Soya Chunks and Mixed Vegetable Rice

Using soya is a great way to pack some proteins into your rice. With a little seasoning, it’s a delicious side dish.

Soft and spungy soya chunks are full of proteins and can be cooked pretty easily. They do not have a strong taste on their own and tend to adopt the flavors that we cook them with. You can whip them into a curry or add them to rice or stir fry them with Indian spices. It’s a one pot (pan)dish packed with proteins and can be customized to suit your palette!

Soya Chunks and Vegetable Mixed Rice

Author: Suchitra Vaidyaram

Pack in some proteins with this flavorful rice!

Ingredients

• Soya chunks- washed and boiled (1 cup)
• Chopped Carrots & baby corn (1/2 cup)
• Basmati rice (1 1/2 cup)
• 1 dry red chilli (broken in two pieces)
• 2 medium sized onion (chopped)
• 2 tomatoes (chopped)
• 4-5 cloves to garlic- crushed
• Garam Masala- 1 tsp
• 1/2 tsp Paprika powder
• Salt according to taste
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• Cooking oil/clarified butter for cooking

Instructions

1. Wash the rice and keep aside for 1/2 hour
2. Squeeze the water out of the boiled soya chunks and set aside.
3. Melt some clarified butter (or you can just use oil) in a non stick pan and add cumin seeds.
4. As they begin to sputter add bay leaf, red chilli and allow the oil to soak up the flavor.
5. Add chopped onions and garlic and saute till the onion begins to turn golden brown.
6. Add tomatoes, carrots, baby corn with soya chunks and fry them for couple of minutes.
7. Blend in the washed rice and add around 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water.
8. Add salt, garam masala and paprika powder.
9. Mix well and allow the rice to cook- Put the gas on a medium flame and put a lid and cook till the rice is soft and well boiled.
10. Once cooked, switch off the flame, mix the rice well and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.
11. Serve with dal or any curry of your choice.

Published  @ Honest Cooking -http://honestcooking.com/2012/02/01/soya-chunks-mixed-vegetable-rice-recipe/

Whole Wheat Pizza...

Health-up your pizza with whole-wheat, tomatoes, olives and bell peppers. 


There were days, in my good old past when I was absolutely hooked to pizza. Honestly, if Dominoes were thinking of bringing in some promotion/discount/offers, probably, I would have been the first person to receive that by mail. Now, I try to stay away (sorry, you don’t win a prize for guessing why). With so many alternate healthy options in the market, I realized, pizzas can be done in a healthier way! This is my first ever attempt at making a whole wheat pizza and I have to admit, it doesn’t taste different. It tasted sumptuous and if you don’t overdo the cheese, it can be a much healthier option. For my first attempt, I tried to play safe by mixing whole wheat flour and all purpose flour together. Next time, I might get more innovative and try just the whole wheat. Easy to make and sumptuous to taste, what else can you ask for?

Whole-Wheat Pizza

Pizza doesn’t have to be unhealthy always.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp quick-rising yeast
• warm water
• olive oil- 1 tbsp
• salt-1/2 tsp
• sugar-1/4 tsp
• Good Pizza sauce-
• Toppings- 2 small onions (sliced), 1/2 cup sliced black olives, 1 tomato chopped, 1 green bell pepper sliced

Instructions

1. Dissolve yeast in a small cup of warm water and sugar. Allow it to rest for 5 minutes in a corner.
2. The yeast would start frothing up.
3. Combine whole wheat flour and all purpose flour with salt in a big bowl and make a small well in the middle.
4. Pour the yeast mixture and slowly start mixing the flour.
5. With the help of warm water knead the flour into a smooth dough.
6. Add around a tbsp of olive oil to make the dough smooth and elastic.
7. Store the dough in a fresh bowl and cover it with damp cloth. Allow it to raise for an hour.
8. After an hour or so, when the dough has doubled in size simply punch out the air from it and gently knead it on a floured surface.
9. Roll out the pizza and drizzle some olive oil on top.
10. Spread pizza sauce and desired toppings- I used sliced onions, sliced black olives, sliced green bell peppers and chopped tomatoes.
11. Top it with shredded mozzarella cheese and season it with salt and pepper.
12. If need be, drizzle in some olive oil.
13. Bake the pizza in a preheated oven till the base is crisp and golden (15-20 min, @200 deg celsius)

Notes

Get a good pizza base sauce from the store or you can make it at home by sautéing tomato puree with garlic in olive oil. Add salt and black pepper to season and bring it to a sauce consistency.
You can caramelize your onions with bell peppers and olives for topping (optional).

Published  @ Honest Cooking -http://honestcooking.com/2012/01/24/perfectwhole-wheat-pizza-recipe/

Kidney Beans in a Rich Garlic Sauce (Rajma)

I have prepared the red kidney beans so many times but this one had to be different. With a good amount of garlic pumped in, the gravy was sumptuous and went well with the Sunday lunch. Inspiration? from a local restaurant nearby. The usual red kidney beans was served with a garlic kick and if that wasn’t enough, they had added whole garlic cloves which just melted with the kidney beans and tasted heavenly! Since then my mind was buzzing to recreate the dish at home. What a way to enjoy the Sunday lunch with kidney beans cooked in a rich garlic gravy…Also called Rajma, this is a popular north Indian dish that can be prepared within a short span of time and goes well with rice/rotis. The recipe can be tweaked in a number of ways to suit your palette.

Kidney beans in a rich garlic sauce

Red kidney beans cooked in a rich spicy Indian gravy with an inherent touch of garlic.

Ingredients

• Red Kidney beans- 1 cup (soaked overnight in water)
• Onions (finely chopped)- 2
• Tomatoes (pureed)- 3 (medium tomatoes)
• Garlic cloves- 8-9 (crush and chop -4, retain the rest)
• Grated ginger (1/2 tsp)
• Red chilli powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Coriander powder- 3/4 tbsp
• Garam Masala powder- 1 tsp
• Ghee (clairified butter)- for cooking (roughly 2 tbsp)
• Salt according to taste.
• Chopped coriander leaves (for garnishing)
• Cumin seeds – 3/4 tsp
• Kasoori Methi -dry leaves crushed (Fenugreek leaves-dried) (3/4 tsp)

Instructions

1. Pressure cook kidney beans (with 4 cups of water) till they are soft and melt in your mouth (retain the water you use for cooking the beans).
2. In a pan, add ghee and as it melts pop in the cumin seeds.
3. As the seeds begin to sputter, add bay leaves and onions.
4. Fry the onions till they become golden brown.
5. Add crushed garlic and ginger and saute them for a couple of minutes.
6. Add pureed tomatoes and continue to cook on a medium flame.
7. Add coriander powder, garam masala and red chilli powder and cook till the oil leaves the masala.
8. Add the remaining garlic cloves- do not chop or crush them.
9. Add the cooked kidney beans to this mixture and add the water you retained.
10. Adjust salt according to taste and allow the beans to cook and blend in with the masala.
11. Allow the mixture to cook on a low flame for 10-15 minutes.
12. Add dry kasoori methi (fenugreek leaves) leaves and give it a quick toss.
13. Add chopped coriander leaves for garnishing and serve hot with rice!

Published  @ Honest Cooking -http://honestcooking.com/2011/12/27/kidney-beans-in-a-rich-garlic-sauce/