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

Banana Flower or Banana Blossom is used in Indian and Thai Cuisine. It is known to cure menstrual problems in women. Plaintain Tree is often said as an example of how a true friend should be, as all parts of its body is useful. How to make Banana Blossom curry: 1. Peel off banana blossom and take the flower inside. 2. Wipe the edge of the floral bunches in your palm, so that each of one them individually opens. Now, remove the inner needle like thing, with a strong head. Banana Blossom is a bi-sexual flower and the male part of the flower has to be removed while cooking. 3. Chop the floral bunches as finely as you can. 4. In a pan, add oil mustard seeds, curry leaves. Once mustard starts splattering, add the choppped banana blossom, add 1/3 tbsp of turmeric powder. 5. Add a lil water and let this cook. You can add grated coconut, 1/2 tbsp of chilli powder and salt. For people who use Banana flower and Banana stem in their cooking regularly, there are fewer ailments. Healthy cooking and

We wanted to bake cake for our friends this x-mas. Being a core vegan, I did not have choice, but to bake eggless cake. To my surprise, it was a treat and it came out well. Ingredients: 1. Bananana- 7 (Philippines Bananana- the one I used was ripe but not very sweet) 2. Sugar- 1 cup 3. Butter- 1/3 tbsp 4. Baking powder- 1.5 tbsp 5. Cake Flour- 1 cup 6. Mix of broken nuts- 3 tbsp How to bake this: 1. Peel off the bananas and mash them nicely. 2. Add sugar and mix well. 3. Add the cake flour and mix well. 4. Heat the butter in a pan until it melts and fry the broken nuts. 5. In a baking pan, grease with melted butter and add this banana mixture and sprinkle the nuts on top 6. In a oven, bake for 20 minutes at 200 degrees I apologize for not having taken a picture of the cake.. Merry X-Mas and Happy New Year!

This is a Gujarati dish and is a easy to make dish. I tried this at home, couple of weeks ago and it came out well. Ingredients: 1. Sooji (Ceroti or fine Sooji)- 1.5 cups 2. Channa dhal flour- 1.5 tbsp 3. Turmeric powder- 1/4 tbsp 4. Ginger & Green chillies- grated - 1 tbsp 5. Eno Fruit salt- 1.5 tbsp. This salt contains Sodium. So, dont try this dish frequently. 6. Yoghurt- 1.5 cups Mix sooji, channa dhal flour, turmeric, ginger and green chillies and yoghurt by hand and ensure that there are no lumps. Add oil in a pan and add turmeric, green chillies and curry leaves Add this sauted mixture and Eno salt, table salt and mix well. Add 2-3 tbsp of lemon juice and mix well. In a plate, grease with oil and pour this mixture and spread evenly In a heavy bottomed vessel, pour water and keep this plate inside and close with a lid and cook for 15-20 minutes. Let this cool. Invert this and cut into small cubes and serve with coriander chutney. If you take 1 cup of sooji, you will get more

This is a yummy side dish for Idli or Dosa. Among the lentils, moong dhal and urad dhal are very nutricious. Ingredients: 1. Urad dhal- 1 cup 2. Red chillies- 15 3. Asafoetida- 1 pinch 4. Jaggery- 1 tbsp How to make Idli Podi 1. In a pan, add 2 tbsp of oil and fry the urad dhal and red chillies, till urad dhal turns slight reddish. 2. Cool and grind this add asafoetida, jaggery and salt. Some people prefer to add Til (ellu) in this, but I dont.

1. If you are storing lentils/rice, add a bunch of curry leaves and 2-3 red chillies on top of the container. This will avoid insects 2. In the sugar bottle, if you add 1-2 cloves, ants wont hunt your sugar. 3. Pre-heating the tava and leaving for 3-5 mins, always helps while making dosas 4. Substitute lemon instead of tamarind wherever possible, while cooking. 5. Choose to saute the sambar/rasam in the end with Ghee. This will add to the taste. 6. Storing spices in the refrigerator, helps to save spices for a longer duration 7. If you are fighting dandruff, try mixing 1 cup of yoghurt with 2-3 tbsp of fenugreek powder. Apply it in your scalp, wait for 5 minutes and rinse. Repeating this step twice a week is a natural cure for dandruff. 8. When mixing idli dough from the grinder, use your hands. This will help in making the batter rise. 9.While grinding for idlies in the grinder, sprinkle water every now and then. This is actually the secret for soft idlies. 10.If the idli batter is 2-

This is how I make Naan at home. I dont use oven. 1. Use all purpose flour or maida, add salt, 1-2 tbsp of oil, 1/2 tbsp of yeast (dissolved in water) and mix well and make a dough. 2. Leave aside for 3 hours. Again, knead the dough and leave aside. The quantity of the dough will actually double in 3-4 hours. You can make Naan in the same way of chapathi, in a tawa in gas stove.

