Tomato - Sago (sabudana) Vadam

Vadams, known as fryums in English, is a very popular side dish in South India. Vadams made of Sabudana are my personal favourites. Here is the recipe of how to make tomato-sabudana vadams

Ingredients:

Sabudana - 1 cup
Tomato - 3
Green Chili - 3

Prep Time:
1 cup of Sabudana needs to be soaked 1 cup of water overnight

Recipe:
Blend tomato and chili together until they are very nicely blended.

Now add half cup of water to a vessel and start boiling it in medium heat. Add the soaked sabudana to the boiling water along with the water in which sabudana was soaked. Keep stirring. The sabudana beads will start to turn translucent, then add the tomato-chili paste. Add salt to taste and let it come to a boil in medium heat, by now the sabudana beads have become completely transparent. Remove from heat and add just a dash of lemon juice for taste.

It is then dried in sun and can be stored for over a year. Tomato-sabudana fryums can used by deep frying them as required!!! 

Beetroot Rasam

When beetroot is pressure cooked most of the goodness in the vegetable is left in the water in which it is cooked. Beetroot rasam is one way of getting the nutrients that would otherwise be wasted.

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 2
Tomatoes - 1 or 2
Ginger - 1/4 inch
Garlic - 1 clove
Red Chili powder -  2ts
Coriander-cumin powder - 2ts
turmeric powder - 1/4ts
Coriander leaves - 1/4cup

Tempering:
Mustard seeds - 1/2ts
Cumin seeds - 1/2ts
curry leaves - 3 or 4

Salt to taste

Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Servings - 4

Recipe:
Pressure cook the beets. Once well cooked, drain the beets and collect the water in a separate cup. (Or) Pressure cook the beets, once the beets are well cooked (very soft to touch), the blend the beets along with the water in which it was cooked. Blend it soft.

Add oil to vessel, add mustard and cumin seeds and wait untill they start to splutter and then add the ginger and garlic cloves along with curry leaves and fry until there is no longer any raw garlic smell. Now add cut tomatoes along with red chili, turmeric, coriander-cumin powder and cook until the tomatoes are well cooked. Now add the beetroot water to the mixture. Keep adding beetroot water until the consistency is very   runny. Add salt to taste and Bring it to boil and remove from stove. Then add some coriander leaves to give it a nice aroma.

Your Beetroot rasam is ready!!

PS: Beets has a slight sweet taste to it, which gives an excellent flavour to rasam, so avoid excess addition of red chili powder, as it will over power beets taste.

Tomato Pasta - Indian Style

A very simple, perfectly tasty and Indianized pasta recipe. I have heard lot of complaints and dislikes for pasta (me & hubby being one of them) and the main reason has been the bland taste which we find not appealing to our taste-buds. So I decided to try making pasta the Indian style with good amount of taste and spice added to it. It is very simple and really yummy..!! Tomato pasta is just one of the simple styles I tried. I hope you enjoy it.

Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Servings: 2

Recipe:
Tomatoes: 3 (roma variety)
Green chili - 2
Onion - 1/4
Red chili powder - 1ts (optional, dont add if u want it bland)
cumin seeds, coriander, salt to taste

Boil pasta in hot water until is soft and well cooked. Drain the water and keep it aside. Add a few drops of oil  and mix it so that pasta doesn't stick to each other.

Heat 1ts of oil in deep-bottomed pan. Add cumin seeds to warm oil and let it splutter, then add green chili and onion and saute until onion turns translucent. Now add cut tomatoes, a pinch of turmeric and red chili powder and saute. Wait until the tomatoes are well cooked and the raw chili powder smell is removed. remove from heat.

Now Add pasta to the tomato mixture and add salt and mix well, until the tomato is evenly spread. Cut few leaves of coriander in to small bits and add to the top to add aroma.

Your Indian Style Tomato Pasta is ready..!! :D

PS: If u want u can add few drops of lemon juice, one bay leaf to add taste.

Mint Fried rice

This recipe is actually my husband's. He loves to cook and makes really yummy food. In this recipe we add Mint leaves, coriander leaves, lots of vegetable. This gives it a very nice and spicy taste.

Recipe:
Mint - 1 cup
Coriander - 1 cup
Green chilies - 6-8
Onion - 1/2
Mixed Vegetables - 1cup
Rice - 1cup
Ginger-garlic paste - 1ts
Bay leaf - 1
cumin seeds, butter, oil, Salt to taste

Preparation time: 30 mins
Servings: 4
Course: Main meal

Add 1ts of butter to deep bottomed pan and let it melt. Once the butter is melted and warm enough, add cumin seeds. As the cumin seeds start to splutter, add 3 vertically sliced green chilies, ginger-garlic paste and bay leaf and saute for 1min or until a nice aroma rises, then add onion and saute until the onion turns translucent. Now add rice and vegetables to it and fry for 3 mins. Make sure that rice does not turn brown. Remove the pan from heat and keep it aside.

