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.

8. Reduce the heat to low & let it cook for about 20 minutes with the lid closed. Make sure you turn the chilies once every 5-6 minutes for even cooking. Sprinkle few drops of water if you think it’s drying out. But make sure to just put few drops otherwise your chilies will become soggy.

Enjoy this with Dal Bhaat (gujarati dal & Rice) . It tastes great just with Roti & curd.

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

• I use a little different method for spinach stuffing. Thaw the frozen spinach & press out all the excess water from spinach.
• Add 1 tsp of oil on a pan, add chopped chilies, onions & ginger. Then add spinach & rest of the spices. Saute spinach mixture for 3-4 minutes so that raw flavor of spinach is gone & all the water is dried out.
• Turn off the flame & cool this mixture before stuffing it.

Rolling out the parathas

1. For 1 Paratha, I take 2 balls of dough about 1.5 inch thick.
2. Roll out 2 small rotis of equal size (about 4-5 inch in diameter) from the 2 balls.
3. On one roti, spread evenly about 2 spoonfuls of stuffing, leaving the edges.
4. Place another roti on top of this & gently press out the edges. Press everywhere on the surface to remove any air pockets.
5. Dust some flour on top, & roll it out carefully into the size you like.
6. Heat the tava on med- high flame. Before transferring the paratha on the tava make sure the tava is nicely heated.
7. Let the paratha cook on one side for 1-2 minutes until you see its turning light brown.
8. Flip the paratha, & lightly coat the cooked side with butter/ghee/oil.
9. After 1 min or so when it starts getting light brown spots on the bottom; Flip on to other side & again lightly coat another side with the fat of your choice.
10. Nicely press the parathas while being cooked on tava. Your parathas are done when you see that all the rawness is gone & the dough is evenly cooked.
11. Place the parathas in a casserole or aluminium foil.

Enjoy the parathas with a small dab of Makkhan(whipped butter), cool yogurt & my cilantro/coriander chutney Or pickle.. Yumm !!

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.

Now let’s get started with the basic dhoklas

1. Mix the sooji with oil nicely so that it’s well coated with the oil.
2. Add ajwain seeds, ginger/chili paste, salt.
3. Add Yogurt, mix well. And add water little at a time up to 1/2 cup till you get required consistency (thick but pour-able batter).
4. Rest it for about 20 minutes. This is a very important step to get nice soft dhoklas. Sooji will nicely absorb the liquid & swell up. And hence won’t taste raw or crispy after it’s steamed.
5. After 20 minutes, add water in the Dhokla container. And let the water come to a simmer.
6. Only when you are ready to steam the dhoklas, add the Eno Fruit salt & lemon juice into the batter and mix it really well. Eno Fruit salt acts as a leavening agent, which gives the dhoklas a nice rise & softness. This always has to be the last step before we pour the batter into the plate.
7. Grease the round plate into which you will pour half of the batter. Fill the plate up to 3/4th of its depth leaving some room for it to rise.
8. Put the plate in the setup container for steaming & close the lid.
9. Check after 15-20 mins. Insert the tooth pick or knife & it should come out clean.
10. Remove the plate from the container & cool for 5 minutes.
11. Repeat steps 6 through 10 for the next batch.

Measurements above can make 2 plates of dhoklas. Once both the plates of dhokla is steamed & cooled. Gently tap the dhokla plate to remove the dhokla from the mould like cake.

Layering Dhoklas with Chutney (OPTIONAL)

Just like how we layer the cake & pile up with some frosting in between - spread some Cilantro Chutney on 1st layer of dhokla. Top that with another layer of dhokla.

Oil Tempering

1. Heat up 2 tsp of oil. When it’s hot add mustard seeds & pinch of hing (asafoetida)
2. Once mustard seeds crackle, add sesame seeds. Be careful when you add Sesame seeds, they splutter a lot so cover the vessel with a lid.
3. Add curry leaves, green chilies.
5. Put this mixture on to the top layer of dhokla & garnish with cilantro on top.

Cut the dhokla into diamond shapes & enjoy with a cup of tea :).

VARIATIONS

You can completely omit the layering process with chutney & directly go to the oil tempering step. If you wish, you can omit the oil tempering as well.
Vegetable Sandwich Dhokla - You can cut up some thin slices of Cucumber, onion, tomatoes & put it into between the 2 thin layers of dhoklas & enjoy it like a proper Indian style vegetable sandwich except of course replacing bread with dhokla :).

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.
3. Take a bowl and add your Whole Wheat + all purpose flour + baking powder + salt + oil in it. Mix in the mashed potato to the flour. And then add the frothy mixture and yogurt in the flour.
4. Add the rest of the milk and knead well. Keep adding more water as needed to make a really soft, sticky dough. Its important for the dough to be soft & sticky which will make our naans soft. Knead the dough well for about 5-8 minutes.
5. Once your dough is ready, take few drops of oil & coat it evenly. Place it in a bowl & cover it with a towel.
6. Let this rest for at least 1 hour. After an hour, the dough should have risen quite a bit. Just knead it for a minute to remove any air pockets which happens due to uneven aeration. Work with some dry flour while kneading since the dough will be sticky.
7. Pre-heat your oven to 500F along with Pizza Stone in it. If you don’t have a Pizza stone, no worries just use any baking tray. Just don’t put the baking tray in the oven during the pre-heating process.
8. While the oven is being pre-heated you should divide the dough into 2-3 equal parts depending upon how big & thick you want your naan.
9. I rolled out my naans in an oval shape by hand the old fashioned way. But you can totally use a rolling pin if you want to. Once you have shaped your naan then just stretch it a little bit from both sides if you want restaurant kind of look :).
10. [Optional]10.Brush the top with little ghee or butter & spread some finely chopped garlic & coriander on it. Just press it down a little bit so that the toppings stick to the naan & don’t come off.
11. Place this naan in the pre-heated oven for around 10 minutes. Please check after 7 mins since the ovens are different wrt temperature.
12. In order to get restaurant kind of uneven brown spot look, switch the oven to Broiler mode & keep the naan for under 20 secs. Don’t keep too long otherwise you will end up in a burnt naan.
13. [Optional]Just sprinkle your naan with some chaat masala on top. My mom would put some chaat masala on parathas at home & I loved those, so decided to put some on this Naan as well. And it tastes delicious.

