Varagu arisi Masala Kichdi (Kodo Millet Kichdi)

 This is a super comforting easy meal that is so light on the stomach and easy to digest. Millet are super grains that are gaining so much popularity in the recent years for their various nutritional benefits. I find them difficult to substitute to our traditional rice.However, there are other ways by which we can cook Millet so that they taste delicious yet remain healthy. There are numerous dishes we can make with various millet. Here, I have shared the recipe for Dal Kichdi using Kodo Millet or Varagu arisi.

This tastes just like a normal dal kichdi that is made using our normal white rice but here, we are replacing it with millet and vegetables for additional goodness. This is a one pot one one shot (OPOS) method which is easy and healthy.

serves: 2-3

Ingredients

1. Kodo Millet - 3/4 cup
2. Toor Dal - 1/4 cup
3. Water - 3.5 cups
4. Green chili - 1 big slit
5. Ghee - 1 tbsp
6. Cumin - 1 tsp
7. Bay Leaf - 1
8. Garam Masala powder - 1/2 tsp
9. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
11. Ginger garlic Paste - 1.5 tsp
12. Coriander leaves - fistful chopped
13. Needed salt

Vegetables ( Anything of your choice - chopped as shown in the pic)

• Cauliflower florets - 5
• Carrot - 1 small
• Capsicum - half
• Baby corn - 3
• Tomatoes - 3
• Onion - 1 Big

                  

Chopped Veggies

Kodo Millet

Method

1. In a cooker, add ghee, bay leaf and cumin. Once the cumin crackles, add green chili and onions. Saute until onions are translucent in a low medium flame.

2. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for another 2 mins.

Onion has become translucent

3. Soak the cauliflower in a hot salted water for 10 mins. Wash them and drain them completely for getting rid of worms.

4. Add Toor dal and saute for a minute. Add all other veggies and needed salt and saute nicely.

Dal and veggies getting sauteed

                     

5. Wash the kodo millet nicely to get off the bitter taste. Drain them and add it to the cooker pan.

 

6. Add needed water and give everything a nice stir. Close the cooker and pressure cook for 4 whistles on a medium flame.

  

Add water to pressure cook

7. Switch off the cooker after 4 whistles, once the pressure settles, open the cooker.

8. Give it a nice stir, add some water based on the consistency required and adjust salt.

9. Add the garam masala and give it a good stir. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve piping hot with Papad and some aloo curry. It tastes yummmmm.

Cooked Kodo Millet Kichdi

Beetroot Almond Chapati

It is very difficult to make toddlers eat vegetables that are healthy. I always trick my son into eating healthy vegetables by making it as a puree in chapati. He loves coloured chapatis very much and finds it very interesting. He fondly calls this "Red" Chapati. This is healthy and colourful all at the same time and we parents can happily make it without any guilt. Kids find it very attractive and colourful and hence finish it in no time.

Recently I had come across few online products where they market readymade multigrains wheat flour for toddlers at sky rocketing price. Why buy it at such high price when making this at home is very easy and cost effective. Nothing like making healthy and yummy food for your kid all by yourself.

This contains goodness of beetroot and almond. Vegetable pureed chapatis are generally very soft and hence, kids enjoy it very much.

My son loves this recipe and I will share this fool proof recipe. I have used Aashirvaad Whole Wheat Atta and find it really good. The chapatis turn out very soft and fluffy. I have used kashmiri red chili powder as they aren't very spicy. This gives nice colour to the chapati without adding spice.

Serves: 14-15 chapatis

Ingredients

1. Whole Wheat Flour - 1.5 cups
2. Almond Flour (Blanched/Unblanched) - 1/2 cup
3. Beetroot - 1 small or 1/2 of large
4. Kashmiri Red Chili Powder - 2 tsp
5. Cumin Powder - 2 tsp
6. Salt - 2 tsp
7. Needed water for kneading the dough
8. Oil - 2 tsp for coating the dough
9. Ghee for final garnish

Method

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together - Flour, salt,cumin and red chili powder well.

2. Peel the beetroot, slice it and pressure cook for 3 whistles with 1 cup of water. After the beetroot cools down, puree the beetroot. Reserve the cooked water for kneading if required. You can even drink it as it is very healthy.

                                      

3. Add the puree to the dough and knead well. Add water depending on the consistency. It should be a smooth pliable dough. Knead well for solid 5 mins. Coat the dough with 2 tsp of oil and cover it with moist cloth.

