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Matar ki chaat / fresh peas snack

Posted on February 18, 2014 by Nidhi

Matar ki chaat / fresh peas snack
Peas are in season and I am sure you must be using them in every way possible. You can make aloo matar, matar paneer, samose mix vegetable and baked vegetables. There are so many ways to use this wonderful vegetable. Today I am sharing with you yet another recipe involving peas Matar ki chaat / fresh peas snack. This is my mother in laws recipe and it is very delicious and healthy.

We try to buy freshest peas available. Still we get some peas which are not very soft and we do not want to add them with rest of the peas. When we remove peas from the pods we separate these peas and use these to make this Matar ki chaat / fresh peas snack.
As these are not very soft these retain their shape after cooking.

Kids exams are approaching and with all the studying and talking involved it is not surprising that my kids (me too) feel hungry all the time. This is a perfect snack for times like these. You can also pack this in kid’s lunch box with paranthas or bread slices. You can add any vegetables of your choice as salad to it to make it healthier.

How to make Matar ki chaat / fresh peas snack
Preparation time: 5 minutes
baking time: 3-5 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup hard peas shelled/matar ke dane
1 tsp olive oil
¼ tsp haldi/ turmeric powder
salt to taste (around ½ tsp)
around 2 tbsp water

For salad:
1 onion finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
juice of ½ lemon

Coriander leaves to garnish
salt to taste
a pinch of red pepper powder or black pepper powder
¼ tsp chaat masala (optional)

You can add curd, green chutney or sauce to it.

To make Matar ki chaat / fresh peas snack

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add turmeric powder and salt. Immediately add peas.

Add minimum water needed for whistle as per your pressure cookers instructions. Close the lid. Switch off the flame immediately on first whistle. Open the cooker after the steam escapes.
Or you can cook peas in a pan too with closed lid but that will take a little longer to cook.

There will be some water in the peas. Drain the water. You can use this water for making dough or in soups.

Let the peas stand in the strainer for some time.

Add everything for salad in a bowl. Add peas to it. Mix it properly.

You can have this chaat as it is or serve it with roti, parantha or bread slices. or you can serve these with biscuits as canapes.

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Posted in Appetizers, breakfast, Chaat, For beginners, healthy, kids lunch box, quick and easy, Recipe, salads, snacks, under 10 minutes, Vegetables, winters food | Tagged appetizers, breakfast, dinner, Diwali snacks, healthy, indian, quick and easy, salad, snacks, vegetarian | Leave a comment

Easy Valentine Day Recipes

Posted on February 13, 2014 by Nidhi

Easy Valentine day Recipes
Here is a collection of easy Valentine day recipes from my blog

Oreo Truffles

Turkish Carrot Truffles

5 minute eggless chocolate mug cake

Eggless Marble Cake

Mocha Biscuit Cake

Virgin Sangria

Virgin Mojito

Tomato Basil Bruschetta

Vegetarian Spinach Lasagna

Pineapple salsa Canapes

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Posted in Appetizers, baked, bread, breakfast, chocolate, Drinks, For beginners, fruits, No bake sweets, No cooking required, quick and easy, Recipe | Tagged appetizers, baking, chocolate, coconut, desserts, Diwali snacks, drinks, easy valentine day recipes, mocktails, quick and easy, truffles, vegetarian | Leave a comment

Roasted Makhane

Posted on February 8, 2014 by Nidhi

Roasted Makhane

Roasted makhane is a very popular snack made in India in winters. Makane are also known as lotus seeds or fox nut and have high nutritive value.

Makhane are also used in many Indian sweets and curries like kheer or matar makhana. These are generally roasted in ghee and then added to ladoos and panjiris too. These are also given to mothers with new born babies to munch on with tea.

You can have the healthy version and roast them in a very little oil and skip adding salt. these can be eaten raw also but roasting really adds to the taste and crispness. These taste just like popcorn after roasting even better than them and my kids love these. These are also ideal to take with you while travelling or going on picnics.

Roasted makhane are quite popular in Jain families too. As some jains do not eat cereals after sunset they can have nuts or these roasted makhane. Some Jains do not eat anything after sunset.
2-3 days back I was talking to my cousin and she was telling me that she is thinking of making makhane ki kheer. Then we started talking about other recipes in which makhane can be used and its nutritive value. I told her about these roasted makhane that I make which are quite healthy. She loved the idea so I thought I will share the recipe with you too

How to make Roasted Makhane

Preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking time: around 10 minutes

Ingredients:
250 grams Makhane
1 tbsp ghee
½ tsp salt ( I use sendha namak)

A pinch of chaat masala

Note: 1. you can make these without salt and chaat masala too. It is your preference.