This is a tasty dish, based on Brinjal. You can use the thin, long violet color brinjals, or bigger brinjals. Ingredients: 1. Brinjal- 2 2. Onion- 1 finely chopped 3. Tomato- 1 finely chopped 4. Spices: Turmeric-1 tbsp, chili powder- 1tbsp, garam masala- 1 pinch 5. Oil & salt as needed 6. Cumin- 1 tbsp 7. Ginger- 1 tbsp (grated- optional). Procedure: 1.Apply oil in the outer surface of the brinjal 2.Show the brinjal in medium flame (all sides). Let this cool. 3.If you show it in the tap water, the skin will get peeled off automatically. 4.Cut the brinjal into smaller cubes. 5.In a pan, add oil,cumin, ginger, onions and tomatoes and the spices mentioned above and let this cook well. 6. Then add the brinjal and add 1/2 glass of water and close the lid. 7. Once the brinjal is cooked, add salt and simmer for 2 mins. Served with Roti/Naan

Ingredients: 1. Delhi Palak (Spinach) also known as Pasalai keerai- 1 bunch 2. Onion- 1 nicely chopped 3. tomato- 1 nicely chopped 4. Paneer- 10 (small cubes). 5. Cumin seeds- 1 tbsp, 6. Spices: Turmeric- 1/2 tbsp, chilli powder-1/2 tbsp, garam masala- 1 pinch 7. Green chillies- 1 or 2. Procedure: 1. Pluck the leaves of the delhi palak and wash it. 2. In a pan, add water, 1-2 green chillies (slit longitudinally), and 1 tbsp of jeera (cumin seeds) and let the water boil. 3.Once the water is boiling, add the washed spinach and let this cook for 5 minutes. 4. Cool this and grind. 5. In a pan, add 2-4 tbsp of oil, add chopped onions and tomatoes and fry well. 6. Add 1/2 tbsp of turmeric powder, 3/4 tbsp of red chilli powder, a pinch of garam masala. 7. Then, add the ground spinach and salt and let this cook for another 3 minutes. 8. Add lil ghee in a tava and shallow fry paneer in both sides and add to the cooking mixture (only to the end) This is a good tasty side dish for Chapathi &

This is a simple dish. But the S.Indian preparation varies a lot from N.India. Spinach- 1 bunch 1. Clean the spinach, removing the root, chop it finely and wash it in tap water. 2. Cook it adding 1-2 glasses of water. 3.Once the spinach is well cooked, you can grind it in the blender (optional). 4.Saute with Jeera and Curd chilli (More milagaai). Add salt and mix well. Tastes great with curd rice, or with vatha kozhambu...

This is a tasty dish, that everyone in my family loves!. One of my grandma used to welcome us, with this. :)- Ingredients: 1. Raw Rice (Parboiled)- 1 cup 2. Urad dhal- 1/2 cup 3. Channa dhal- 1/4 cup 4. Green chillies-2 5. Curry leaves- 1 small bunch 6. Salt as required 7. Oil to deep fry. Procedure: 1. Soak the raw rice, urad dhal and channa dhal for about 3-4 hours. 2. Grind them in a blender, adding green chillies and curry leaves. Sprinkle lil water if needed (this has to be in vada consistency). 3. Make pakodas with this batter. Deep fry in oil. Goes well with any spicy chutney. Yummy dish!

This is another famous dish in Tamilnadu, that can be eaten with Rice. 1. Fry one handful of Dhania, 1 handful of channa dhal and 4-5 red chillies, 1 handful of coconut in a dry pan. (until it turns hot). 2. Grind the above, adding lil water. 3. Boil, brinjal pieces (cut into small cubes), 1 handful of channa dhal, and tamarind juice (1 small lemon size), 1/2 tbsp of turmeric powder. 4. Once the vegetable is cooked, add the grounded mixture and add salt. 5. Saute with curry leaves and mustard seeds. You can serve this with Rice/Pongal.

This is a tasty snack and a good variation from the usual vada types. Ingredients: 1. White channa- 1 cup 2. Green chilli- 3 3. Chopped spring onions- 1 cup. 4. Chopped Cabbage- 1/4 cup, coriander leaves- 1 handful 5. Ginger- scrapped- 2 tbsp 6. Salt as required and Oil to deep fry. Procedure: 1. Soak White channa for 10 hours. 2. Grind the soaked channa, green chilli, salt. 3. Add the spring onions, cabbage, ginger and coriander leaves. 4. Mix well and make vadas. Deep fry in oil (both sides). You can serve this with tomato sauce or chutney.

This is a simple recipe. 1.Cut brinjals into smaller rectangles. 2.Add 1-2 tbsp of oil in a pan, add 1/2 tbsp of mustard seeds. 3.Once mustard seeds start splattering,add brinjal pieces, 1/2 tbsp of turmeric powder, 1 tbsp of red chilli powder. 4.Cook in low flame and add 3-4 tbsp of oil. Once the brinjal is cooked, add the required amount of salt. If you add water to brinjal the taste will not be very good.

This is a good tea time snack, but consumes oil and hence I would not recommend to make this frequently. Ingredients: 1. Channa dhal flour or besan- 1.5 cups 2. Rice flour- 1/2 cups 3. Chilli powder- 1 tbsp 4. Salt- as required 5. Ajwain- 1 tbsp (soak in water) Mix all the ingredients and make a dough (nearly resembling chapathi dough). Heat oil in a tava and start making oma podi. Once the bubble starts reducing, you can turn and cook in the other side. Store this in an airtight container.