                                    

4. After 30 mins, roll them into round chapatis and toss it on tawa.

5. You can either directly cook on tawa using ghee or try the phulka method as shown here.

6. Soft Beetroot Almond Chapati is ready. I roll it with honey and give it to my son. He loves having it that way. Elders can have it with any accompaniment of your choice and it tastes great with just a plain curd :)

Organic Homemade Rose Syrup

This is a very special experimentation for me. My maiden attempt to create an Organic Rose syrup using fresh Paneer Roses. Everybody loves Rose Milk right!!! who doesn't. I had recently made Rose Milk flavoured Coconut Ladoo (Recipe soon to be posted) for fireless cooking competition at my office. The Rose Milk essence that was store bought was made in a Chemical Laboratory and tasted pungent and horrible. That is when I understood how harmful these artificial colouring and essence are. The store bought rose milk essence are nothing but just sugar syrup mixed with rose essence and food colour.

Rose syrup made out of real roses has so many health benefits and when you can make something so organic easily at home, why at all store bought?

This Rose Syrup is completely natural and organic made with unrefined brown sugar (sweetness) and beetroot for the colour. This can be stored for about months in an airtight container in a refrigerator and used in milk, as essence in cakes and juices, in sweets, payasam etc.

Following are the Health Benefits of Organic Rose Syrup

1. Act as a great coolant in cooling the body heat.
2. It's anti-inflammatory properties keep problems like bloating and acidity at bay.
3. Loaded with antioxidants, delays aging, natural glowing and healthy skin,
4. Calms the mind and reduces mood swings.
5. Great Immunity Booster and a healthy/refreshing summer drink.
6. Highly kids friendly and kids love rose flavour.

Let's jump to the recipe

Ingredients

1. Rose Petals - 1 cup tightly packed (about 13 roses)
2. Unrefined Brown Sugar - 1 cup
3. Water - 1/2 cup
4. Grated Beetroot - 1/4 cup

Method

Fresh Paneer Rose

1. Remove the petals from the roses and soak the petals in a container full of water.

Wash the petals thoroughly for insects and pesticides

2. Wash the petals thoroughly to get rid of insects and pesticides.

3. Strain the petals well and allow them to dry for half hour.

Drain the water

4. Take a pan and add brown sugar. Add grated beetroot, rose petals and water.

Unrefined Brown Sugar

Grated Beetroot for color

5. Cover the pan and allow it to simmer on low flame for 10 mins with occasional stirring. This helps in removing the raw flavour of beetroot and allow the rose petals to release its essence and flavour.

                                         Roses ready to get boiled

6. After simmering for 10 mins, you will notice the syrup has turned thick and the petals have shrunk well losing all its color. Check for the consistency.

                                           Rose Syrup getting cooked

7. Strain the syrup nicely using a fine mesh.

                                                    Strain the Syrup well

8. Transfer to a clean airtight glass container and refrigerate it. Use it whenever needed for all your sweet delicacies.

Lehsuni Green Moong Tadka

Another healthy and protein packed side dish that goes well with both rice and Rotis. This is very simple and easy to make at one shot in a cooker. I prepare this quite often when am bored with the traditional yellow toor dhal. This also appeases your hunger and makes u feel full for long time. This in turn helps you from over eating and restricting you to eat healthy and in correct quantity.

This is a tadka dish, where spicy garlic and red chili sauteed in Ghee is tempered for the final presentation and taste. You can skip this step if in case you want a less spicy dish in order to make it kids friendly.

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1. Whole Green Gram - 3/4 cup
2. Water - 1.5 cups
3. Tomatoes - 2 (chopped)
4. Onions - 1 big (chopped)
5. Cumin - 1 tsp
6. Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
7. Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
8. Coriander powder - 3/4 tsp
9. Jeera - 1 tsp
10. Oil - 2 tsp
11. Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
12. Crushed Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp
13. Needed Salt

Tadka Tempering

1. Ghee - 1 tbsp
2. Red Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp
3. Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
4. Garlic Pods - 6 (chopped as shown in pic)
5. Red Chili - 2

Method

1. Soak Green gram in water for minimum of 4 hours. After soaking, drain the water.

2. Take a pressure pan, add oil and cumin. Once the cumin splutters, add onion and saute well until onion turns transparent.

3. Now add tomatoes and give it a nice mix until it gets mushy. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for a min.

4. Add the soaked and drained green gram, water, salt and all the powders.

5. Pressure cook the contents for 4 whistles on a low medium flame and then switch off .

6. Open the pressure cooker, add crushed kasuri methi and give a nice mix to the well cooked green gram.

7. In a frying pan, heat ghee.Add some chili powder and garam masala.Add chopped garlic, red chili and fry until garlic turns light golden brown.

8. Now add the tadka tempering to the the cooked dal.

9. Serve hot with chapati or Steamed Rice, Pulao anything of your choice.

Vegetable Moong Dal Fry

One of the easiest and healthiest side dish that can be made in a jiffy. This can also be given to kids if you reduce the amount of spice being added as this is full of proteins.

