Mushroom Pepper Fry

Do you love Mushrooms? You will love this and for sure thank me for giving this recipe :) I bet you will not take more than 5-7 mins to do this!

Ingredients:

Servings - 2
Mushroom - 1 pack [washed and cut into pieces of equal size]
Onion - 1 [Cut into big cubes]
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Lemon Juice - 1/2 tsp

This all you need to do:

Heat Oil in a pan, fry onion [Caution: do not over fry/do not let it turn into golden brown]. When the onions are transparent, Add Mushrooms and let it cook for a few minutes [not more than 2-3 minutes]. Add salt and pepper and let all the water from mushrooms evaporate. Garnish with lemon juice and serve :)

If at all any Oregano seasoning is left after your previous purchase at Dominos, Just cut open 1 pack and add the seasoning to this Mushroom, it will be yummmy!

 

Cabbage Parupu Usuli

Today, its altogether a different try - Authentic Paruppu Usuli :) I loved it and even got certified from my colleagues that it was nice :)

Ingredients:

Servings - 2
Toor Dhal - 1/2 cup
Channa Dhal - 1/2 cup
Red Chilli - 2 nos
Asafoetida - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Cabbage - 1/4 cup [Finely chopped]
Onion - 1 nos [Finely chopped]
Jeera - 1 tsp
Oil - 6 tsp

This is what you need to do:
Soak Toor dhal and channa dhal in water for 30 mins. Grind dhal, red chilli, asafoetida, salt and jeera into a dough [Caution: Please do not add water!]
Heat Oil in a pan. Fry Onion until it turns golden brown. Fry Cabbage until it is cooked. Add the dhal dough directly and keep breaking the clumps consistently. 
Fry and keep breaking the clumps of dhal until it becomes powdery and crisp. It will take atleast 15mins for ground dhal to become powdery.

And here you go, Authentic Cabbage Paruppu usuli is ready :)

Variants: Parupu usuli can be made with Cabbage, Carrot, beans and beetroot.

Mushroom Fried Rice

Ingredients:

Servings - 2
Mushroom - 1 cup [chopped or cut into 4 pieces]
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Onion - 1 [finely chopped]
Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Lemon Juice - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 4 tsp

This is all what you have to do:

Heat Oil in a cooker and fry onion for less than 2 mins. Add Mushrooms and cook until mushrooms start oozing out water. Add Ginger garlic paste, Salt to taste and Basmati Rice and fry for 2 mins. Add 1 cup of water and close the cooker and leave it for 2 whistles in low flame.

Turn off the cooker and Add pepper powder and lemon juice. Mix it well and garnish it with mint leaves :)

Delicious Mushroom Fried Rice is ready :) The image just looks shiny, I promise you I did not add more than 4 tsps of oil :P

Vegetable Vadai

Here you go, the most exotic vegetable vadai

Ingredients:

Any of the following vegetables - 1 cup [grated or chopped finely]
{Carrot, cabbage, beetroot, Vazhai poo, Vazhai thandu, Greens (any keerai), snake gourd)
Onion (Small onion/sambar onion preferably) - 1/4 cup [chopped finely]
Coriander - a few leaves
Toor Dhal - 1 cup
Channa Dhal - 1 cup
Red Chilli - 4
Jeera - 1 tsp
Aesafodita - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

This is what you need to do:
Soak Toor Dhal and Channa Dhal for at least 2 hours so that it becomes soft. Grind dhal, red chilli, Jeera, Aesafodita, salt to make a thick dough (Caution: do not make it into a fine paste).
Add the grated vegetables, onion and coriander to it and mix the dough well.

Heat oil in a pan. Shape vadas in your palm and deep fry them until it turns golden brown.

Crispy and crunchy vegetable vadai is ready!

Small Tip: the more watery the dough is, the more oil the vada consumes. If you want it to consume less of oil, make the dough without adding water to the extent possible. 

Tip 2: soak it in luke warm water if you are planning to soak it for a lesser time [Please soak it at least for 1-1.5 hours if you are using luke warm water]

Simple Cholestrol free Kootu

Here is another quick recipe :) without even a drop of oil :)

Ingredients:
Moong Dal (Green gram Dhal) - 4 tsp
Mochchai Kai / Bottle guard/ snake guard - 1 cup, cleaned and cut
Garlic - 2 pieces (unpeeled, smashed with the outer cover)
Cumin seeds (Jeeragam) - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 2-3 leaves (washed and chopped)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:
Boil Moong Dhal with salt and turmeric powder in a cooker for 10 mins and mash it. Add the vegetable that you choose and leave it for another 2-3 whistles in the cooker.

