Mingle it up

Bharela Marcha or stuffed chili peppers are mine & my husband’s one of the favorite Gujarati side dish. It’s mildly spicy chili pepper like Anaheim chili stuffed with roasted & seasoned chick pea flour. It’s a simple dish but extremely tasty.My mom had given me this recipe 6 years back while I was studying. I still have this email that my dad had written & my mummy must be probably dictating to him the procedure on how to make it. It’s such a sweet email where my dad has tried his level best to convert my mom’s Gujarati into appropriate English translations .

Let’s get started

Ingredients

6 Long Anaheim Chilies
2 tbsp + 1/2 tbsp of oil - You can use more oil if you prefer but I like to use as little as the dish requires. Of course I use enough so that I don’t compromise on the taste and the texture.
pinch of hing
1/2 cup Besan (Chick pea flour)
3 tbsp of roasted & crushed peanut powder
1 tbsp of coriander powder
1 tsp of cumin powder
1/2 tsp of tumeric
1 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of garam masala
1/2 tsp amchur/dry mango powder (optional)
1.5 tsp salt (to taste)
1 tsp of sugar (to taste)

Steps

1. Dry roast the chickpea flour (besan) on low heat for about 10 minutes till you smell nice aroma from it. Constantly keep mixing the flour to ensure even roasting.

2. Take it off the flame & rest it for some time to cool.

3. After it’s cooled, add the roasted peanut powder, all the dry spices & rub in 1.5-2 tbsp of oil. Mix everything well & adjust the salt as per your taste.

4. Slit the chilies lengthwise just from one side leaving the stem intact and de-seed it.

5. Fill in around 1 heaping tbsp of besan mixture in the slit chili carefully & nicely pack it.

6. Take a wide mouth pan such that all the chilies can fit into the pan. Heat 1/2 tbsp of oil in the pan & add pinch of hing once it is hot.

7. Nicely arrange all the stuffed chilies in the pan, so that all of them are in direct contact with the pan. Sprinkle remaining stuffing mixture (if any) on the chilies.

I love all kinds of vegetarian stuffed Parathas like aloo, gobi, paneer, mooli etc. Being Gujarati (from east India), our parathas are small & thin like our rotis or I should say smaller & thinner than the parathas made in North India. But I simply love those big & thick ones with lots of stuffing inside.
Actually in north India, Parathas are heavily (almost fried) cooked with ghee or butter which makes them extremely delicious but unhealthy too. But if you go skimpy on the fat, Parathas can be one of the very well-balanced & satisfying meal. You get goodness from whole-wheat, heavily stuffed with vegetables & some good-fat like canola oil.

I owe my stuffed paratha’s recipe to my good friend Bindu. She taught me different stuffings to put inside a paratha & they are delicious. And its so easy, you learn one recipe & it’s like you can make 5 different varieties from it.

So lets get started

General Stuffing Recipe

-1 cup finely grated vegetable

• Gobi (Cauliflower)
• Mooli
• Carrot
• Corn - grate fresh cob of corn
• Paneer
• Paneer+ finely grated cabbage - these are healthier than just paneer & taste delicious.
• Spinach - For Spinach Parathas, I use frozen chopped spinach; thawed & excess water removed after thawing.

-1/3 cup very finely chopped onions
-1 small finely chopped green chili
-1 tsp finely chopped ginger
-2 tbsp of finely chopped cilantro
-salt to taste
-1/4 tsp Chaat masala
-1/2 tsp cummin powder
-1/4 tsp chili powder (optional)
-1/4 tsp Aamchur powder (dry mango powder)

Steps

1. Make the regular Roti/Chapati Dough & rest it for 15-20 minutes.

2. Gobi/Mooli/Carrot/Paneer stuffing

Grate the vegetable, add onions & all the spices. Mix it well & adjust the seasoning as per your taste. You can add any other spice as well to suit your taste.

• But one additional step with Mooli Or Carrot stuffing is that after grating, add little salt & leave it for 5-10 minutes. This will help to ooze out excess water from the grated vegetable. Press the mixture to remove out all the water from the mixture. It will be very difficult to stuff the Parathas with this watery mixture & roll them out.
• Add onions & other spices after removing out the water.

