A Vegetarian Mediterranean Brunch menu

So I was up early this morning (if you consider 6.15 am early for a Sunday morning). I was going to have some relatives over and I had no clue what to cook, except for the fresh vegetables and ingredients I had for inspiration. Since 'what to cook' and 'how to plan the menu' is pretty much the biggest problem for most cooking enthusiasts, I've decided I'll share my menus whenever I end up cooking something fun like today.

I shopped for some of the ingredients at Total Mall (Sarjapur) picking up some interesting stuff from the Pesticide Free section. The baby carrots and baby bell peppers in bags were pretty much the inspiration for this menu. Then I decided to add a simple pasta dish to the menu. The unbelievable heat at this time of the year was the inspiration for the juicy watermelon-grape-feta salad. And because I have a no-fail Focaccia recipe that I often fall upon, and I had some extra time on hand and I knew the oven would be running for the other dishes anyway, I added that to the list. The dessert was an after thought, but there's a divine eggless chocolate dessert on Aparna's blog that doesn't involve much effort or ingredients, but is sure to be a win. I tried it for the first time today and it sure wont be my last. I wish I had taken pictures of them all, but apart from a couple of pics during prep, I don't have any to share.

Menu

Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Watermelon-Grape-Feta salad

Baby bell peppers stuffed with herb garlic millets

Roasted baby carrots with shallots

Penne in Marinara sauce with hidden veg

Chocolate Creme pots for dessert

Rosemary Onion Focaccia 
Adapted from this Bon Appetit recipe, I skip the chilling overnight step.

Watermelon-Grape-Feta salad with fresh basil
Follow my recipe, but add sweet red grapes and use basil instead of mint

Baby bell peppers stuffed with Herb & Garlic Millets (can be made vegan)
Cut out the tops and scoop out seeds and membranes from bell peppers. Cook millets as per this recipe. Saute finely chopped garlic, onion, carrots, sprouted moong in olive oil. Add plenty of fresh basil and the cooked millets. Season with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and dried basil. Stuff the bell pepper halfway with prepared millets. Add a chunk of mozzarella cheese for a surprise and fill it with millets till the top. Cover with the cut out bell pepper tops which will serve as a lid. Brush with oil and bake at 200C for 20 mins. This recipe is vegan if you omit the cheese.

Roasted baby carrots and shallots (vegan)
Follow this recipe  adding shallots along with the carrots. Toss with olive oil infused with sea salt, fresh or dried rosemary and black pepper. Bake at 200C for 20 minutes. These carrots were really small so didn't need longer baking time.

Penne in hidden veg marinara sauce (vegan)
Adapted from this video 

Chocolate Creme Pots (eggfree, vegetarian)
Eggless dessert from Aparna's blog

A Vegetarian Mediterranean Brunch menu

Posted by admin

So I was up early this morning (if you consider 6.15 am early for a Sunday morning). I was going to have some relatives over and I had no clue what to cook, except for the fresh vegetables and ingredients I had for inspiration. Since 'what to cook' and 'how to plan the menu' is pretty much the biggest problem for most cooking enthusiasts, I've decided I'll share my menus whenever I end up cooking something fun like today.

I shopped for some of the ingredients at Total Mall (Sarjapur) picking up some interesting stuff from the Pesticide Free section. The baby carrots and baby bell peppers in bags were pretty much the inspiration for this menu. Then I decided to add a simple pasta dish to the menu. The unbelievable heat at this time of the year was the inspiration for the juicy watermelon-grape-feta salad. And because I have a no-fail Focaccia recipe that I often fall upon, and I had some extra time on hand and I knew the oven would be running for the other dishes anyway, I added that to the list. The dessert was an after thought, but there's a divine eggless chocolate dessert on Aparna's blog that doesn't involve much effort or ingredients, but is sure to be a win. I tried it for the first time today and it sure wont be my last. I wish I had taken pictures of them all, but apart from a couple of pics during prep, I don't have any to share.

