Vegetarian meat(Seitan)

Vegetarian meat is most parts gluten and some part (30 -40%) flour. We try to incorporate flours with protein content like chickpea flour, soaked and ground urad dal or lentils. Gluten is the vital part of this recipe to pripovide texture.

Urad dal is popular in Indian cuisine and is a significant part of the South Indian idli. Ground and fermented with rice gives the fluffiness for the idli.

Ingredients:

Gluten -2/3 cup
Flour   - 1/3 cup ( prefered are ground lentils or lentil flours)
Water as required
Salt as per taste
Spices of your choice
Food colouring (optional) - 3-4 drops*

Mix the flours, spices and salt  in a food processor and blend for a minute or two adding water as required. If you are using food colouring add it now and blend until it is a bread dough consistency.
Take dough out and knead on countertop for a couple of minutes. Use a little oil or flour while kneading. It may be a little sticky in consistency but it shoukd be ok.

Shape dough into desired shape and steam until well cooked.
Store in refrigerator for a week to 10 days. Slice into small cubes or thin slices in recipes. Saute or grill  them well with little oil when adding in recipes for good texture. This provides a goid source of protein for vegetarians.

*In this recipe we used red food coloring.

1. In this recipe we soaked equal portions yellow split peas and urad dal , ground into dough.
2. You can use fermented water from soaked beans/ wheat or cooked pasta water instead of plain water.
3.Spices like carraway, cumin , black or crushed red pepper are the ones we commonly use.
4. Small cubes of vegetarian jeat can be sauteed and used in stir-fries, pilaf, uppumas and pastas.
5. Thin slices can be grilled placed in sandwiches and thin slices can be placed as pizza toppings. Be creative!

Quinoa kichadi

We are trying to incorporate healthier meals and reduce our rice consumption for other grains richer in fiber. In this pursuit  this recipe with quinoa was a quick one pot meal. It was a desirable option for our 8 year old.

Ingredients:

Quinoa                                                   - 1 1/2 cups
Chopped chives                                   -  1/4 cup
Chopped garlic                                    - 1 tsp
Chopped ginger                                   - 1 tsp
Chopped bell peppers(capsicum)    - 1/2 cup(small pieces)
Tempeh                                                 - 1/2 cup(small pieces)
Asparagus                                             -1/2 cup(julienne cuts)
Chopped carrots                                  - 1/4 cup ( small cubes)
Chopped tomatoes                               - 1/4 cup
Turmeric powder                                  - 1/4 tsp
Salt                                                          - as per taste
Water                                                      - 3-4 cups as required
Mustard seeds                                      - 1 tsp
Dill seeds                                               - 1 tsp
Chopped cilantro(coriander leaves) - 1/4 cup to garnish
Oil of choice                                           - 2-3 tsps
Spices of your choice*                          - 1-2 tsps
Slivered almonds(optional)                 - 1/2 cup                                
* I used home made mix of cinnamon, cloves,red chillies and coriander seeds.

Toast quinoa on stove top or in an oven until it starts popping. Then add twice the amount of water and cover cooked in medium heat stirring in between.
While the quinoa is cooking heat a flat pan and add oil. Once the oil is hot add the mustard seeds and dill seeds to it, let it splutter. Add the ginger, garlic, chives and tempeh to the pan and saute in medium heat for 3-5 minutes until the garlic/tempeh are light brown. Add the rest of the vegetables and saute well in medium heat. Add the turmeric powder, salt and spice powder and cook covered for another couple of minutes. If required some water can be added.
The quinoa should be cooked by now and ready to be added tonthe vegetable mixture. Let the vegetables blend well with cooked quinoa for about 3- 5 minutes in the covered pan in low heat. Switch off heat and serve warm in a bowl topped with chopped cilantro and toasted almonds.



