Vegetable Sevai or Semiya(vermicelli) upma

Hi Readers,

Today,  had prepared Semiya Upma as breakfast. This is easy recipe and can be prepared when you are quite busy. It uses not much spices and is healthy vegetable recipe for breakfast. Here, is the recipe for you.

Ingredients
3 ½ Cup - Vegetables, chopped (I used carrots, peas)
1 ½ Cup - Vermicelli / Semiya, roasted
3 Cups - Water
1 - Onion
1 ½ Tsp – Garlic, grated
½ Tsp – Ginger, grated
1 Tsp - Black Mustard Seeds
2 pinch – Asafetida
1 sprig – Curry Leaves
3 – Green Chilly
¼ Tsp – Turmeric powder
½ Tsp – Jeera / Cumin powder
½ Cup – Coriander leaves/ Cilantro, chopped(optional)
1/2 Tsp – Chat Masala (optional)
2 Tsp – Lemon Juice
10 - Cashew nuts, roasted (optional)
Salt
Oil or Ghee (Clarified butter)

Method :- 
Roast the vermicelli and add 1 tbsp ghee when almost done. Turn off flame and keep aside.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add mustard seed and allow them to splutter.
Add asafetida followed by onions, curry leaves, green chilly, ginger and garlic and sauté until the onions are translucent
Mix in turmeric powder, jeera powder and chat masala
Stir in the vegetables, roasted vermicelli and water and season with salt
Cook until all the water has been absorbed.
Take off the heat and add lemon juice and garnish with roasted cashew nuts and fresh chopped coriander leaves (cilantro).
Notes and Tips
Add 2 Tsp of ghee (clarified butter) to the vegetable mixture along with the water and vermicelli. This imparts a great flavor and will avoid vermicelli from being sticky
This is a great dish for kids who like noodles. It is healthy as it has a lot of vegetables. You can add other vegetables like broclli, spinach, corn etc.
Mix the cooked vermicelli with fork.
Make sure you use roasted vermicelli for this dish.

Eggless Banana Pancake

Hi Readers,

This is a Indian recipe better known as Pua in India. Its similar to Malpua but less sweeter and is not deep fried unlike Malpua. Healthy recipe as it contains less oil and less sweet. Well, banana pancake is a continental dish that has egg and can be made egg-less too. We Indians do not add baking powder to Pua(banana pancake). Almost all the dosha, cheela varieties would fall under pancake as the process of cooking over the pan remains more or less same.

I want to share a interesting story before I proceed with the recipe. Once, me and my friend visited a well known coffee shop near our locality. Just out of our curiosity we both ordered maple syrup banana pancake with vanila ice-cream. And you could guess what we got, it was banana pancake, almost same taste as our Indian Pua topped with maple syrup and vanila ice-cream. It was an innovative idea to serve the pancake this way. It looks really good and much more sophisticated compared to normal Pua. Here, is plate with same presentation for you. But, yes so much of syrup, makes it too much sweet just like malpua. I prefer little bit of syrup or honey with this dish, just enough to give it a light sweet taste.

Well, yes if want to put in so much of maple syrup, then add very little sugar to your Pancake, or else it will be too sweet. So, here goes the recipe for you.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup All Purpose Flour

1 Teaspoon Sugar

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1 Cup Milk (I Used 2%)

1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil

1 Tablespoon Water

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 Tablespoons Butter

PROCEDURE:

Whisk together the dry ingredients.

In a liquid measuring mug, measure 1 cup milk. To that add the vegetable oil, water and vanilla extract.

Stir in the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Do not over-mix. Lumps are perfectly fine. Set aside for a couple of minutes.

Heat a griddle at medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot add the butter and let it melt.

Add the melted butter to the pancake batter and return the pan to the stove. Mix the butter into the batter.

When the pan is hot enough, pour a ladle full of batter on the pan for each pancake. Cook until bubbles appear on the face of the pancake.

Carefully flip the pancake and cook until its golden brown.

For serving:

Decorate with banana slices and maple syrup. You can replace maple syrup with honey. In fact, honey and cinnamon would add more flavors to it. The first photo has the decoration with banana, vanilla ice-cream and maple syrup. But, others are simple without any decoration just with Honey cinnamon topped.

Rava Dosa

Instant and Crispy Rava Dosa Recipe

Prep time - under 5 minutes

Ingredients needed

Rice flour - 1 1/2 cup
Rava - 1/2 cup
Maida/ all pupose flour - 2 tbsp
Jeera/cumin seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
Whole black pepper - 1 tsp
Green chilli -1 very finely chopped
Thick Buttermilk - 1/4 cup
Onion -1
Water - 2  3/4 cup
Oil for making dosas
Salt as needed

Preparation

Mix rava in 1/4 cup buttermilk and leave it for 15 minutes.

Chop onions and green chillies very finely.

First we will see how to prepare rava dosa batter-

In a bowl, mix together rice flour, all purpose flour, cumin seeds, whole black pepper, green chillies and salt needed. Add the rava + butter milk mix to it. Then add approximately 2 3/4 cup of water to it little at a time and mix it well so that there are no lumps.Check for salt. Add if required.

I photographed the rava dosa batter to show you the consistency of the batter.See how thin it is (picture below).It should be like that. Now the batter is ready.

Now let us see how to make onion rava dosa -

First heat a non stick tawa or a cast iron tawa, sprinkle little onions on top of it. Do not add too much onions as you will have difficulty in removing the dosa from the tawa.