2 we can roast makhane as a whole too but I have cut Makhane in half before roasting. Sometimes there is a kind of web in Makhana which means it is not fit for eating.

Some makhane are very hard which we realize on cutting. We can avoid them too.

3. Keeping Makhane in sun for sometime before roasting ensures that they take less time on gas.
To make Roasted Makhane

The process is very simple. Heat ghee in a large pan. Add makhane to it. After 2-3 minutes turn the flame to low. Keep turning makhane in pan to ensure even cooking. Roast till they are crisp like popcorns. Mine took around 10 minutes.

After they cool down store them in a dry jar with a tight lid.

Note : Do not touch them with wet hands or they will lose their crispness.

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Posted in For beginners, healthy, indian, Nuts, quick and easy, Recipe, snacks, under 10 minutes, winters food | Tagged Diwali snacks, healthy, indian, kids, quick and easy, snacks | 4 Comments

Kahwa – Hot Drink

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Nidhi

Kahwa – Hot drink

Kahwa is a very popular hot kashmiri drink which is perfect for these winters. When we visited Kashmir last year we absolutely fell in love with this amazing drink. I promised you back then that I will post Kahwa recipe in winters.

For some reason or other I was not able to post many recipes in winters. So before winters are over I will keep my promise and post this drink which has become a favorite of ours.

We bought Instant kahwa( which was also good) and kashmiri green tea and saffron for making our own Kahwa at home.

The best thing about kahwa is that it has all the benefits of green tea plus addition of saffron ensures it keeps you warm in winters. Then you can have it without sugar.

Cinnamon we all know is good for our heart. Nuts like almonds and walnuts which are added to it are known for their benefits. I have added some cashews too because I simply love them.

It is a very light drink and gives you a very nice feeling. You can imagine that from the fact that after taking snaps I finished both the glasses myself

How to make Kahwa

Preparation time: 2 minutes
cooking time: less than 10 minutes
serves 2

Ingredients:

3 cups water
1 cinnamon stick/ dalchini
1 cardamom pod/ choti elaichi
2 pinches of saffron strands

1 tsp kashmiri green tea (or any other green tea)
2 tbsp slivered or crushed almonds, walnuts and cashews
2 tsp sugar or honey (optional)

Note: I have recently tasted Kahwa in which cloves / laung was also added. Though I did not like it you can add cloves to it if you like.)

To make Kahwa

Take 3 glasses of water in a pan. Add cinnamon, saffron and cardamom pod to it. After it comes to a boil, reduce the gas to low and let it simmer covered for 5-7 minutes.

Add green tea and switch off the flame after 1 minute. Let it sit for 2-3 minutes. Strain the mixture.

Put 1 tbsp of slivered nuts to each glass.

Pour hot kahwa over nuts. If you want to add sugar or honey you can add now.
Garnish with 2-3 saffron strands and serve hot.

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Posted in Drinks, For beginners, healthy, Nuts, quick and easy, Recipe, under 10 minutes, winters food | Tagged drinks, green tea, healthy, hot drink, indian, kahwa, quick and easy, tea | 3 Comments

Roasted aloo gobi

Posted on February 4, 2014 by Nidhi

Roasted aloo gobi ki sabji

Don’t we all love winters? No sweating, No relying on air conditioning for a decent night’s sleep and no power cuts to endure. I for one definitely love winters more than summers. Beautiful weather ( if sun god bless us with his presence ), juicy fruits and plentiful of green vegetables to choose from.

Aloo gobi ki sabji is a big hit in most of Indian homes in winters. We are no different so this vegetable preference wise ranks quite high in our house. But, I am sad to say this, only in adults. My kids for some reason did not like to eat either of the gobis.

Roasted aloo gobi ki sabji is a healthier version of fried aloo gobi ki sabji. One day my elder son ate fried aloo gobi ki sabji at my sister’s home. He absolutely loved it. And he promised me if I make fried aloo gobi ki sabji he will eat it. And he kept his promise. Only problem is we were not comfortable with having fried aloo gobi very often. So after trying baked potatoes for french fries in oven I tried baking aloo gobi in it too. It was a hit. Even my younger son loved it.