Menu

Rosemary Onion Focaccia

Watermelon-Grape-Feta salad

Baby bell peppers stuffed with herb garlic millets

Roasted baby carrots with shallots

Penne in Marinara sauce with hidden veg

Chocolate Creme pots for dessert

Rosemary Onion Focaccia 
Adapted from this Bon Appetit recipe, I skip the chilling overnight step.

Watermelon-Grape-Feta salad with fresh basil
Follow my recipe, but add sweet red grapes and use basil instead of mint

Baby bell peppers stuffed with Herb & Garlic Millets (can be made vegan)
Cut out the tops and scoop out seeds and membranes from bell peppers. Cook millets as per this recipe. Saute finely chopped garlic, onion, carrots, sprouted moong in olive oil. Add plenty of fresh basil and the cooked millets. Season with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and dried basil. Stuff the bell pepper halfway with prepared millets. Add a chunk of mozzarella cheese for a surprise and fill it with millets till the top. Cover with the cut out bell pepper tops which will serve as a lid. Brush with oil and bake at 200C for 20 mins. This recipe is vegan if you omit the cheese.

Roasted baby carrots and shallots (vegan)
Follow this recipe  adding shallots along with the carrots. Toss with olive oil infused with sea salt, fresh or dried rosemary and black pepper. Bake at 200C for 20 minutes. These carrots were really small so didn't need longer baking time.

Penne in hidden veg marinara sauce (vegan)
Adapted from this video 

Chocolate Creme Pots (eggfree, vegetarian)
Eggless dessert from Aparna's blog

Foxtail Millet Salad - An old grain in a new avatar

Foxtail Millet

Recently, Hindu carried a story on Foxtail Millet on how it used to be the staple of people in rural Andhra and how it was put away when people were supplied with subsidized rice. It has a very short crop cycle of 60-90 days and it can be grown in any season. The article states the re-emergence of this forgotten grain as a diabetic-friendly food, high in fibre, protein and low in glycemic index (causes steady increase in blood sugar post consumption as compared to rice). 

In India: Tinai, chamai, kavalai, kambankorai are some of the names for millet in Tamil. Nuvanam is millet flour. The gruel made from millet, the staple of Ancient Tamils, is called kali, moddak kali, kuul, and sangati. Korralu (Telugu), Navane (Kannada) [Source: Wikipedia]

It cooks as easily as rice in the pressure cooker or using the boiling method. It can be easily eaten with all the side dishes that you would eat with rice - eg. sambar, rasam, curds, dal etc. You can even make pulao, khichdi, pongal, upma and other such dishes with this. If you cook it carefully, each grain stays separate after cooking, and it goes beautifully into salads, adding a lot of body and fibre to your salads. I've read that you can soak and sprout them similar to 'ragi' and powder the sprouted millets for making gruel like weaning foods for babies. The fact that it's naturally gluten free is a boon to people with gluten intolerance. 

Other health benefits of foxtail millet include reducing bad cholesterol and high antioxidant levels. 

This is my first time cooking with this grain and I'm extremely happy with the ease of cooking, texture and taste. It comes close to couscous in texture, only more easily available, much cheaper and locally grown. You can easily precook and refrigerate this so you can add it to soups, salads, burgers, muffins, pancakes - the list is quite endless.

Foxtail Millet Salad 
Time taken: Under 30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1/2 cup raw Foxtail Millet, soaked for 2 hours in water
1 tsp rice bran oil (or any other cooking oil)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup finely diced green bell pepper
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cups of any lettuce, washed, dried and cut into bite sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, grated
2-3 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 medium potato, boiled, peeled, diced
4 strawberries, diced (optional)
1/2 tsp dried mint
Juice of 2 small lemons or 1 big (3-4 tbsp of juice)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or cold pressed coconut oil, if you like the flavour)
Salt to taste

