Punjabi Tinda Subji

The other day, I was having lunch with my friend Prerna and she had brought this awesome Tinda subji. I've made a few changes to change the taste a bit .

What you will need:

• 5-6 Tindas washed & chopped into quarter pieces (Tinda's are generally round so cut them in 4 equal parts)
• 1-2 small & round potatoes washed & chopped into quarters
• 1 medium sized onion washed & finely chopped
• 1 tomato washed & finely chopped (you can use tomato puree as well)
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1/2 a cup of water
• 1/2 tsp Jeera
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 3/4 tsp garam masala
• Green coriander leaves for garnishing

How to make it :

• Heat oil in a pan
• Add jeera seeds, when the aroma comes, add the onion & saute till they are golden brown.
• Then add ginger-garlic paste & fry for a minute.
• Now add all the spices & fry for a minute.
• Add the chopped tomatoes & let it cook till they are well cooked & soft (if tomato puree is used then cook till oil is visible at the pan's side)
• Now add the tinda & a little water & cover the pan with a lid to cook it till its a little soft.
• Then add the potato pieces & cook till they are soft.
• Garnish with cilantro leaves

Serve with Roti's/ Naan's or as a porial with rice !

Raw Mango and Onion Chutney

A chutney with raw mango and onion may surprise you, but making this a part of your daily diet helps to prevent you from sunstrokes. And guess what ? It gets done in 10 minutes with ZERO cooking :)

What you will need to make 1 cup of Chutney :

• ½ cup raw mango, grated
• ½ cup white onions, grated
• 2 tablespoons grated jaggery (gur)
• ¼ teaspoon black salt (sanchal)
• ¼ teaspoon roasted cumin seed (jeera) powder
• ¼ teaspoon chilli powder
• Salt to taste

How to make the Chutney :

• Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.
• Keep aside till the jaggery melts.
• Cover and keep refrigerate till required.
• Serve the chutney with lunch everyday.

Note : This lasts for up to 3 days if refrigerated but it's best to make it fresh everyday.

Palak Rice

Its been a while since i tried anything new ..more because summer is here and I prefer to have just poha and loads of watermelon for dindin. I bought a couple of bunches of palak yesterday with the thought of making palak dal with rice but ended up making palak rice instead :) There obviously is a reason behind it ... I have put on a few inches around my waist and some how think eating rice and dal wud make me put on more than"Variety" rice as it seems to be lesser to eat :P( rice and dal and porial and papad and pickle and a second helping :P) .. As long as the nutrition goes in, I will cook in any form :) so here is how you can make this yummy and simple "Palak Rice" yourself...

These are what you will need :

Rice - cooked - 2 cups

Spinach/ Palak - chopped -4 cups

Onion - chopped - 1

Ginger & Garlic paste -2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Red Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Coriander seeds powder - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp

Pepper - 1/4 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

That looks a lot but sure is easy once you start cooking.. This is how you make it :

• Cook the rice and keep it separately
• Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, ginger and garlic
• Once the onions are cooked and light brown, add all powders except garam masala and pepper and stir well
• Add the chopped palak and mix well and leave to cook covered and on low flame for 3-5 minutes
• Palak will have given out water and at this stage, add the water and the cooked rice, garam masala and pepper and mix well
• Keep on flame for another 3 minutes and turn off heat and we're done ! :)

Goes great with curd / papad / pickle or coconut chutney .

Onion Chutney

While growing up we stayed in Thiruvanmiyur for a while and this is a recipe I picked up from the "Aunty" downstairs. I loved it since day 1 :P


What you will need :

• 3 large onions chopped or sliced
• 1" piece of ginger
• 2-3 green chillies (optional)
• 2 tbsps cooking oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 3 dry red chillies broken into 1" bits
• Salt to taste

How to make it:

• Grind the onions, ginger and green chillies (if using) to a smooth paste . Remove into a serving bowl.

• In a small pan, heat the oil on a medium flame till it is very hot. Add the cumin seeds and fry till they stop spluttering. Now add the dry red chillies and fry till they turn darker.
• Add this tempering mixture of oil, cumin and red chillies to the onion-ginger-green chilli paste. Add salt to taste. Stir to mix well.

Serve as a chutney, dip or use as a sandwich spread!

P.s: If you don't like the raw taste, can fry the onions a bit until pink and then grind with Ginger and chillies.

Spicy Peanut Chutney

It tastes great with Idlis and Dosas :)

What you will need :

1 cup plain peanuts (with or without skin, as preferred)
5 dry red chillies
Salt to taste
Walnut-sized ball of tamarind (to make tamarind juice if you want a wet chutney)

How to make it :

• Heat a griddle till it is very hot, on a medium flame. Roast the peanuts and dry red chillies (stirring frequently) on this griddle till they give off a gentle cooked aroma.
• Allow to cool completely and then grind the peanuts and chillies to a coarse powder .
• Add salt to taste.
• If you want a wet chutney, soak the tamarind in a bowl just covered with hot water. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes or till soft. Then squeeze the tamarind (while still in the water) with your fingers, to release the pulp from it. Squeeze till you get most of the pulp off and into the water. Now strain the liquid to remove pith and any seeds. Tamarind juice is now ready to use.
• Add enough tamarind juice or paste to your previously prepared Chutney to get a thick consistency.