Tips:

1. I used white quinoa, but red and black quinoa are other options. The red and black are a little more bitter in taste for some. We have used the red and mixed quinoa blend in pilaf, they taste as good as this.
2. I used store bought tempeh. Tempeh is a fermented soy product. More information -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempeh
3. The tempeh could be substituted with tofu or vegetarian meat for vegetarians.
4. It is important to saute tempeh, tofu and vegetarian meat and flavour them.
5. You could use any locally grown vegetables of your choice - red radishes, spinach, celery, potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplant are a few examples.
6. Other garnish options are curry leaves, mint , parsley, dill or rosemary.
7. Fresh or frozen cranberries are an option instead of tomatoes.
8. Any toasted nuts can be used while serving to give a nice crunch to the kichadi.

New year 2017

Different countries of the world have distinct food traditions for New year. We tried to merge a few into our New year cuisine this time. Our budding 7 year old cook tried a hand in preparing the fruit punch for the meal.

We made a vegetarian version of the Hoppin' John( a black eyed peas dish made in Southern US) served with collard greens and corn bread. We had corn bread for New year's breakfast. Black-eyed peas is seen as a sign of good luck for the New year. The dessert was a modified version of the Norwegian dish for new year/Christmas with 12 grapes. The grapes are a Spanish tradition, each signifying good luck for each month.Served on the side with raita and fruit punch.

Hoppin' John

Ingredients:

Dry Black eyed peas - 1/2 cup 

Collard greens           - Small bunch (chopped and blanched)

Onions(chopped)       - 1 cup

Vegetarian meat*       - 1/2 cup (chopped in small cubes)

garlic                          - 2 cloves(finely chopped)

Rice                            - 1 cup(basmati or jasmine)

Caraway seeds          - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds            - 1 tsp

Red chillies                 - 1-2 

Oil of choice               - 2 tsp

salt                              - as per taste

Water                          - as required for cooking rice and black -eyed peas

Soak black -eyed peas for half hour to an hour and pressure cook for a couple of whistles. Do not overcook it. Meanwhile cook the rice until well done but not mushy.

Heat a pan, add oil and mustard seeds, caraway and broken red chillies. Once the mustard seeds splutter add the garlic and onions and saute well.Add the vegetarian meat with salt to this and saute well until they are soft and not chewy. Once it is well done add the greens and black eyed peas and let them blend together in the closed pan for a few minutes. Finally add the cooked rice to this and let it cook in low heat for about 5-7 minutes.

Then switch off and serve warm with raita or pappadam.

The complete platter(leftover corn bread from breakfast)

 

vegetarian Hoppin' John

Grapes and Norwegian rice pudding

Tips:
* we made the vegetarian meat at home with gluten and vegetables.
1.To avoid overcooking the black-eyed peas, a pinch of salt can be added while cooking or cook with less water.
2.Instead of the vegetarian meat, pappadam or appalam fried in less oil(Indian seasoned dough fried like a crispy chip) can be used. The original Hoppin' John uses bacon, so we used the vegetarian meat.
3.Caraway seeds are similar to saunf in India, so can be replaced by that or with cumin seeds.
4.Any other greens can be used, collard greens are a tradition of the Southern United States.
5. Black pepper can be used instead of red pepper.

Fruit Punch:

In a bowl or a serving cup add few slices of oranges, apples,orange zest and juice of choice( we added Cranberry -Mango).  Serve with ice cubes. To add more flavor frozen juice ice cubes can be added.

Parmesan Grissini

This was our first attempt on making parmesan grissini.It was a little labor intensive but the energy and enthusiasm of my 7 year old in the holidays came in handy for this. We gave some sticks as part of the Christmas gift ot our neighbors and they loved it.


Ingredients:

All purpose flour                  - 2 cups
Gluten                                 - 2/3 cup
Cracked red pepper            - 1 tsp
Carraway seeds                  - 1 tsp
Active dry yeast                  - 3 tsp
Warm milk                           - 1 cup
Salt                                      - as per taste
Oil of choice                        - 3 tbsp( I used canola oil)
Parmesan cheese(grated) - 1/4 cup

Mix the dry ingredients together. Slowly add the oil and the milk and mix well until they all come together. Finally add the parmesan cheese to the dough until all of it blends into the dough well. Knead the dough for 3- 5 minutes on a floured surface until it forms a smooth dough.

