Recipe Fundas!-Simple,Tasty, Healthy Vegetarian recipes for a Vibrant Living!

Hey..., I had a small 3 step golu, for which I had to put in cartons and some suitcases (to form the required height). I did this a weekend before the actual Navarathri start date. A lil park: In a small tray, I spread mud and sprinkled mustard seeds. so by Navarathri time, my park is ready! I also prepared some nice stuff to give to people who come in. 1. 7-cup cake: Ingredients: Channa flour- 1 cup Milk- 1 cup Sugar- 1.5 cup (2 cups is too sweet). Grated coconut- 1 cup Ghee- 1 cup Procedure: 1. In a pan, add 2 tbsp of ghee and roast the channa dhal flour in medium flame (until the smell changes). 2. Mix milk, sugar, grated coconut and channa dhal in a wok. 3. Keep mixing the ingredients in low flame, adding ghee occasionally. 4. It will become like halwa. 5. In a plate, grease with ghee and transfer the contents to the plate 6. Cut into small cubes, while the sweet is hot. ============================================================================== 2. Puzhungarisi Thattai: Ingredie

This is a typical namkeen, famous in S.India. 1. Soak 1 cup of Parboiled rice for 1/2 hour 2. Drain it and leave aside for 30 minutes or spread it in a cotton cloth for 30 min 3. Grind this into a fine powder and sieve. 4. Dry roast 1 tbsp of urad dhal and grind this and add to the rice powder 5. Add 3-4 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp of cumin seeds, salt and mix well. 6. Heat oil in a tava and start making thenkuzhal. When i say 1 cup, i mean kaal padi (that we all usually use for measuring rice). 5 kaal padis equals 1 kg usually.heheehe! If you add too much urad dhal, the thenkuzhal will turn brownish. So, pls. add more flour, if you think that your urad dhal powder proportion is not correct. More the butter you add, you would get crunchy ones.

Lemon Rice: 1. Take lemon juice from 1 full lemon 2. Cook 1 cup Raw rice, adding 1 tbsp of oil for 2 whistles 3. In a pan, add 2 tbsp of oil, add mustard, channa dhal, green chillies, and add 1 tbsp of turmeric. 4. Once the mustard starts splattering, add 1/2 glass of water. 5. Once this boils, switch off the stove and add lemon juice. 6. Mix with rice and add salt. 7. Add fried ground nuts and coriander leaves

Ingredients: 1. Paneer- cut into small cubes (10-15 pieces). 2. Onion -1 finely chopped 3. Ginger-1 small piece- grated 4. Garlic- 2 shells- chopped 5. Ghee- 2 tbsp 6. Garam masala- 1 tbsp 7. Curd- 1cup 8. Salt- 1 tbsp Procedure: 1. Grind ginger, garlic and onion 2. Mix the grinded mixture, paneer cubes, curd, salt and garam masala. 3. Leave aside for 30 minutes 4. In a frying pan, add ghee and fry (shallow) the soaked paneer cubes 5. Add few drops of lemon juice and serve.

Ingredients: 1.Milk (Full cream) - 1 litre 2.Sugar- 1/2 cup 3.Raw rice- 1/2 cup 4.Maida- 1tbsp 5.Coconut oil- 1 tbsp Procedure: 1. Soak raw rice for 45 min and grind it until it reaches the dosa batter consistency, 2. Add maida and coconut oil. 3.In the plaintain leaf, spread the dough like dosa. 4. Tie the plaintain leaf (like a pocket) with a thread and cook it in steam (Pressure cook, without adding weight). 5.Once you take out plaintain leaf, put this in bowls of water. 6. Cut the cooked adas into 3-4 pieces and add this in a milk 7. Add sugar and let this boil for 8- 10 minutes

1. Soak 4 cups of parboiled rice (Idli rice) with 5 tbsp of Fenugreek for 4 hours. 2. Grind the mixture and add salt. Leave aside for 10 hours. 3. Make idlies the normal way.

