Avocado-Onion Veggie

Today I tried one of the most innovative dish. This is such a simple recipe and tastes wonderful, especially if you love eating Avocados. We all 3, love avocados and try to incorporate as much as  possible in our diet either in the form of Salad, smoothie or even as a veggie. Last week in my office one of my colleague got this Avocado veggie. She said she had tried it in one of the restaurant and she loved it. So even I wanted to try making it at home and finally I was able to.The recipe is:



Avocado-Onion Veggie

Ingredients:
2  riped Avocadoes mashed( not finely mashed)
1/4 red onions diced
Ginger-garlic paste
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
2 curry leaves
1 tsp Oil
Salt

Procedure:
Heat up the pan and cooking oil to it. Add the mustard seeds. Once it starts popping, add the curry leaves and the Ginger-garlic paste. Then add diced onion and saute till it turns translucent. Add the mashed Avocadoes and the salt as per your taste.
Enjoy this simple and tasty recipe. I am sure you would love it a lot!!!

Taro Root (Arvi) Chips

Taro Root or more commonly called in northern India as Arvi/Arbi is a starchy tuber vegetable and taste more like potatoes. They are extremely nutritious as they provide a good source of fiber, contain a high amount of protein, calcium, and phosphorus. I remember my mother making Arbi chips at home. When i came to US i had no idea that it was sold by the name of Taro root. It was only when i had it at one of my friends place i realised that it was easily available in the Indian stores by the name of Taro Root. So last week when i went for my grocery shopping i just picked up a few of them and decided to make chips of it. In this recipe, the chips has not been deep fried since i wanted something on a healthier side. So i just shallow fried it and the recipe is as follows:

Ingredients:

5-6 Taro roots
Oil
Salt
3-4 tsp Ajwain (Carom Seeds)
Chaat Masala

Procedure:

Wash all the taro roots properly under running water to remove the dirt. Put it in the pressure cooker, add water and 1.5 tsp of salt and pressure cook it for 4-5 whistles. Alternatively you can also boil it so that it becomes soft. We need to make sure that it doesnt become very mushy. Peel the Taro roots and cut it into circular slices.
Heat up the griddle and put 2-3 tbsp of Oil. Add 1 tsp of Ajwain to it. Once it starts crackling, place the circular cut pieces of Taro root in the oil. Cook it for a few minutes until it turns little brown. Flip it to the other side. Once both the sides are brown, remove it and put it on a paper to absorb excess oil. Repar the same prcoess in batches until all the pieces are cooked.
Sprinkle Salt and Chaat masala and serve. Trust me, its the easiest recipe and truly delicious. Enjoy!!!

Tomato-Carrot Chutney

I first had this chutney at one of my cousin sister's dinner. It was so yummy that i could not resist myself from not making it. This chutney goes very well with Dosa, Idli, Pessarettu or any other snack items and can be used as a good substitute for Ketchup. So the recipe is:

Tomato-Carrot Chutney

Yield: 1 small bowl

Ingredients:
2 ripe Tomatoes (if the tomatoes are very small you can make it 3)
7-8 baby carrots or 1 medium sized carrot
1.5 tsp cooking oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of Asafoetida( Hing)
2-3 fresh curry leaves
2-3 whole red chillies
1/4th tsp turmeric powder (optional- can use if you want the color to be slightly yellowish)
Salt as per taste

.      =n bbbb
1) Puree tomatoes and carrot in a blender.
2) Heat a small pan and add oil to it. As the oil becomes hot, add mustard seeds to it. Once the mustard seeds starts cracking, add asafoetida,, curry leaves and whole red chillies.
3) When the curry leaves and red chillies starts changing the color, add the tomato-carrot puree. Add  turmeric powder and salt.
4) Stir and keep it on the low-medium flame for 15-20 minutes until the puree takes the consistency of a chutney.
5) Remove the pan from the stove and transfer the chutney to a bowl and relish.

Eggless Blueberry Coffee Cake

Today i tried making Blueberry Coffee cake. I love baking cakes as much as i love eating them :-). So, whenever i get into a mood for baking i just go for it. I had a box of fresh blueberries lying in my refrigerator which i bought from the farmers market on Saturday. So i wanted to make something fesh, tasty and sweet. And to my surprise, it came out just AWESOME! Here's the recipe for it:



Eggless Blueberry Cake



Ingredients:
DRY
1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Maida (All-purpose Flour)
3/4 tspn Baking Powder
1/4 tspn Baking Soda
1/8 tspn Salt
1/2 cup Sugar

WET
1/2 cup Whole milk
1/2 tblspn White Vinegar
1/4 cup Yoghurt
2 tblspn Melted Butter
1 tspn Vanilla Extract
1 cup fresh Blueberries
Cinnamon Powder to sprinkle on the top

The steps to make this delicious cake are:
Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 6" or an 8" baking pan with oil or butter.
a) Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep it aside.
b) In a different bowl mix milk, vinegar, yoghurt and the melted butter.
c) Once mixed properly, add all the dry ingredients slowly and blend well.
e) Add the vanilla extract and mix again. Then slowly fold in the blueberries to the batter. Do not over-mix.
f) Tranfer the batter to the greased pan and sprinkle cinnamon powder on top of the batter.
g) Trensfer it to the preheated oven and bake it for 25-30 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
h) Cool the pan and tranfer the cake to a wire rack and let it cool completely. Cut it into pieces and enjoy.

NOTES:

• You can easily substitue the flour with whole wheat pastry flour if you like the rustic flavour. I love cooking and eating healthy so at time i have tried the whole cake with WW Pastry flour too. 
• You can use frozen blueberries as well, but make sure that you dont over mix blueberries as the color will start bleeding.
• You can easily substitute White vinegar with Apple cider vinegar.
• You can even top it with almonds as it goes very well with blueberries.