easy to make trail mixes for Navratri fasting and healthy snacking | recipes of 3 trail mixes using popped amaranth, fox nuts and assorted seeds and nuts

Nuts and seeds are great nourishing foods but many of us don't use them enough in everyday meals. There are many traditional recipes of pestos, chutneys, curry powders and even snacks made with seeds like sesame, poppy seeds or flax seeds, but since we look for quick recipes we often miss using seeds in our food.

Nuts have a better chance as we all love roasted nuts and they are available comparatively easily too. After all a bowl of roasted cashew or almonds is handy and one finds them easier as finger foods. But then we Indians eat a lot of namkeens (savories) with our tea and coffee are we are slowly becoming a huge consumer of packaged chips, rice or corn based crispies and wafers.

If your family consumes these products you might like to shift to trail mixes with seeds, few nuts and some added puffed rice, popped sorghum or popped amaranth and popped foxnuts (makhana) etc.

These trail mixes are a great way to keep away from unhealthy snacks. These are very good for travel also, we always pack some of these for our travels and never ever buy any snacks while traveling. I believe we should be a little more careful while traveling not only to eat healthy foods and snacks but not to buy anything packaged in plastics. When the tourists demand plastic packaged foods the local shopkeepers stock it and it starts a chain reaction of demand and supply, littering all the peaceful places with plastic packets and water bottles. Carrying our own snacks makes much more sense.

We don't have to think much about when and how to include seeds because there are many ways we can easily add some proteins and good fats in everyday meals.

Here are a few ways we can add seeds in our meals.

1. Sprinkle some roasted seeds on your salads for extra crunch and added dimension to the flavours. Adding seeds (or nuts) to fruit salads lowers down the Glycemic index further and makes it fit for most diabetics and weight watchers.
2. Make a salad dressing with seeds or herb pesto made of any of your favourite herbs. This sesame seeds salad dressing is a much loved recipe in my home. 
3. Make a paste of poppy seeds, melon seeds or cashew to thicken Indian curries and gravies. It is a great way to supplement protein in vegetarian diet.
4. Replace fries, chips and packaged namkeens with roasted nuts and trail mixes. Balance the trail mixes by adding dried fruits like raisins and make them lighter by adding popped amaranth, puffed rice or roasted flattened rice (roasted poha) and season as you like. Keep the trail mixes in air tight jars for the tea time treats. Replace cookies with these trail mixes too.
5. Use more nuts and seeds to make dips and pesto. Use them to make your regular sandwiches and wraps. Toss salads and pasta using them. 
6. Make nut and seed butters and use them in various ways. Most people love peanuts butter or cashew butter. I make mixed seeds butter too and we find it really versatile. Will share my recipes soon.

Coming back to the trail mixes, I am sharing 3 recipes of trail mixes today. Each one of them is so good they are almost addictive. But once you eat a little bigger serving of these you would skip the next meal automatically. This is the beauty of low glycemic index snacks, they fill you up for a longer time period.


1. Honey-lime-pepper peanut and seeds mix 

I have used a mix of peanuts, chironji and sunflower seeds here. You need an oven to make this one, a microwave can also be used.

ingredients..

100 gm roasted peanuts
200 gm large sizes seeds like sunflower seeds, melon seeds and pumpkin seeds etc
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp white pepper powder

procedure 

Split the roasted peanuts and remove the skin.

Mix everything together and let it stand for 10 minutes till the lime juice and honey mix soaks the nuts and seeds.

Spread over a baking tray lined with silpat and bake at 170C (preheated) for about 30 minutes. Check once and bake some more, the seeds will be completely dry but not crunchy when baked. They get crunchy once cooled.

If making in microwave, follow the procedure of this roasted cashew.

Store in airtight glass jar when cooled to room temperature.

2. Flax seeds-coconut flakes namkeen trail mix 

ingredients 

200 gm flax seeds
100 gm mix of chopped almonds and walnuts
50 gm grated dry coconut
70 gm raisins
1 tsp sea salt or pink salt (sendha namak)
1 tsp pepper powder

procedure

I made this in a pan and it took only about 10 minutes.

Dry roast the flax seeds on medium heat till they start crackle and look puffed. Using a thick base pan will be good for this purpose.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except raisins) together and dry roast for another couple of minutes or till the coconut flakes get firm and crisp.

Take the pan off the stove, add the raisins and mix well. Cool down to room temperature.

Cool and store in glass jars.

3. Seeds and popped amaranth trail mix 

This trail mix can also be made in a pan. Though roasting the seeds in an oven or microwave is also an option.

ingredients 

200 gm popped amaranth
100 gm sesame
100 gm flax seeds
50 gm melon seeds
25 gm sunflower seeds
25 gm pumpkin seeds
50 gm peanuts +1 tsp ghee
50 gm fox nuts (makhana) optional
70 gm sweet anardana seeds or raisins
sea salt or pink salt (sendha namak) to taste
pepper powder to taste
1 tsp or 4-5 gm amchoor powder

procedure

Heat a thick base pan (kadhai) and dry roast all the seeds separately. Collect them all in one large mixing bowl as they are the roasted.