I have roasted aloo gobi in oven and tandoor both. Though results were satisfactory in both, in tandoor process takes less time. If you do not have tandoor at home make this in oven.

How to make roasted aloo gobi ki sabji
Preparaion time: 5 minutes

Roasting time: 20-25 minutes in tandoor (around 30 minutes in Oven)
cooking time: 5 minutes
serves 4 persons
Ingredients:

1 cauliflower

3 potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil for roasting
1 tbsp oil for cooking( you can use olive oil, refined oil or even mustard oil for this. Mustard oil gives a very nice flavor to aloo gobi)
½ tsp jeera/ cumin seeds
1 stick daalchini/cinnamon

1-2 tej patta/bay leaves
¼ tsp heeng/ asafoetida
2 small onions finely chopped

1 large tomato chopped

2 green chillies chopped
1 piece ginger chopped
salt to taste
1/2 tsp coriander powder
¼ tsp red chilli powder
¼ tsp turmeric powder
¼ tsp amchoor/ dried mango powder

A pinch of garam masala

Chopped coriander leaves to garnish
To make roasted aloo gobi ki sabji

Break the florets from the gobi. Cut into half vertically. I always soak gobhi florets in water for some time before cooking.
Peel wash and cut the potatoes into wedges. Prick wedges with a fork. Toss the vegetables in olive oil and salt.

Preheat the tandoor. Spread vegetables evenly on the tandoor plate and roast for 10 miuntes on both. Roast for 10 more minutes on top and lastly 5 minutes on bottom. This time may vary for different tandoors so keep on checking your vegetables while they are roasting.

If you are using oven keep the vegetables on top rack at 200 C and follow the same processs.

Heat oil in a pan. Add heeng, bay leaves, cinnamon and jeera to it. When jeera starts to crackle, add onions, green chillies and ginger and fry till transparent.

Add tomatoes, red chilli, salt, coriander powder, turmeric and cook for 2 minutes till tomato is cooked.

Add amchoor powder and garam masala and switch off the flame.
Add roasted aloo gobi to the prepared masala, mix thoroughly and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Roasted aloo gobi ki sabji is ready. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

serve hot with roti, parantha or makka ki roti.

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Posted in baked, healthy, indian, Indian Curry/ gravy dishes, main meal, punjabi, Recipe, Vegetables, winters food | Tagged aloo gobi, baking, curry, dinner, healthy, indian, potato, potatoes, roasted, vegetarian | 3 Comments

poha with vegetables

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Nidhi

Poha with vegetables
Poha is one of the most common breakfasts made nowadays. It is quite healthy. There are so many ways to make it and so many vegetables to add to it. Especially in winters season.

I love making poha in winters as you can add carrots and peas to it to make it healthier. You can also add orange slices to it to give a nice flavor. Yeah you heard me right. Orange slices in poha. But that’s how my mother makes it. It really takes your everyday poha to a new level. Try it.

It is not only perfect for breakfast but can be had as evening snack or even a light dinner.

To make your poha soft you should steam it for some time around 15 minutes. This is not essential but steaming makes poha soft and fluffy and you can get away with using less oil. Win win situation I say

How to make poha with Vegetables

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes + 15 minutes for steaming
serves around 4 persons

Ingredients:

2 cups poha/ chivda

1 tbsp peanuts
2 boiled potato
1 green chilly cut into small pieces
1 carrot peeled and cut into small pieces
2 tbsp fresh peas
slices from 1 orange

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp rai/ mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves
¼ tsp turmeric powder
¼ tsp red chilli powder

Salt to taste
1 tsp sugar

Coriander leaves to garnish

To serve

Lemon slices, green chutney, tomato sauce

Note: you can add or change the vegetables according to your taste.

To make poha with Vegetables

Take poha in a big chalni and wash it under running water.Leave it to soak for some time while you cook your vegetables.

Take a wide pan. Heat oil and fry the groundnuts for 1-2 minute.

Remove from the pan and add potato, green chili and curry leaves to the same oil. Fry for another 2 minutes. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt to potatoes.

Remove potatoes and cook carrots and peas for 2-3 minutes till they are done. Add all the vegetables, peanuts to the pan.

Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and sugar to it and mix thoroughly.