Open the cooker and add garlic, cumin seeds, curry leaves and leave it to boil for another 2-3 mins. Here you go! Your kootu without coconut and oil is done :)

Tomato Thokku

This is the easiest and the tastiest curry. One cool thing about this thokku is that it stays fresh for long and will never become non-consumable.

Ingredients:

Servings: 4
Tomato - 1 kg 
Sesame oil/Gingely Oil - 4 tbsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Aesafodita - 1/2 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash the tomatoes and grind them well into puree without adding water to it.
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds pops up, add Aesafodita to it. Exactly after 10 sec, add all the tomato puree to it. Mix it once and close the pan and leave it aside for atleast 15-20 mins.
After 15-20 mins is over, add chilli powder and salt to it. mix it well and leave it for another 5 mins.

By now, the quantity of puree that was added initially should have come to about 1/4 of it original volumes. You can turn off the stove once the oil starts separating out from the puree.

You can use this at least for 5-7 days, if it is left over :P

Spanish Rice (This is what my Mom named it :) )

Another simple Lunch box Recipe:

Ingredients:

Servings: 2
Capsicum - 1 [chopped into big cubes]
Onion - 1 [chopped into big cubes]
Olives - 8-10 pieces (Not mandatory)
To exactly describe how to cut onion and capsicum: Cut it as big as you would cut to make tikkas and BBQs!
Basmati Rice - 1 cup [cooked]
Salt - to taste
Oil - 3 tsp
Tomato ketchup - 3-5 tsp
Soya Sauce - 1 tsp

This is what you have to do:
Heat oil in a pan and add Onions to it. Fry it until it becomes glassy (do not let it turn brown). Add capsicum and cook for 2 minutes. Add olives and cook for 2 mins. Add Tomato ketchup, soya sauce and salt and leave it for 2 mins. Take it off the stove and add cooked rice to it.
You are done :)
Cheeky, crunchy and yummy Spanish rice is ready!

Tip: the lesser time you cook, the more crunchier onions are and better it tastes.

Crunchy Chicken - Oil free chicken :) Not a dream! Its real!

Have you ever dreamt of making chicken without Oil????
I do! I even make them :) All you need is a non-stick kadai or tava!
The specialty of chicken is that it has enough fat in itself to get cooked without oil, but we forget it most of the time!

Ingredients:

Servings: 2
Chicken (preferably chicken breast and boneless) - 600 gms [cut into small cubes]
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste - 2 tsp
Curd - 1/4 cup
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Powdered Oats - 4 tsp
Salt - to taste

This is all you need to do:
Clean the chicken and add turmeric powder, chilli powder, ginger garlic paste, lemon juice, curd and salt to it. Mix it well. Leave it aside for at least 20-30 mins.
After 30 mins, coat the pieces with powdered oats. Heat the pan/tava, take all the pieces and place them directly on the tawa without any oil. Leave it to cook [do not stir, once the chicken is cooked on one side, it automatically becomes non-sticky for you to turn it to the other side]. Turn it on the other side and cook and similarly cook on all sides.
You are done! :)

Yummy, delicious, crunchy, oil free chicken is ready!

Sprouty Oats - Oil free & carbs free cooking :)

I am pretty fond of Sprouts - Just that I cant eat it raw, I make sure I use it in some form or the other.
Sprouty oats has been my breakfast for the past 2-3 years and its a rich source of all nutrients and fortunately with no carbs and no Oil :)

Ingredients:

Servings : 2
Sprouts - 1/2 cup [refer to my previous blog on how to make sprouts]
Oats (non-flavored) - 1/2 cup
Carrot, Green peas, Cabbage, Capsicum - 1 cup [chopped] (not necessary that you need to have all this)
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Lemon Juice - to taste/ 1 spoon

This all you need to do:
Take a pan, add 2 cups of water (for 1/2 cup of oats) bring it to boil. Add sprouts and close the lid and leave it to cook (I prefer it a little crunchy so I cook it for 5 mins , in case you want it to turn soft, leave it for 8 minutes). Add all chopped vegetables and leave it to cook for 4 mins. Add oats, salt and pepper and cook for 3 minutes, keep stirring.
Turn off the stove and add lemon juice. Your porridge is good to go :)

Remember the order in which you add the ingredients, this is important here coz different ingredients needs different time to cook.