3. Spinach Stuffing

Hi Friends,

I am back with great, healthy & quick snack item - sooji dhokla. In a gujarati household, Dhokla is a very common food item. Dhoklas are steamed & most commonly served as an appetizer or tea time snack. They are soft, fluffy in texture & awesome in taste. They are very filling & healthy as well.

My mom makes lots of different kinds of dhoklas like

-Mixed Dal (Yellow Mung Dal, split mung dal, Channa Dal) Dhokla
-Khaman (Besan - Chickpea flour) Dhokla
-Rice Dhokla
-Sooji Dhokla

Today we will go over on how to make Sooji Dhokla
Serves 2-3 people

1 Cup Sooji (Cream of wheat)
1/2 Yogurt + 1/2 cup water
2 tsp of oil
1 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp of sugar
1 tsp ginger/chili paste (to taste)
1 tsp of Eno Fruit Salt Or 1 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of Lemon juice
few sprigs of cilantro for garnishing.
1/2 tsp ajwain / Carrom seeds (optional)

Oil Tempering

2 tsp of oil
1/4 tsp of mustard seeds
1 /4 tsp of sesame seeds
1 green chili (slit lengthwise)
3-4 curry leaves

Step up used to steam the dhoklas

If you already have a Dhokla stand with the plates, then you are already set. If don’t have one no need to worry you can still make these spongy goodness without any problem.
All you need is a
-container with a lid
-a round plate that has some depth to it that fits in the container above.
-a small stand that can give the round plate an elevated platform when placed inside the container.

1. Take the container & fill about 1 inch of water in it or the amount which is lesser than the height of the small stand.
2. Place the stand in the container filled with water.
3. Place the greased round plate filled with Dhokla batter on top of the stand. Such that it is little high above the water level. Make sure that water should not enter the dhokla batter. Water is used to steam the dhoklas.
4. Cover the container with the lid & leave very small room for steam to escape the vessel.
5. You can use Pressure cooker with its lid as a container but make sure not to put its whistle while steaming the dhoklas.

Couple weeks back my husband felt like eating Chole Bhature. Chole Bhature is a popular North Indian entree. Chole = Garbanzo Beans curry & Bhatura =Leavened fried indian bread.

I don’t prefer frying. In fact I think I have fried just 2-3 times. But I didn’t want to dissapoint him and decided to cook up some Chole Bhature.

As it generally happens with me, I didn’t end up making Bhaturas but made some Naans. Naan is also an Indian leavened bread but baked in hot tandoor(Indian oven). I have made Pizza dough before and I thought making Naans should not be very different. They came out really well and we both were very impressed :-D. The truth of the matter is I owe a lot of my naan’s success to Manjula Aunty from whom the naan recipe is inspired. I wanted to make mine whole wheat so I altered the original recipe to add my signature healthy touches.

You can use White Flour (All-purpose flour) alone if you don’t want to use Whole wheat flour. The recipe is tasty both ways.

Lets get started. Here is what you will need

UPDATE - I recently made the Naans with Whole wheat flour only and it turned out just as delicious & soft. So you can completely skip All-purpose flour & use Whole wheat instead.

• 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour (Or 1/2 cup All-purpose flour for original naan)
• 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
• 1+1 tsp of oil
• 1 small potato
• 1 tsp dry yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 1/4 tsp of baking powder
• Upto 1/4 cup of warm milk (2 tbsp + 2tbsp)
• 2 tbsp of smooth yogurt
• 2-3 tbsp of water

Toppings (optional)

• 1-2 tsp of ghee/clarified butter
• Finely minced garlic
• Finely chopped coriander
• Chat Masala

Makes 2-3 naans

Oven Temperature -500F

1. Boil your potato & nicely mash it. Generally lots of Naans have eggs in them to make them soft but since we don’t do eggs I have replaced an egg with potato.
2. Add your yeast to 2 tbsp of lukewarm Milk along with sugar. The dry yeast is inactive and it becomes active when added in warm water or milk. Bacteria in yeast will die if the liquid is hot. Sugar in the mixture facilitates the growing process.In about 10-15 mins the mixture will become a little frothy & murky cream color. If its not frothy at all then your yeast might be weak & may not work as well.

