Eggplant Khichadi without Rice

This recipe is as old as it gets, basically passed down from generation to generation. All I have done is replaced rice with cracked whole wheat. Cracked whole wheat is nothing but cracked wheat berries. In general you get those in three levels of granularity specified in number. I chose #2, i.e. medium, basically each wheat berry into 3-4 pieces. So without further delay, here is the recipe

Ingredients:
1. Eggplant - 1 Medium size
2. White Onion - 1 Medium size
3. Red Bell Pepper - 1 Medium size
4. Red Potato - 1 Medium size
5. Jalapeno - 1
6. Carrot - 1
7. French Beans - handful
8. Green Peas - 1/2 Cup
9. Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 TBSP
10. Muster Seeds - 1 TSP
11. Cumin Seeds - 1 TSP
12. Turmeric Powder - 1 TSP
13. Asafetida - 1 Pinch
14. Cracked Whole Wheat - 1 Cup
15. Garlic - 2/3 Cloves
16. Ginger - 1 Inch
17. Salt - 2 TSP
18. Black pepper - 4/5

Method:

1. Start Instant Pot on Saute mode at 7 min setting, heat it on high heat. Add oil, once hot, add cumin seeds, followed by muster seeds and whole black peppers. Once those start to crackle, add turmeric powder and asafetida. Give it a quick mix, and add chopped jalapeno. If not instant pot, follow all the steps by using pressure cooker.

2. In a min, add chopped white onion. Instead of white onion, you can use yellow onion. Once mixed, let it cook for 2-3 min.

3. Add chopped red  potato, about an cetimeter cube size. Red potato cooks faster than yellow potato. If you are using yellow potato, give it an extra min for cooking. Once mixed, let it cook for another 3-4 min.

4. Now add in finely chopper garlic and ginger. Once mixed, give a min or so to cook. Sorry for steamy picture.

5. Now add all remaining veggies, red bell pepper, carrot, french beans, green peas and eggplant. You could use green bell pepper, it gives a bit of bitter taste though. I am using frozen mix vegetables for carrot, french beans and green peas. An eggplant is softer than rest of the veggies, so keep the pieces a bit bigger than cube size. Give a good mix and let it cook for a couple of min.

6. Add cracked whole wheat and salt. Mix it well. You do not have to roast cracked whole wheat but let it cook for 2-3 min.

7. Add 2 cups of water. Please note, all mixture do not need to be covered with water, it needs to be enough so everything cooks well.

8. For instant pot, now close the lid and change setting from saute to pressure cooker for 5 min on high pressure. If using regular pressure, close the lid and let it cook for 1 whistle. Either way, once cooked, let everything cool down - 20 min or so and hot khichadi is ready. During winter pair it with kadhi and in summer, pair it with butter milk, lassi, chaa, which is what I did.

Quinoa Grapes Salad

I am in general looking for quinoa recipes to incorporate in my family’s repertoire. Being vegetarian, quinoa gives a good portion of protein for the day. I tried quinoa and grapes salad by mixing and matching few other ingredients and finally settled with a recipe that all in family including kids can enjoy.

Ingredients:
1. Quinoa - 1 Cup
2. Red Grapes - 1 Cup
3. Spring Onion - 2
4. Slivered Almonds - 1/3 Cup

Ingredients for Dressing:
1. Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1/3 Cup
2. Balsamic Vinegar - 1/4 Cup
3. Honey - 1 TBSP
4. Garlic - 1 Clove
5. Salt - 1/2 TSP
6. Black Pepper - as per your taste

Method:
1. In 2 cups of water mix in dry quinoa in a thick bottom pan. Once the water starts to boil, reduce heat to simmer and cover the lid. Let the quinoa cook on simmer for 10-12 min. Once ready fluff with fork.
2. Chop red grapes in halves. You could use black grapes in place of red grapes. Finely chop spring onions.

3. For dressing, add all ingredients in a jar and shake it vigorously. Or whisk in vigorously if you are mixing in a bowl.

4. Pour in the dressing in mixing bowl for salad.

5. Add in slivered almonds and salad is ready to serve. This salad can be made ahead of time for a day. 

Dill Soup or Dal

Comfort food is comforting as it brings up so much memories of the times we had those, childhood. This recipe is like this because it was another one that was passed from grandma. It is packed with protein, greens.

As you can guess it is easy on digestion. It is diabetic friendly, Dairy free, Vegan, low carb, low calorie.

Ingredients:

1. Dill - 1 l bunch
2. Yellow Mung Dal - 2 Cup
3. Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 2 tbsp
4. Cumin Seeds - 1 tbsp
5. Muster Seeds - 1 tbsp
6. Turmeric Powder - 1 tbsp
7. Thai Green Chili - 3
8. Asafetida - 1 pinch 
9. Salt - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Start with soaking yellow mung dal for about 30 min and cook it all the way in pressure cooker. Blend it if you like or leave it grainy as is. In my case, I like it to be blended so it is of consistent texture.

2. While the lentil cooks, heat a thick bottom pan on high heat. Once hot, add oil, muster seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric powder and chopped green chilies. Using 3 green chilies, will make this dal spicy so adjust the number of Thai chilies as per your liking. Let the seeds crackle and spices cook for 30 seconds or so.

3. Add is chopped dill. Saute those for 2 min or so. Then add a splash some water and cook for another few min.

4. Add this cooked dill into blended dal. Add in salt and bring it boil and dal is ready to be served hot with roti or rice.

