mozzarella Cheese, Oregano, Marjoram and Basil herbs.
Sun evening 25th Jan, I decided to try it out. Here is what I did:-
Ingredients
Wheat flour(Atta)
Yeast
Olive Oil
Onion
Capsicum
JalapenosMozzarella Cheese
Oregano, Marjoram and Basil herbs
Salt
Sugar
Garlic
Fennel powder

For the base:-
I took half cup of water and heated in microwave, to this I added some yeast powder. kept this aside for 10 mins. Took 1 cup atta in a vessel. For the base you can use atta or maida. To this flour I added the yeast mix (after 10 minutes), mix and keep aside. Now in a separate bowl take 2 cups of atta, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil,half spoon sugar and 1 spoon salt, then add the yeast mixture and mix like for chapatis till it is soft. Once it is soft put few olive oil drops on top and keep aside for 30-45 minutes covered by a wet cloth.
After 30-45 minutes again knead the flour one more time, this is for proper aeration and keep it aside for another 20 minutes.
For the pizza sauce:- I tool 4 ripe red tomatoes, Put them in boling hot water for 30 seconds and then immediately transfer them to cold water. Now the tomatoes are blanched and you can easily remove the skin. 2 of the tomatoes I used to make a paste and other 2 I finely chopped. Also chopped some capiscum.
Take a kadai, heat oil, add garlic, saute, add capsicum and chopped tomatoes. After few minutes add the tomato paste. Cover with lid and let it ccok 15-20 minutes till all tomatoes are well cooked. Add salt, a little sugar, add some fennel powder, the herbs(oregano,marjoram and basil), a little pepper if required. Once it gets done to a proper consistency(not to water)switch the gas off.
To make the pizza:- Take the base which by now is grown in size in a frying pan. Spread it over the pan evenly. Over this spread the pizza sauce. Place the toppings, I put some onions,capsicum,jalapenos, spread cheese evenly, pour a few drops of olive oil. Also batter the sides of the pizza with olive oil.
Now heat it on the stove for 10 minutes, then transfer it to the oven at 450F for another 15 minutes. Once the cheese on top has become a golden brown color you know the pizza is done.

Happy Eating :)
Submitting this to the Yeastspotting event