Roast the peanuts with ghee on low flame till done. Now add the anardana seeds and roast for a few seconds before pouring this mix into the bowl with roasted seeds. This allows anaradana seeds to dehydrate a little.

Fox nuts will also be roasted with a little ghee, I used caramelised makhana to make it this time.

Now add the popped amaranth, salt, pepper and amchoor powder to the warm mix of seeds and peanuts and give it a good mix. The salt and pepper adheres to the surface because of the little ghee used for peanuts when we mix it all while still warm.

This trail mix with popped amaranth seeds is the most popular in my home. I make it with some puffed rice added or some more nuts depending on the requirement.

Here I have added some puffed rice too and the peanuts are roasted along with a tadka of curry leaves and mustard etc. The recipe and seasoning can be adjusted according to taste and requirement. I love adding curry leaves to such trail mixes and even make it with puffed rice whenever we get it.

I use many of these trail mixes to top my salads too. It is very convenient to have a well seasoned and flavourful trail mix that can lift a plain salad made of boring fruits that you may not like eating on their own. Sometimes I just mix some mung sprouts and may be some yogurt and make a quick meal for myself. We do need some of these options sometimes. I am sharing one such recipe next.

Till then, make these trail mixes and stock up the pantry with some nice healthy tea time snacks.

 Throw away those plastic packets of chips and kurkure. You and your family deserves better.

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5 healthy home made dips to make lunch boxes fun | healthy dip recipes for everyday

Dips, chutneys and raitas are my way to include more vegetables in every meal. These work like eatable smoothie for me and make my meals interesting to say the least. Life is so much more convenient when there are a few dips in the fridge.

Lunch boxes can also be made convenient with some flavourful dips that keep well for a week or so in the fridge. Addition of yogurt or seeds and nuts adds nutritive value to roasted, sauteed or steamed vegetables to make a dip.

Making a few dips in a single day may get a lot of work to do but if we plan well we can keep making 3-4 per week in large batches and refrigerate them all in glass jars. This makes it easy to have a few options available always to serve with vegetable sticks or steamed vegetables, to spread on breads and to serve with even paratha breakfasts to kids.

For lunch boxes I feel a simpler meal becomes much more enjoyable when there are two different dips packed with it. My millet type breads are always made tastier with these dips. I rely on the raitas, chutneys and parval ka chokha or baingan ka bharta or baingan ka raita type mashed vegetables when there are no dips in the fridge.

Especially in summers I sustain on watery vegetables and mashed vegetables that can be eaten at room temperature. My system just can't work unless I have loads of vegetables and bharta, chokha and raita becomes an everyday staple. Soups are for winters of course.

Another broccoli dip with green garlic shoots and quark cheese is a winter favourite in my home, and an aubergine and nuts dip is made frequently in all seasons.

I like hummus too but he vegetable based dips are more my type. Chickpea hummus, red kidney beans hummus and mung bean hummus can be great for lunch boxes too if you carry some steamed vegetables to have them with.

Here are five dips capable to pack your meal with more zest..... 

1. Beetroot Tzatziki with garlic..

I have adapted the classic Greek tzatziki into a potent garlicky dip that goes a long way in ensuring your meal is never boring. The colour and antioxidant boost comes form beetroots and garlic makes it irresistible. It will remind you of garlic thoum (or toum).

Recipe of beetroot tzatziki....

1. Grate and steam one large beetroot (about 150 gm)
2. Mince 6-8 cloves of garlic  (or to taste)
3. Hang 400 gm yogurt into a muslin to make hung yogurt (or just prick the aluminium foil cover of a yogurt pack and invert over a mug, keep this apparatus in fridge overnight to get thick hung yogurt the next day) 
4. Whisk everything together with salt to taste and some white pepper. 
5. Garnish with mint if you wish. 

2. Baba ghanouj the roasted eggplant dip..

There is nothing special about baba ghanouj in fact. We always have some seeds, some yogurt at home and we always get the aubergines char grilled to make either a bharta or raita. In fact there is always some char grilled baingan in a glass container in my fridge. I love it so much I keep experimenting with it a lot. 

In this recipe I have used a little yogurt, and a mix of seeds to make this baba ghanouj, normally it is made using tahini (sesame paste) and no yogurt is added. Addition of yogurt makes the dip lat longer in the fridge and makes it probiotic in nature too. 

Recipe of baba ghanouj ...

