Quick and Easy Lunch with Millets and Veggies

This light, filling and nutritious meal comes together quickly and easily. I didn’t measure anything, but it’s a pretty adaptable recipe and you can play around with the quantities. I used the vegetables I had and you can do the same. I would’ve liked to throw in some cooked beans, like chickpeas, but didn’t have any on hand. I’m sure other herbs, like oregano and thyme, would taste great too. This dish can be made milder or more strongly flavoured by using less or more herbs.

You need:

• Foxtail millet (You can use another small millet, such as finger millet, or grain alternatives like amaranth. You could, of course, use rice.)
• Vegetable broth (I used homemade, which I keep unseasoned and unsalted.)
• Dried sage
• Dried marjoram
• Dried rosemary
• Black pepper (I used a combination of pre-packaged powder and fresh ground.)
• Garlic, chopped finely (Use lots for a more garlicky taste.)
• Broccoli florets
• Cabbage, chopped (You can use green or red, or both.)
• Pineapple chunks
• Spring onions, chopped
• Salt
• Olive oil

Rinse the millets, and cook them with vegetable broth, sage, marjoram and rosemary, a dash of salt, and water as needed, until soft but not mushy. I did this in the microwave oven.

While the millets are cooking, heat a large frying pan or wok (I used a kadhai) and pour a teeny bit of olive oil in to it. When the oil is hot, add chopped garlic and let it cook on low heat for a minute. Now turn up the heat and add broccoli florets. From this point on, be sure to toss frequently to avoid burning and to cook the vegetables evenly. Cook the broccoli for about 2-3 minutes, then add cabbage and pepper. Stir-fry till a few of the cabbage bits start to look brown and crunchy, then add pineapple chunks. I added fresh ground pepper too. After about 2 minutes, add the white bits of the spring onions, and after another minute, add the green bits. Don’t forget to keep tossing/ stirring the whole time! Mix in the green bits of the spring onions quickly, add salt and mix in. Right away, add the cooked millets – I used a fork to get them from their cooking pot to the kadhai to minimise lumps. Toss well for about a minute, then turn off heat.

If you use a small grain or grain alternative, your meal will be ready in about 20 minutes, and that includes preparation and cooking time!

Chutney Hummus

Is it still hummus if it’s got no garlic, no lemon juice and no sesame seeds in it? Or is it just a chickpea dip? Does it matter when it tastes as good as this does?

Today, I cooked up an enormous amount of chickpeas and built up quite a craving for hummus and veggies – only to discover the calamitous absence of fresh garlic in my kitchen. What’s one to do? Improvise, of course! And what an improvisation this turned out to be – a sweet and sour and hot hummus with Indian spices that I’m definitely making again.

Now, one drawback of improvised recipes is that you don’t know how good they are until you’ve finished making them, so sometimes you can’t be as definite about quantities as you’d like to be. So do feel free to fiddle around with the quantities a bit to get just the right taste for you.

Here’s a trick that I think helps my hummus get all smooth and creamy – I soak dried chickpeas overnight, rinse and pressure cook them in a moderate quantity of water until they’re very soft, almost falling apart. And I turn them into hummus while they’re still warm, using the cooking liquid as well. If using chickpeas I cooked earlier, I warm them before processing into hummus.

You will need:

• Chickpeas, cooked – 400 gms (Keep the cooking liquid as well.)
• Seedless dates, chopped – 1 tbsp
• Tamarind – 2″ piece or 1 tbsp paste
• Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Hot red chilli pepper – to taste (I used 3/4 of a mundu chilli.)
• Salt – to taste

Soak the chopped dates in hot water for at least half an hour. If you’re using tamarind pieces, soak these in a separate bowl. Dry roast coriander seeds and cumin seeds in a tiny hot skillet or frying pan, adding the red chilli pepper right at the end. You want the spices to get just a shade or two darker, and aromatic.

Add the chopped dates, soaking liquid and all, to your mixing contraption. I use the wet grinder jar of mine. Mash the tamarind pieces a tad and pour them through a strainer. You might want to rub the the bits against the strainer to get all the pulp out. Pour this in as well. Add chickpeas, salt and toasted spices. Process until smooth, adding water as needed.

