Category: Savoury

This is an interesting twist to a boring vegetable called lauki/ bottle gourd. Its a very nutritious vegetable and is usually disliked by kids. This chutney was introduced by my colleague’s mother in law who used to send it with idlis when I was under the weather. Later she told me it was lauki and I couldn’t believe it . now i make it very regularly for my family and now my kids after seeing this post will release it was  made of lauki 🙂

Ingredients 

• Lauki / bottle gourd – 1 
• Chana dal – 1 tablespoon 
• Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Urad dal – 1 tablespoon  
• Peanut – 4 tablespoon 
• White Til/Sesame seeds  – 2 tablespoon 
• Jeera – 1 tablespoon 

• Curry leaves- 4-5
• Oil – two tablespoon 
• Turmeric powder 
• Hing – ¼ teaspoon 
• Salt- to taste 

• Green chili – 2 
• Tamrind – lemon size ball 
• Red chili powder – ½ teaspoon 

 Ingredients Tempering

• Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Curry leaves- 4-5
• Red chili – 2 
• Oil – ½  teaspoon 

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add urad dal , peanuts , chana dal, white till and mustard seeds. 
2. Then roast the ingredients in the pan for 1-2 minutes. 
3. Remove the roasted stuff on a plate and to the same pan add lauki and green chili, turmeric, red chili powder, tamarind and hing and salt to taste. 
4. Cook until the lauki is soft and tender. 
5. Transfer the roasted peanuts and other stuff to the lauki mixture and let it cool. 
6. After cooling, grind the whole thing into a fine paste and transfer into a bowl. 
7. Do the tempering by adding oil and add mustard seeds and let it crackle and then add the dry chili and curry leaves and pour over the chutney. 
8. It Tastes well with rice,dosa and paratha. 

Notes

•  Jeera and tamarind and hing and the dry masala like turmeric and red chili powder and missing in the ingredients pic 
• You can add ginger garlic if you like the taste. I donot like to add as it changes the taste of lauki
• Stays good for 3-5 days 

These days it is a trend to have a lot of dips and chutneys with your snacks and chips and dip.  I had done this variation when suddenly I had someone visiting us and was allergic to tomatoes and I wanted a saucy kind of chutney and this variation was invented.

The healthy carrot chutney goes well with south Indian, momos and salad and Kababs. 

It is very simple to make and does not need fancy ingredients. The recipe is for approximate one bowl, you can increase and decrease ingredient quantity as per your taste

Ingredients

• 2 medium size coarsely grated Carrot
• 2-3 Red dried chilly
• One medium size Onion
• 2-3 Garlic cloves (usually necessary but can skip if u do not eat garlic)
• A small bowl of Tamarind
• One tablespoon Coriander seeds
• Two tablespoons of Peanuts
• One teaspoon of mustard seeds
• Half teaspoon of cooking oil
• Salt to taste

Method

1.   Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and then all the ingredients with salt

2.   Saute this till it is soft and mushy

3.   Cool it

4.   Grind it paste and adjust consistency as per you liking

5.   Incase u are using this with south Indian platter than u can give it additional seasoning of curry leaves and red chilies otherwise it is good to go

This is one of the favorites of the kids and they do not realize it has carrots . Also Use this Recipe along with our Kababs mentioned in the blog

https://bakesngrub.com/kali-masoor-kebabs/

 And as my Husband says the Chutney is marvelous. 

This is one of my favourite especially when I have to feed vegetables and also very popular in my kids tiffin. One can be rest assured that tiffin would be finished if pizza muffins are there. I have to pack extra as per their instruction which is used for trading. I am sure you would also love to try the same.

Ingredients

1. All-purpose flour- 1.5 cup ( you can do even half whole wheat )
2. Baking Powder- 2tsp
3. Baking Soda- ¼ tsp
4. Salt- ¼ tsp
5. Olive oil- ½ cup
6. Milk ¾ cup
7. Curd- ½ cup
8. Tomato Sauce- 1 tbsp
9. Cheese -1/2 cup
10. Vegetables finely chopped- Capsicum, Bell peppers, Carrot
11. Boiled sweet corn- ½ cup
12. Tomato- ¼ cup (De-seeded and chopped)
13. Oregano and pizza seasoning
14. Pepper- ¼ tsp

Method

• Sieve the dry ingredients like all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt together
• Take a bowl and add curd, milk, oil and tomato sauce
• To the wet mixture add the dry ingredients plus pepper & pizza seasoning
• Fold the ingredients gently and add half of the vegetables, corn, tomato and cheese
• Put the batter in a muffin mould. Fill upto 3/4^th and then add little bit of all vegetables in each mould. Top with a swirl of tomato sauce and sprinkle little cheese
• Bake for about 15 min in a preheated oven at 180 degree. Check if toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool on wire rack

You can do variation with vegetables depending on what one likes in your family. Also you can replace curd with one egg, if you want to use egg.

Do try these pizza muffins and let me know how they turned out.

My family loves Mediterranean dips and in summer they become more popular as everyone wants to eat light food and also have dips with all kinds of salads, chips and nachos. So here are two varieties – Hummus and Red Pepper Walnut dip for you.

Hummus

Ingredients

• 1 cup boiled Chickpeas (kabuli channa)
• 2 tbsp Tahini paste ( or sesame roasted)
• 6-8 garlic cloves
• 3-5 tablespoon lemon juice
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ tsp cumin
• Large pinch of paprika
• Salt to taste

Method

1. In a blender puree the boiled chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini paste, 3 tbsp olive oil, garlic, salt and cumin till smooth paste.
2. Adjust the seasoning as per taste – like salt, lemon juice or garlic.
3. Take the paste out in a bowl drizzle olive oil and sprinkle paprika.

You can do variations by adding beetroot or avocado to make other variations of the same.

Red pepper and Walnut Dip

Ingredients

• 1 red capsicum
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• ½ cup walnuts/pine nuts
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp pomegranate juice or apple jucie
• ¼ tsp jeera powder
• ¼ tsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp hung curd
• Salt
• Olive oil- 2tsp

Method

1. Roast a red capsicum on open flame for 6-7 min or till skin is charred.
2. Cool the same and then remove the black part and seeds after cutting the same. Wash.
3. Add capsicum and all the ingredients in blender and make a smooth paste.

It is very cooling dip and kids also love this with chips and salads.