Your restaurant style naan is ready to serve. You are sure to impress your guests by this recipe :).

You can even stuff your naan with different kinds of stuffings you prefer like -

• Potato Masala
• Grated Cauliflower mix
• Shredded Carrots mix
• Spinach mix
• Minced Corn Mix
• Rockstar Schezwan Chinese Mix

Watch out this space for stuffing ideas & recipes for above mentioned stuffings.

As always if you like my recipes PPC (please post comments)….Adios….

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.

Some experts believe that increased consumption of high-fructose corn syrup is a cause for the growing obesity problem. One theory is that fructose is more readily converted to fat by your liver than is sucrose (other form of sugar), increasing the levels of fat in your bloodstream. Apart from these theories, I don’t understand why to have a sweetener in my bread (& other products) even when it doesn’t need to be sweet. Why should you have a can of fruit juice containing heaping of HCFS, when you can do with a fresh fruit.

4. High Sodium - Fast foods, processed foods, snacks, salted nuts etc are very high in sodium content. Sodium draws moisture out of the food so it keeps it from spoiling. Increased sodium content can cause high-blood pressure, several kidney problems & water retention. So try to reduce your sodium intake.

Healthy Tips

• For Yogurts try to use Organic ones, which don’t contain HCFS & several other ingredients that you don’t identify with. Our plain old yogurt should contain Milk & some Live Bacterias. For vegetarians, please check for gelatin in yogurts, yoplaits etc. Gelatin is mostly obtained from animal’s tissues, so its not exactly vegetarian friendly food. Thats a concern for me too, so I prefer using Organic ones even because of this.

• I like to use 100% Whole Wheat Franz Bread or 100% Whole Wheat Sara Lee (new variety introduced from Sara Lee) which explicitly calls out for no HCFS on its package.

• Low-Sodium -I think this is one “Low” tag that we can buy without lot of researching :). A lot of salt is added into the food for taste & preservative reasons. So always get Low-Sodium varieties of pasta sauces, soups, chips, unsalted nuts etc. When purchasing Frozen Vegetables,Fruits and canned tomatoes look for the ones that don’t have sodium.

• Choose Low fat Diary products like 2%, 1% or fat-free instead of full fat.

• Always Fruit - Fruit Juices typically strip off essential fiber from fruit & more worse are loaded with sugar. Instead have fresh fruits - apples, strawberries, pears, oranges etc. Look for ways in which you can incorporate fruits in your dessert, breakfast, snack. And trust me in no time you will be a fruit addict like me :). Try out my FruPlait.

You can’t completely eliminate the use of the above mentioned elements in your food. But you can definitely pay more attention in buying items by reading labels & comparing the low-fat, low-calorie varieties with the regular ones. I am sure you appreciate having a sliver of Cake or some decadent dessert and savor it rather than pile up on sugar unknowingly from breads, juices, diet sodas thinking that they are good for you.

So hopefully, this post was informative enough for all my readers. I would love to hear about your thoughts or comments on this.
Looking forward to your inputs.

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.

Your cool FruPlait is ready.

Note - If you like to eat this as a snack or in breaskfast I suggest to keep the sugar content low. But if you plan this for a dessert, you can increase the sugar to make it sweeter. This is a great summer dessert.
If you want to make this ahead of time to enjoy later, make sure to omit the cereals from step 3 &4. Otherwise they will become mushy & will not taste as good. Instead just before serving sprinkle some on top and this will taste just as good.

Under 100 calories, a whopping upto 12g of proteins, goodness from fruits & super in taste - how good does that sound :-D.

If you like this recipe, Please Post your Comments (I will use shorthand for this as PPC)

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.
2. Add my coriander/cilantro chutney with curd in the salad & enjoy it on toasted bread.
3. You can add Sweet Tamarind Chutney & coriander/cilantro chutney to this Salad Mix to make a variation of Bhel.
4. It can be used as a topping on Ritz Crackers.

If you tried this recipe or enjoyed reading the post, you know what to do - please leave comments.

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.

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.

Peanuts in the chutney cut through the sharp taste of cilantro & chilies, makes it milder & nuttier. It gives a nice pastel bright green color as opposed to dark green color. This chutney keeps well in the fridge for a week in a sealed jar.

Please leave your comments if you liked the recipe.

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.

If you have read my Apple Muffin Recipe you will realize that ingredients & procedure are more or less similar in this Muffin too. But since the fruit is different, it tastes whole lot different. So it’s simple to make one type & then try something new with the similar knowledge. This makes our life easier, healthier & tastier rather than remembering 100 different recipes. All in one (not bad ;)).

As always please post your thoughts, it’s nice to know that people are reading what you are writing.