You can have this for both rice as well as Roti/Chapati and Naan. This is OPOS - One pot one shot cooking and hence it is really easy and convenient for me to make this after I return from office. This has goodness of all vegetables as well:) I often make this at home when I am in loss of time or feel extremely bored.

Let's quickly jump into the recipe.

                               

Serves: 4 - 5

Ingredients

1. Moong Dal - 1.5 cups
2. Water - 3 cups
3. Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
4. Green Chili - 1
5. Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
6. Garam Masala - 1 tsp
7. Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
8. Red Chili Powder - 1 tsp
9. Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp
10. Ghee/Oil - 1 tbsp
11. Bay Leaf - 1
12. Kasuri Methi - 1 tsp
13. Coriander leaves for garnishing

Vegetables - Anything of your choice

• Cauliflower florets - 5
• Carrot - 1 (chopped)
• Capsicum - 1/2 (Chopped)
• Baby corn - 4 (round)
• Tomato - 2 Big (chopped)
• Onion - 1 Big

Method

1. Take a cooker, add ghee and jeera. Once the cumin seeds splutter, add onions, chili and Bay leaf. Saute well until onions turns translucent.

                               

2. Add ginger garlic paste and saute for about a min.

3. Add all other veggies along with all the "powders".

                               

4. Add moong dal and water along with salt.

                                   

5. Stir the contents well and pressure cook for about 4 whistles.

6. Let the pressure settle on its own. Open the cooker. Add some crushed kasuri methi leaves.

7. Give a Nice mix. If required, adjust water and salt according to the consistency needed.

                               

8. Serve hot garnished with coriander and tasty Veg Dal Fry is ready in a jiffy. :)

Homemade Granola using Jaggery

When it comes to toddler snacks, we always want to go in for a healthy option that are delectable for kids as well. Granola- is one such ideal healthy snacking option not just for kids, but adults as well.
Though not an Indian snack, it is off late gaining lot of popularity here for its healthy and nutritious contents.

This is a no bake recipe that can be so easily made on a stove top. This makes a great travel friendly snacking option for kids. My son loves this as he finds it crispy, crunchy and sweet :):)

You can make N number of combinations and varieties of Granola using the below key ingredients.

Preparation of Granola involves 5 Key ingredients

1. Whole grains - Rice crisps, Whole Wheat grains, Rolled Oats, Corn Flakes
2. Nuts - Walnut, Almonds, Pecan, Hazelnuts,Cashew Nuts
3. Seeds - Sesame, Pumpkin, Melon, Flaxseeds, Chia Seeds
4. Dry Fruits - Dried Cranberries, Blueberries, Raisins, chopped dates, dried apricots, dried strawberries
5. Natural Sweeteners - Dates Syrup, Raw Honey, Maple Syrup,Cane Sugar, Brown unrefined sugar, unsweetened chocolate syrup

You can make this as a Trail mix or as bars. I have chose to make them as a crispy crunch mix. Let's jump to the preparation. :)

Serves: 2 Cups

Ingredients

Whole Grains

• Rolled Oats - 1 cup

Seeds

• Melon Seeds - 2 tbsp
• Pumpkin Seeds - 2 tbsp

Seeds - Melon and Pumpkin Seeds

Nuts

• Cashew Nuts - 2 tbsp
• Walnuts - 2 tbsp

Nuts - Walnuts and Cashew Nuts

Dry Fruits

• Raisins - 2 tbsp
• Cranberries - 2 tbsp

Dry Fruits - Raisins and Cranberries

 

Sweeteners

• Honey - 2 tbsp
• Powdered Jaggery - 1/4 cup

Flavoring Ingredients

• Vanilla Essence - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon Powder - 1/2 tsp

Nuts,Seeds and Dry Fruits

Method

1. Dry Roast the seeds and nuts separately in a thick bottomed pan until they emit nice flavour. Keep it aside after roasting.

2. Dry Roast the oats in a thick bottomed pan on a low-medium flame until you start getting nice aroma of oats and keep it aside separately.

3. In the pan, add powdered jaggery, cinnamon powder and 2 tbsp of water to melt the jaggery. Ensure you melt it on full low flame.

4. Once the jaggery has melted, add all the dry roasted ingredients along with dry fruits and give it a nice mix.

5. To above, add Honey and vanilla essence and give it a nice stirring on low-medium flame so that all the ingredients are crunchy and crispy.

6. Remove the contents from the pan and transfer it to a large bowl.

7. Use both your hands to separate the contents from sticking to each other. Initially, it would be sticking to each other due to jaggery. However, as you keep repeating this process of separating them using your hands by breaking the lumps, it is easier for you to make crispy crunch Trail Mix.


