Dal is a very important dish in the Indian cuisine, and every household had different variations of dals. Sometime we enjoy plain dal and sometimes tadka dal with some veggies in our every day meals.Today i would like to share a very simple, easy, and very healthy recipe, Dal Palak. Palak/spinach has a lot of health benefits and has a beautiful color. Many dishes can be prepared using palak like curries, parathas, koftas, cutlets, pakoras, kababs and so on. Some times we can use palak puree to give a natural green color to our recipes. This recipe utilizes two types of dal: toor dal and moong dal. You are free to add one or both of them. The boiled dal is cooked along with spinach, garlic and other spices, which gives it an aromatic smell, and taste. Dal palak is best served with plain rice or roti.
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Shahi Aloo Mutter
Potatoes are kings in veggies, with which we make several delicious dishes such as snacks, curries, bread or appetizers. Potatoes are also an all time favorite for kids. This dish is prepared with baby potatoes (but you can use big potatoes as well) without the use of onion and garlic. Adding cashew nuts into this curry gives a rich and thick texture and shahi taste to the dish. You can also add thick curd instead of cashew nuts. This dish can be made during the navratri festival, and is a great dish if you don’t want to add paneer. Shahi aloo mutter is best served with rice, roti, poori, naan or parathas.
Achaari Kathal dry
Jack fruit, also known as “Kathal” in hindi, is generally available during summer season. Raw Jack fruit is used to prepare varieties of recipes like curry, dum, kofta, dry dish as well as pickle. Ripe Jack fruit seeds are used as fruits known as Koa in Northern part of India. This recipe is prepared using raw Jackfruit which I found in supermarket. In our childhood we used to carry this in lunch with Poori, one of the favorite Mom’s dish. To prepare this curry, boiled Jackfruit is flavored with achaari masala which gives a tingling taste to it. Be careful while cutting the Jackfruit as it is little tough due to it’s sticky nature, apply oil on your palm and knife before you start cutting. Achaari kathal is a very tasty dish and goes really well with roti, poori, paratha and plain rice. Earlier I have shared kathal dum recipe if you would like to try that.
Vegetable Tehari
Tehari is a colorful and delicious rice dish very similar to veg pulao. This dish is very popular in Northern part of India specially in Uttar Pradesh. This is a very easy recipe and can be prepared when you are in rush. The rice is mixed with chopped vegetables and cooked together with aromatic spices. You can add any vegetables of your choice but generally cauliflower, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, peas and carrots provide an amazing taste. It is served with raita, or curd and papad. Enjoy this either during rush hours or during the weekends for a light lunch/dinner.
Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup
Soup, generally used as an appetizer in Indian cuisines comes in variety of flavors based on ingredients. There are soups with ingredients such a lentil, tomato, beans, chicken and so on. The Chinese noodle soups are a entree rather than an appetizer. The two main kind of soups are clear and thick soups. This thick soup is prepared using sweet potato and carrot as main ingredients. It has beautiful red-orange color of carrot & beetroot, naturally sweetened by sweet potato and has hint of spices. This healthy and delicious soup is easy to prepare and best served with garlic bread and croutons. This is a favorite in my family and I keep getting demands for making this very often.
Paneer Mutter Masala
Paneer mutter masala is one of most popular dish in North India. Paneer is one of the most liked ingredient to adults as well as kids. There are varieties of paneer recipes like paneer butter masala, methi paneer mutter masala, paneer tikka masala, palak paneer, chili paneer masala and so on. This recipe is a considered as a delicacy and prepared only on special occasions. It is also one of the most sought out dish in restaurants. The recipe looks very appealing in its orange red color gravy which is generally due to food coloring. However I have used beetroot to get the same color to the recipe. The main ingredient in the recipe is paneer and mutter which is added to a rich tomato based gravy with spices, cashew nut and cream. The wonderful aroma due to spices and awesome taste of curry is extremely appetizing. The curry goes very well with Naan, Poori, Parathas and plain or jeera rice. If you are not a fan of paneer, you can use Tofu instead. Prepare this dish to celebrate your special days with family and friend, however indulge at your own risk.
Chicken Masala
There are varieties of recipes which one can make using Chicken. Different states in India have different chicken masala flavor. This recipe preparation is specifically based on the one which is used in Northern part of India. For this recipe chicken is roasted and cooked in a pan and then mixed with beetroot & tomato based gravy. Using whole spices in the preparation gives awesome garam masala flavor. Chicken masala goes well with plain rice, jeera rice, paratha, naan or phulka. We all loved this recipe, even kids too as I did not make it very spicy. If you a chicken lover, I am sure you and your family would like this too.
Red Beans Curry
Red Beans Curry is a side dish prepared mainly from dry Red Beans. There are variety of beans available in grocery store like kidney beans, pinto beans, soybeans and so on. Using these beans you can also prepare variety of recipes like a soup, curry and salad. Beans are good source of fiber and protein. This recipe preparation is more like Indian style Rajma recipe. The recipe is very simple to prepare basically soak the beans overnight, boil it and then cook with some spices. The curry goes very well with plain rice, jeera rice and well as poori and paratha. This same recipe I have also used for Beet Greens Rice Roll.