Red lentil soup

Ingredients:

• 1.5C red lentils
• 4 C water
• 1 tsp Ghee
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 2 green chillies slit length wise
• 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 pinches pepper powder

Directions:

• In a cooker add the above ingredients and cook for 3-4 whistles [15-20 min], then turn off and let it sit aside for a few minutes until all the steam is gone.
• Then add 1/2 tsp jeera powder, 2 tsp sea salt, 2 pinches cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp Mediterranean oregano. add more water if needed.
  
• add 3-4 different veggies - 1/2 C frozen spinach, 1 C green peas, 2 tomatoes chopped, 1/4 C dulse chopped, a small bunch of cilantro. [the veggies get cooked in its own heat]
  

Tomato Moong Dal

Cook time - 30-40 min

Ingredients:

• Oil
• Moong Dal 1C
  
• Onion 1/2 big chucks
  
• Curry leaves 8-9
  
• green Chillies 2 Slit
  
• Tomato 2m chopped
  
• Mustard Seeds 1/2 tsp
  
• Jeera Seeds 1/2 tsp
  
• Ginger Garlic Paste 1/2 tsp
  
• turmeric 1/4 tsp
  
• Salt 2 tsp
  

Steps:

• Kadai + heat oil + Mustard, Jeera + Onion, curry leaves, green chillies + cook for 5 min + turmeric & Ginger Garlic paste.
• Add the tomatoes + 5-6 min + moong Dal + cook for 20 min till the daal turns soft
  

Sorakaya Koora

Cook time - 40 min


Ingredients:

• Oil - 1 Tbs
  
• Sorakaya 1 - Peeled & Chopped
• Red Onion 1C - Diced
• Karepaku - 6-7 big leaves
• Green Chillies - 2 big slit length wise
• Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
• Jeera Seeds - 1 tsp
• Turmeric - lil over 1/4 tsp
• Ginger Garlic Paste - 3/4 tsp
• Sea Salt - 2 tsp
• Cilantro to garnish

Steps:

• In a frying pan add Oil + 5 min + Mustard & Jeera + 2 min + Green chillies & Karepaku + 1 min + Onion + saute the onion for 5 min + Ginger Garlic paste, turmeric + saute for another 5-7 min till onions turn soft
• Now add the Sorakaya pieces & Sea salt, mix it and cook with lid on for 20 min on heat # 5-6. mix it every 5 min
• Once the pieces turn soft and translucent then turn off the heat and garnish with fresh Cilantro.

Tips [N]:
you can cut the Sorakaya pieces while Sauteing the onions.

Cooking TIPS

Cooking with Methi:
Add big pinch salt + big pinch sugar and a cup of water to the methi leaves and let it rest for a few mts. Squeeze out the water from methi and keep aside.

I guess the chopped onions should also be sauteed together with the grated ginger and other spices, before adding chopped tomatoes. As soon as I saw this in the feed I wanted to try it because, I was going to prepare rotis and cook a side dish with methi anways. For reducing the bitterness of the methi, my mother in law sautees the methi in ghee until it wilts. Sprinkling sugar and salt is a new technic, will try that too today.

also methi and only salt will also take the bitterness off

Zucchini

dishes:

Zucchini Galore:

Adopted from the original dish in allrecipes:

Ingredients:
1/2 Zucchini [cut into 2 longs and then sliced to half moons]
1/2 Squash [cut same as above]
1 S Roma tomato [chopped]
1/2C or 1/2 onion sliced
1 Tbs Olive oil
1/4 tsp Garlic powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
Pepper



Other Zucchini dishes to try from all recipes:
Steamed Zucchini
Lemon pepper Zucchini
Zucchini relish
Elegant Zucchini tomato

Tips:

• Don't over cook zucchini, else they will become soggy.
• The best texture is when its slightly getting soft but still holds a small amount of crunch
• Same this for Squash and other soft vegetables as well.
  

Channa Masala

I made this recipe:
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Channa-Masala-17471

and it turned out good, I used 2.5 C of soaked Channa
and used the ingredients in the above list for 3c channa
will need to work on the quanity of ingredients though to get the right flavour

I also liked vareva and Manjula's channa Masala in You tube will try it another time.

tried vareva's recipe for Rajma it came out awesome. 5***
This is definitely a keeper.

Asparagus with Tomato

I tried this recipe from allrecipes.com and its a simple quick to prepare dish.

Link

Ingredients

• 1 pound thin asparagus spears, trimmed and cut in half
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 large tomato, seeded and chopped (N - Diced small)
  
• 1 pinch salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place the asparagus in a large skillet and fill with about 1 inch of water. Cover the pan and set over high heat. When the water comes to a boil, cook for 2 minutes or until the asparagus is bright green and almost tender.
2. In a separate skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the garlic; cook and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomato to the skillet and cook for about 5-6 minutes until they soften. Season with salt, pepper and chilli powder. Add asparagus to the pan and cook for about 3-5 min minutes, until hot.

Nimi -
Step 1:

• Boil water in a pan and add the hard ends of the asparagus first for 2 min then the rest of the asparagus for another 5 minutes. Then drain the water and refill with cold water to stop the cooking