1. Char grill 2 large eggplants (aubergines or baingan), peel and reserve the flesh. 
2. Mix 2 tbsp each of sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and melon seeds along with salt, roasted cumin powder, 4 cloves of garlic and 1/4 cup thick yogurt and blend well in a mixie jar.
3. Add the roasted eggplant to the blender and blend once more to make a smooth dip.
4. Add minced parsley or coriander greens if you wish.
5. Fill in a glass jar and pour 2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil to make a top layer and refrigerate up to 2 weeks.

3. Red bell pepper and shallots dip...

I use red bell peppers occasionally but in smaller amounts in recipes, the reason is that the husband is intolerant to bell pepper smell. But I love them so I try and make recipes where the red bell pepper smell is subdued by something else. It is a practical way to make something suitable for both of us.

This red bell pepper dip is 'supplemented' with loads of shallots, some garlic and some sun dried tomatoes. I say supplemented with shallots because shallots and onions both are so nutritive that their nutritional value is comparable to milk, and unlike milk the onions are loaded with Vit C too. So including onions and shallots is a great way to ensure efficient nutrition as I say.

Recipe of the red bell pepper and shallots dip..

1. Chop one large bell pepper and about 15 shallots (or one large onion) roughly. 
2. Heat 1 tbsp mustard oil in a pan, tip in 8 peeled whole garlic pods, 3 whole bedgi red chillies (or add paprika later) and fry for a second. 
3. Add the chopped shallots and bell peppers, toss to let everything sear and caramelize. 
4. Add salt and mix. Remove from heat and add a handful of sun dried tomatoes, a handful of (about 2 tbsp) sun flower seeds and 2 tbsp vinegar. 
5. Transfer everything to a blender and make a coarse paste.
6. Store in a glass container for up to 2 weeks.

4. Spicy Apricot chutney recipe ..

I learnt this recipe from Lata Bharti, the owner and hostess at Raju Cottage at Goshaini (HP). She is a generous host and loves chatting up if you are not clicking her pictures. We share recipes, stories and talk about general life whenever I am visiting Raju's Cottage which has become a refuge for us.

This apricot chutney we loved so much that Lata packed a jar for us. Then I made it at home and found it a very useful chutney just like our own tamatar ki mithi chutney, but with a little twist.

Recipe of spicy apricot chutney..

1. Remove sees from about 250 gm fresh apricots, mince 4 pods of garlic and 1 inch piece of ginger.
2. Mix the above with 1/2 cup of water and 1 tsp, red chilli flakes, 1/4 tsp pepper powder, 2 tejpatta leaves, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 cup sugar. 
3. Cook the above mix till the apricots get amalgamated with the other ingredients and it smells nice and spicy. Stir and cook till it starts looking almost like a jam.
4. Add 3 tbsp vinegar, stir to mix and fill in a sterilised glass jar. This chutney keeps well without refrigeration for long.

5. No cook mango dip...

This is one of those quick recipes that save you in difficult times. Just mix a few things in 2 minutes and a nice condiment is ready. This is actually a relish and can be blended to make a dip depending on what you want to serve with it.

Recipe of raw mango dip...

1. Chop a ripe mango roughly. Sweet and sour type of mango will be suited more but you can add a bit of lime juice if the mango is all sweet. 
2. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar, red chilly flakes and salt and your relish is ready. Mash it or blend it to make the way you like. 
3. It tastes great with roti, paratha and sandwiched between bread slices. Or try it with poha and see how you like some nice mango poha.

I am sure these dips will make your meals a bit more interesting, the lunch boxes a bit more colourful and flavourful, packed with nutrition nonetheless. Please let me know if you make these. The quick homemade tomato ketchup would also be helpful in ensuring you never eat those hideous sauces anymore. 

And please don't forget to comment on the ongoing lunch box series. there are a few giveaways you might like to win for yourself. Please read the series and give me your feedback. See you really soon with yet another lunch box post in a day or two. I am trying to keep my promise to announce the giveaways by the end of July. 

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101 gluten free breakfasts : buckwheat-cabbage savoury pancakes with a sesame dip

Although I have been sharing a lot of breakfast recipes here, these actually make my brunch most days as I am not an early morning person generally. I start my day early only when required else I have my brunch and set out for the day's routine work. I think most of the people working from home find brunches convenient as there is no rush to leave for office. So many of my breakfast recipes are more suitable for a relaxed breakfast for someone who works from home.

Those who have to run to the office rely on cereal or banana and milk or eggs and milk etc., Arvind loves his sweet breakfasts and I find it convenient to give him ragi malt, bananas, granola mix or some such convenient instant kind of breakfast while I cook his lunch box. Sometimes I do him a favour and make banana pancakes or jaggery and fennel pancakes for him but I never have liked a sweet breakfast so I cook my brunch in leisure after finishing some more chores.