Directions

1. How to cook foxtail millet: Pressure cook the drained millet with 1 cup water, 1 tsp cooking oil and 1/2 tsp salt for two whistles. Turn off the flame. Remove once cooker is cooled and spread on a plate to cool.
2. In a large bowl, assemble the bell peppers, onion, lettuce, garlic, coriander leaves, potato, strawberries. 
3. Crush the dried mint between finger tips and sprinkle around the bowl. 
4. Add as much freshly ground black pepper as you like. Add the lemon juice, olive oil and the cooled millets. 
5. Toss well, and add up to 1/2 tsp of salt (or as per taste) and gently get all the seasoning into the salad with a couple of forks.
6. Serve chilled or at room temperature. 

You can find Foxtail Millet at stores like Namdhari's in Bangalore. I buy it from Towness- our produce and grocery supplier. I'm assuming in other cities, you would get it at the traditional grain merchants, organic stores or health stores over regular supermarkets. 

Foxtail Millet Salad - An old grain in a new avatar

Posted by admin

Foxtail Millet

Recently, Hindu carried a story on Foxtail Millet on how it used to be the staple of people in rural Andhra and how it was put away when people were supplied with subsidized rice. It has a very short crop cycle of 60-90 days and it can be grown in any season. The article states the re-emergence of this forgotten grain as a diabetic-friendly food, high in fibre, protein and low in glycemic index (causes steady increase in blood sugar post consumption as compared to rice). 

In India: Tinai, chamai, kavalai, kambankorai are some of the names for millet in Tamil. Nuvanam is millet flour. The gruel made from millet, the staple of Ancient Tamils, is called kali, moddak kali, kuul, and sangati. Korralu (Telugu), Navane (Kannada) [Source: Wikipedia]

It cooks as easily as rice in the pressure cooker or using the boiling method. It can be easily eaten with all the side dishes that you would eat with rice - eg. sambar, rasam, curds, dal etc. You can even make pulao, khichdi, pongal, upma and other such dishes with this. If you cook it carefully, each grain stays separate after cooking, and it goes beautifully into salads, adding a lot of body and fibre to your salads. I've read that you can soak and sprout them similar to 'ragi' and powder the sprouted millets for making gruel like weaning foods for babies. The fact that it's naturally gluten free is a boon to people with gluten intolerance. 

Other health benefits of foxtail millet include reducing bad cholesterol and high antioxidant levels. 

This is my first time cooking with this grain and I'm extremely happy with the ease of cooking, texture and taste. It comes close to couscous in texture, only more easily available, much cheaper and locally grown. You can easily precook and refrigerate this so you can add it to soups, salads, burgers, muffins, pancakes - the list is quite endless.

Foxtail Millet Salad 
Time taken: Under 30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1/2 cup raw Foxtail Millet, soaked for 2 hours in water
1 tsp rice bran oil (or any other cooking oil)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup finely diced green bell pepper
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 cups of any lettuce, washed, dried and cut into bite sized pieces
2 cloves garlic, grated
2-3 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 medium potato, boiled, peeled, diced
4 strawberries, diced (optional)
1/2 tsp dried mint
Juice of 2 small lemons or 1 big (3-4 tbsp of juice)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or cold pressed coconut oil, if you like the flavour)
Salt to taste

Directions

1. How to cook foxtail millet: Pressure cook the drained millet with 1 cup water, 1 tsp cooking oil and 1/2 tsp salt for two whistles. Turn off the flame. Remove once cooker is cooled and spread on a plate to cool.
2. In a large bowl, assemble the bell peppers, onion, lettuce, garlic, coriander leaves, potato, strawberries. 
3. Crush the dried mint between finger tips and sprinkle around the bowl. 
4. Add as much freshly ground black pepper as you like. Add the lemon juice, olive oil and the cooled millets. 
5. Toss well, and add up to 1/2 tsp of salt (or as per taste) and gently get all the seasoning into the salad with a couple of forks.
6. Serve chilled or at room temperature. 