I didn’t have rock salt on hand, but I bet it would make this dip taste even more like a chutney! Next, time, I’m substituting half of the regular salt for some rock salt.

Papaya ginger lemon smoothie

A quick morning post for a quick morning smoothie!

This one isn’t for parties. It’s not a dessert smoothie. It’s a simple, nutritious, refreshing breakfast.

To make a bit over double the amount of smoothie in the picture, I used:

• Papaya, ripe – 1 small
• Bananas, ripe – 2 medium
• Ginger – 1 cm piece
• Lemon juice – 2 tsp

Peel and chop papaya into big chunks. Peel and break banana into bits. Peel and chop ginger coarsely. Blend everything together, adding a splash of water as needed. This makes a very thick smoothie.

Clear-The-Fridge Stew, Three Ways

It’s 33 degrees Celsius, and feels a lot hotter. Starting tomorrow, I’ll be swimming in salads. But today, I had to clear space in the fridge for fresh arrivals. Here is the odd assortment that needed using up:

• An eggplant
• 5 or 6 medium carrots
• 2 beets
• 3 sad looking tomatoes
• A small chunk of red cabbage
• Spring onions, with the green bits all wilted

I also had a few cloves of garlic, some ginger, a pumpkin and a few onions. My idea was to roast the eggplant over a flame, cook the rest of the veggies in a pressure cooker as for a soup, blend everything together, and stew the blend with cooked whole red lentils and seasonings.

But what seasonings? I asked a few friends, and got so many great ideas I ended up making THREE variations of the stew!

First, I soaked whole red lentils in some hot water. Next, I roasted the eggplant over a direct flame till cooked through, and set it aside to cool. I chopped up all the vegetables I listed above, a third of the pumpkin, one large onion, a few cloves of garlic, a one inch piece of ginger, and the bulbs of the spring onion. I cooked these in a pressure cooker for two minutes at full pressure, and let the pressure release naturally. I transferred the mixture to a big plate to cool.

While the veggies were cooling, I cooked the lentils in the pressure cooker till they were soft –  about 7 minutes at full pressure. I peeled the roasted eggplant, and blended the cooked veggies and eggplant until smooth. I then divided the lentils and blended veggies into three portions.

Italian style:
Add dried oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary and parsley, along with white pepper powder and salt to blended veggies and lentils, and stew for about 10 minutes on low heat.

Indian style:
Heat up half a tsp of oil in a hot pan. Pop some mustard seeds in the oil, add coriander seeds, cumin seeds, a dried red chilli broken up and fenugreek seeds and cook until light brown and aromatic. Add blended veggies, lentils, turmeric powder and salt, and cook for 5 to 6 minutes on low heat.

Ethiopian style:
I wanted to use the spice blend here: http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/11/ethiopian-inspired-red-lentil-soup.html. I was missing a few ingredients, though, so I ended up using ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek, Kashmiri red chilli, black pepper and turmeric. I added these along with salt to blended vegetables and lentils, and stewed for about 10 minutes on low heat.

Let the three stews sit for a few minutes before eating, to allow flavours to blend better.

All the variations have turned out delicious, and I’m finding it impossible to pick which one I like best!

Chaat Salad

Chaat is one the yummiest things to eat ever invented. Different parts of India have different versions of chaat, and each region boasts of many kinds of chaat.

Unfortunately, a fair few chaats centre on deep fried and other unwholesome ingredients that aren’t exactly healthy. Plus, street chaats can often be dicey for people with sensitive tummies.

My cravings for chaat led me to one of my favouritest kitchen experiments. I combined my love for chaat with my love for salads, and out popped chaat salads – all the fun of a chaat, all the nutrition of a salad. (Yes, I know that slogan is rubbish. I think I can afford that, though, since the actual dish is delish!)

The trick is absurdly simple – dress your salad with a chaat chutney. And choose a combo of mild, sweet and crunchy veggies.

Here is the chaat salad I make most often and love best. It’s dressed with saunth chutney – a sweet and sour chutney starring dried ginger powder.