2.5 years back when I started my weight loss journey, I would not find as many healthy food choices in the grocery store as there are today. But wait, are they really healthy & good for you as they claim? For sure, the healthy offerings have increased but just don’t go by the labels alone. I do some reading before buying a new product from the aisles & check for some red-flags. Just don’t be blown away by the fact that the product is labeled “low-calorie”, “low-fat” or low-something..!!

Red Flags

1. Low fat label by itself does not necessarily mean its good for you except in the case of low-fat diary. In Milk along with proteins, vitamins and calcium you even get saturated fat(which is bad). Lowering the fat content in milk just removes the saturated fat. It doesn’t strip the milk off nutrition or add unwanted ingredients.

Typically when fat is reduced in food items other than diary, some other ingredients creep into the list to make up for the loss of texture, flavor, shelf-life etc of the food. The most commonly added item is Corn Syrup which is added to make up for the loss of flavor and texture.

Not all low-fat items are bad. For example Dreyer’s Light Vanilla Ice cream is surely far less in fat & saturated fat than its Grand Ice cream. Its important to read through the contents before making the choice.

2. Whole Wheat doesn’t mean 100% Whole wheat - there is a DIFFERENCE. If the ingredients show Enriched Wheat flour or refined wheat flour, it lacks important minerals & vitamins which you get from Whole Wheat Grain.

3. High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) - This is basically a sweetener made from corn which is cheaper than sugar & increases the shelf life of the product. No wonder this item is now the most common ingredient in foods.
HFCS imparts a nice browny texture to the breads, gives sweetness to our sodas, juices, yogurts (flavored & plain) ,cereals,ketchups, salad dressings and several other items. So now you know why the store bought yogurt is sweeter & home-made or organic one tangier, thanks to HFCS.

I know it sounds like YoPlait but hey thats the intention. So many people eat these store bought flavored fruity yogurt for a snack or dessert and I was one of them :). My office refrigerator is loaded with these . But has anyone thought that making something similar at home can be easy and much more nutritious since you control everything that goes into it. But there is a catch here , the Yogurt you use & the amount of sweetness you put matters. Please visit my post on Yogurt Shopping if you haven’t read that.

My FruPlait is a heavenly medley of luscious greek yogurt, your choice of chopped fruits & granola or cereals.

I use 0% fat Greek Yogurt from Trader Joes or make my own (read below on how to make it) for this recipe. Greek Yogurt is just a fancy name for strained Yogurt. Straining removes its whey (liquid). Straining the yogurt results in thicker & creamier consistency. Greek yogurt has twice the protein content compared to normal yogurt per serving. However normal full-fat Greek Yogurt is heavier on fat than plain full-fat yogurt. No worries we use the fat free one. So read on…

This recipe serves 1-2

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of 0% fat Greek yogurt. If you can’t find it in the store, just hang the regular non-fat yogurt in a muslin cloth for 3-4 hours. You can also use normal yogurt just that the texture of Fruplait won’t be that creamy & thick. But it will taste quite good nonetheless.

• 1/2 cup cut Strawberries + Sweet Ripe Mangoes. You can use any fruits you like. Since its summer I like to use sweet ripe Mango(my husband’s favorite). If mangoes are not available you can use bananas, blueberries etc

• 1 tsp of powdered/icing sugar (I use Splenda) + 1 tsp of honey. If you don’t want to use Honey, you can always use 1 more tsp of sugar instead.

• 3-4 tbsp of Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds. You can also use Granola, crumbled oatmeal cookies..basically anything you like to give the sweet crunch.

Directions

1. Finely cut the fruits & add 1 tsp of icing sugar in it. Mix it well so that sugar is coated to every fruit piece
2. In a bowl whip up the yogurt with 1 tsp of honey.
3. Take your serving cup - add half of your fruit mixture. Top that with 1/2 of your yogurt mixture & sprinkle some cereals.
4. Repeat this layer “fruit - yogurt - cereals” one more time and its done.