Add poha to the vegetables in the pan. Mix thoroughly and steam for 15 minutes. For steaming fill a wide pan with water put it on high flame and put our pan with poha on top of it. After 2-3 minutes change the flame to low and let it steam. Mix the poha 2-3 times in between.
Serve hot with lemon slices, ketchup or green chutney.

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Posted in breakfast, For beginners, healthy, indian, kids lunch box, Recipe, snacks, Summer food, winters food | Tagged breakfast, carrots, Diwali snacks, healthy, healthy breakfast, indian, poha, potato, snacks, vegetarian | Leave a comment

Raabdi – Rajasthani Hot drink

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Nidhi

Raabdi – Rajasthani hot drink

Raabdi is the most perfect drink for this cold weather. It is quite popular in Rajasthan in winters. Made with Bajre ka Atta and curd this warms you up the second you drink it. Even my kids love it.

I am sure if you are not from Rajasthan you would not have heard about this. . I hadn’t. But this is quite a regular in our house now. Bajra is quite warm in nature and its soup like consistency also gives the required warmth to the body.
Bajra is very rich in nutrition also. It is a good source of calcium, vitamins, minerals and iron. It also helps in reducing cholesterol levels. Try to add Bajre ki roti in your meals to get its benefits.

There is hardly any preparation time. You just mix everything and leave that to simmer on low flame while you do other works. You just have to keep on stirring in between to avoid lumps.

Raabdi make a perfect match with paush Bade another popular dish from Rajasthan. So make yourself a nice hot cup of raabdi, make some pakode, curl up in a rijai or blanket and enjoy winters. J

How to make Raabdi

Preparation time: 2 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
makes around 4 cups

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Bajre ka atta/ pearl millet flour
3/4 cup Curd (if your curd is sour ¼-½ cup will be sufficient depending on sourness)
salt to taste (around 1 tsp)
4-5 cups water

¼ tsp Black pepper or red chilli powder according to your preference (I use black pepper)

1 tsp Olive oil or ghee

½ tsp bhuna jeera / roasted cumin powder (optional)

To make Raabdi

Mix thoroughly all the ingredients except ghee/ olive oil. Cook on high flame for 5 minutes and then let Raabdi simmer on low flame for 20 – 25 minutes. Keep stirring in between so that there will be no lumps as we do while making Kadhi .You can add more water if you want it to be dilute. Add ghee or olive oil in the end. Serve hot.

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Posted in curd, Drinks, For beginners, healthy, indian, Rajasthani dishes, Recipe, winters food | Tagged bajra, curd, drinks, healthy, hot drink, indian, rajasthani drink | 4 Comments

Instant Carrot Pickle

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Nidhi

Guest post - Instant Carrot pickle

We all know that Carrots are a really good source of vitamins, minerals and fibre. These protect our body against cancer and cardiovascular diseases. These are also good for our eye sight.

Carrots pair up well with any vegetable like potato, peas, cabbage etc. These add taste and color to stir fries, fries rice and even chowmein. Salads in winters are incomplete without carrots.

There are so many ways to eat this nutritious vegetable. Yet today I am sharing with you one more way to eat carrots. Instant carrot pickle.

This recipe and photo of Instant Carrot Pickle has been shared with us by GUNJAN. In this recipe she has used already made pickle masala which we generally have left from our mango pickles making it quite easy to prepare it.

How to make Instant Carrot pickle

Preparation time: 5 minutes
no cooking required

Ingredients:

Carrots 500g

Salt to taste

Red chili powder to taste

Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp

Mango pickle masala (take the masala from an already made pickle) 3-4 tsp

To make Instant Carrot pickle

Wash, peel and slice the carrots in long thin pieces

Keep them in a glass container for 10-12 hours.

Add salt, red chili powder, turmeric powder and the mango pickle masala. Stir all the ingredients and keep it for 1 day.

Instant carrot pickle is ready. Keep it in refrigerator as its shelf life is 5-6 days only.

You can have it with Paranthas, poori and vegetables. It tastes best with mathri and chole bhature

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Posted in Dips/ Chutneys, For beginners, Guest post, Homemade, indian, No cooking required, pickles, quick and easy, Recipe, under 10 minutes, winters food | Tagged carrots, indian, pickles, quick and easy, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Til Mawa Ladoo

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Nidhi

A very happy Lohri and Makar Sankranti to all my friends!!!

