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Dal Dhokli

Dal Dhokli is a delicious traditional Gujarati comfort food, made with many variations and known by different names in other states of India. In North India it is called Dal Pitthi. The Dhokli is made with wheat dough, then rolled into thin circles and cut into square or diamond shapes. The Dhokli is then mixed into the sweet-sour Gujarati dal and tadka with ghee and spices; and left to simmer until it gets cook properly. This recipe utilizes Jowar flour along with wheat flour to make it healthier. This one bowl meal can be prepared over the weekend, which gives a big change to our daily meal. You can use your leftover dal, and convert it into a healthy Dal Dhokli!

Dal Palak

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.

Bhindi Curry (Bihari Style)

Bhindi/Okra is one of the popular vegetables and loved by many people. It can be prepare in any form be it dry, stuffed, or curry. You can prepare variety of dishes using Bhindi and different places have their own variations.This recipe is generally prepared in the state of Bihar and has a mustard flavor. This recipe is prepared by cooking sauteed bhindi in onion, tomato and mustard gravy. This curry goes very well with phulka, parata or plain rice. Visit my other Bhindi recipe like Bindi masala, Bindi Fry and Stuffed Bindi.

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.

Dry Coconut Garlic Chutney

India has many street foods which are popular across the nation. Dabele, vada pav and pav bhajji are some of the most popular and are primarily from Maharashtra. Vada pav is prepared with batata vada (deep fried spicy potato balls/patty) with Pav and three types of chutney. Vada pav is incomplete without garlic chutney and people demand it when they buy Vada pav. This chutney is a dry and spicy, prepared with dry roasted coconut, garlic, chili and spices. Traditionally this chutney is prepared using garlic clove with skin however if you don’t like it, you can peel it. This simple chutney can be stored for 2 to 3 weeks in an airtight container when refrigerated.

Batata Vada ( Aloo Bonda)

Batata Vada (Aloo Bonda) is a very famous fast food in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Batata means nothing but potato. This recipe is very easy to prepare. Boiled and mashed potato is first saute’d with coriander, mint leaves, chili and ginger paste then deep fried after coating it with gram flour batter. It can be served as a snack directly, and can also be used to make popular vada pav when served with pav, mint-coriander, dry garlic and tamarind chutney. There is a slightly different version of batata vada in Gujarat where the mashed potato is mixed with green chilies, coriander leaves, and garlic paste and deep fried with gram flour batter. Enjoy batata vada with a hot cup of tea. 

Pumpkin Masala

Pumpkin is one of the widely grown vegetables rich in vitamins. You can prepare variety of dishes using pumpkins like pumpkin pie, pumpkin kheer, pumpkin cupcakes, breads and so on. This recipe is mainly based on the preparations in Norther part of India where it is used as a dry side dish and goes very well with channa daal poories, normal poories or rice. This dish is simple to prepare and gets exotic taste from punch phoran spices, jaggrey and amchoor powder. This dish is also prepared during marriage ceremony. This is one of my favorite dry side dish. Enjoy this delicious recipe with your family and friends.