But this buckwheat savoury pancake was made last weekend, the official brunch kind of days for both of us. This recipe takes just 20 minutes to cook for two servings if you have chopped cabbage in the fridge else add 5 more minutes to the chore. The sesame dip also gets ready while the pancake cooks on the stove. Note that I cook 4 small pancakes at once on a bigger cast iron pan (dosa tawa).

ingredients...
(2 breakfast servings)

buckwheat groats or flour (kuttu sabut or daliya or flour) 1/2  cup (150 gm)
finely chopped cabbage 2 cups packed (about 350 gm)
salt and pepper to taste
yogurt 2 tbsp
ghee to shallow fry, 1 tbsp is enough for 4-6 pancakes done on a large pan

for the dip
toasted sesame seeds 2 tbsp (about 50 gm)
sumac powder 1/4 tsp
tomatoes 2 large
fresh red chilly 1 or more to taste
garlic cloves 1-2
salt to taste

preparation...

Buckwheat powders really quickly in the mixie blender. You can powder within a minute so do it fresh when required, else the buckwheat flour may turn rancid. If you buy buckwheat flour (kuttu ka atta) you can use it directly.

Mix the cabbage in the flour and add salt, pepper and yogurt. Mix well and add a bit of water if required to make a pliable mixture.

Grease the pan, heat and spread small pancakes over the pan. Let it cook on low flame for 10 minutes, flip and cook on the other side too. It gets crisp on the surface but the cabbage retains the bite.

While the pancakes are getting cooked, chop the tomatoes and chilly and blend all the dip ingredients together in the mixie blender. Powder the sesame first and then add the wet ingredients so the dip is smooth.

Serve with hot buckwheat pancakes. We had leftover tomato chutney as well with this breakfast but you don;t need anything sweet with it in my opinion. Else you could have this mango chutney too.

The buckwheat pancake has the nutty taste of buckwheat which is so characteristic of this seed (not a grain). I have not used much seasoning or herbs in the pancake so the taste of buckwheat shines through and a generous amount of dip or chutney can be had with it. You can always add more vegetables or some herbs to this pancake and have it without any dip if you wish.

Look at the buckwheat groats closely if you are wondering what kind of a grain it is.

It makes wonderful pancakes and fritters that get crisp on deep frying or shallow frying, whatever the way you like to cook them. The nutty flavour is very different form any other grain or seed and I have seen some people like buckwheat raw as well. I have never tried raw buckwheat myself.

Shallow frying on low flame is the best way to bring the nuttiness I feel. This amaranth greens and buckwheat pancake is a a much repeated recipe during summer months. Cabbage is just a seasonal variation but the taste is very different in each case.

You would love this buckwheat base pizza too I am sure. Buckwheat pizza is great when you have loads of fresh toppings and good quality cheeses to make a pizza. Buckwheat pizza base adds a nuttiness but stays soft.

Let me know if you cook with buckwheat. I have been cooking with it a lot lately as I have found a store in my neighborhood that stocks it always and not just in Navratri season.

Please tell me where do you get buckwheat in your part of the world as I get a lot of queries regarding it's availability. Your inputs would help other readers and friends as well.

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101 gluten free breakfasts : sabudana khichdi or a pilaf made with sago pearls : fasting recipe

Sabudana khichdi is a popular snack, breakfast dish and one pot fasting meal for some Indian festivals. Many of us believe the fasting foods are the tastiest even though they are made with restricted ingredients, although we all know it is not the meager ingredients that make the food tasteful it is the way the ingredients are cooked and seasoned that matters most in this regard. And sabudana or sago pearls is one ingredient that is tasteless. odourless and sticky when cooked. Not an easy ingredient too cook if you are a new experimental cook but responds well if you know it well.

No I am not scaring you from cooking sago pearls, sabudana or tapioca pearls. But it will be good to know that once soaked in water they cook evenly and become soft and gelatinous. While making this sabudana khichdi we need to soak them well to get the best texture and to coat them with a seeds or nut powder so they don't stick together and get clumped. Read on the recipe to know better, not too complex I promise.

Sabudana is also accused of being a high calorie food but it is not the whole truth. The calories are almost as much as buckwheat, rice, barley or wheat by weight but sago pearls (or Tapioca) doesn't have any other nutrients than starch and almost no fiber. But the good thing is that the Glycemic index of Tapioca is 85, a little lower than potatoes, cooked rice etc. So not such a bad food choice if the serving size is moderate and there is enough inclusion of proteins, good fats and some greens in the same dish. It helps that it is a gluten free ingredient too and can be used to make an energy packed gluten free meal. 

This recipe of sabudana khichdi uses peanut (roasted) powder traditionally, but after a talk with a friend who is allergic to peanuts and wanted sabudana khichdi for herself, I told her to use seeds and nuts instead. She reported that she loved the khichdi and then I was tempted to cook it for myself too. I would say I liked it better than the peanut version as I like sesame and flax powder more for the rich flavours and keep using them to make chutneys and pestos too. You can use any seeds and nuts of your choice.

ingredients..
(2 breakfast servings)
sago pearls 75 gm (soaked overnight, the volume becomes more than double)
one medium potato about 80-100 gm
sesame seeds 1 tbsp (30 gm)
flax seeds 1 tbsp (30 gm)
chopped almonds 5-6
chopped coriander greens 1 cup
ghee 1 tsp
cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
chopped/minced ginger 1/2 tsp
chopped green chilly 1/2 tsp
salt and pepper powder to taste (use pink salt if fasting)
lime juice to taste

preparation..