Place the dough in a warm place covered until it doubles. It should take an hour to couple of hours depending on the temperature and moisture conditions.

Once it is doubled, knead for a minute. Roll the dough on a floured surface to a 1/4 inch thick rectangle with a rolling pin.
Meanwhile heat the oven to 400 F.
Cut the dough into long strips about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
Roll these strips into the form of rounded sticks as in the picture below.

Dough rolled out into stciks before baking

 Place them on a baking sheet/tray. Bake them for about 10-15 minutes. Turn them over in between.
They should bake to a firm to hard consistency.
Serve with any dip or with soup.The whole wheat tastes great as a snack with coffee or tea too.
We had ours with a clear soup the next day.
 Merry Christmas!!

baked grissini

Grissini with chocolate barks

Whole wheat version

Tips:

1.You can use just  bread flour or part Whole wheat flour & all purpose flour instead of all purpose and gluten(the riginal recipe used bread flour).
2. Instead of kneading the dough by hand I placed the dough in my Ninja food processor and ran it in the dough mode for a couple of minutes.
3. Use alternative dry spices for different flavours.
4.I used to store grated parmesan cheese. The other option could be to buy a block of Parmesan cheese and grate it for the recipe.
5. I placed the dough covered in an Aluminium foil in the oven rack. It took a couple of hours for it to rise.
6. You can reduce the amount of oil to the recipe as we did with the whole wheat version.

Mini frittafins

We stumbled on this recipe by accident when we were making the regular pasta frittata. Turned out to be yummy and a healthy breakfast. It is also a quick recipe and an appealing dish for kids

Ingredients:

Angel hair pasta/linguine      -  6 ounces (about 1 medium bowl,broken into half)
Eggs                                      - 2
Asparagus((chopped)           - 1/2 cup
Onions (finely chopped)       - 1/2 cup
Garlic                                     - 2 cloves(finely chopped)
Ginger                                   - 1/4 inch (finely chopped)
Green chilli                            - 1/2 or 1 depending on spice level(finely chopped)
Mint leaves                            - 4-5 leaves (finely chopped)
Grated cheese (Pepper jack) - 1/2 cup
Salt                                        - as required
Oil of choice                          - 2-3 tsps

Heat a skillet, preferably a non-stick one and start cooking the pasta after adding water*. Cook it uncovered. In a bowl, break the eggs and beat well as you add the rest of the ingredients except the oil and mint.
In the meantime pre-heat the oven to 400 F. As the pasta cooks ad water is almost absorbed add a tsp of oil and the egg mixture. Reduce the heat and stir in so that the egg mixture blends well with the pasta.
Cook covered for about 2-3 minutes until the egg is about 3/4 done and switch off heat. Now add the chopped mint and grated cheese and stir well.
Grease a muffin pan or if you use a non-stick you can avoid this step. Scoop the pasta egg mixture into each muffin cup until it's top. Bake for about 5 - 7 minutes.

Take the pan out of the oven. Let it cool for about 5 minutes and it should come out clean.

Tips:

1.* The package directions ask for more water than needed, so you can reduce the quantity by half      a cup.

2. I add my pasta to cold water and let them boil together, this makes them less sticky but it doesnt matter in this recipe as we need them sticky.

3.You could add any other variety of melting cheese, spices or vegetables other than the ones we used.

4.Adding some grated cheese on top of the muffin before baking adds extra flavour to the =m.

 

Mini Veggie pot pie

This was our first trial with pot pies. We used a batch of whole wheat and sunflower seed crackers for the crust. It was a big hit with our 7 year old.