You can find Foxtail Millet at stores like Namdhari's in Bangalore. I buy it from Towness- our produce and grocery supplier. I'm assuming in other cities, you would get it at the traditional grain merchants, organic stores or health stores over regular supermarkets. 

Black eyed peas curry with fresh ground masala

Do you follow the Tambrahmrage Blog? If not, check it out now so you are not deprived of the laughs we have been having over the last few months. I am happy to announce that Saffrontrail along with the Tambrahmrage blogger have started another blog called Tambrahmrage Cooks. It is traditional tamil brahmin cooking served with dollops of sambar humour and real audio files means that you literally hear the recipes from the Maamis' mouths.

------------

This post is hot off my kitchen counter. I made this for lunch today and one taste of it finally made me shake off my blogging lethargy. My generous self felt that this recipe MUST be shared with the world at large. And here it is for you...

You can use any beans for this curry. Some of them I can think of are dried peas (white / green), green moong, whole masoor, moth beans, rajma beans, fresh lablab (mocchai) or anything else. Simple rule to remember is, if the beans are dried, soak them overnight.

Red Chauli - Dry (click for a larger picture)

Fresh beans like mocchai can be pressure cooked without soaking. 4 hours should do for the smaller varieties like moong, masoor, moth, black eyed peas (white/red), while the bigger beans like rajma or dried peas do well with an overnight soak.

Black Eyed Peas Curry with fresh ground masala
Time taken - Under 30 minutes with a pressure cooker
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
3/4 cup black eyed peas (I used the red Chauli)
3 medium tomatoes

To be ground into a paste:
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped roughly
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup fresh coconut
2 tsp coriander seeds
3 dried red chillies
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 medium cinnamon stick
3-4 cloves

1 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garam masala powder or 1 tsp rasam/sambar powder

Lots of finely chopped fresh coriander

Directions
Use a pressure cooker with separators. In one compartment, place the rehydrated peas with just enough water to cover.
Halve the tomatoes and place in another compartment. No water required in this.
You can cook rice in the third compartment if you want to serve this curry with rice. Pressure cook for 2 whistles and keep on sim for 5-7 minutes and remove from flame. Open when cool enough.
The peas should be cooked to very soft but maintain their shape. Tug off the tomato skins, mash with fingers and keep aside.
In a large kadai, heat 1 tbsp oil, add 1 tsp cumin seeds, fat pinch of asafoetida. Once the cumin splutters, add the ground paste to the oil and fry on medium flame for around 5 minutes, until oil separates and the onion and garlic is cooked off.
To the cooked paste, add the cooked black eyed peas and the mashed tomatoes. Add turmeric, salt and garam masala powder. Bring to a simmer. Add some water if it is too dry. Let this simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from flame and add fresh coriander.

If you don't have / use / like a pressure cooker-
Boil the soaked beans in plenty of water for around 45 minutes (until really soft) and blanche the tomatoes in boiling water, peel and mash them with fingers-proceed with recipe.

Serve with steamed rice or rotis.

The fresh mocchai beans are still in season. You must give this recipe a try with them. No soaking required, directly pressure cook as directed above.

Black eyed peas curry with fresh ground masala

Posted by admin

Do you follow the Tambrahmrage Blog? If not, check it out now so you are not deprived of the laughs we have been having over the last few months. I am happy to announce that Saffrontrail along with the Tambrahmrage blogger have started another blog called Tambrahmrage Cooks. It is traditional tamil brahmin cooking served with dollops of sambar humour and real audio files means that you literally hear the recipes from the Maamis' mouths.

------------

This post is hot off my kitchen counter. I made this for lunch today and one taste of it finally made me shake off my blogging lethargy. My generous self felt that this recipe MUST be shared with the world at large. And here it is for you...

You can use any beans for this curry. Some of them I can think of are dried peas (white / green), green moong, whole masoor, moth beans, rajma beans, fresh lablab (mocchai) or anything else. Simple rule to remember is, if the beans are dried, soak them overnight.