Bean Sprouts Mix can easily top the charts as one of the healthiest food items. It’s very rich in proteins, fiber, vitamins & minerals. Unlike beans that can cause digestion problems, sprouting destroys the seed’s natural preservative enzymes that inhibit digestion. In turn creates an enzyme that aids digestion.

You can sprout several different kinds of seeds like -

• Mung beans
• Kidney beans, Black eyed peas, Pinto beans etc
• Soy beans
• Lentils

Sprouting is a very simple process that doesn’t need any special equipment, detailed attention or great technique. We just need to mimic the underground environment where seeds grow for them to sprout like moisture, darkness & bit of warmth. So let’s get started -

Sprouting the beans

1. Soak your beans for about 8 hours in water. I generally use a mixture of
   • Mung Beans
   • Kidney Beans
   • Black Eyed Peas
2. After 8 hours, the beans would have increased in size by absorbing water. Drain off the water & rinse them well.
3. Take a damp cloth or kitchen towel & put the beans in them. Place this in a vessel & keep it in a dark and warm corner of the kitchen like Oven.
4. Keep monitoring the beans every day & make sure the towel in which the beans are wrapped in is a little damp.
5. After 2-4 days depending upon the warmth of the place, your sprouts should be ready.

Making Bean Sprouts Salad Mix

1. Boil the sprouts for around 10 minutes with the vessel covered. Just remember that boiling the sprouts for longer time strips off its nutrients so keep the boiling process smaller.
2. Once they are boiled, drain off the water & let them cool.
3. Till then finely cut all veggies you like for the salad -
   • Onions
   • Tomatoes
   • Cucumbers
   • Red Bell Pepper
   • Coriander/Cilantro
   • Green Chilies
4. Seasoning for the salad (as per taste)
   • Salt & Pepper
   • Chat Masala Or Black Salt
   • Pinch of Amchur (Dried Mango) Powder
   • Few tsp of Lemon Juice
   • Cumin Powder
5. Mix all the above well in the cooled sprouts & your nutritious mix is ready!!

There are several ways to enjoy these sprouts other than the salad

1. You can make a nice sabji (Indian entrée eaten with Bread) by giving a nice tempering of oil seasoned in ginger/garlic.

Bruschetta is a fancy name for a simple Italian appetizer. In simple words, its French baguette topped with tomatoes, basil & olive oil.

With my twist on Bruschetta, it becomes a very well-rounded healthy snack item or a starter which is packed with great flavor. The reason I say it’s well rounded because you get -
Good Carb - I use Whole Grain French Baguette from Trader Joes so you get fibre & proteins
Good Fat - few tsp of Olive Oil
Veggies - I use red/green bell pepper, tomatoes, cilantro
Taste & Appeal - it looks & tastes great

I guess you must have figured out the ingredients by now but anyways lets go through them

½ Whole Grain Baguette (If you don’t have baguette no sweat, you can use Whole wheat bread or bagel & call it something else ;))
2 tsp of Olive Oil
½ cup finely chopped Tomatoes, Red & Green Bell Pepper, chilies (as per taste), and cilantro
Garlic Salt to taste
Pepper
Dried or fresh basil
3-4 tsp of Parmesan cheese

Yields around 10 pieces
Oven Temperature - 400 F

1. Cut the baguette at an angle about ¾ inches thick.
2. Lightly brush both sides with olive oil & put it in a pre-heated oven for 2-3 minutes. Switch sides & keep it for another 2 mins.
3. Till then cut all our veggies finely, add 1 tsp of olive oil, garlic salt, pepper & basil.
4. If you don’t have garlic salt, then lightly rub a clove of garlic on the surface of the bread after it comes out from oven. This imparts a little garlic flavor on the bread.
5. Put the veggie mixture on the warm bread & top it with a little Parmesan cheese.
6. Return this to the oven again for 3-4 more minutes.

And viola! Your good-looking bruschetta is ready to be eaten.

Popularity: 82% [?]

