Hummus

Hummus is Middle Eastern delicious dip for chips, pita, falafel and veggies like celery, bell peppers. Here is a simple recipe to be ready in less than 10 min.

Ingredients:
1. Garbanzo Beans - 2 Cans, 15 oz and liquid reserve from 1 Can or 1.5 Cups of dry beans
2. Sesame Seeds - 1/4 Cup
3. Garlic - 1 Cloves
4. Cumin Seeds - 1 TSP
5. Lemon Juice - almost 1/4 Cup, Juice from one lemon
6. Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 TBSP
7. Salt - 1 TSP or as per taste

Method:

1. If you are using dry garbanzo beans, also known as chickpeas, soak them overnight. Pressure cook them in pressure cooker for 3 whistles. You can use instant pot; pressure cooker setting for 13 min. If you haven’t soaked the beans overnight, on instant pot, use pressure cooker setting for 17 min. Or use can. 

Or

2. Place all the ingredients in a blender. Blend it until you get a smooth textured hummus. Store it in a  air tight container. It will stay good for a week or so

Avocado Banana Smoothie

 Simplest smoothie recipe for morning breakfast or snack.

Ingredients:
1. Avocado- 1 Medium
2. Banana- 1 Medium
3. Milk - 1 Cup
4. Ice - 2 to 2.5 Cups

Optional:
1. Yogurt - 1/2 Cup
2. Sweetener - 1/4 Cup Honey or 2 Dates or any other of your choice

Method:
1. Blend all ingredients together. I am using Vitamix 6300 so choose frozen dessert option and let it run until it’s complete.

Dry Potato Curry

 This particular recipe for dry potato curry is a delicious filling for any kind of Dosa. You can use any variety of potato from white, yellow or red. Red potatoes cook the faster so I prefer to use those for this recipe. Still more  time is spend on boiling the potatoes than the curry.
 It is vegan, vegetarian, lactose tolerant friendly, kids friendly recip, yields for 8 servings.

Ingredients:
1. Red Potatoes - 4 Large Potatoes
2. Oil - 1 TBSP (Extra Virgin Olive Oil/ Vegetable/ Saffola/ Corn)
3.Asafetida - 1 Pinch
4. Cumin Seeds - 1 TSP
5. Muster Seeds - 1 TSP
6. Turmeric Powder- 1 TSP
7. Green Chili- 2 or as per taste
8. Garlic - 2-3 Cloves
9. Onion - 1/2 Medium
10. Lemon Juice - 2 TSP
11. Cilantro - Handful
12. Salt - 1 TSP or as per taste

Method:
1. Boil the potatoes, remove the skin and cut those in small pieces. Let those cool completely. I cut those in big pieces and boil in microwave for 10 min in 2.5 min of intervals.

2. Heat the thick bottom pan. Add oil. Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds, muster seeds and asafetida. 

3. Once the seeds start to sputter, add chopped garlic, onion and green chili.

4. Let those cook for 4-5 min. Let the onion become translucent, add salt and turmeric powder. Mix everything well.

5. Add potatoes. Stir fry all together for 2-3 min. Add lemon juice and cilantro. The potatoes should be slightly moist. So if needed splash some water. Serve hot.

Spaghetti Instant Pot

 Making Spaghetti in instant pot is as easy as it gets. Better the ingredients better it will taste.

Ingredients:
1. Spaghetti- 16 oz
2. San Marzano- 28 oz - peeled
3. Extra Virgin Olive Oil- 2 TBSP
4. Garlic- 1 TBSP
5. Orageno - 1 TBSP
6. Baked Tofu - 16 oz
7. Vegetable Broth- 3.5 Cups

Method:
1. Crush the tomato with spoon from San Marzano bin.

2. Set instant pot on sauté mode. Add extra virgin olive oil and chopped garlic. Sauté garlic for a min or two. Add tomato, vegetable broth and dry spaghetti. I cut the spaghetti in three inch pieces.

3. Close the lid with sealed vent. Now set the timer for half the time than the cooking instructions on the packaging. In this case, the packaging mentioned to cook for 7 min so  I need to set it for 4 min.

4. Once the cooking is complete, after 10 min, vent remaining steam manually. This will help from spaghetti to stick each other. So once the lid is open, stir the spaghetti and add baked tofu. I use melon baller to shape it round.

5. Spaghetti with tofu balls is ready to serve.

Coconut Chutney

 Coconut Chutney is very simple to make. It goes well with many South Indian delicacies; Dosa, Idali,Appe includes.

Ingredients:
1. Shredded or Powdered Coconut - 1 Cup - Dry or Fresh
2. Green Chili - 2
3. Ginger - 1 Inch
4. Salt - 1 TSP or as per taste
5. Vegetable Oil - 1 TSP (Corn/ Suffola Oil)
6. Curry Leave - 6-7 - Dry or Fresh
7. Urad Dal - 1 TSP

Optional:
1. Yogurt - 1 or 2 TBSP

Method:
1. Today for this chutney, I have used dry powdered coconut. Blend it with green chili, ginger with salt. To get a consistent mixture, add water or yogurt.