Red Chauli - Dry (click for a larger picture)

Fresh beans like mocchai can be pressure cooked without soaking. 4 hours should do for the smaller varieties like moong, masoor, moth, black eyed peas (white/red), while the bigger beans like rajma or dried peas do well with an overnight soak.

Black Eyed Peas Curry with fresh ground masala
Time taken - Under 30 minutes with a pressure cooker
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
3/4 cup black eyed peas (I used the red Chauli)
3 medium tomatoes

To be ground into a paste:
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped roughly
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup fresh coconut
2 tsp coriander seeds
3 dried red chillies
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 medium cinnamon stick
3-4 cloves

1 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp garam masala powder or 1 tsp rasam/sambar powder

Lots of finely chopped fresh coriander

Directions
Use a pressure cooker with separators. In one compartment, place the rehydrated peas with just enough water to cover.
Halve the tomatoes and place in another compartment. No water required in this.
You can cook rice in the third compartment if you want to serve this curry with rice. Pressure cook for 2 whistles and keep on sim for 5-7 minutes and remove from flame. Open when cool enough.
The peas should be cooked to very soft but maintain their shape. Tug off the tomato skins, mash with fingers and keep aside.
In a large kadai, heat 1 tbsp oil, add 1 tsp cumin seeds, fat pinch of asafoetida. Once the cumin splutters, add the ground paste to the oil and fry on medium flame for around 5 minutes, until oil separates and the onion and garlic is cooked off.
To the cooked paste, add the cooked black eyed peas and the mashed tomatoes. Add turmeric, salt and garam masala powder. Bring to a simmer. Add some water if it is too dry. Let this simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from flame and add fresh coriander.

If you don't have / use / like a pressure cooker-
Boil the soaked beans in plenty of water for around 45 minutes (until really soft) and blanche the tomatoes in boiling water, peel and mash them with fingers-proceed with recipe.

Serve with steamed rice or rotis.

The fresh mocchai beans are still in season. You must give this recipe a try with them. No soaking required, directly pressure cook as directed above.

Whole wheat penne in spinach sauce

I love penne and my husband loves spaghetti. Penne because, i like how the pasta gets the sauce inside the tubes - the ridges hold on to the sauce. Since I am the resident chef of our home, you'll find penne being the most-often cooked pasta. We love saucy sauces - well you know what I mean, more stuff around the pasta, instead of the dry pasta dish. We both love aglio-olio, where minimalism is the key, just good olive oil, garlic and chilli flakes - but that said, we do love the saucier versions better. Sometimes you'll find more veggies than the pasta in our dishes and we like it that way too.
This luscious spinach sauce was a result of me going overboard last week in the farmers' market. When you get 12 bunches for Rs.10, you can't really blame me can you? I washed, cleaned and cooked the leaves, pureed them and put the stuff in the freezer. It was a smart move, reducing a big bag of greens into a small container, besides cooking and freezing the leaves when they were at their freshest.

So when the day came to make the pasta, most of the work for the spinach sauce was already done - what remained was to pulse it with some fresh paneer and chillies and it was ready. It is indeed as simple as that.

Let me also assure you that I have not used any of my non-existent photoshop skills on this pic - the sauce is as green as it is seen in the picture and it looks like that even as I am about to eat it from the plate - no fooling you on that!

