Venthaya Keerai Thogayal

The last 2 weeks have been interesting in terms of the kind of food I cooked at home. I happened to lay my hands on a lot of keerai varieties including the original Indian thandu keerai, agathi keerai, baby spinach and of course, Venthaya Keerai. We prefer venthaya keerai either in a paratha or in aloo methi. I tried out this thogayal today and I reckon that it is a pretty awesome dish.

Methi Leaves/Venthaya Keerai: 1 bunch, washed, stalks removed, roughly chopped
Urad Dal: 1/4 cup or 3 tbsp
Red Chillies: 4-5
Hing
Salt
Tamarind: a small marble size, soaked in water and extracted or 1 tsp pate

Heat a skillet/pan, dry roast the urad dal till it turns pink and keep it aside.
Now, add a tsp of oil and roast the chillies, keep aside.
In the same pan, add the leaves and stir fry for about 2 mins until wilted and cooked.
Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend well until smooth.
Adjust seasoning and serve with hot rice/idlis/dosai.

Keerai Masial

I think this is one of the most healthy ways to eat spinach and is definitely the tastiest. I prefer to use the Frozen Spinach simply because it saves time on chopping. If you use fresh leaves, make sure to wash it atleast in 3-4 changes of water and chop as fine as you can. Also, once cooked you need to mash it up by hand/blender.

Spinach: Frozen Cubes: about 4 per person.
Salt: to taste (spinach holds much lesser salt than any other veggie. So use less and add more later)
Turmeric: a tiny pinch
Hing: 1/4 tsp
Water: 1/4 cup.
Rice, Urad Dal, Mustard Seeds, Red Chilli: For tadka.
Oil: 1 tsp. Use coconut oil for added flavour.

--Take water in a sauce pan and bring to boil with salt and turmeric.
--Add the spinach cubes and cook until it is thawed and for another 2 minutes.
--Add the Hing, remove from the hob.
--Make a tadka with Rice, Urad Dal, Mustard seeda and Red Chilli. Pour on top of Spinach.

This is a great combination with Pulisheri/Vatha Kuzhambu/Curd Rice.

CousCous Salad with Roasted Vegetables

Salads are obviously healthy, but can be incredibly boring. I had a packet of Cous Cous and was wondering what to do with it, when I remembered a sald I had at M&S. It was very very tasty and filling!

CousCous: 1/2 cup
Chickpeas: 1 tin, drained.
Mixed chopped Veggies: aubergines, carrots, potato, onion, Swede, Courgette: total 2 cups
Garlic: 2 whole, unpeeled cloves
Salt
Olive Oil
Butter: a small teaspoon
Cumin Powder: 1 tsp
Lemon
Mixed Salad Leaves

--Take the couscous in a bowl. Add the butter, some salt and pour 1.5 times boiling water and cover and leave for 10 minutes.

--Pre-heat oven to 200C.

--Take a baking tray, add the veggies and garlic and mix in olive oil and cumin.

--Bake for about 30 minutes or until the veggies are well roasted. You can prepare this in bulk and store in a fridge for upto 3 days.

-- Now, combine the chickpeas and couscous. Add the cooled mixed veggies, season with some lemon and adjust salt.

--Serve on a bed of salad leaves.

An added flavour would be Mint/Basil Leaves. But entirely optional.

Crushed Chilli

I know that this does not qualify as a recipe, per se. However, there are days when we refuse to have Molaga Podi or chutney with Idli/Dosa. My grandma came up with this one, and I love it on any given day!

Green Chillies: Spicy ones : 2-3
Salt
Hing
coconut oil: 1/4 tsp
Curd: 3 tablespoons.
Water: 2 tablespoons

Crush the green chillies. You can split them down the middle and squish them with your fingers.
Add the salt, hing, oil and water. Mix well.
Add curd and adjust the seasoning.

Onion Chutney

This is a great combination for Dosa or Idlis. You will need a blender, though.

Urad dal: 3 tablespoons
Red Chillies: 4-5
Curry Leaves: 1 Sprig
Oil: 2 tablespoons.
Onions: 2 medium, sliced thin.
Mustard seeds: 2 pinches
Hing
Salt
Tamarind: size of a cherry soaked and extracted

Heat a wok with oil, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, chillies and curry leaves.

Saute until the dal is pink.

Now add the hing, onions, salt and saute until cooked.

Put the whole lot into a blender with the tamarind extract and blend well.

Vegetable Poha

This is probably one of the healthiest dinners we have had in a while. Very easy too.

Poha/Pawa/Aval: Medium thick: 2 cups.

Cabbage finely chopped: 1 cup
Carrots finely chopped: 1 cup
One potato, cubed
Peas: 1/2 cup.
Onion: 1 medium: finely chopped
Ginger chopped: 1 heaped tablespoon
Green chillies: 2-3 finely chopped.
Curry Leaves: 1 sprig
Lemon: 1
Corriander leaves: to taste
Salt
Hing
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Red Chilli powder: 1 teaspoon
Peanuts/urad dal/chana dal/mustard

--Begin by washing the poha and draining it. This will soften it.
--Before you start chopping everything, cut the potatoes and cook them separately and drain.
--Chop everything and keep it ready. Alternatively, you can pick up stir fry veggies from a store. saves time.
--Heat a wok with some oil.
--add the peanuts, urad dal, chana dal and mustard with curry leaves and let it splutter.
--Now add the green chillies and ginger.
--Add Onions with some hing and salt and allow it to cook.
--Now add the turmeric and red chilli powder and rest of the veggies and potato.
--When everything has combined and shrunk (takes about 5 mins) add the poha.
--Stir well.
--Pour the lemon juice over the poha, adjust seasoning and garnish with corriander. Chances are, you may have to fix the hing and salt at this point.