Please note : Do it as soon as you remove the contents from pan. If you delay, it would be a little hard to break the lumps without breaking it.


8. Store it in an airtight container and it stays fresh for long :) Enjoy this delicious snacking.

Sprouted Green Moong and Vegetable salad

A healthy, protein rich nutritious salad that has all the flavours balanced perfectly. This can make a great evening snack or a satisfying breakfast. My mother often makes this and pack it for my lunch. Just love the way she prepares this. 

This also has goodness of all raw vegetables thereby increasing the fiber content. A delectable tasty salad that is absolutely sin free and satiates your hunger instantly keeping you full for long time. I have described in details about how to sprout green gram here. This is an ideal salad for weight loss and people who are trying to build muscles.

Serves:4 small bowls

Ingredients

1. Sprouted green gram-2 cups
2. Onions - 1 medium sized
3. Banglore Tomatoes - 1 big/medium sized
4. Carrot- 1 small/medium sized
5. Capsicum - 1/4 cup (chopped)
6. Cucumber - 1/2 cup (chopped)
7. Baby corn - 4 (sliced round round)
8. Green Chili - 1 finely chopped (optional)
9. Pomegranate pearls - 3 tbsp
10. Red chili powder-1/4 tsp
11. Chat Masala Powder - 1 tsp
12. Cumin powder - 3/4 tsp
13. Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
14. Salt as needed
15. Black salt as needed
16. Coriander for garnishing

                                 

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients mentioned under ingredient list in a mixing bowl,

2. Garnish with some fresh coriander leaves and serve fresh.

Kabuli Channa Salad (Black Channa Salad)

Black channa is definitely a healthy option when compared to white channa due to presence of high fiber in it. Presence of high fibre helps you keep satiated for long hours. Also, helps in bowel movement and indirectly in weight reduction. Low in carb, absolutely vegan,no fat and high protein and fibre makes this an ideal snack for weight loss. A complete sin-free and tasty indulgence.

Serves:2

Ingredients

1. Uncooked Black chana/chickpeas - 1 cup
2. Onions - 1 small/medium sized
3. Banglore Tomatoes - 1 big/medium sized
4. Carrot- 1/4 cup chopped
5. Capsicum - 1/4 cup (chopped)
6. Cucumber - 1/4 cup (chopped)
7. Raw mango - 1/4 cup (chopped)
8. Red chili powder-1/2 tsp
9. Chat Masala Powder - 1 tsp
10. Cumin powder - 3/4 tsp
11. Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
12. Crushed Mint leaves - few
13. Salt as needed
14. Black salt as needed

Method

1. Soak the channa overnight for about 8-9 hours.

2. Pressure cook channa with 2 tsp salt and enough water for 7 whistles.

3. Drain the cooked chickpeas/channa.

4. Mix all the ingredients mentioned along with black channa. Crushed pudhina leaves add nice aroma and flavour to this salad.

5. Enjoy snacking this healthy salad.

Dal Methi Soup - Vendhayakeerai Soup

This is a very healthy and nutritious soup that can be given to lactating mothers and toddlers as well. Fenugreek leaves are known to boost milk production for breastfeeding mothers. This is absolutely kids friendly. I gave this to my son and he simply loved this soup.

Due to the inherent bitter taste that it posses, it is highly good for Diabetic patients. It also lowers cholesterol, increases blood circulation thereby giving a good skin. The advantages are numerous and goes on...:)

Methi/Fenugreek leaves can be used in different forms like for paratha, gravy, Pulao etc. I will soon post more recipes on Methi/Fenugreek.

Ingredients

Serves:3 bowls

Ingredients

1. Fenugreek leaves - 1 cup tightly packed
2. Butter/Oil/Ghee - 1 tbsp
3. Yellow Moong Dal - 3 tbsp
4. Tomato- 1 Big (chopped)
5. Onion - 1 medium size (chopped)
6. Garlic Pods - 3
7. Pepper powder - 1 tsp
8. Salt as per taste

Method

1. Rinse the fenugreek leaves well and strain them.

2. Heat some oil in a pressure pan, add onions and garlic and saute well until it becomes transparent.

3. Add fenugreek leaves, moong dal and tomatoes and saute for about 2 mins on low flame.

4. Add 2 cups of water and pressure cook for 3 whistles.

5. Let the pressure release, allow the contents to cool down and then grind the contents in a mixer. Adjust adding water depending on the consistency required.

6. Heat the ground mixture in a pan with needed salt and pepper.

7. Dal Methi Soup is ready to be consumed hot.

Sauteing

Pressure cook

Notes,Tips & Add-On's

1. I have not ground the the contents in a mixer. Instead, I have just smashed the contents after pressure cook and added water to adjust the consistency.

2. If you are giving it for kids,  grind the contents in a mixer and then give.