Why it’s decadent Onion tomato sambhar sadam, with potato curry, tomato rasam, yogurt rice, lemon pickle and fried appalam. Oh gosh, my mouth waters just thinking about it. Well, everytime I do think about it, I cannot get past the fact that the omnipresent rice has so much carbs and no real nutrients for that matter.

How good would it be to substitute rice with something so nutritious, and something that you can eat how much ever you want and one who taste is exactly the same as rice? So Good!!!.. Yep, that is what I have here.

Enough of chatter, lets get down to business so you can rediscover your South Indian feast. Enjoy!!

Ingredients

• Cauliflower – 1 small head
• Pearl onions – 15 (Fresh pink ones would be more flavorful)
• Tomato – 1 diced
• Thuvar dhall – 1 cup Pressure cooked (or boiled) to a mush
• Sambhar Powder – 3 Tbsp (Mine is without turmeric)
• Turmeric – 1 Tsp (Most Sambhar powders have turmeric, if so, avoid)
• Salt to taste
• Chilli powder – 1 Tsp
• Tamarind concentrate – 1 Tbsp (If its more of a paste, then use 1 1/2 tsp)
• Ghee – 1 Tbsp
• Coriander leaves – Garnish

Putting it Together

Onion Sambhar

• In a large pot, add some oil and add the onions and tomato in to it
• Stir fry on medium until the onions are caramelized
• Turn the fire to a low, and add Sambhar powder, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and tamarind
• Add two cups of water and let the contents boil in medium again
• After couple of minutes, you would smell the sambhar from a mile away. The raw smell of the powders would fade away
• At this point add the Thuvar dhaal and bring it back to a boil. Add water according to your consistency
• Once the sambhar boils down, turn if off and garnish with ghee and Coriander leaves

Cauli – Rice

• Bring half a pot of water to a boil just like you would do for pasta
• Cut the cauliflower in to big florets (just 4 or 5) and add it to the water
• Let the cauliflower boil for a quick min or two. You should not cook it to a mush
• Drain the water and let the cauliflower rest for a min
• With hands just squish the cauliflower florets and add it to a chopper and just pulse chop it
• You should have gritty Cauli-Rice

Fraud Sambhar Sadham

• Mix the Sambhar with the Cauli-Rice
• You really do not need to add salt if you measure it for the Sambhar (but you could if you want to)
• Mix and Serve with your favourite side dish
• You could also make tadka with Mustard seeds, but I am too lazy to do it everytime

I am going to try and post more dishes under Cauli-Rice soon. Keep watching.

PS : I have sprung this on unsuspecting guests without them knowing that this is Cauli-Rice and they have loved it. Try it for yourself.

The painting (Reproduction – Mexican Folk Art) is one I did as a gift for friend’s wedding. I just wanted an excuse to show it here.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

• Broccoli Slaw 1/2 Cup
• Carrot – 1 – cubed
• Frozen cut green beans – 1 Cup
• Green peas – handful
• Eggplant – Small cubes – 1 Cup
• Celery – cubes – 1/2 Cup
• Green peppers – cubes – 1/2 Cup
• Green chillies – 5 medium ones
• Grated coconut – 1/2 Cup
• Rice flour – 1 Tbsp
• Yogurt – Well beaten – 1 Cup

Putting it Together

• It helps to cut all the vegetables the same size to make for a better presentation
• Put all of the veggies (except chillies and coconut) in a big pot, add 2 cups of water , salt and asafetida. Put a lid on top and boil until tender
• Make a paste of the green chillies, rice flours and coconut with a little bit of water
• Once the veggies are cooked, add the paste, yogurt  and bring it to a gentle boil
• Turn off the heat and garnish with little ghee (or better yet coconut oil)

Update : Sending this to Priya’s Healthy Diet Event – Warm Soups

Ingredients

• Yellow split Mung dhaal – 2/3 Cup
• coconut – 1/4 Cup
• Green Chillies – 2 long ones
• Mint leaves – 5 or 6
• Pumpkin – cut in to squares, 2 cups
• Green peas – handful
• Tomato – 1 medium
• Ground Pepper – just a pinch
• Salt – to taste
• Ground Cumin – a pinch
• Asafetida – a pinch
• Turmeric – a pinch

Putting it Together

• Pressure cook (or boil in a pot till its cooked) the Mung dhaal with a pinch of turmeric and 1 1/2 Cups of water to 3 whistles
• Grind coconut, green chillies and mint leaves to a paste
• In a pot, add the pumpkin, peas and tomato with a little bit of water, asafetida and salt (for the veggies) and cook until it is soft
• After the veggies are cooked, add in the dhaal, ground paste, cumin, peper powder, a little bit more salt for the dhaal
• Add in a little bit of water if the stew’p(Stew + Soup , courtesy Rachel Ray) is thick
• Do not boil too much (since all are cooked already). Just leave it until all are combined
• Remove from fire, and garnish with a bit of mint leaves and Ghee (if available)

Note : Usually mint is not added to the traditional kootu, but here the mint gives a nice fresh taste. For this reason, we should not cook the stew’p after the mint is added for a long time as it might loose its freshness. You could also make it a little spicy (with chillies or pepper) and make it as a side for rice or chapatis.