Soak the sago pearls overnight in about 120 ml of water. The sago looks dry and swollen after the soaking, fluff up the pearls and proceed for the next steps. It looks like the left picture in the collage below.

Powder the sesame and flax seeds together and mix with the soaked sago along with half of the salt required (just enough for sago) and pepper. It looks like the right side picture after mixing the seeds powder.

Wash and chop the potato in very small cubes. Keep the peels on if possible.

Heat the ghee in a pan and tip in the cumin seeds and wait till they crackle. Add the chopped ginger and green chillies followed by the potatoes. Add half of the salt, just enough for the potatoes and fry on low flame till the potatoes start turning pinkish brown. It takes about 5-8 minutes.

Now add the sago and seed powder mix and give it a good stir. Cook covered for a couple of minutes and stir again. Add the chopped coriander greens and stir to cook more for a couple more minutes. The sago pearls start looking translucent and that is a sign of getting cooked.

Adjust seasoning and add lime juice too. Serve hot with chopped almonds over it.

This is one of the most satiating foods you would eat. The taste and texture of the sago pearls transforms in this particular recipe and that is the reason why it is popular all over India not only for fasting meals but for occasional snacking and breakfast too.

This recipe is enough for breakfast for two and I must tell you that I had it for a late breakfast with a nice buttermilk and felt full till the evening when I had a plate of papaya and black grapes.

Some friends were concerned about the calories when I shared this picture on my facebook page so I calculated the calorie count as well. The total calorie count for one serving will be around 350 calories even if you are a bit generous with the chopped almonds. Great for a breakfast in my opinion for a normal active person.

Sabudana khichdi is not a such calorie dense food. You can include a few slices of raw cucumber and tomatoes if you want a bigger meal with almost the same amount of calories. Knowing portion sizes is a key to eat right sometimes. And now that you know about sabudana khichdi you wont be scared to enjoy it occasionally.

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Thai sesame garlic dressing with calamondin juice | a red cabbage salad and a ripe papaya salad with Thai sesame garlic dressing

A cabbage salad sounds unimpressive unless you have a killer dressing. This red cabbage salad with Thai sesame and garlic dressing blew my mind away. This salad is so good there is always a competition while eating from the same bowl. You must know it has been repeated a few times already.

Inspired by the Thai masterclass I made another Thai salad even though I have been having hot soups more in this season. A cold salad doesn't always feel right in winters but I experimented with a Thai dressing one day that turned out to be so good I used it up immediately with some red cabbages that I had in the fridge at that time. The Thai sesame and garlic dressing was supposed to be used for a salad for lunch the next day and I had kept a jar to fill and refrigerate but I took out cabbages and coriander greens instead, chopped them patiently and tossed the salad with the dressing being poured right out of the mixie jar. Some meal plans change like that. For the good.

My tiny Calamondin tree is giving me some fruits but Deeba had given me a bagful when we met last time. My tiny tree is loaded with small unripe calamondins but since I allow some Citrus Butterflies to breed on this tree, many fruits don't get to ripen and then the Bulbuls and Barbets come and pick them up, the ripe ones. Thank God I can get calamondins from friends.

The calamondin chilly marmalade that I had planned was not happening and I made the calamondin infused tea a few times and then I thought of using it's juice for a nutty salad dressing. This is one of the best salad dressings I have experimented with.

ingredients for the dressing 
Recipe inspired by this one
(makes about one cup, enough for 2-3 large servings)

sesame seeds (raw) 2 tbsp
calamondin juice 3 tbsp (from about 10 calamondins)
honey 1 tbsp
fresh red chillies chopped (preferably thai bird chillies) 2
garlic cloves 5
sesame oil (cold pressed) 1 tbsp
salt 3/4 tsp
light soy sauce 1 tsp
chopped lemongrass (white bulbous part) 1 tbsp

Blend everything smooth in mixie except the red chillies. Pulse once after adding the chillies so they just get macerated in the dressing and not completely blended. Add water and dilute to make it flowing consistency. Taste and adjust sweet-salt balance.

ingredients for the salad
(2 large servings)
finely chopped red cabbage 2 cups
finely chopped green cabbage 1 cup
chopped white parts of spring onions 1/3 cup
chopped coriander greens 1/2 cup
roasted chopped cashew nuts 2-3 tbsp

Procedure..

Mix all the chopped vegetables first. Pour the thick dressing paste over it and mix well again. Let it stand for about 15 minutes before serving.