Saunth chutney:

• Tamarind – 2-inch piece (Or use 1 tbsp thick pulp + 2 tbsp water.)
• Jaggery powder – 1 tbsp, or more to taste
• Dried ginger powder – 1 scant tsp
• Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp (Use less or replace with Kashmiri chilli powder for a less pungent chutney.)
• Rock salt – 1/2 tsp
• Salt – 1/2 tsp, or more to taste

Soak tamarind in a couple tbsp of hot water for at least 10 minutes. Squeeze to extract pulp and strain. Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer, stirring to make sure all the powders dissolve. Turn off heat after a couple minutes and let cool.

Salad:

• Cucumber, chopped small – 1 big
• Bell peppers, chopped small – 2 small or 1 big
• Carrots, minced – 2 small or 1 big
• Sweet corn kernels, lightly steamed – 3 to 4 tbsp
• Spring onions, whites + greens, chopped small – 3 to 4 tbsp
• Salad greens, torn into bits – a couple handfuls (I use lettuce for its mild taste.)
• Chickpeas, soaked, cooked in salted water and drained – 3 to 4 tbsp (I used brown chickpeas for the salad in the photo.)
• Potatoes, boiled and peeled – 2 small or 1 big

Combine all ingredients except the potatoes in a huge bowl. Crumble the potatoes into the bowl. Add the chutney and toss well. Your salad is ready.

Don’t skip the crumbled potato. It absorbs and holds the chutney. This delivers the chutney’s sweet-sour yumminess to your mouth in every bite, instead of it pooling uselessly at the bottom of the bowl!

If you aren’t going to eat all of the salad right away, I recommend tossing the ingredients without the chutney and then adding chutney to smaller portions before you eat. The salt in the chutney draws water out of the veggies; and while very useful, the fluid-retaining properties of the potato are limited.

Chaat is no longer junk food. You’re welcome 😀

A neat little Ratatouille twist

Everyone loves ratatouille, right? I usually make mine by just stewing all the ingredients in a pot. Garlic, tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, herbs and pepper powder – YUM!

Yesterday, I threw in a teeny dash of prepared French-style mustard into the pot after it was done cooking, and let it sit for a few minutes before eating. It was a really interesting and tasty twist on my usual dish and one I’m sure I’ll try again.

Vegetable Stew Chinese-style

This is a wholesome Chinese-inspired stew that my mum made quite often for me. It was also one of the first few dishes I learned to cook – and one I’ve eaten lots of over the years!

In the picture here, I’ve used carrots, green peas, red cabbage, cooked chickpeas and cooked red rice – but you can use any vegetables you like. Some of my favourites are sweet or baby corn, mushrooms, broccoli or cauliflower, and green cabbage. You can use tofu or other peas/ beans in place of the chickpeas, and another kind of rice or grain instead of red rice. This stew works well with noodles too. Just make sure to adjust the quantity of the seasonings accordingly.

You need:

• Onion – 1 large, sliced
• Garlic, minced – 1 tsp
• Ginger, minced – 1 tsp
• Carrots, chopped small – 50 gms
• Green peas – 50 gms
• Red cabbage, chopped – 2 tbsp
• Chickpeas, cooked – 3 tbsp
• Red rice, cooked – 5 tbsp
• Black pepper powder – 1/4 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Cornflour – 1 to 2 tsp, depending on how thick you want your stew
• Soy sauce – 1 tsp (optional)

Heat a wok or stewpot and cook onions in it for a couple minutes. Add ginger and garlic, and cook until onions are translucent. Throw in a splash of water and the longer-cooking ingredients – carrots, mushrooms, tofu if using etc. After a couple minutes headstart, add everything else except the cornflour. Mix well and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Dissolve cornflour in a a few spoonfuls of water and stir in to stew. Let bubble till stew turns from milky to translucent. Turn off heat.

Let the stew sit for a few minutes before eating.

Vegetable Stew Appam-Style

Appams are a very delicious crêpe-type thingy made of rice batter and coconut milk, eaten in many parts of southern India and Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, I can’t make them.