Bottle Gourd Curry

Simplest of all recipes and one of the comfort foods in my household is bottle gourd curry. With current environment, there is some shortage of fresh vegetables and this recipe needs only two vegetables so makes it perfect to make. I add in my own speed by using pressure cooker instead of thick bottom pan. So I do hope you try this recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Bottle Gourd - 1 long one
2. Tomato - 2 medium size
3. Split Pea Lentil - 1/2 Cup
4. Yellow Mung Dal - 1/2 Cup
5. Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 2 tbsp
6. Cumin Seeds - 1 tbsp
7. Muster Seeds - 1 tbsp
8. Turmeric Powder - 1 tbsp
9. Curry Leave - 4/5
10. Ginger - 1 inch grated
11. Garlic - 2/3 Cloves - finely chopped
12. Red Chili - 2
13. Red Chili Powder - 2 tbsp
14. Garam Masala - 1 tbsp
15. Asafetida - 1 pinch 
16. Salt - 2 tbsp

Method:

1. Soak the lentils in warm water for 30 min or so.
2. Heat the pressure cooker on high flame. Add EVOL, muster seeds, cumin seeds and whole red chili, followed by turmeric powder and asefetida.

2. Once seeds starts to crackle add curry leave and tomato. Mix well and let it cook for 2-3 min.

3. Add garlic, ginger, garam masala and chili powder. Mix well and cook for another 2-3 min

4. Add chopped bottle gourd and soaked lentils. Add a bit of water to cover the mixture and salt. I prefer to use pressure cooker as it cooks in one whistle but if you prefer you can use thick bottom pan. At this point, cover the lid and cook for 15-min.

5. Once cooked, mix well and serve hot with roti or rice.

Pea Shoots Stir Fry

We got pea shoots simply because they looked so green. Now the question was how to consume. So I decided to keep it simple and use years old recipe, same as grandma, mom used for making spinach stir fry.

Ingredients:
1. Pea Shoots - 1 lbs
2. Ginger - 1 inch grated
3. Garlic - 3/4 pods finely chopped
4. Salt - 1/3 tbsp
5. Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Steps:
1. Take out thicker steams. Wash twice in running cold water.

2. Chop thin. It took me literally 5 min. 

3. Heat a thick bottom pan. I prefer wok. Heat it up first. Then add oil. After 30 seconds or so, add finely grated ginger and garlic. Stir it for 30 seconds or so. As flame is high, keep stirring so it won’t burn. 

4. Add chopped pea shoots and mix well. Let those wilt for a minute or so. 

5. Add a splash of water, lower the flame, sprinkle salt and let pea shoots cook for 5 min or so. Stir it in between.

6. This simple and quick stir fry is ready to serve with roti or rice.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Going back to basic has been theme for me now a days. So I realized that Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe that I have been using for years has never made it my new found job of blogging. So on World's Baking Day, I thought to make few and jot down the recipe to share.

Needless to say as my other baking recipe this is also made without eggs.

Ingredients: 40 Cookies

1.  All Purpose Flour - 3 Cups 
2. Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips - 2 Cups
3. Brown Sugar - 1 Cup
4. White Sugar - 1 Cup
5. Baking Soda - 1 tbsp
6. Salt - 1/2 tbsp
7. Yogurt - 2 TBSP
8. Butter - 1 Cup
9. Hot Water - 2 tbsp
10. Vanilla Extract - 2 tbsp

Steps:

1. Start with pre-heating oven at 350 degree Fahrenheit
2. Swift flour in mixing bowl. Add in all dry ingredients. If you prefer, you can substitute with Whole Wheat Flour. Also I choose Mini size for Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips, regular size works fine.

3. Mix in wet ingredients, including hot water. Also butter needs to be softened if not melted.

4. Mix all ingredients well. I use cake mixer, on 2 settings for 4 min with 2 min of interval. If you increase the speed, the chocolate chips start to melt. 

5. Take big spoonful of dough and gently shape it to be round. I prefer fat cookies so I do not press those but if you prefer thin cookies you can flatten the dough bit more. I use dark cookie sheet. Those do not need to be greased. Separate each ball by at least 2 inches. 

6. Bake for 15 min or until surface of cookies are lightly browned. This way cookies will still be soft and chewy and not hard. If you prefer thin cookies, then the time need for baking would be less.

7. Let those cool down once out of oven for couple of minutes at least before serving. I cool those down completely on wire rake before storing in air tight containers.

Banana Bread without Yeast

Through this pandemic, In few experiments of baking a bread without yeast, I created this recipe. I created it as a diabetic friendly, also it is without using egg. But sugar or eggs is not an restriction for you, I have outlined those proportions as well.

Here are ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 Cup mashed banana
• 1 ¾ Cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs or 4 TBS Yogurt
• 1/2 Cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup suagr or raisin (optional)
• 1/2 Cup chopped pecans (optional)

Steps

1. Preheat oven at 325 degree fahrenheit for 1 hr 15 min
2. Swift floor, mix all dry ingredients

3.Mix in wet ingredients. I use cake mixer to mix all ingredients well.

4.Now pray in 9x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray or vegetables oil. Pour the batter in the pan, you most likely have to use spatula to even out the top surface.

5.Each oven is a bit different. I have to start checking by inserting tooth pick in the middle up see if bread is done yet. Between an hr to 1 and 15 min is good time.

6. Once the pan is out, cool it down for 10-15 min on a rack. Then take the bread out by gently turning it.

7. Serve with little butter on the top or as is. Wrap the left overs in plastic bag. It stays well for 3-4 days outside and another couple of days in refrigerator. It tastes so delicious by end of second day it is over in my household.