Sprinkle with chopped roasted cashew and serve. This salad stays good for about 2 hours even after mixing so you can take it in lunch box or make it well ahead for a party too.

This salad is so good I finished half of it while just tossing it. And then felt guilty to finish a good thing all by myself and not sharing with the husband. But the good sense prevailed and I saved for him too. He loved it too, even suggested this could be a lunch box regular. I made a large batch of the dressing the next day and refrigerated to toss quick salads for his lunch box in the morning.

With some tender baby spinach plucked fresh from the garden, I can toss a salad with just anything if there is a good dressing on hand. Else I would admit I eat salads even without dressing if there are citrus fruits that lend their own zing to the salad once the salt is added.

The coriander greens are flowering now and packed with more aromatic oils. The flowering stalks of coriander make nice aromatic addition to any salad. I chopped some along with spinach and added to a papaya salad.

Ripe papaya salad with baby spinach, coriander greens and a couple of strawberries.

I made this ripe papaya salad with the same dressing and loved it so much I might eat papaya like this whenever they are not sweet enough. This was a papaya that turned out to be less sweet than we like and I was thinking of making a smoothie and gulp it down in one go. But now papayas will be consumed in a fancier way thanks the calamondins and the love for sesame. I added some mixed seeds to this papaya salad and loved it. Use any nuts or seeds you fancy.

Another salad I make with not so sweet papayas is here with pickled beet roots and that is another favourite. You know I would eat a large bowl of salad anytime.

You might like to add some arugula or lettuce instead of spinach and orange segments instead of strawberries, may be some pickled beets too but try and not let this salad stay for very long time as the enzymes of papaya start working on the sesame dressing and it looks curdled. Though the taste doesn't change much.

This sesame and garlic Thai salad dressing with calamondin juice and lemon grass definitely has strong citrus notes, but you do get the kick of the fresh red chillies, the sweetness of honey, nuttiness of sesame and the umami lend by the soy sauce. Imagine the flavours.

There is still a jar of this Thai sesame garlic dressing in the fridge, I might toss some sprouts and roasted peanuts in it next. A good thing must be used in a good way right?

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broccoli cornbread | a bread that can be a snack or a dinner bread

I love cornbread a lot. I have made many versions of cornbread since I discovered the recipe few years ago. And I don't even remember where I saw it, probably it was Nigella's show because it was her recipe of cornbread topped chili con carne that I had cooked first and then hooked to the cornbread more than the chili. This was an extension of my love for makki ki roti, more so because cornbread can be served differently every time you bake it. This skillet cornbread is an oft repeated recipe for it's simplicity and small size and I have baked savoury muffins using the basic cornbread recipe with added grated zucchini or spinach and loads of cheese.

A simpler and lighter cornbread with loads of fresh vegetables is what I intended this time and took this cornbread to a family potluck last Sunday. The reason why I have no pictures of how the broccoli cornbread was served :-) But there is one instagram picture that I shared, the cornbread was served with a sharp green garlic chutney and everyone just loved it. The green garlic chutney and the sesame topping over the bread brought the memories of a handvo my mom used to bake in our childhood days. This broccoli cornbread is nowhere close to handvo in taste but the appearance resembles the Gujrati handvo for sure. This reminds me of a packed lunch we had once at a workshop by noted author Cheryl Strayed, and it had a sweet and sour dhokla in the lunch pack. Cheryl inquired about it and compared it to cornbread as it looked like one.

This broccoli cornbread was baked as a way to use up too many broccoli someone sent from an organic farm. I made soups, had parboiled broccoli, had them for salads and yet some broccoli was turning pale when I got it grated and chucked it in the cornbread batter.

This cornbread is baked without any eggs or cheese and still the taste was great. I decided to top the bread with roasted sesame seeds and that provided added texture and some nuttiness to the bread.

ingredients
(makes 24 squares, enough for 6-10 people, depending on how it is served)

2 cups grated broccoli (including the soft green stems)
2 tbsp finely chopped green garlic shoots (or 1 tbsp minced garlic)
1.5 cup corn meal (makki ka atta)
1 cup and some more yogurt
salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp soda bi carb
2-3 tbsp lightly roasted sesame seeds (optional)

procedure

Whisk the yogurt and keep aside.

Mix the salt and pepper and the soda bi carb to the corn meal and give it a good stir so everything mixes well. Now add the grated broccoli and mix well.

Pour the whisked yogurt into the broccoli corn meal mix slowly and whip again to make a thick but loose batter. The batter is not flowing consistency but is loose enough to spread in the baking dish.

Sprinkle half of the sesame seeds (if using) in the base of a baking dish (11X7 inches) and smoothen the batter using a knife or spatula. Sprinkle the remaining sesame on top of the mix and pat to embed them nicely. Grease the baking dish if not using sesame.

Bake in preheated oven at 170 C for 40 minutes or till a knife poked comes out clean. Serve hot with a cheesy dip, with a hot soup or with some rajma or maah ki daal as we do sometimes. Or go the chili con carne way or just serve it as a snack.