Now, to a pan, add 1ts of warm oil, add 2 thinly sliced green chilies and cleaned mint and coriander leaves. Saute them for 2 mins or until the water in the leaves starts leaving. Blend it into a smooth paste.

Add the mint-coriander paste to the rice mixture. Cook them in rice cooker until the rice is done. Add salt to taste.

Your Mint fried rice is ready. You can serve it with some thick curd!!

Methi-Coriander Paratha

Methi (Fenugreek) is very rich in B12 and Vit D while, Coriander is rich in iron. Hence any snack made out of Methi and Coriander is very healthy food to have as it adds to daily nutrition supplement. It is very simple to make Methi-Coriander Paratha. They are generally had as lunch along with some sweets or as dinner along with a glass of milk or chaas (buttermilk).

Preparation time:30 mins
Servings: 3

Recipe:
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Fenugreek (Methi) leaves - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 1 cup
Big Onion - 1/2
Green Chili - 4 (thai)
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala - 1/2 teaspoon
Aam chur - 1/2 teaspoon
Some cumin (Jeera) seeds, asafoetida, salt to taste

Take a bundle of fenugreek and coriander, cut out the roots and clean the leaves. Cut the leaves to small pieces.

Now add some oil to a deep bottomed pan. And add some cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add green chili, ginger - garlic paste and garam masala to it and let it cook until a nice aroma rises takes about 10secs). Now add onion to the mixture and saute until the onion turns translucent. Add the cut fenugreek and coriander leaves and saute for 1min.

Take 2 cups of wheat flour and add a pinch of asafoetida, aam chur, one spoon of oil and salt (to taste),Now add the above mixture to wheat flour and mix very well. Just sprinkle water to the flour as and when required and knead the flour until you a nice smooth dough like shown in the picture.

Now make small balls of dough and then flatten them to the size of a pancake (Tip: touch up with little amount of wheat flour to make the flattening easier).

Heat a flat bottomed pancake pan (girdle) and add a drop or two of oil to it and wait until the pan heats up. Now bake the flattened dough, by turning sides every 10 secs until the paratha is cooked.

Your yummy methi-coriander paratha is ready to be served along with some butter and raitha!! :D

Paruppu Vadai

Paruppu Vadai, is the most favourite vada type in India. This is usually made with a combo of pulses like Pigeon peas (toor dal), Black gram (urad dal) and Split chick peas (Channa dal). They are high in protein content and hence are very good snack.


Recipe:
Spilt Chick Peas - 1 cup
Black Gram - 1/2 cup
Pigeon Peas - 1/2 cup
Red Chili -  6
Some Curry leaves, asafoetida, Cumin seeds, Salt


Making requires 15-30 mins
Preparation requires soaking for 60 mins
Servings 4 plates of 3


Soak split chick peas, black gram and pigeon peas for one hour. And then coarsely grind them together in blender or grinder . Tip: Do not add too much water. 


Add a pinch of Asafoetida (hing) to this, along with red chili (made in to pieces), curry leaves and cumin powder. Add salt to taste. Mix it well


Heat oil in deep bottomed pan in stove at medium heat. Add a small bit of the batter to test the heat. If the piece gets fried and turns golden brown then oil is ready. Make small flattened balls and add them to oil and fry them. Tip: Make sure to fry long enough such that the dough in the middle also gets cooked.


Serve them hot with coconut chutney.

Sundal recipe

Sundal is one of the most common and easy to make snack in South India. There is a festival, called Dusshera or Navratri, a ten day festival, during which a variety of sundals are made one of each day.

Sundals, are very tasty snacks, made out of beans, which are rich in protein. The picture shows sundal made out of Chick peas.

Recipe:
Chick Peas - 1 cup
Dried Red Chilies - 4-5
Curry leaves
Coconut - one handful
Asafoetida, Mustard, Cumin seeds, Salt

Making time 10 mins
Preparation requires overnight soaking
Servings:5

The Chickpeas are soaked overnight and then pressure cooked, so that they loose the hardness and cooked properly to eat. Add 2ts of oil to the pan, add mustard, cumin seeds and let them splutter, then add red chili, curry leaves,pinch of asafoetida and chickpeas. Mix it for 2 mins and then add the coconut scrap and mix again. Add salt to taste and remove from heat. Your sundal is ready to serve

Tip: Do not pressure cook for too long. Otherwise the chickpeas will get smashed in to a paste and wont taste good.