1. Soak equal quantity of Moong dhal, channa dhal, urad dhal and toor dhal 2. Grind well in a blender (sprinkle water - use very very less water). 3. Add salt, chopped ginger, green chillies 4. Make vada in a polythene sheet/banana leaf. 5.Deep fry in oil.

1.Cut 2 medium size Potatoes into 2-3 pieces and pressure cook for 3 whistles, adding lil turmeric. 2.Peel off 1 big onion and chop it longitudinally and also finely chop 1 tomato. 3.Heat 3-4 tbsps oil in a pan, add mustard, green chillies, curry leaves, ginger pieces and chopped onion. Once the onion is fried well,add tomatoes. 4.When the mixture is getting cooked, add a pinch of turmeric powder, 1/2 tbsp of red chilli powder and salt. Adding salt at this stage, helps the tomato to dissolve nicely. Peel the potatoes and mash them slightly. 5. Add peeled potatoes and add a lil water. Mix water in 1-2 spoons of channa dhal and add this mixture. Let this cook for about 5 mins. Once the mixture starts boiling, turn off the stove. Add salt, if needed. Serve with Hot pooris/rotis

1.Cook 1 cup of raw rice, with 1/2 cup of Toor dhal in cooker for 3 whistles. 2.Roast 1 handful of dhania, 1 tbsp of pepper corns, curry leaves and 5-6 red chillies and grind this mixture. 3.In a pan, add oil and add chopped onion, tomato and vegetables like green peas, baby corn, carrot, beans etc. 4.Once the mixture is getting cooked, add turmeric powder (1 pinch) and add the grounded paste. 5.Add 1 cup of water and add salt and a small piece of jaggery. Let this cook well. 6.Add this mixture to the rice and and add 3 tbsp of ghee and serve hot with vadam and raita

Ingredients: 1. Parboiled rice - 1 cup Soak and grind the rice in mixie, until it is very soft. Once the contents are transferred to a container, add 1 cup of water and rinse the blender jar. Heat this solution, till it becomes like porridge (Koozh). Add this to the grinded rice. Add salt and make dosas. These dosas will be pure white and will be crisp also. :)-

Ingredients: 1. Sooji or Rava -2 cups 2. Curd-1 cup 3. Channa dhal- 1 tbsp, curry leaves- 1 bunch 4. Baking soda- 1/2 tbsp. In a pan, add 1-tbsp of oil and roast the sooji. Mix sooji,adding curd and water so that there are no lumps. Add baking soda and salt. Saute with channa dhal and curry leaves. Leave aside for 20 mins and make idlis. This is a nice variation and can be prepared with less effort.

"Pulav Rice: Water= 1: 1.5 How to cook rice? In the bottom of the pressure cooker, heat water, add 1 tbsp of sunflower oil. When the water boils, add basmati rice and sim for about 10 minutes and strain the excess water. You can cook, in a thick bottom vessel also. No need to pressure cook! How to make Biryani Take vegetables like carrot, beans, green peas and baby corn and fry them in oil. In a dry pan, add oil, pattai, lavangam, Krambu etc , add chopped onion, red chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala (1/2 tbsp) and add 1 cup of yoghurt and mix well. Once the mixture becomes thick, add all the fried vegetables+salt. Now mix with rice. Fry cashew nuts in ghee and add to Biryani. Garnish with coriander leaves

1.Roast 2 cups of sooiji in 1-tbsp of ghee for a minute. 2.Add 1 cup of sugar to this and grind this as finely as you can in the blender. 3.Heat Unsalted butter (4 tbsp) in a dry pan, slowly this will become ghee. 4.When the ghee is ready, add cashew nuts, raisins and add ghee to this sooji and sugar mixture little by little and try to make balls. Note: Balls can be easily made only when the ghee is hot.

Simple, easy to make podi. 1. In a pan, add 1-2 tbsp of oil and roast 1 handful of urad dhal and 8-10 red chillies. 2. Then, add 2-3 handful of curry leaves and roast. 3. When the mixture is cooled, grind in a blender, adding salt and store in air tight container.