We enjoyed it as starters for an elaborate family lunch. A sharp green garlic and coriander greens chutney was served with it and everything was polished off talking about the handvo of our childhood.

Remember that it tastes great when hot but doesn't cut well when hot. Tricky?
The best way is to cool the cornbread a little, cut into pieces  and then reheat before serving. Or just don't bother about sharp edges :-)

This broccoli cornbread is loaded with good fiber and some protein as well. For a quick meal I would probably like it with scrambled eggs and some green pesto. I do mix and match my food this way and never regret it :-)

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salads can save you from eating junk when eating out | a recipe of healthy salad with green garlic shoots, lotus stem and fresh red peppers | salad meals

How to find healthy options when eating out? 

We often stop for coffee when shopping at a mall and want a quick bite with it too. And we often fix meetings at some approachable cafe or tearoom. The most important question that comes to mind in such situations is, how one chooses what to eat? All the popular options seem to be laden with junk, drowned with sugar laden sauces and trans fat based creams and what not.

Although I don't see any harm if one eats such foods once in a while but if you are someone who has to depend on cafe foods in everyday life it is better to look for options that work for everyday eating. I know a few people who have to eat in cafes at least once a day and this bit of my post is intended for them. I would recommend you search for that small section of the menu that lists salads first. I am glad with the increasing trend at most cafes to include a good salad in the menu and they almost always customize the salad as per demand.

Here is what I found at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf recently when we were at Select City Walk, Saket for some gifts shopping. We tried a couple of sandwiches too to see if they are worth, I was glad both sandwiches came with a helping of green salads on the side and the chicken panini sandwich was good for a filling bite. I found the Mushrooms sandwich a bit unbalanced, too little filling in too thick a bread (a challah) and that makes a sandwich insipid for me.

You can always ask for the kind of bread being used for a sandwich if ordering one, opt for the thinner, lighter breads. 

Wraps and Quesadillas are better options if you want a filling snack to share or a meal for yourself. I found the Corn and cheese Quesadilla quite good and tasty and it came with a side of salad too. Good nutrient value for the calories consumed.

The grilled chicken wrap was good in terms of taste and health quotient, but it needs a salad on the side too. In absence of a salad, this grilled chicken wrap feels too dry to eat even with the salsa it comes with. The salsa is avoidable, too sweet for my taste.

The salads on the menu are good. The better thing is that you can always get your salad customized, ask for a particular dressing, more pepper or order some add-ons with it or have them as is. I had finished all the salads that came on the side of sandwiches so I did not order any more, but the options on the menu were all good.

I must add that CBTL is a lively place, a bit slow service probably because it is quite crowded and you can see people waiting outside for a table. I could see people from all age groups, some really old people were chatting up on a corner table, a family with kids grabbing a sandwich on another and even a new mother feeding her baby on a table quite close to entrance. Especially the breastfeeding mother gave me very good feelings about a place as well as the comfort level a new mother has there.

Coffee at CBTL is decent. We tasted a Blueberry-Mascarpone cheesecake that we could not tolerate for another bite. The much acclaimed cake-pops are best avoided.

Never eat cake-pops at cafes, bakeries or any place that displays it. Not worth your money and your tummy.

Now coming to the recipe of salad I am sharing today. This is one salad I repeat quite often when green garlic shoots are in season. I change the other vegetables sometimes and use mushrooms (quartered) or potatoes (boiled, cooled and thickly sliced) but the green garlic shoots are used in abundance. These garlic chives recipes will give you an idea how I use them for stir fry and cold salads. Garlic chives are lighter flavoured than these green garlic shoots. Check the pickled pesto recipe we call lehsunsagga too, you would love it.

We love garlic and green garlic gives the best flavours of garlic with a good bite too. The trick is not to cook the vegetables too much for this salad and use loads of toasted sesame seeds or any other seeds or chopped nuts for added texture and taste.

ingredients
(2 large meal servings)

lotus stems 1 stick (about 120 gm)
green garlic shoots 3-4 (about 100 gm)
fresh red pepper or bell pepper 1
toasted sesame seeds 1 tbsp
sesame oil 2 tsp
salt and pepper to taste

Note that there are no sauces or vinegar used in this salad, it is the taste of good quality sesame oil and the pungency of green garlic shoots combined with fresh red peppers that gives this salad the much needed flavour. Keep this in mind if you decide to substitute any of the ingredients.

procedure..

Clean and peel the lotus stem, cut into inch long pieces and then cut each piece longitudinally to make batons. Slit open the red pepper, remove seeds and slice into similar sized batons. Chop the green garlic shoots in similar sized pieces too. You might like to slit the base part if it is thick.

