Rajma Sundal, Red Kidney Beans Sundal ( Snack )

          Rajma/Red Kidney Beans, this is one of my favorite beans, I simply love rajma chawal ( rajma curry with rice ), so every time I cook rajma, I always end up making rajma curry. This sundal, I had made long time back during Navratri, but I am posting it now only. Since rajma doesn't taste like chickpeas, we need to add some spice and coconut to make this sundal tasty. We don't need any festival to make sundals, in fact whenever I make a gravy that does not have dal/lentils in it, then I try to make up for the protein with some kind of sundal. This is also a very healthy and filling evening snack for kids and adults as well..

Avarekalu Mixture, Hyacinth Beans Mixture ( Savory Snack )

          Come December, it's avarekalu ( hyacinth beans ) everywhere here in Bangalore, but then since it was holidays and I was not in town, I couldn't buy and cook them until later. This time, I also went to the Avarakelu festival and got to taste a variety of dishes with it, starting from dosa, akki roti, vada to gulab jamun, jalebi and halwa and I totally loved each and every one of them. This season, I had bought loads of avarekalu and tried out some dishes at home too. To start with, I made this mixture with the beans, it's actually a simple dish, except for removing the pods and then peeling them, of course, with practice, people can do it very fast. I tried it with only a cup of avarekalu, but it turned out too good and my family loved it, so I had to make it again..

Whole Moong Parathas, Lentils Stuffed Flat Breads

          We love parathas at home, though it may take a little longer to roll them out, they are worth all the effort and at the same time I can skip the side dish. For today's paratha, I have used whole moong dal/ whole green gram for the stuffing, the parathas are both filling and delicious and of course very healthy too. Just serve them with some pickle and vegetable raitha for a complete meal..

Soy And Zucchini Curry

          Today's post is going to be a simple curry with soy granules and zucchini. A simple paste with cashews and melon seeds gives the curry a nice creamy texture. Soy, being rich in protein, paired with zucchini makes a perfect side dish for rotis, it's healthy and filling at the same time..

Dal Pakwan, Chana Dal With Crispy Puris

          I had already posted the recipe for the Pakwan/Crispy Pooris, today's post is the Chana Dal that we serve with the pakwan/pooris. It's once again a very simple recipe, I have used the pressure pan to make it, so it's basically a one pot dish. As I have already said, we can have the chutneys ready the previous day, the next day morning, the pooris and dal can be done. Then serve the pooris with the dal, topped with some chopped onion and coriander along with the chutneys, it's a perfect breakfast or brunch dish..

Sindhi Pakwan, Crispy Pooris

          When browsing the net randomly, I came across this recipe 'Dal Pakwan' and I had bookmarked it for trying it out some time. Dal Pakwan is a famous Sindhi breakfast dish, it's basically crispy pooris served with chana dal ( bengal gram ) gravy along with some chutneys. If we have the sweet chutney and green chutney ready ( we can make them the day before ), then making the Pakwan and Dal the next day for breakfast or brunch is not that time consuming. Since I didn't want the post to be too long, I have posted the Pakwan today, will follow it next with the dal recipe. Served with the dal and chutneys, this was more like a chat kind of dish and we totally loved it..

Spanakopita, Greek Spinach Triangles

          When I bought Phyllo ( fillo ) Pastry, after making Baklava, I wanted to try out a few more dishes using the leftover pastry. The first thing that came into my mind was this Greek savory pastry, Spanakopita. It's basically a spinach filled pastry and it's made like a pie or triangles ( like samosas ). The phyllo pastry is crispy and light and the filling with spinach and three different cheese is so flavorful and delicious. Once you are comfortable in handling phyllo sheets ( they are little delicate to handle ), making Spanakopita is actually not very difficult. We can layer the sheets ( like baklava ) with the spinach filling, bake it and slice it, or make it in the shape of individual triangles, either way they taste delicious..

Chembu Mezhukkupuratti, Kerala Style Colocasia Fry

          Mezhukkupuratti is a Kerala dish, basically a spicy vegetable roast and it had been on my do-list for a long time. Though it's a simple dish and doesn't require any exotic ingredient, still I made it only a couple of weeks back. I made it along with Olan for a Kerala style lunch. We can make it with beans, okra, potatoes, with almost any vegetable that you can make a dry curry. I made it with Chembu/ colocasia/ arbi/ seppankizhangu, it's a spicy curry and goes very well with rice and dal or sambar or moru kuzhamu. We had it with plain rice and Olan and I love it with some curd rice too..

Boondi And Bread Pudding

          Boondi And Bread Pudding, a delicious dessert that I had made years back and then totally forgot about it. I remembered that it's a Sanjeev Kapoor recipe, but I couldn't remember from where I got it, then suddenly couple of weeks back, when I was going through some of my cookery books, I found it. And also, I had some leftover ladoos and all the ingredients needed for the dish, so I went ahead and made it the same day. Making rabri takes some time, but you can replace it with condensed milk, apart from that, this pudding is so easy to make and it tastes really delicious..