2. It should still be thick, unless you like the chutney to be runny.

3. For tampering, use a thick bottom pan. Heat it on high flame. Add oil and muster seeds. Once the muster seeds start to sputter, add curry leaves and urad dal. Give those a min to fry and pour over the blended mixture. Chutney is ready. Enjoy as a side dish for Dosa, Idali or Appe.

Garlic Pickle

 I love garlic for its pungent flavor. Today I have recipe, I learnt from grandma that I am sharing; a sweet and spicy recipe for a condiment; garlic pickle. An immunity booster packed with flavors.

 It’s vegan, vegetarian.

Ingredients:
1. Garlic- 1.5 Cups
2. Muster Seeds Oil - 2 TBSP
3. Turmeric Powder - 2 TSP
4. Red Chili Powder - 2 TSP
5. Salt - 1 TSP
6. Asfotida- 1 TSP
7. Fennel Seeds - 1 TSP
8. Fenugreek Seeds - 1 TSP
9. Coriander Powder - 2 TSP
10. Cumin Seeds Powder - 2 TSP
11. Jaggary - 1 Cup
12. Lemon Juice - 4 TSP

Method:
1. Peel off the garlic cloves. Wash and dry those completely.

2. Heat the thick bottom pan, add muster seeds oil and garlic. Stir it occasionally to sauté for a couple min on low flame.

3. Gather all the spices to be ready to add one by one while stirring; starting with turmeric powder as shown in the picture. 

4. Sauté garlic for a 3-4 min with all the spices.

5. Add jaggary and continue to stir. Let jaggary melt completely. Melted jaggary soon will start to thicken.

6. Now add lemon juice. It will loosen up the thickening jaggary.

7. Once the mixture start to cook, bubbling will start. Now cook for another 3-4 min with continuous stirring. Well, the pickle is ready. Let this hot pickle cool down completely. Now store in a air tight container in a refrigerator. It will last for year or so.

Dragon Fruit and Kale Smoothie

Dragon fruit and kale is definitely looks like an unusual combination to have it in a smoothie. But I have to say it’s a must try delicious treat. Finding the right fresh dragon fruit is a challenge where I live. So I make do with dried dragon fruit.

It’s a Vegan, Vegetarian, Kids Friendly, Gluten Free, Lactose Tolerance Friendly and Dairy Free recipe.

You can have this smoothie with meal or as a snack or even for breakfast. It takes about 10 min to make. 

Ingredients:

1. Dragon Fruit - fresh or dry - 1 Cup

2. Kale Leaves - 2 Cups

3. Dates - 2 pieces

4. Milk - 1 Cup

Method:

1. Any variety of kale will work for this recipe. Today I got fresh locinato kale from farmers market so decided use it in a smoothie. Wash it thoroughly and remove the stems. Roughly chopped the leaves. If using fresh dragon fruit, discard the skin and scoop the flesh. Like I said earlier, I am using dried dragon fruit. So before adding it in blender, I soak it in milk for 10 min. You can use coconut milk, soy milk, almond milk, cashew milk or cow milk. The fruit and kale taste takes over so it’s easy to choose milk as your preferences. Dates is our favorite sweetener now a days. You can choose regular cane sugar, honey or any other sweetener of your choice.

2. Add four ingredients in the blender. Blend it until you get a consistent textured smoothie. It makes about two larger or three small portions. 

Bottle Gourd Peel Chutney

Instead of composting or throwing out the seeds and peel for Bottle Gourd I like to prepare this simple spicy chutney.

It’s vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, dairy free, lactose intolerant friendly, diabetic friendly.

It takes about 15-20 min to prepare including the cooling time.

Ingredients:
1. Seeds and peels of bottle guard - 1.5 to 2 Cups
2. Cumin Seeds - 2 TSP
3. Green Chili- 3-4
4. Garlic - 4 Cloves
5. Turmeric Powder- 1/2 TSP
6. Tamarind Pulp - 2 TBSP
7. Sesame Seeds- 1 TSP
8. Muster Seed Oil - 2 TSP
9. Curry Leaves- 4-5
10. Chickpea Lentil/ Chana Dal - 1 TSP
11. Split Black Gram Lentil- 1 TSP
12. Red Chili Power- 1 TSP
13. Muster Seeds - 1 TSP
14. Salt - 1 TSP or as per taste

1. Heat the thick bottom pan on high flame, add half of the mustard seed oil and cumin seeds. Once the seeds start to sputter add turmeric powder and garlic. Let those ingredients fry for a min.

2. Reduce the flame to low. Add in bottle gourd seeds and peel with tamarind pulp. Mix all with spices and cover for 5 min

3. Let the cooked bottle gourd seeds and peels with spices cool down for next 5-6 min.

4. In the meantime, dry roast sesame seeds.

5. Prepare tampering with remaining muster seed oil, cumin seeds, muster seeds, red chili powder, chana dal, urad dal and curry leaves.

6. Blend cooled down mixture of bottle gourd seed and peels with spices by adding roasted sesame seeds and salt. You may need to add around 1 TBSP to get a consistent chutney.

7. Pour out the chutney in serving container.  Add the prepared tampering.