Heat the sesame oil in a pan and toss in the lotus stem batons first. Add salt just enough for the lotus stem and toss to cook for a couple of minutes. Add the red pepper and toss for 30 seconds and then add the green garlic shoots too. Toss for a minute or till the garlic leaves and shoots become limp. Take off the heat, adjust seasoning and empty the salad in a serving platter. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds and serve right away.

The salad is very filling and tasty. You may want to use a bit more sesame oil to make the salad more flavourful. I don't mind using such good quality oils liberally for such salad meals.

If you are serving this salad to a crowd, make it in huge amounts because this will be the one salad that everyone will keep taking second and third helpings. The salad pairs really well with noodles, plain boiled rice or on the side of grilled fish or chicken.

Fish or chicken can also be added to the same salad to make it more filling if you wish. Thinly sliced chicken breast or fish fillet works well for this salad.

I make quick dinner with this salad tossed with some leftover rice sometimes.

Many readers tell me that they don't get lotus stem in their part of the world. If you are one of those, try using mushrooms, boiled potatoes, peeled and chopped raw plantains or even yams for this salad and see if you like it. But please don't substitute cold pressed sesame oil with anything else for this recipe. Sesame oil is the soul of this lotus stem and green garlic salad.

And toasted sesame reinforces the sesame flavours even more. You can even serve this lotus stem and green garlic stir fried salad as a subzi with Indian meals too. I have a feeling I would like it with khichdi or daal chawal or even wrapped in a thin whole wheat roti too.

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eggplant raita or baingan ka raita : two recipes to make the everyday meals interesting

Eggplants are versatile vegetables found in various shapes and hues. I have grown almost all possible colours and shapes of eggplants in my gardens over the years and have found slight variations in taste and aroma etc, and the way they cook to become too soft or a little firm. Some of them have a little bitterness after cooking and some have a subtle sweetness that they impart to the baingan bharta or baba ghanoush we make with them.

I am now realizing that I haven't yet shared our traditional recipe of baingan ka chokha (eggplant mash), not even the baingan ka bharta, both being similar in looks but very different in flavours. I will correct this mistake really soon and share both the recipes. This eggplant raita or baingan ka raita recipe was long overdue since Amrita asked for it once I shared a picture of this raita with a beetroot salad recipe. Now that this raita is quite frequent on my plate owing to the ease to cook it and the way I can make variations too, I took a few more pictures and now the recipe is here. I am sharing two variations of eggplant raita. One with the green eggplants from my garden and another with the round purple variety that is also called bharta wala baingan here in north India.

These green oblong beauties are fresh from my garden and I sometimes just grill them on gas flame for a couple of minutes as they cook really fast. I never bother to peel these ones after grilling as the skin is very thin and doesn't change the taste of whatever I cook with them. I make a smooth blended raita with these which is mostly had like a thick cold soup.

Here I served it with a raw papaya paratha (with besan and atta mix) and polished off a huge bowl of this raita with just one paratha. This recipe is useful when you want to consume loads of vegetables and some calcium supplementation in your food too. I have added sesame seeds to this raita along with hung yogurt to fortify it with calcium.

Recipe of eggplant and sesame seeds raita

ingredients
(2 servings)

grilled eggplant peeled (if required) and mashed 1 cup
hung yogurt 1 cup (preferably full fat)
sesame seeds 2 tbsp
garlic cloves 5
paprika powder or mild chilly powder 1 tsp
salt to taste

procedure

Powder the sesame seeds first in food processor of blender. Add hung yogurt, mashed eggplants and other ingredients together and blend till smooth. Serve as desired.

You can use fresh yogurt if you like this raita a little liquid but note that the grilled eggplant mash is quite watery too.

The round purple variety of eggplants is more fleshy and more aromatic I feel. I have not grown this variety for years now but I keep buying it whenever I see some fresh light weight eggplants of this variety. Always choose shiny, light weight eggplants with a fresh green crown on them.

These need to be flame grilled too to made into a raita. This raita is more like a mashed chunky mix of flavours that feels almost like a subzi (curry). You can make it more like a white raita by adding more yogurt or buttermilk to the recipe but it would depend what you are serving it with. Tweak the recipe as it suits you.

Recipe of chunky baingan ka raita

ingredients
(2 servings)

2 medium sized round eggplants flame grilled and peeled or 1.5 cup cleaned and mashed grilled eggplants
minced green chillies 1 tsp
minced garlic 1/4 tsp
finely diced red onions 2 tbsp or a little more
chopped coriander greens 3- tbsp
salt to taste
hung yogurt or thick yogurt 1 cup or more to suit your taste

procedure

Mash everything together to make a thick mix. Serve as required. Here I had it with a multigrain roti (flat bread) and amle ka achar along with loads of cucumber and radish batons on the side.

The kind of simple meals I like. Such meals are very good for days when you want a light yet tasty meal to satiate you.

I have shared some oriental style eggplant recipes here, please check out if you love eggplants like me and want to eat eggplants differently.

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