Soya Chunk Pulao

This was a recipe i saw at another website and tried it minus the onion and garlic and it came out well. Its simple, easy, and takes very little time to prepare. The quantity mentioned here is for two persons. You can change the ingredients according to your requirement.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 1 cup

Bread (cubed and slightly fried) - 2 slices

Cashewnuts- 5-6, slightly fried

Cinnamon stick - 1 piece

Cloves- 3 no

Coconut fresh - 6-7 tbsp

Coriander seeds - 1tsp

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Ginger - 1''

Green Chillies- as required

Mixed vegetables- Available ones like carrot, beans, cauliflower, peas, potato etc

Soya Chunks- 8-10 pieces (boiled till soft)

Method:

1. Wash rice and soak well for 5-10 minutes. Keep aside

2. Dry roast Cinnamon, Coriander seeds, and Cloves.

3. In a grinder, make a fine paste of ginger, cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds, green chillies, coconut and keep aside.

4. In a pressure cook, heat oil, and add cumin seeds. And then add the ground paste and fry for a minute. Now add the vegetables and fry well so that the veggies are well coated with the paste.

5. Add soya chunks and mix well. Add salt. All this should be done on low heat.

6. Add soaked rice and cook (pressure cook)

7. When rice is prepared, add fried bread and cashews and mix well.

8. Serve hot with cucumber raita.

Vegetable Kurma

This is recipe is from my mom and can be made very quick and easy. We can make this kurma for ekadesi also, just make sure you don’t add kuskus and instead of coriander powder use whole coriander. We at home call this kurma as Vaishnava Kurma as its without onion and garlic. You must have heard from people that kurma will not taste good without onion and garlic. But just give this a try and you will prove that statement wrong.

Ingredients :
For Masala :
Green chilies - 4
Ginger – thumb finger size
Cardamom - 2
Cloves – 2
Cinnamon - 1 piece
Corriander powder – 3 tbsp
Coconut - half
Cashew nuts - 12
Kuskus – 2 tsp
Fennel seeds(Sombu) – 3 tsp
Others :
Cut Vegetables - 2 cups(You can use Carrot, Beans, Paneer, Peas, Potato, Cauliflower, Tofu, Capsicum, Soya)
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Bay Leaf - 1
Tomato - 2
Corriander leaves – a small bunch
Salt as per taste

Method :

Add all the ingredients listed under the masala section to a mixer and grind it to a fine paste. In a pan add the ghee, heat it and add the bay leaf. Next add the tomato and the vegetables and fry well. Next add the ground paste and fry for a minute. Then add needed quantity of water and salt and allow the kurma to cook, until the raw smell goes and the vegetables are cooked. You have to keep stirring every 5 minutes to make sure the gravy doesn’t stick to the bottom of the vessel. Once ready garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis or parotas. If you want to have it with rice make it a little more watery.

Ragi Roti (Finger Millet Pancake)

Some facts about Ragi(finger millet) -

• It's known for nutritional properties and it's a dietician's delight.
• 100 grams of ragi has 328 kilo calories of energy, has a good combination of minerals, especially iron, calcium and phosphorus.
• Also contains methionine, an essential alpha amino acid that is not present in other cereals like polished rice or maize.

Method -

• Take 200g ragi flour
• Add finely cut green chillies, a cup of grated coconut and salt
• Add water and keep mixing so as to get a thick batter that can be rolled into balls
• Spread a plastic sheet, smear it with a little bit of oil, and flatten the batter to circular shape
• Heat a pan, put the pancake on it and add a spoonful of oil around the corners
• Roast it on both sides
• Ragi pancake is ready to serve

Chocolate Chip Cookies(eggless)

Ingredients
Unbleached white flour- 1 1/2 cup
BrownSugar- 1/2 cup
turbinado sugar- 1/4 cup
butter- 1/2 cup
Baking soda- 1 tsp
water/milk- 1 tbsp
grapeseed oil- 2 tbsp
Salt - a pinch
Chocolate chips- 1 cup

vanilla essence- 1 tsp

Method

• Beat the softened butter and sugar until creamy. 
• Add flour, baking soda, vanilla essence, salt and mix them well to get it into a dough consistency. 
• Fold in the chocolate chips
• Make small balls out of it and gently flatten it in between your palms and place them on a cookie sheet. 
• Preheat the oven to 350 degree F and place it  in the oven and bake it for 12 mins. 
• Remove from the oven and cool it before serving.