Monthly Archives: June 2014

Vegetarian Lasagna

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Vegetarian Lasagna

Lasagna or Lasagne as it is known in Italy is one of the oldest Pastas. This flat sheet of pasta is cooked in alternate layers of pasta, sauce, and cheese. This is not a quick or easy dish to make but the taste and flavours make up for all the hard work. I learnt this vegetarian version while studying in the UK and improvised on it over time. This is my kind of Friday night dinner when friends come over and the dinner continues almost till Saturday morning.

The most common vegetarian lasagne I have seen is the one with spinach and white sauce. I use both white and red sauces. For the red sauce you can also include vegetables like zucchini or squash. You can grill the vegetables and chop them if you want to add a smokey flavour to the red sauce.

I like to keep the white sauce very simple. No cream, No butter, and No cheese. My idea is to get the flavour and taste from herbs. I use lots of fresh basil leaves.

Even with the layers of cheese, you can choose to just sprinkle the cheese instead of adding full layer every time. I use ricotta, cheddar, mozzarella, and Monterey Jack cheese. The grated cheese packets available in supermarkets can save a lot of time and money. They come in variety of cheese mixes like Italian pasta and Mexican flavours.

Choose a rectangle dish to bake pasta and cut the pasta sheets if required. You can make lasagne in advance and heat it up when required. Just like pav bhaji, pasta also tastes better the next day. Lasagna is a meal in itself and can be enjoyed as lunch or dinner.

Vegetarian Lasagna

Ingredients

Serves 5-6

  • 10 lasagna sheets
  • Cheese (cheddar, ricotta or cottage, mozzarella) as per taste

Red Sauce

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 2 ½ tbsp. chopped garlic
  • ½ cup chopped onion
  • ½ cup chopped mixed bell peppers
  • ½ cup chopped carrots
  • ½ cup broccoli florets steamed for 2 minutes
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 1 cup chopped tomatoes
  • 2 cups tomato puree
  • Salt as per taste

White Sauce

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 4 tbsp all-purpose flour (maida)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
  • 2 tsp black pepper powder
  • Salt as per taste

Recipe

For the Red Sauce

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan. Add chopped garlic and oregano. Cook for 1 minute. Add chopped onions and chilli flakes. Cook for 1-2 minutes or till the onions are translucent. Add carrots and bell peppers. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add tomato puree and salt and cook for 8-10 minutes mixing the sauce occasionally. Add broccoli and cook for 1 more minute and switch off the heat. Keep aside.

For White Sauce

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan. Add the all-purpose flour and sauté for 1-2 minutes. Do not let the flour get brown. Add milk and mix well ensuring there are no lumps. One way is to switch off the heat, cool the sauce a little and blend it smooth using a hand blender. Put the sauce back on gas and add salt, pepper, and basil. Cook till the sauce thickens (approximately 2-3 minutes). Cover and keep aside.

Boil the lasagne sheets as per the instructions on the pack.

To Assemble the Lasagna

Take an oven proof dish. Spread a layer of red sauce. Cover it with lasagna sheets. Spread a layer of white sauce. Sprinkle some cheese or add a layer of cheese if you like cheese. Add a layer of lasagna sheets followed by layers of red sauce, lasagna sheets, white sauce, and cheese. Finish with a final layer of lasagna, red sauce, white sauce and cheese on the top.

Cover with an aluminium foil. Bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 12-15 minutes or till the cheese is crusty and brown on the sides. Let it rest for 5-6 minutes before serving.

Pav Bhaji (Indian Street Food)

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“Pav Bhaji (Indian Street Food)” is locked Pav Bhaji (Indian Street Food)

Pav bhaji is one of the most famous street foods from India. It is a snack made with mixed vegetables mashed and cooked in spices and butter. It is served with a bread called pav (similar to hamburger buns). While it is made with fresh vegetables, the amount of butter added to it makes it an unhealthy snack. This recipe is my mom’s pav bhaji recipe which she makes without butter, onion, and garlic. For years, this was the only pav bhaji I knew. It was kind of fixed menu for our birthday parties. I have made slight change to the recipe and added onions.