Oops! I am sure by now you would have discovered that I do not use to much of oil, chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, dhaniya masala, etc etc. May be you are right to a certain extent but I do use them at times :)

Garlic Rice

Garlic Rice
Adding to my Lunch Menu, here is one recipe which I call as "Lunch box of goodness :) "
Its very simple and wouldn't take more than 10 minutes!

Ingredients:

Servings: 2
Garlic - 1/2 cup [peeled]
Pepper - to taste
Salt - to taste
Rice - 1 cup [either Basmati or normal rice, well cooked]
Oil - 5 Tea spoons

This is what you need to do:
Heat oil in a pan and add garlic to it and cook until garlic becomes soft and good to taste [Warning: do not let it turn brown or roasted! Then the recipe is screwed]. Add required amount of salt and lots of pepper. Add cooked rice to it and take it off the stove and mix it well.
Add a little bit of lime juice to taste.

And you are done with awesome garlic rice. Garlic is very essential for a good digestive system to function and pepper for all its goodness and greatness to cure cold.
This recipe is one which I resort to when I am stuck with cold-with lots of pepper :)

Sprouts Pulao

Sprouts Pulao

I know the word "sprouts" is not what everybody would love to hear! But after you try this, you will love sprouts too :) (Atleast I have started liking it )

Lets start with how to make sprouts without creating a mess:

You can make sprouts with many varieties of grams. I prefer to go with Green gram and horse gram as these help a lot in reducing your tummy :) Rich in Protein too!

Take as much gram as you want and soak it in water the previous night. Morning filter out the water and put it in an air-tight container and keep it aside throughout the day and if required even the night!
Here you go, your bowl of sprouts is all set ready!

Ingredients for sprouts pulao:

Servings: 2
Onion - 1 [finely chopped]
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Carrot - 1 medium sized [chopped like cubes]
Potato - 1 small sized [chopped like cubes]
Capsicum - 1/2 [chopped]
Sprouts - 1 cup
Cabbage - 4 leaves [chopped]
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 Tea spoons
Salt to taste
Basmati Rice - 1 cup [wash it and soak it for atleast 15 minutes]
Oil -4 Tea spoon
Green chilli - 1 [chopped or paste]
Mint - 4-5 leaves

This is what you need to do:
Heat oil in a cooker and fry onions until it turns brownish. Add all other vegetables and sprouts and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add 2 spoons of Ginger garlic paste and 2-3 mint leaves. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add soaked Basmati Rice and salt to taste.
Add 1 cup of water [my basmati rice requires water in 1:1 ratio] and pressure cook. I usually leave it for 2-3 whistles and turn it off!

Goes good with Raithas and curries :)

Non-spicy and delicious Sprouts Pulao is all set ready to eat :)

My First Recipe - Gooseberry Juice

Welcome to My Kitchen - My Lab :)

This space is exclusively for people like me who are office-goers and find very little time to take care of their health.

My profile:
For the past 4 years:
I work, I work and I work sitting at the same place - I eat junk 3 times a day and proportionately my tummy grows, grows and keeps growing.

Now:
Though the first part of the above sentence remains the same, I have resorted to eating whatever I make and no more junk and believe me this is a great step towards tummy reduction :D It works!

This has actually helped me find my hidden talent of cooking and trying new recipes :)

Here you go! I will post my recipes here and hope it helps you guys too!

My First Recipe:
Gooseberry Juice:

Ingredients:
Gooseberry (big) - 2 to 3 [Cut it into pieces and remove the seed within]
Salt - to taste
Pepper - to taste
Mint - 2 to 3 leaves

This is what you need to do:
Take your mixie jar, add all the above ingredients and grind it. Add sufficient amount of water and keep grinding it for a few seconds.
Use a strainer and strain it to have only have the juice!

Taste the pureness of fresh gooseberry! Gooseberries purifies your blood and its a great cure for diabetics too! Rich in Vitamin A :)

I can hear your inner voice saying "are you serious that you want to continue blogging?? your recipes are dumb :P " But believe me I do a lot of such new experiments and it has worked :)