Recipe for Penne in Spinach Sauce
Serves 3-4 with a salad or a vegetable side dish

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat penne pasta
Roughly 3/4 kg spinach, leaves and tender stems plucked
1 tsp olive oil
4-8 cloves garlic, peeled (4 if large, 8 if small)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp dried oregano
2 green chillies
1/3rd cup paneer or ricotta cheese (I made fresh paneer from 1/2 litre milk, using white vinegar)
Salt to taste

Directions

1. Making spinach puree -Wash the plucked spinach leaves and tender stems 4-5 times in a clean sink of water or in a large tub. Dry over kitchen towels. Put these into a large pot. Add 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/2 cup water and let the leaves wilt. Toss around so the leaves are evenly cooked. Remove from pot, and puree along with any residual water. This can be frozen for upto a week and used as necessary. 3/4 kg of spinach will yield roughly 2 cup of spinach puree.
2. Cook pasta according to instructions on pack, drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.
3. Making paneer - Bring 1/2 L cow's milk to boil. When it comes to a boil, reduce heat and add from 1-2 tsp of white vinegar, stirring around till the milk curdles leaving a clear whey. Filter out pressing lightly. Reserve the whey for use in soups or to make dough for chapatis or bread.
4. In a wok, heat 1-2 tsp olive oil. Throw in the crushed garlic cloves and sliced onions. Saute on medium flame for 2-3 minutes till soft.
5. In a blender, puree together the spinach puree, paneer, sauteed onion-garlic, oregano, salt and chillies. Check for salt and adjust. This is your spinach sauce for the pasta.
6. In a large wok, bring together cooked pasta and the sauce, mixing gently till pasta is fully covered. Use some of the reserved pasta water if you want to thin down the sauce. Add freshly ground black pepper over the top, any fresh or dried herbs of your choice and serve.

I served this with cauliflower baked in tomato sauce, recipe of which will be posted shortly.

Notes

• You can serve with some cheese grated on the top, this will gain most kids' approval :)
• The sauce can be made minus the paneer but I used so as to up the protein quotient of the dish. You could use ricotta cheese from a tub to cut down on the preparation time or use store bought paneer.
• Some steamed corn added to this pasta will add lovely colour and a sweet crunch to the dish.

If you like spaghetti and your partner likes penne, by all means use spaghetti for this dish!! 

Since there is a perfect event to enlist this recipe, it's going for the Healing Foods event at My Culinary Experiments started by Siri's Corner

Whole wheat penne in spinach sauce

Posted by admin

I love penne and my husband loves spaghetti. Penne because, i like how the pasta gets the sauce inside the tubes - the ridges hold on to the sauce. Since I am the resident chef of our home, you'll find penne being the most-often cooked pasta. We love saucy sauces - well you know what I mean, more stuff around the pasta, instead of the dry pasta dish. We both love aglio-olio, where minimalism is the key, just good olive oil, garlic and chilli flakes - but that said, we do love the saucier versions better. Sometimes you'll find more veggies than the pasta in our dishes and we like it that way too.
This luscious spinach sauce was a result of me going overboard last week in the farmers' market. When you get 12 bunches for Rs.10, you can't really blame me can you? I washed, cleaned and cooked the leaves, pureed them and put the stuff in the freezer. It was a smart move, reducing a big bag of greens into a small container, besides cooking and freezing the leaves when they were at their freshest.

So when the day came to make the pasta, most of the work for the spinach sauce was already done - what remained was to pulse it with some fresh paneer and chillies and it was ready. It is indeed as simple as that.

Let me also assure you that I have not used any of my non-existent photoshop skills on this pic - the sauce is as green as it is seen in the picture and it looks like that even as I am about to eat it from the plate - no fooling you on that!

Recipe for Penne in Spinach Sauce
Serves 3-4 with a salad or a vegetable side dish

Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat penne pasta
Roughly 3/4 kg spinach, leaves and tender stems plucked
1 tsp olive oil
4-8 cloves garlic, peeled (4 if large, 8 if small)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tsp dried oregano
2 green chillies
1/3rd cup paneer or ricotta cheese (I made fresh paneer from 1/2 litre milk, using white vinegar)
Salt to taste