When the tawa is heated well, reduce the flame to medium.

Remember for every dosa, you have to mix the batter well, so that the rava will not settle at the bottom. You cannot spread the rava dosa batter like normal dosa.

After mixing it, take a ladle or a small cupful of batter and fill the outer corners of the tawa.(picture-1)

Then the inside of the tawa.(picture -2)

Then fill in big gaps if any (picture-3). See how lacy and beautiful it is. To make it easier to understand, I have explained it in 3 easy steps but you can pour the batter at one go following the same method.

Let the dosa get cooked. Rava dosa will take longer time to get cooked than normal dosa, so do not be in a hurry to flip over the dosa. Drizzle a tsp of oil around the dosa.

Let the dosa get cooked evenly on all sides.(You can adjust or move the tawa if needed)

Wait until the bottom turns nice golden brown and the corners start lifting up slightly.

Once the bottom turns golden brown, flip over to the other side. Drizzle another 1/2 tsp of oil around the dosa. Let the other side also get cooked.

Once cooked, remove from flame and serve hot with coconut chutney, sambar or idli podi.

Some important points to be kept in mind

Mix the batter well every time before making dosa to prevent sedimentation of rava.

Batter should be thin. In case the batter becomes slightly thick after making 3-4 dosas, add 1-2 tbsp of water and mix again. Then continue to make dosas.

Once the tawa is heated well, keep the flame in medium through out the process.

Remember rava dosa will take longer time to get cooked.

Onion dosha

Hi Readers,

This is healthy breakfast option. 

Ingredients :- 1- rice and urad dal batter. This is made with 3 portion rice and 1 portion urad soaked overnight. Then grind it to make a thick batter. Add salt to it before making dosha.

3- 1 onion chopped

4- coriander chopped

5-1 green chili chopped

6- oil

Method ;- In a pan add little oil and add the batter, spread the batter in round shape. Add the onion , chilli and coriander as shown in picture. And cook it till one side is done, over turn and cook till other side is also cooked. Serve hot with chutney.

Paneer sandwich

Hi Readers,

This is healthy and filling breakfast with lots of protein. I generally serve this with salads.

Ingredients ;- 1 - brown bread

2- 100 gm paneer

3- green peas - 50 gm

4- salt

5- turmeric

Method ;- In a pan add little oil, add the peas and paneer. Add turmeric powder and salt to it. Cook till peas are done. Take the brads stuff them with this mixture. You can also add cheese to it. Then grill these breads and serve with salads.

Instant Rava uttapam

Hi Readers,

I want to share a easy to make south Indian breakfast. This is instant Rava Uttapam. Now a days, you can get the uttapam mix pack from any Indian store. Mainly MTR has launched these negative labor packs. However, trust me it does not take much time to make this Uttapam. Moreover, if you do not go for these ready mix packs , you will save a good amount. The ingredients are very simple ones and easily available in kitchen.

Ingredients :- 1- Rava/ Suji - 250 gms

2- Curd /Yogurt - 1 cup

3- 1 tomato thinly chopped

4- 2 green chili chopped

5- 1 onion chopped

6- few curry leaves

7- chopped coriander leaves

8- salt to taste

9- oil to fry

Method :- Mix curd and Rava in a bowl, make a thick consistency. Add a little water if its too thick. Heat a pan, add little oil to grease it. Put some batter and spread it in circular fashion. Add the chopped vegetables to its top. When the bottom side is cooked, over turn and cook for few more minutes. When both sides are done, serve hot with Chuttney.

Thanks

Matar Poha

Poha is a traditional dish that comes from Maharashtra. Poha is breakfast item that is simple and less spicy. It has many varieties. The traditional one being normal poha and batata poha. However, I have tried the same dish with little modification and added green peas in place of Potato/ Batata.

Ingredients :- Poha/Chuwda - 250 gms

green peas 150 gms

green chili - 3 nos minced

Onion diced - 1 small size

diced tomato - 1 medium size

peanuts - 20 gms

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

salt to taste

2 tsp oil

1 tsp lemon juice

Method :- Wash the poha, drain the water and keep it aside. In a pan add the oil, when oil is heat add the coriander seeds. Then add the green chili, peanuts,onion and cook till onion turns golden brown. Then add the tomatoes, green peas , salt, turmeric and cook till peas are cooked. Add the poha and mix well. Cook for 2 mins and remove from flame. Add lemon juice and serve hot.

Thanks

Instant Cucumber Rava uttapam

This dish is an experiment with Rava Uttapam. This dish hardly takes 10 minutes of preparation time. And is very easy and tasty. This is an ideal way breakfast on any busy day.

Ingredients:-

1 cup Suji/Rava

 1/2 Cup Curd

1/4th cup water

1/2 cucumber grated.

1/2 onion chopped finely

1 green chilli chopped.

Salt to taste

2 tbsp of oil

Procedure :-

In a bowl mix the Rava with curd,cucumber,onion,green chilli. The cucumber will leave some water so depending on the requirement add water or leave it. The paste should not be very thick or thin and should be  smooth batter to spread easily over pan. Add salt to the mixture. Heat a pan and let the batter spread over it in a circular manner. When its little coocked add oil at the sides and also in the top. Then overturn the Uttapam and let it cook on the other side. Add few more drops of oil sufficient enough to not allow the batter to stick. When cooked remove from flame. Serve with chutney.

Notes :- 1- use of nonstick pan allows to use less amount of oil.

2- The same dish can be made without onions to give more cucumber falvour.

Try this and let me know your feedback.