Flax Seed Ladoo

Ladoos made of flax seeds and roasted gram dal are very tasty and healthy too.
My daughter loves ladoos and whenever she asks for them, it doesn't take me much time to make these. These can literally be made within 10 minutes.

Ingredients:

• Flax Seeds Powder - 1/2 cup
• Roasted Gram Dal ( Dalia ) - 1 cup
• Powdered Almonds - 1/4 cup
• Powdered Jaggery - 1/2 cup
• Powdered Sugar - 1/4 cup or adjust to taste
• Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp
• Ghee ( Clarified Butter ) - 1/4 cup

Directions: 

• Dry roast the dalia until it slightly changes the color and a nice roasted aroma is released.  Let it cool and then grind it into a fine powder. Transfer it into a mixing bowl.
• Powder the almonds and add it in the mixing bowl.
• Add flax seeds powder, cardamom powder, sugar and jaggery in the mixing bowl too. Mix well. 
• Add melted ghee and make small balls out of the mixture. The ghee will help the powder bind. 
• You can store it in an air tight container for a few days.

Note: 

• You can either make it with only sugar or only jaggery or mix of both. You can also replace white sugar with brown sugar. 
• You could add raisins to the mixture before you start making ladoos. 

Khara Pongal

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice ( Sona Masoori ) - 1 cup
• Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
• Salt - to taste

For Tempering: 

• Whole Black Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp
• Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Ginger ( grated or very finely chopped ) - 1 tsp
• Cashew Nuts - 10 -12
• Curry Leaves - 1 spring
• Asafoetida ( hing ) - a pinch
• Ghee - 2-3 tbsp

Directions: 

• Dry roast moong dal in a pan till a slight aroma is released. Do not let the dal change its color. 
• In a pressure cooker, mix this roasted dal with rice. Add 4 cups of water and salt and pressure cook for about  3-4 whistles. Some like is grainy and some like it mushy. So cook till the desired consistency is reached. 
• In a small pan, heat ghee, roast cashew nuts till golden. Add whole peppercorns, cumin seeds, ginger, curry leaves, hing, and pepper powder. Saute for a few seconds and pour this tempering over the cooked dal and rice. 
• Mix well and serve hot with sambar and chutney. 

Adding more oil while cooking

If you find that you need more oil in the pan while sauteing, add it along the edges of the pan, so that by the time the oil reaches the ingredients being cooked, it will be heated.

Tomato Puri

Just adding tomato puree to the usual puri dough adds a beautiful color, and a different taste to it.
Needless to say, kids love anything that is colorful and attractive.

Ingredients:

• Wheat Flour - 1 cup
• Semolina - 1 tbsp ( optional )
• Lukewarm Water - 1/4 cup ( or as needed )
• Salt - 1/4 tsp
• Tomato Puree - 1/2 cup
• Oil - for deep frying

Directions:

• In a mixing bowl, add Wheat flour, semolina, salt, tomato puree and knead the dough with minimum water needed. Because you have the puree, you some times don't even need any water. But if needed any, take a tbsp of water at a time. 
• After the dough comes together, take 1/2 tsp of oil in your palm and knead again.
• The dough should not be too hard nor too soft.

• Take small lumps of dough and make small balls.
• Roll them into small puris. Puris are half the size of chapatis. They are little thicker than chapatis. Rolling them too thin will make them crispy .
• Heat oil for deep frying.
• The oil should be hot. Test the right temperature by adding a small piece of dough into the oil. It should immediately puff up and float on the surface of oil. If it sits at the bottom, then the oil is not yet ready.
• When the oil is ready, drop the rolled out puri into the oil very carefully.
• While the puri is slowly coming up, keep patting on the surface which helps it to puff up.
• After it puffs up, toss the puri to the other side and cook for few seconds till the puri is golden brown in color.
• Remove it on a paper towel to drain any excess oil.
• Serve them hot with any curry you like. Esp. goes well with any potato curry or chhole. 

Variation:  You could add some spices and other ingredients to the dough, to make it more interesting, like:

• Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Chopped Cilantro - 1 tbsp
• Ajwain ( Carom Seeds ) - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Red Chili Powder - to taste

Aloo Ki Sabzi

Potatoes are the best among all the vegetables to fall back on. Always there at home, long shelf life, quick and easy to make, last but not the least, tasty.
This particular recipe is the easy and simple one with minimum masalas.