Serve with anything :)

Beetroot Chutney

What all you will need :

2 Beetroots, Cooked and Peeled
2 Red Chilies (adjust acc to taste)
2 tbsp Urad Dal
"½ Coconut, Grated
1 tbsp Tamarind pulp
A pinch of Hing (Asafoetida)
Salt to taste
For the Seasoning :

2 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 tsp Turmeric Powder
Few Curry Leaves
Two pinches or Urd dal

How to make it :

• Fry Red Chilies and Urad Dal in little Oil. Remove when Urad Dal turns pink in color.
• Grind all the ingredients together to a paste. Remove to a bowl.
• Heat Oil and add Mustard Seeds,Urd dal, when it starts to splutter add Turmeric Powder and Curry Leaves.
• Pour this over the Chutney and serve.

Goes well with Dosa's, Phulkas and puri's :)

Carrot Chutney:

This is a boon to moms who are not able to get their kids to eat Carrots :) This is great with adai and works with regular dosa and idli. Here's the recipe:

What you will need :

Grated Carrots: 1-11/2 cups. I usually grate 2 medium carrots.
Roasted Groundnuts - 1/4 cup. Or 3 tablespoons
Red Chilli: 4-5 nos. I add about 7. S likes it spicy.
Garlic Pod: 1.
Tamarind: a small bit
Oil: 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder: 1 tablespoon
Salt : to taste

How to make it:

• Dry roast the garlic and chillies. Dump into the mixer.
• Add the roasted groundnuts.
• Now pour 1/4 tsp of oil and sautee the carrots for a few minutes.
• Add the corriander powder to the carrots and take it off the heat.
• Add the tamarind, salt and carrots into the mixer and blend well.

Carrot chutney is ready!

Note: You can add a quarter cup of roasted coconut if desired.

Peanut Brinjal Chutney

Peanuts brinjal chutney is a simple tasty chutney made by grinding the cooked brinjal and tomato to a fine thick paste. The addition of peanuts makes it have a taste similar to that of peanut chutney. It tastes best with steaming rice and hot ghee. Avaa used to make this and this always reminds me of her ..

What you will need to make this :

• 1 cup brinjal/ eggplant/ aubergine - cubed
• 1/2 cup tomatoes - cubed
• 2 tbs peanuts
• 1/2 cup ridge gourd (optional)
• 3 tsp coriander seeds
• 3-4 green chillies - chopped
• 5-6 - garlic cloves
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp oil
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 cup water

How to make this yummy chutney:

• Heat oil in a kadai. Once hot, throw in cumin seeds, garlic cloves, green chillies , coriander seeds, brinjal, tomatoes and ridge gourd.
• Cook covered for 10- 15minutes on a low flame. Once done, let this cool.
• Simultaneously heat another kadai and dry fry the peanuts for 3-5 minutes on a medium flame with constant sauteing. Once done, remove and let cool.
• Grind them all to a fine thick paste with little salt and little water. Adjust salt before serving.

Serve the yummy brinjal pachadi with rice topped with a generous spoonful of ghee and spicy crispy pappad. This can also be had with idly/ dosa/pongal and if you are as crazy as I am , with phulkas too.

Mango Pickle

Most of us from would have fond memories of climbing the Mango tree(s) either in our own houses or our grandmum's house or even better ( stolen from the neighbors house) . Come summer and so does all those wonderful memories. Apart from eating them raw with salt and chilly powder, for those with no patience to wait until you can pickle it after a couple of weeks, here is something easy and yummy that you can prepare a couple of hours before your meal.

Here is what you will need:

• Raw sour green mango - 1 large or 2 medium Chopped finely.
• Salt - 1 tsp ( Adjust according to your salt intake and the mango quantity)
• Red Chilli Powder: 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground Fenugreek Seeds: 1 tsp
• Asafoetida/hing: 1/2 tsp
• Gingelly Oil : 2 tablespoons ( you dont have this, go buy some! Not worth making the pickle without this :P )

How to make the pickle :

• Add salt to the chopped mangoes and leave it to soak it all up for an hour.
• Heat the oil, and when it is at a high temperature, add the powders and take it off the flame.
• Pour the oil mix into the mangoes. Taste to fix the hing/salt.
• Your pickle is ready !

This is amazing with Idli/ Dosa/ Phulkas / Curd rice and even bread :)

Bread Snack

I remember as a kid there were days when we had to gulp breakfast down as it was getting late for school and on top of that had a huge glass of milk to finish as well... This graduated to the bread and jam sandwich being dipped in milk for it to go down easier and from there came this wonderful recipe which I still snack on at times when i want something simple yet nutritive.

Here is what you will need ( for two ) :

• 4 - 6 slices of bread
• mixed fruit jam
• Warm / absolutely cold milk ( based on your preference)

How to make it :

• Make sandwiches of the bread and jam ( liberal jam is what I like :D ) and then roughly cut up each sandwich into 4 or 6 pieces each.
• Divide them equally into two bowls and pour milk into it
• Let it soak for about five minutes and then sit back and enjoy.

Kids will love this and you get to give them nutritious bread and milk and jam that they like :)