Ingredients

Stuffing
Butternut squash. - 1 cup (diced)
Onions.                    - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Garlic.                      - 2 cloves(finely chopped)
Celery.                     - 1/2 cup (finely chopped)
Ginger.                    - 2 tsp(finely chopped)
Milk.                        - 1/4 cup
Red beans.              - 16 oz can ( drained)
All purpose flour. - 1 tbsp
Spice.                      - 2 tsp(coriander/red chilli                                    powder)
Salt.                          - as needed
Oil of choice           - 2-3 tsps
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Crust
Oat/Rye/sunflower seed flour -1/4 cup
Whole wheat flour.                  - 1/4 cup
All purpose flour.                     - 1/2 cup
Butter.                                         - 1/2 cup
Cold water.                                 - 1/2 to 1 cup
Refrigerate the ingredients for the crust along with the equipment you are going to use to make the crust ( fork/blender) while making the stuffing.

Steps to make the stuffing

Heat a pan and add 1-2 tsp oil. Once the oil is hot add the garlic and onions. Saute until the onions are translucent. Then add the ginger,celery , butternut squash,red beans and,  turmeric powder. Saute for a few minutes and add the spices and salt. Cook covered in medium heat until the vegetables are well done. Lower the heat and add the milk with the flour. Mix well to avoid any lumps.Let it simmer for a few minutes to a semi solid consistency. Let it cool.

Steps to prepare the crust

Mix the flours together. Cut in the butter with a fork to the flour. Mix it well so that the butter blends in well with the flour. Add the cold water slowly  and mix well to avoid lumps. The dough should be firm in consistency but should not crumble. Make 1-2 inch balls of dough depending on the size of the bowl in which you want to bake.
Roll the balls with a rolling pin into small circles of 1/2 inch thickness.

Pre-heat the oven to 400 F. Grease the ramekins or bowls and place one layer of dough in the bowl to cover the bottom and all the sides. Place the stuffing on the dough almost till the top edge of the bowl. Place another layer of the dough to cover the stuffing. Do the same with all the bowls. Poke a few holes  on the top layer of the dough to avoid the contents bursting out while baking.
Place the bowls in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Switch off oven and let it cool.
Turn it over on a plate before serving.

Tips:
1. We had a batch whole wheat crackers and rye/ sunflower seed crackers which I powdered into flour consistency and used for the crust.
2. Soaked and cooked dry beans can be used instead if canned beans. I used canned for a quick fix dinner.
3. Tofu can be used instead of beans.
4. Shredded cheese can be used on top of the stuffing just before closing with a layer of dough.
5. You can add a little water for bean and vegetables mixture to cook before adding the milk.

Recipe inspiration:

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-vegan-tofu-and-vegetabl-134550

Flattened wheat flakes uppuma

We like the flattened rice flakes (aval) uppuma. We wanted to try a healthier version so when we saw the flattened wheat flakes in store used it in the recipe.

 Ingredients:

  Flattened wheat flakes  - 1 cup
  Peanuts(toasted)           - 1/4 cup  
  onions                            - 1/4 cup diced
  broccoli                          - 1/4 cup chopped        
  Garlic                             - 2 cloves
 Ginger.  (Chopped)         - 1/2 tsp
 Cilantro leaves.               - few sprigs
  Oil.                                 - 2 tsps
  Water.                             - 1-2 cups
  Salt                                 - as needed
  Mustard seeds.               - 1 tsp
  Turmeric powder.            - 1/2 tsp optional

Soak the wheat flakes for about 20- 30 minutes with half the salt and  just enough water to completely immerse it. In the meantime chop the garlic, onions, broccoli and cilantro.
Heat a flat pan and add the oil. Once the oil is hot add the mustard seeds. When it splutters add the ginger, garlic and onions, saute for a couple of minutes. Add the broccoli, turmeric powder and saute well along with the rest of the salt. Once the broccoli is sauteed well add the wheat flakes and cook for  about 5 minutes with a lid.
Add the toasted peanuts and cilantro and serve warm.

Tips:
1. You can add more vegetables of your choice.
2. To get a tangy flavour add chopped tomatoes or cranberries while sauting vegetables. Another option is to squeeze half lime after taking off the heat.
3. To add extra flavour add dried unsweetened coconut flakes just before switching off stove.