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 3
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Coriander Seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Urad Dal - 1/2
• Green chillies - 2 or to taste
• Curry Leaves - 1 spring
• Mustard Oil ( or any other oil ) - 2 tbsp
• Salt - to taste
• Amchoor - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
• Chopped Cilantro - to garnish

Directions:

• Boil the potatoes, peel and dice them.

• In a pan, heat oil. Splutter mustard seeds, and cumin seeds. Add coriander seeds and urad dal. Fry till  they start to change the color.
• Add chopped chillies, curry leaves and turmeric powder. 
• Add diced potatoes. Give it a toss till all the potatoes are well coated with the tempering. 
• Add half a cup of water and cover and cook for about 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning. 
• Add salt and amchoor. Mix well. 
• Turn off the heat. Add lemon juice and chopped cilantro on the top. 

Serve hot with chapati or puri.
You can even use this curry in between two toasts and make aloo sandwich, however, when you want to stuff it inside the sandwich , it would be better if the potatoes are mashed a bit.

Variation:  Well this recipe, as mentioned in the introduction, is the plain and simple one. You could obviously make it more interesting by adding few other ingredients, like onion, ginger, garlic, tomatoes or other masalas like garam masala, coriander powder, red chili powder etc.

Beans and Celery Soup

A very healthy, tasty and filling soup.
I mixed kidney beans and black beans in this recipe. However, you can add any other bean you like.
If you are using raw beans, then you need to soak the beans for about 4-5 hrs and pressure cook them till done. You can avoid this by using canned beans. Totally up to you.

Ingredients:

• Kidney Beans - 1/2 cup
• Black Beans - 1/2 cup
• Celery - 3 stalks
• Onion- 1 small
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Vegetable Broth - 4-5 cups
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Basil, Parsley and Oregano Mix - 1/2 tsp ( Replace with your favorite herbs )
• Salt - to taste
• Pepper - to taste

Directions: 

• Heat butter in the saucepan. Saute minced garlic. Saute finely chopped onions till translucent. 
• Add vegetable broth, pressure cooked beans ( or canned ), Chopped celery.
• Bring it to boil. Cook till celery is done. ( I prefer my celery a little crispy , so I do not cook it till very soft. But again, it's totally up to you how you like your's )
• At the end, season with the herbs and salt and pepper.
• Serve hot with garlic toast. 

Baingan Masala ( Eggplant Curry )

Brinjals or Eggplants are a good source of folic acid and this is the vegetable which has the maximun recipes. They can be made in more than 65 ways. Hence it is often described as " King of Vegetables "

I have here used the small round eggplants.

Ingredients:

• Small Eggplants - 8-10
• Onion- 2 medium
• Tomato - 1 ( or tomato paste - 1/4 cup)
• Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
• Curry Leaves - 1 spring
• Hing ( asafoetida ) - a pinch
• Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Coriander-Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
• Red Chili Powder - to taste 
• Salt - to taste
• Water - 1 cup
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Cilantro - for garnish

Directions: 

• Slit eggplants into cross shape only 3/4th way through, keeping the stem intact. Do not separate into halves.
• Microwave them just for a couple of minutes or shallow fry so that they are little soft. You do not need to cook it fully. This process is just to speed up the cooking process. You can avoid this step and directly cook which will take a little longer.
• Keep these eggplants aside.  

Shallow Fried Eggplants

• Now heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Add hing. If you want to add green chilies, this is the time you add. But I haven't. I chose to use red chili powder. Add curry leaves.
• Saute ginger garlic paste. Saute finely chopped onions until they turn slightly brown.
• Add finely chopped tomatoes and cook till mushy. 
• Add coriander-cumin powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder at this point and mix well. 
• Add a cup of water and add the half fried eggplants to the gravy. Add salt and cook till the eggplants are done or till the gravy stats oozing out the oil. ( adjust water according to your preference. )
• At the end add chopped cilantro. Serve with chapati or paratha or plain steamed rice or pulav.