Whenever my mom is left with a less quantity of different vegetables, she just boils them all and makes pav bhaji for us. This was her idea of not wasting the vegetables and giving us something healthy and tasty to eat. I remember her using even bottle gourd (lauki) in the bhaji. I love the flavour capsicum and peas add to this dish. You can add fresh red chilli paste and garlic to enhance the flavor. My mom makes it in oil and I made it with olive oil last time and did not miss the butter at all in this yummy dish. For the butter lovers in my family, I just top the individual serving of bhaji with a generous dollop of butter.  

The interesting thing about bhaji is that it tastes best the next day. It is a perfect dish to make ahead for any party. You can even freeze it and heat it for a quick snack. At my place it is more of dinner than a snack and my siblings and I enjoy this dish a lot. We eat it with naan, we spread it on dosa, and we even use it as a grilled sandwich filling. The latest is Manchuria pav. Shall post the recipe soon.

Pav Bhaji (Indian Street Food)

 

Ingredients

Serves 3-4

For Pav

  • 10 pav or burger buns
  • 1-2 tbsp butter/ghee/oil
  • 1 tsp pav bhaji masala
  • ¼ tsp red chilli powder
  • ¼ tsp turmeric powder
  • Salt to taste

For Bhaji

  • 4 tbsp oil
  • 1 tbsp grated ginger
  • 1 green chilli chopped
  • 2 tsp red chilli powder
  • ¼ cup finely chopped onion
  • ½ cup finely chopped capsicum
  • 2/3 cup chopped tomatoes
  • ¼ cup peas
  • 2 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 tbsp pav bhaji masala
  • 1 cup chopped potatoes
  • 1 cup cabbage
  • ½ cup beans
  • ½ cup carrot
  • ¼ cup cauliflower florets (optional)

Recipe

Boil or pressure cook potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, and carrots. Drain excess water (Do not throw the water). Keep aside. Boil peas and keep aside.

Heat oil. Add green chillies and ginger. Cook for 30-45 seconds. Add onions and sauté. Cook for 1-2 minutes or till onions are translucent. Add capsicum and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook for 3-5 minutes till oil separates. Add tomato paste, salt, red chilli powder, pav bhaji masala and ¼ cup of water reserved from boiled vegetables. Cook for 5-7 minutes mixing in between till oil separates. Add the boiled vegetables and peas. Mash the bhaji well using a potato masher. Add more of reserved water from boiled vegetables as per desired consistency (1/2 cup should be good). Let it cook on slow flame for 10-5 minutes mixing in between. Serve with hot pav/dinner rolls and chopped onions with a wedge of lime.

For Pav

There are two ways to serve/eat pav with bhaji. One is, Slice the pav/dinner roll into two pieces, smear with generous amount of butter and warm or lightly toast on a hot griddle.

Another way is to cut each pav or dinner roll into 4-6 bite sized pieces. Sprinkle the pav bhaji masala, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, and salt on the pav pieces. Heat oil or butter in a thick bottomed deep skillet or a kadhai. Add the pav pieces and mix well. Cook for 1-2 minutes mixing very frequently. Serve with hot bhaji, chopped onions, and a wedge of lime.

Paneer Wraps (Cottage Cheese Wraps)

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Paneer Wraps (Cottage Cheese Wraps)

Paneer roll or Paneer wrap is a whole wheat wrap filled with paneer (Indian cottage cheese) and capsicum filling. Call it a roll or a wrap or a wrap and roll, for me it is a twist to my mom’s way of making us eat the roti sabji. She would just roll the potato curry in the roti and present it to us as a new snack she made for us and voila it would be finished in no time. I make this whenever I want to eat something “different” for dinner but still want to keep it healthy. This snack reminds me of my childhood and all the experiments I have done in the name of creative fillings for these wraps.

I did move ahead of the potato curry and roti combo and experimented with lots and lots of combinations of fillings. I added herbs to the roti dough to add more flavour. My love for adding herbs to food makes this snack stand out from the regular rolls with creamy sauces. You can experiment with the filling and add the vegetables/spices of your choice. I like the ginger and basil combo and nothing can go wrong when paneer is paired with capsicum. You can also add various fresh or dried herbs to add flavour to the rotis or wraps. You can even add pureed vegetables like carrot or spinach to make the wraps colourful and healthier.

I don’t like the wraps which drip while eating. You can be creative with rolling the wraps but this simple method works well for me. You can shape them like calzone and use cheese to seal the wraps or just simply roll them and seal with cheese. When cooking the wraps you can just warm them on a hot griddle or cook them slightly longer to make them crispy at the centre and soft at the edges. The filling and wraps can be made ahead and you can just roll and warm them before eating.