Update : Sending this to Priya’s Healthy Diet Event – Warm Soups

And also presenting to you below is my recipe for #thanksgiving.  Happy Dining everyone!!!

Ingredients

• Frozen Peas – 1 ½ Cups
• Onion – 1 big
• Tomatoes – 3 medium
• Garlic – 3 cloves
• Ginger paste – 2 tsp
• Chilli powder – 2 tsp
• Turmeric – 1 tsp
• Garam Masala – 1 tsp
• Heavy Cream – ¼ cup (or Silken tofu – for making it Vegan)
• Salt to taste
• Asafetida
• Cashews – 4 nuts
• Coriander leaves – to garnish

Putting it Together

• In a pan add the frozen peas with a little bit of water, salt and Asafetida and bring it to a boil
• Meanwhile, chop the onions and tomatoes in to big chunks.
• In another pan, add some oil and fry the onions till they are golden brown
• Grind Onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic and cashews together
• Once the peas have softened, add the ground paste, a little more salt (for the paste), chilli, garam masala and turmeric powder
• Add some more oil and let the gravy cook until the raw smell goes off
• Remove from fire and garnish with Coriander leaves
• When it is almost done, add the heavy cream in to it, lower the flame to a medium and let it mix and cook

Miscellaneous Notes :

• You can do this with just about any vegetable / bean that’s hardy (Potatoes, beans, chick peas)
• The spice levels are approximate, add a little of the powders, taste it and add some more according to your taste
• you can also garnish with small diced onions and a little bit of lime
• Serve it hot with rotis, naan or plain old rice (I served it with hot dog buns. I didn’t get Pav buns at that time)
• You could also serve this with hot dog buns / burger buns. Split it in to half, spread butter or ghee on both halves and press it on to a hot griddle

I am hoping that Navarathri ended happily at your house. For me, it has been a pretty hectic weekend (Wish it had come over two weekends like last time).  Had invited guest for Breakfast, lunch and dinner. No kidding! Here is a list of items that I prepared on various days for guests.

• Moong Dhal Dosai
• Coconut chutney
• Red pepper chutney (thogaiyal actually)
• Onion Tomato sambhar (araichutvitta sambhar)
• Chick Peas sundal
• Spicy Buttermilk (With ground onion and green chillies)
• Okra sambhar (Araichuvitta sambhar)
• Eggplant Stir fry (Kathirikkai podi potta curry)
• Cucumber raita
• Kara Paniyaaram (Made from medu vada maavu)
• Chick peas sundal
• Tapioca Pudding (Javvarisi Payasam)
• Semiya Kichadi
• Lime pickle
• Peas masala
• Dhal Tadka
• Onion pakoda (the south indian one)
• Low Cal Iced Tea

Of all the things that I have noted above, the one we love the most is the Low Calorie Iced tea. It’s a wonderful replacement to all those sugary drinks for those hot days (It’s almost fall!!, please excuse). It is ridiculously easy to make and it keeps well in the fridge

.

Ingredients

• 2-Quart Juice Jar – I used Rubber maid
• One packet of Crystal Light Iced Tea on the go – Lemon flavour
• 4 Big Naval Oranges
• 3 packets of equal

Putting it together

• Squeeze the juice of the orange
• Dump everything in to the Juice Jar
• Fill it up with water
• Stir it with long wooden spoon

Note : If you are planning to add a wedge of Orange, add it to the glass and not the Jar. It would begin to ferment in the Jar and would not taste good

Garnish with a little bit of mint and any other creative things that come to your mind. Note again : Do not expect it to be sweet. Its more like flavoured water

First off, my sunflower has bloomed! Yay! I waited patiently for it to grow from seeds, to baby plant to full grown plant and to a flowering plant. I “noticed” a curious thing about sunflowers. They do follow the sun!! I mean, I knew it from biology classes and everything, but it was a pleasant revelation to “discover” it. In the mornings, the flowers face the sun, at noon, they are upright and in the evening they point west! I think someday, I should shoot a time lapse video of its doing.