Coriander/Cilantro is by far the most used herb across India. There is something in it’s fragrance & taste that adds so much freshness & earthiness to any dish.

Cilantro Chutney is a great sauce to have handy at home. It can be used in several different ways:

1. Spread on bread/Parathas for a quick sandwich or frankies with veggies
2. Dip with chips
3. Salad Dressing with Olive Oil
4. Raita - Chutney + cool yogurt + finely chopped veggies (cucumbers, onions, tomatoes)

I have tried all of the above successfully. You are just limited by your creativity. Apart from it being tasty and easy to make, it is my favorite because of some fond childhood memories that I associate it with.

When I was a kid, my nani (maternal grandmother) used to make this awesome chutney that I and my cousin sister would eat with practically anything. That would be one thing that was always on the menu when we would visit her. My mom inherited that art from her & I would like to believe that some of it has rubbed on me too . My bum chum (childhood best friend) used to love this chutney that mummy would make. I remember she would come home & the first thing she would ask my mom to make would be chutney sandwich.

So let’s get started. You need the following ingredients,

1 medium sized bunch of Cilantro
4-5 Thai Chilies (As per taste)
12-15 Peanuts or 2 tbsp of Roasted Daliya (split chickpea)
1 inch of Ginger
1 clove of Garlic
1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
½ Lemon Juice
Up to ½ cup of water

Most of the ingredients here are to taste. If you like the chutney to be milder, reduce the chilies. You can add more garlic if you like garlic-y flavor.

This recipe yields about 1 cup of chutney.

1. Nicely wash the cilantro in cold water. Just cut off the last few inches of stem & then give rest of the bunch a very rough chop.
2. Put all the ingredients in the blender, starting from chunky items first. It’s easier to blend.
3. Start with ¼ cup of water & add more to get the consistency you like.

Whole Wheat Orange Cranberry Muffins

Oranges or rather Clementines are huge hit at home. Clementine is a lovely little Mandarin family fruit which tastes more or less like an Orange just smaller, easier to peel & almost seedless. That’s why I will refer to them as Oranges instead of Clementine :), just used to saying Oranges.

Orange Muffins are my husband’s favorite. When I make these they go really fast. Within 4-5 days, a dozen of them are already eaten. But hey they are definitely better to snack on than cookies or a bag of chips.

Ingredients
1 Cup Whole Wheat
1/4 Cup Wheat Bran
1 Egg (I use an Egg Substitute Ener-G Egg Replacer)
1/4 Cup No-Sugar Added Apple Sauce
2 tbsp Canola Oil
1 tsp Vanilla
2 -3 tbsp Sugar Or Honey - Depending upon how sweet you like (I use 2 tbsp of Splenda- Sugar Substitute)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Pinch of Nutmeg
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1.5 tsp Orange Zest
2-3 tbsp Fresh Orange Juice
1 Orange - roughly chop the peeled fruit into bite size pieces
2 Tbsp Dried Cranberry or Raisins (You can use more if you like them)
3 tbsp Milk

Makes 6 Medium Sized Muffins
Around 140-150 Calories per Muffin.
Oven Temperature - 350 def F
Time - 22-25 Minutes.

Exact same steps as before
1. Sift in the dry ingredients like Flour, Salt, Baking Soda, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg. Add Wheat Bran and Orange Zest into the flour mixture & mix well.
2. Now add Wet Ingredients + Sugar separately in a bowl. Start with blending Sugar, an Egg with Canola Oil and then add other wet ingredients.
3. Now mix the wet ingredients in dry along with roughly chopped Oranges & Raisins.
4. Don’t over mix it; just make sure everything is well incorporated.
5. Line your paper cups in Muffin pan & grease them well (Or you can choose to not use them and drop the batter directly into your Muffin pan. But make sure to grease your pan well then).
6. I generally use an Ice-Cream scoop to scoop out the batter evenly in all the cups.
7. Place the filled Muffin pan in the Preheated Oven for about 20-25 minutes.
8. Check with the tooth-pick to see if they are done. Let them cool on the Wire rack for 5-10 minutes.