Side dish

by

Side Dish Is Important

Picture is bad .. I know but it will serve the purpose. We all have our favorite food and food that we grew up eating. Most of the ppl think that what we grew up eating was so healthy. Well, let’s not go into that today.

Dosa With chutney is favorite among us Indians and easy, quick to make . To make it a well rounded meal, I added some steamed broccoli on the side . Takes 3 mins to steam and adds a lots of wonderful things. Sprinkle some salt and fresh lemon juice .

Dosa or pancake is made with mixture of brown rice and different dals. Soak it for 3-4 hrs , grind, add salt and cumin seeds. Batter ready. I soaked it before leaving for yoga class . Come home after few hrs and i can grind .

Roasted raw peanuts in toaster oven and made some peanut chutney. Oven roasted peanuts taste really good and it’s so easy to roast. Try if you have never done.

Easy breezy well rounded lunch. You can also roast cauliflower in oven for a side dish. Roasted cauliflower tastes good too. Or any seasonal vegetables. Roast or steam. Some taste good roasted and some steamed. Find what you like and what works for you.

Enjoy!

Advertisements
by

Buckwheat Dosa With Coconut Chutney

Do you buy fresh brown coconut? Do you know how to pick good one ? Here’s the trick I use . Take coconut close to ear and shake it. If you hear plenty of water inside , it will be good. Try few and you will know the difference. I drink the water even though I don’t like it. Make fresh chutney with coriander and freeze rest of the coconut pieces. They store well and I take out few every time I am making chutney. Just soak in water for some time and it will soften up.

I have been making this buckwheat dosas and really liking it. I should actually call it buckwheat flavored dosa. I add big spoonful of buckwheat flour after grinding my regular brown rice dosa batter. It gives nice taste to dosa which am loving right now.

I might try more things with coconut. I have never made coconut milk or yogurt.

In India, coconut is offered to good and on some auspicious occasion , coconut is broken and everyone gets a piece of it. If it’s good to offer god then got to be good for us too. Isn’t it?

Enjoy Coconut !

by

Hakka Noodles

Hakka noodles is very popular in India and it’s a kind of indo-Chinese dish. I didn’t follow indo-Chinese recipe where vegetables are cut fine and I think schezwan sauce , ketchup is used . I did use Hakka noodles which I bought at Indian store. Google for indo -Chinese recipe. You will find many.

I just added lot of veggies , soya sauce and chili garlic sauce. And some avocado on the side.

Makes a good filling dish with lots of vegetables and they are lighted sautéed.

Enjoy!

by

Oat Spring Onion Muthiya

Sun is shining on Muthiya. Can you tell from the picture? Muthiya turned out good so had to share here. First time I made using spring onion and reason is spring onions in spring are so cheap , fresh and so I like to use them in everything. Recipe is same as any other Muthiya .

  • Rinse and chop spring onions and keep it aside.
  • Take a bow and mix instant oats, besan, rava and whole wheat flour. I didn’t measure and it was kinda all same amount.
  • Add your usual spices, chopped spring onion, baking soda, salt and mix well.
  • Add a some plain yogurt , tbsp of oil and mix everything. If needed , add some water.
  • Make Muthiya and steam for 15 mins.
  • Enjoy with little good quality coconut oil or sesame oil on top.
  • Enjoy!
by

Sugarless Spiced Fig Jam

If you have a fig tree and don’t know what to do with them and you don’t want to make sugary jams then you will love this idea. My fig tree is in full bloom and I was running out of ideas. I don’t like to make things with so much sugar so I made jam once and that was all. 

One fine day which is today, I realized figs are naturally so sweet and once all water is gone, they are more sweet and then why the hell am I adding more sugar? Duh…and no, I don’t want to preserve jam for years. I dehydrated figs to eat in winter. Ok so visited fig tree and it gave me so many nice ripe figs. I also saw some animal poop and wonder who is visiting and eating figs. May be deer. I don’t mind them eating figs. There’s plenty for everyone and no reason to be greedy. So this is what I did and result I liked.

  • Chop figs roughly after washing.
  • Put it in a pot. Throw few cloves, a piece of cinnamon stick and 1 torn red chili. Teaspoon of fresh lime juice.
  • Stir now and then .
  • Cook until Most of the water is gone on medium heat.
  • Taste it. Mine is little sweet, sour and hint of spice. 
  • You can add a teaspoon of chia seeds after it cools down and you want it to be thicker.
  • You can eat this fig jam or whatever you want to call it with thepla, bread, cracker , vanilla icecream, or throw some on yogurt .
  • How long will it stay good? I don’t know. I will eat it up and will share with friends.
  • Enjoy!