The next is a huge dinner plate sized Hibiscus. I have never seen such a huge flower in my life before I moved to New England. I had been wanting to get one for a long time and I finally found a nursery near my place that sold it. So here is the treat for your eyes. Enjoy!

1. It is healthy to eat a salad. This is given. But be warned, that you could ingest more calories in to you than from a simple lunch, if you do not watch what you are putting in to it
2. It is really, simply, the most easiest thing you could ever do for lunch. Trust me. You can pack this overnight or, you can do this in the morning in 15 mins
3. It is a great way to get some fruits in to your diet, especially, apples. Since we started, we are averaging 1 apple a day, half goes in to the salad and half we munch later.
4. It is also a great way to count your calories
5. Your intestine will thank you

I originally started making salad to really have something healthy and light to eat for lunch. But then since I figured out point #2, I cannot stop making it. Enjoy!

Pictured above is a normal, garden variety salad. Here is how you assemble it.

Ingredients

• Cheery tomatoes – 3
• Walnut halves – 5, then quartered
• Extra firm cubed tofu – 8 cubes
• Half romaine hearts chopped horizontally
• Two handfuls organic spring mix
• Half an apple – Cubed to about a centimeter
• Onion half moon rings – from 1/4 of medium sized onion
• Canned chick peas – 1/2 a can
• Dressing – the one pictured above is home made. I do not have a standard recipe and hence each day the taste differs. But I will  definitely post the dressing recipe once I perfect it. When you buy dressing from outside, make sure you select one that has 50 or less calories per serving. All those creamy dressings will have more that 210 calories easily which totally negates the purpose of eating one.

Also pictured above is Stayfit salad box which is great container for taking salads. It has an icepack that you can freeze to keep the salad nice and crisp.

When you are ready to eat your lunch, just open the top, dump all the ingredients in to the salad bowl, close the top (without the ice pack), shake it to mix the dressing and you are good to go.

When you decide to make you own salad, make sure you have all the following components that way you do not get bored eating the same thing

• Greens (Lettuce, Argula, Spring mix, baby greens)
• Protein (Chick peas, Tofu, Beans)
• Fruit (Apple, Orange segments, Pears)
• Nuts (Walnuts, Cashes, Almonds, not more than 2 tbsp)
• Low Fat dressing
• Vegetables (Tomato, Onion, Cucumber, Grilled Squash, Carrots)

If you have noticed, I do not have any cheese here. I feel that adding cheese to a salad is totally unnecessary if you, like me, are making it for the reasons above. Here is a great website to check out how many calories are in your salad.

If you decide to make a salad, after seeing this recipe, send me your salad recipe in the following format to cumincoriandercardamomATgmailDOTcom before Sept 15, 2011

Name :

Picture : Thumbnail version only, <250kb

Blog link :

Fresh off my garden. ‘nuff said!

Ingredients

• 1 Big can of no-salt-added crushed tomato
• 1 small can of tomato sauce (this is optional)
• 1 tsp of turmeric
• 1 tsp of chilli powder
• Pinch of asafoetida
• 1 tsp of garam masala
• 1/2 packet of silken tofu
• 3 tsp of salt (or more per taste)

Putting it Together

• Put all the ingredients except the tofu in to a pot
• Boil for 20 min on medium until the soup is cooked
• Grind the tofu to a paste and add it to the soup. You can thin it out with water to your desired consistency (keep in mind you might need to add some salt extra)
• Garnish with some herbs of your choice

The flower pictured above are cilantro blossoms from my garden. They taste fantastic.

Help us print the new edition of the Guide to Vegetarian Dining in Worcester We are ready to print a new edition of our Guide to Vegetarian Dining in Worcester! Now we need your help us raise $500 so we can print 5000 copies. Our goal is to print & distribute 5000 full-color copies of our new guide by Autumn. Our next hurdle is raising the money to cover the printing costs. We have a campaign running on The Point. If we get 25 people to chip in $20, we’re golden. How to donate The Point – this is the best way to donate. Accepts all major credit cards. This tool displays how much progress we’ve made. Paypal – you can donate using PayPal by sending donations to donations@VegWorcester.com. Bitcoin – We’re on the cutting edge here at VegWorcester. Bitcoin address: 1BTPG1NTmZCfSFAphuVtmHw1YsVJUoRrG7 Note : If you would like to spread the news about this campaign, please leave a link to this blog and leave a link to VegWorcester.com

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