I can, however, make a mean vegetable stew of the kind usually served with appams. It’s ridiculously easy too!

Get together:

• 1 onion, small – thinly sliced
• Button mushrooms, chopped – 50 gms
• Carrots, chopped small – 50 gms
• Green peas – 50 gms
• Coconut milk – 2 to 3 tbsp
• Big cardamom – 1 big pod
• Cloves – 4
• Cinnamon – 1 one-inch stick, broken into smaller bits
• Bay leaf – 1
• Black pepper powder – 1/4 tsp, scant
• Salt – to taste
• Water – as needed

Heat up a wok or other pot, and turn down the heat to a steady low. Add big cardamom pod, cloves and cinnamon bits. Toast for about 45 seconds, then add bay leaf. Toast for another minute. When you get a light whiff of the aroma of the spices, add onions. When onions start to brown a bit, add mushrooms and carrots. Cook for another couple minutes or so. Add enough water to just about cover the vegetables and bring to a gentle boil. Add peas and pepper, cover and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes, till vegetables are done. Add salt and coconut milk. Mix well. Turn off heat when you see a gentle bubbling. Cover and let the stew sit for about 10 minutes before eating.

With some steamed rice, this amount of stew serves one very hungry person, such as me.

SuperHummus

I think I just gave my hummus superpowers by having a genetically modified spider… no, that doesn’t sound right. I should’ve gone with a Popeye reference, given that the catalyst to the transformation of my hummus was spinach!

Pop culture references aside, this superhummus is bursting with protein, calcium, iron and Vitamin C. Oh, and pure yumminess. Try it.

To make regular hummus, I blend together:

• Chickpeas, cooked – 150 gms
• Cooking liquid from chickpeas – as needed
• Garlic – 2 to 5 cloves, depending on size and taste
• Sesame seeds, raw – 1 tbsp (Reduce for lower fat version and increase for a stronger sesame taste.)
• Lemon juice – 2 to 3 tbsp, to taste
• Paprika – 1 tsp
• Salt – to taste

I soak dried chickpeas overnight, then rinse them and cook them with fresh water. I use a pressure cooker – it takes about 18 minutes on full pressure for the chickpeas to get nicely soft. I let the pressure release naturally and blend into hummus while still a bit warm.

To turn this into superhummus, just add some steamed spinach to the blender.

I microwaved the spinach with a tbsp of water, covered, for 3 minutes. It was about 50 gms when cooked. Once cool, I poured the spinach and liquid into the mixer and blended everything together till very smooth.

Lemongrass Ginger Noodle Soup

A hot pot of soup on a hot sunny day. Yes, I’m weird. This soup, though? Not weird at all.

Get together:

• Broccoli – 1 small, cut into small florets
• Sweet corn – 100 gms
• Spinach, chopped – 150 gms
• Tofu, firm, cubed – 100 gms
• Rice noodles/ vermicelli, dry – 50 gms
• Lemongrass, dried – 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp (Double if using fresh – I haven’t tried.)
• Ginger, finely diced/ minced – 2/3 tsp, or more to taste
• Black pepper – 1/3 tsp or to taste
• Salt – to taste

While you prep the vegetables and tofu, bring a cup of water to a gentle boil, turn off heat and steep lemongrass in it for about 10 minutes. Strain and reserve the infusion, but don’t throw away the leaves yet. Repeat to get another round of infusion from the same leaves.

To a heated pot, add the ginger and stir. If it sticks, throw in a tiny splash of water and stir for a minute. Pour in the lemongrass infusion, add tofu cubes and sweet corn and bring to a gentle boil. Turn down heat. Grab a bunch of rice noodles and stick them in the pot, pressing down and mixing them in as they soften. This will take a couple minutes. Cover and let simmer gently. After 3 to 4 minutes, add broccoli, and continue to simmer for 2 more minutes.

Mix in chopped spinach, pepper and salt. Cover and simmer till spinach wilts. Turn off heat and let soup sit for about 5 minutes before eating.

I’ve tried several variations of this – replacing ginger with garlic, substituting baby corm for sweet corn, adding mushrooms, omitting tofu – and I like this one the best.