Directions

1. Making spinach puree -Wash the plucked spinach leaves and tender stems 4-5 times in a clean sink of water or in a large tub. Dry over kitchen towels. Put these into a large pot. Add 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/2 cup water and let the leaves wilt. Toss around so the leaves are evenly cooked. Remove from pot, and puree along with any residual water. This can be frozen for upto a week and used as necessary. 3/4 kg of spinach will yield roughly 2 cup of spinach puree.
2. Cook pasta according to instructions on pack, drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.
3. Making paneer - Bring 1/2 L cow's milk to boil. When it comes to a boil, reduce heat and add from 1-2 tsp of white vinegar, stirring around till the milk curdles leaving a clear whey. Filter out pressing lightly. Reserve the whey for use in soups or to make dough for chapatis or bread.
4. In a wok, heat 1-2 tsp olive oil. Throw in the crushed garlic cloves and sliced onions. Saute on medium flame for 2-3 minutes till soft.
5. In a blender, puree together the spinach puree, paneer, sauteed onion-garlic, oregano, salt and chillies. Check for salt and adjust. This is your spinach sauce for the pasta.
6. In a large wok, bring together cooked pasta and the sauce, mixing gently till pasta is fully covered. Use some of the reserved pasta water if you want to thin down the sauce. Add freshly ground black pepper over the top, any fresh or dried herbs of your choice and serve.

I served this with cauliflower baked in tomato sauce, recipe of which will be posted shortly.

Notes

• You can serve with some cheese grated on the top, this will gain most kids' approval :)
• The sauce can be made minus the paneer but I used so as to up the protein quotient of the dish. You could use ricotta cheese from a tub to cut down on the preparation time or use store bought paneer.
• Some steamed corn added to this pasta will add lovely colour and a sweet crunch to the dish.

If you like spaghetti and your partner likes penne, by all means use spaghetti for this dish!! 

Since there is a perfect event to enlist this recipe, it's going for the Healing Foods event at My Culinary Experiments started by Siri's Corner

Beet, feta and water amaranth salad

Sometimes, one ingredient can be such an inspiration for a whole recipe to be built around it. Feta cheese for us is one such ingredient. Neither S nor I can resist the intense saltiness and rich flavour of feta. That so much salt isn't good for our health is easily forgotten when we lay our hands on this one cheese. I for one will willingly compensate with a salt free meal, if I have to, but never miss an opportunity to bite into this salty bit of heaven.
A few weeks ago we went shopping in the recently opened Hypercity supermarket in Inorbit Mall at Hitech City. This supermarket in Malad, Bombay was our favourite weekend haunts to stock up of food stuffs and we were so glad to find an outlet here. This is one place where foodies and non-foodies can easily go overboard buying all kinds of stuff to last several months.
We go in with a list of some five items, needlessly take the HUGE shopping cart thinking that we make our toddler sit in while we browse around peacefully. In the end the best laid plans go to dirt. Atri is in my arms, the shopping cart is full of items we never imagined that we wanted and three of the five simple items on my list were not in stock that day :) Such is life!

So we managed to pick some Danish brand feta cheese on that visit and with beets sitting in the fridge, the idea for a simple salad was tossing around in my mind. Later that day, some local greens called Ponnaganti / ponnanganni / water amaranth made their appearance from cart vendor and happily joined the salad party. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm only too happy to try out the local greens in all kinds of dishes - along with vegetables, in dals and in salads. So what if I don't find the endives and rockets of the world, or the ones i do find are all wilted for want of a home, I'm happy to substitute them with locally available greens, saving on all the food miles and reducing my carbon footprint . Cooking 'glocal' is the way to go, isn't it?

Here's the recipe for this very simple salad.


Beet, feta and water amaranth salad
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 large or 3 medium beets
100 grams of feta cheese
1 cup washed, picked and towel dried water amaranth leaves
Dressing
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic
Freshly cracked black pepper

Directions
Pressure cook whole beets. I generally cook it for 3 whistles and then leave it on sim for 7-10 minutes. Remove when cooled. Slide off the skins. They'll come off very easily. Dice into medium sized cubes and keep refrigerated until it's time to use them.
Crumble / dice feta into small cubes.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for dressing. I did not use salt in this as the salt in feta makes up for it. Add the beets, greens and feta. Toss with a gentle hand so as not to get the feta all mashed up. Serve chilled with soup or pasta.