Paneer Wraps (Cottage Cheese Wraps)

Ingredients

Makes 6 wraps

For Wraps

  • ½ cup whole wheat flour
  • ¼ tsp oregano
  • Salt to taste
  • Olive oil/butter to cook the wraps

Filling

  • 1 cup chopped mixed bell peppers
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 7-8 basil leaves chopped
  • 1 tomato chopped
  • 2/3 cup paneer
  • 1tbsp ginger chopped
  • ½ tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 1 cheese slice
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree
  • Salt to taste

Recipe

For the Wraps

Combine all the ingredients for wraps, add enough water and knead a firm dough. Cover and keep it aside for 10 minutes. Knead the dough again for 1 minute and divide into 6 portions. Roll out each portion into approximately 8-9 inches circle and cook on a hot griddle/tava till light brown spots form on both sides. Cook rest of the wraps and cover and keep aside.

For the Filling

Heat oil. Add ginger and sauté for 30-40 seconds. Add chilli flakes and oregano. Wait for few seconds and add onion. Once the onions are translucent, add capsicum and cook for a minute. Add paneer, tomato, salt, tomato puree, and basil and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Add the cheese slice and switch off the gas. Once the cheese slice melts, mix the filling well and keep it aside.

To make the Wraps

Divide the filling in 6 portions. Take a wrap. Add one portion of filling at the centre of the wrap and roll it tightly. Follow the same procedure for rest of the wraps. Cook the wraps on a hot griddle using little olive oil or butter. You can just warm them or cook till they are lightly crispy. Serve with ketchup or a dip.

 

Palakoora Pappu (Spicy Yellow Lentils with Spinach)

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Palakoora Pappu (Spicy Yellow Lentils with Spinach)

For me Andhra meals is incomplete without Palakoora pappu. It is a spicy (sometimes not) preparation of lentils with spinach. Lentils and spinach are cooked with tamarind paste and green chillies and tempered with garlic and other spices. Hot rice, a dollop of ghee and lots of pappu and some pickle are sure combination to make you over eat.

Since it is the mango season and I love cooking with raw mango, this recipe includes raw mango instead of tamarind paste. The quantity of raw mango or even tamarind paste depends on the sourness of the mango/tamarind and taste as well. As with other recipes, it helps to soak the dal for 15-20 minutes before cooking. Of course, there are hundreds of recipes for pappu and this is my version of the healthy south Indian dal. I can’t say it is authentic or traditional but this is how I make it and it is a hit with my siblings and friends.

Crushing the garlic and tearing and lightly crushing the fresh curry leaves between your palms just before adding them to hot oil will add a lot more to the flavour. Some people add tomatoes and onions also to the tempering. You can taste the cooked dal and add more green chillies to the tempering if the pappu is not spicy enough. This tastes best with plain rice and a dollop of ghee.

Palakoora Pappu (Spicy Yellow Lentils with Spinach)

Ingredients

Serves 2-3

For Pappu

  • 1 cup split pigeon peas (toor dal) washed and soaked for 15-20 mins
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 2 inch piece of ginger grated
  • 4 green chillies slit
  • ½ cup spinach chopped
  • 1 raw mango chopped (substitute with 4-5 tbsp tamarind pulp if not using raw mango)
  • 2 ½ cup water
  • Salt to taste

For the Tadka

  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 10-12 garlic cloves crushed
  • 2-3 dry red chillies
  • ½ tsp mustard seeds
  • ½ tsp turmeric powder
  • 10-15 fresh curry leaves
  • ¼ tsp asafoetida

Recipe

Put all the ingredients for dal in a pressure cooker and cook for 3-4 whistles or till the dal is cooked enough to be mashed with back of a spoon.

Heat oil in a kadhai or a heavy bottomed pan. Add the mustard seeds. Once the seeds pop, add curry leaves and dry red chillies and sauté. Add crushed garlic and cook for one minute. Add turmeric and asafoetida and cook for 20-30 seconds. Pour this hot tempering over the cooked dal and mix well. Cook the dal without lid on slow flame for 3-4 minutes. You can add little water, if the consistency is too thick.

Serve with hot rice and pickle.