1. Buttermilk- 1 glass 2. Vegetables- Winter melon(Poosanikaai)- cut into small cubes 3. Coconut- 1 handful (grated) 4. Cumin seeds- 1 tbsp 5. Green chillies- 5 Procedure: 1. Boil the winter melon, adding lil water and haldi(turmeric powder). 2. Grind buttermilk, coconut, cumin seeds and green chillies in blender 3. Now, add the mixture and reduce the heat. 4. Add salt. Once this boils, switch off the stove 5. Saute with mustard, urad dhal and curry leaves. Dont overboil, as the taste will get spoiled. Alternately, if you are using ladies finger, Saute first and fry with haldi (instead of adding water). Rest of the steps remain the same. You can also use Seppangkizhangu. A special form of more kozhambu, can be with ripe mangoes. (Exactly the same procedure as Winter melon). But, this can be a special recipe!!

1. Raw banana- 1. Peeled and cut into small cubes 2. Moong dhal- 1 handful 3. Pepper powder- 1tbsp. Procedure: 1. Boil Moong dhal, in water. Once its half cooked, add the raw banana and add salt and let this cook 2. Now, add pepper powder and curry leaves. Once its boiled, switch off and serve.

Ingredients: 1. Dhania- 1 cup 2. Channa dhal- 1/2 cup 3. Toor dhal- 1/2 cup 4. Jeera and Pepper- 1 and 1/2 tbsp each 5. Red chillies- 10 6. Mustard seeds- 1.5 tbsp (this will improve the taste of rasam:) 7. Curry leaves- optional. Dry roast all these and grind. (Just for red chillies, you can add 1 tbsp of oil, while frying).

Ingredients: 1. Red chillies- 2 cups (if using the round ones) or 1.5 cups if using long chillies 2. Dhania- 2.5 cups 3. Channa dhal- 3/4 cup 4. Toor dhal- 3/4 cup 5. Pepper- 1 tbsp 6. Fenugreek- 1tbsp (venthayam) Dry roast all the ingredients. (While fring red chillies, add 1 tbsp of oil). Grind the roasted ingredients after cooling and store in an airtight container

Ingredients: 1. Coconut- Grated - 1cup 2. Tamarind juice (1 lemon of tamarind based). 3. Red chillies- 5 4. Raw Rice- 1 handful 1. Dry roast coconut, red chillies and raw rice, adding 1 tbsp of oil and grind this 2. Boil any vegetable (pumpkin/ ladies finger), in tamarind water. 3. Then add the grounded mixture and let this come to a boil. Add salt. 4. Saute with Mustard, urad dhal and curry leaves

This is my mother's recipe, although there are several versions to this. 1. Moong Dhal- 1 cup 2. Toor Dhal- 1 cup 3. Channa dhal- 1 cup 4. Urad dhal- 1/2 cup 5. Pepper corns- 1 tbsp 6. Cumin seeds- 1 tbsp Dry roast the dhalls and grind all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Some people use red chillies, while my mother uses pepper corns.

Ingredients: 1. Frozen Peas- 1 cup 2. Onion- chopped (1 big) 3. Tomatoes- Big (3) 4. Coriander powder- 1 tbsp 5. Chilli powder- 3/4 tbsp 6. Turmeric powder- 1/2 tbsp 7. Garam masala- 1/2 tbsp 8. Hing and Jeera optional. This is a simple dish, that can be prepared easily. 1. Grind the tomatoes in the mixie to get puree. 2. In a pan, put 2-3 tbsps of oil, add jeera and haldi. 3. Then, add the onion and fry well. 4. When the onion is getting fried, (golden brown), add turmeric powder and stir well. 5. Then, add chilli powder and stir well. Then, add the coriander powder and garam masala one after another. 6. Now, add the tomato puree and let this boil. 7. When the onion-tomato mixture is boiling, add frozen peas and salt. 8. Simmer and let this cook for 15-20 mins. 9. Serve with Roti/Naan.