Notes
More about ponnaganti koora from the ENVIS website
Useful resource - The ENVIS centre on medicinal plants has listed a huge variety of species with vernacular names and medicinal benefits making it easy for us to identify new plants.
I learnt a recipe for ponnaganti koora from my neighbour where it is cooked with split moong dal with a light tadka. This made a delicate tasting accompaniment to rotis.

A bunch of fresh water amaranth

Water amaranth also features on some other food blogs -

• Anjali in her blog Annaparabrahma does a stir fry using these Honegone greens (that's what its called in Kannada)
• Srivalli does a stuffed paratha with these greens 
•  Talimpu has a recipe similar to the one given to me by my neighbour, the one with moong dal

Beet, feta and water amaranth salad

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Sometimes, one ingredient can be such an inspiration for a whole recipe to be built around it. Feta cheese for us is one such ingredient. Neither S nor I can resist the intense saltiness and rich flavour of feta. That so much salt isn't good for our health is easily forgotten when we lay our hands on this one cheese. I for one will willingly compensate with a salt free meal, if I have to, but never miss an opportunity to bite into this salty bit of heaven.
A few weeks ago we went shopping in the recently opened Hypercity supermarket in Inorbit Mall at Hitech City. This supermarket in Malad, Bombay was our favourite weekend haunts to stock up of food stuffs and we were so glad to find an outlet here. This is one place where foodies and non-foodies can easily go overboard buying all kinds of stuff to last several months.
We go in with a list of some five items, needlessly take the HUGE shopping cart thinking that we make our toddler sit in while we browse around peacefully. In the end the best laid plans go to dirt. Atri is in my arms, the shopping cart is full of items we never imagined that we wanted and three of the five simple items on my list were not in stock that day :) Such is life!

So we managed to pick some Danish brand feta cheese on that visit and with beets sitting in the fridge, the idea for a simple salad was tossing around in my mind. Later that day, some local greens called Ponnaganti / ponnanganni / water amaranth made their appearance from cart vendor and happily joined the salad party. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm only too happy to try out the local greens in all kinds of dishes - along with vegetables, in dals and in salads. So what if I don't find the endives and rockets of the world, or the ones i do find are all wilted for want of a home, I'm happy to substitute them with locally available greens, saving on all the food miles and reducing my carbon footprint . Cooking 'glocal' is the way to go, isn't it?

Here's the recipe for this very simple salad.


Beet, feta and water amaranth salad
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 large or 3 medium beets
100 grams of feta cheese
1 cup washed, picked and towel dried water amaranth leaves
Dressing
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic
Freshly cracked black pepper

Directions
Pressure cook whole beets. I generally cook it for 3 whistles and then leave it on sim for 7-10 minutes. Remove when cooled. Slide off the skins. They'll come off very easily. Dice into medium sized cubes and keep refrigerated until it's time to use them.
Crumble / dice feta into small cubes.

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for dressing. I did not use salt in this as the salt in feta makes up for it. Add the beets, greens and feta. Toss with a gentle hand so as not to get the feta all mashed up. Serve chilled with soup or pasta.

Notes
More about ponnaganti koora from the ENVIS website
Useful resource - The ENVIS centre on medicinal plants has listed a huge variety of species with vernacular names and medicinal benefits making it easy for us to identify new plants.
I learnt a recipe for ponnaganti koora from my neighbour where it is cooked with split moong dal with a light tadka. This made a delicate tasting accompaniment to rotis.

A bunch of fresh water amaranth

Water amaranth also features on some other food blogs -

• Anjali in her blog Annaparabrahma does a stir fry using these Honegone greens (that's what its called in Kannada)
• Srivalli does a stuffed paratha with these greens 
•  Talimpu has a recipe similar to the one given to me by my neighbour, the one with moong dal