Today I am sharing with you Til Mawa Ladoos also known as Til bugga. It is a very popular recipe made on maker sankranti.

Makar Sankranti is celebrated in almost all the parts of India. In Jaipur people fly kites, make til ladoos, til chikkis, Paush badas and spend the whole day on their roofs.

In Jaipur city whole sky is covered with colorful kites and people fly kites till night. There will be loud music playing on the roofs and food items are supplied on roof only because nobody wants to come inside.

Til have many beneficial properties. It is warm in nature hence a favorite item for winters. It also has high iron content. In earlier times when there were no heaters people used to rely on their diet to fight extreme cold. That is why til items were quite popular in winters. Til ki gazak, til sakri, til patti , chikki, revri and ghazak are some of the popular items made with til.

How to make til ke Ladoo
Preparation time: 2 minutes
cooking time: around 10 minutes

Makes around 30 ladoos

Ingredients:

250 gms Til/ sesame seeds (I have used white til)
250 gms mawa
350 gms boora/ powdered sugar

To make til mawa ladoo

Roast the til to a light brown shade. Start at high and then turn the flame on low to roast til.
Leave them aside to cool.
In a non stick pan cook mawa for around 5 minutes. I have explained the process in my gunjiya recipe with pics you can see that to understand the process. Switch off the gas when mawa comes together.

While the mawa is cooling down grind the til to a coarse mixture.

Add til and boora to the mawa. Mix thoroughly. Shape into balls to make ladoos.

Note: Do not leave mawa for cooling down for a long time as in winters it cools quickly and you will have problem in making ladoos.
If this happens heat the mixture again to make it soft and to make ladoos. Or you can add 2 tbsp of milk to it to make ladoos.

Or you can simply spread the mixture in a greased thali and cut burfis later.

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Posted in Festival sweets, For beginners, Homemade, indian, Indian Sweets, milk, No bake sweets, quick and easy, Recipe, sweets, under 10 minutes, winters food | Tagged desserts, indian, milk, quick and easy, sweets, til bugga, til ladoo | 7 Comments

Moong dal pakode

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Nidhi

Moong Dal Pakode

Moong dal Pakode with methi leaves known as Paush bade is a very popular snack of Jaipur in winters. As I have already told you winters in Rajasthan could be very cold. Paush month according to hindu calendar is the coldest which will be from 18^th december to 16^th January.

Paush Utsav is celebrated during this month in temples in Jaipur and Paush bade and moong dal halwa are prepared. Both these food help in keeping the body warm and hence are perfect for this cold month.

All the ingredients added to these Moong dal pakode are warm in nature. These also act as a homemade remedy to battle cold and I think that is a perfect excuse to eat them in winters

Fresh methi leaves, whole black pepper, Coriander seeds all are warm in nature and then lots of spices are added to these. You can add black pepper powder in place of whole black peppers/peppercorn if your kids are also going to eat these like I do. But the paush bade you get in utsavs are really spicy with lots of whole black peppers and coriander seeds.

How to make Moong Dal Pakode/ Paush Bade

Preparation time: 10 minutes
soaking time 2-3 hours
frying time: 30 minutes
makes around 40 pakode depending on size

Ingredients:

1½ cups moong dhuli dal/ yellow moong dal
½ cup moong chilka dal/ green split moong dal
1 cup fresh methi leaves/fenugreek leaves washed and finely chopped
2 green chillies cut into small pieces
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 tbsp sabut dhania/ coriander seeds
1 tbsp sabut kaali mirch/ peppercorn
½ tsp heeng/ asafetida
½ tsp red chilli powder
¼ tsp garam masala
salt to taste
Note: you can adjust spices according to your family’s taste.

To make Moong dal pakode/ Paush bade

Wash and soak the dals for 2-3 hours. Using as little water as you can grind the soaked dals to a paste. Beat for some time till the paste is fluffy. Add all the spices, chopped methi leaves, green chillis and ginger to the paste.

Heat oil in a kadai and check by putting a small drop of dal mixture in oil. If it comes to the top, oil is hot if it sinks heat oil more.

Take small balls of dal batter in fingers and drop it gently in oil.

You can add 8-10 balls at the same time. Let them fry on high for 1 minute. Turn the pakode and change the flame to low. Let the pakode fry on low flame till they are golden brown.