Vegetables And Cowpea Soup

I had experimented with several soups last winter. Unfortunately, I forgot the recipes once I made them. I am therefore spending a lot of time re-creating the recipes. This vegetables and cowpea soup is one of them. Like all soups, it is quite easy to prepare. It is a clear soup loaded with vegetables. My…

Chickpea And Tofu Salad

My experiments with salads have been largely inspired by the iconic Tarla Dalal, may her soul rest in peace. I have never found even one of her recipes not up to the mark. If one follows her instructions to the T, the dishes turn out to be really delicious and satisfying. So it is with…

Sarson Ka Saag (Mustard Greens Curry)

Sarson ka saag is a very famous dish from the North Indian state of Punjab. It is often paired with a flat bread made of corn. However, any other flat bread also goes well with this iconic dish. This dish is normally made in winter when mustard greens are plentifully available. Of course, like most…

Ven Pongal (Rice Based Breakfast)

Pongal has several associations amongst the families of Thamizhnadu and Palakkad. Firstly, it is the celebration of the Pongal festival that falls on January 14/15 every year. It is a 4 day long festival that offers thanks to the Sun God for agricultural abundance. This festival corresponds to similar festivals all across the different states…

Vazhakkai Podimas (Mashed Raw Banana)

I like podimas of any type. Podimas means mashed or grated. I have previously posted the recipes for sweet potato and potato podimas. This is a typically South Indian dish – though I am not sure which state it actually belongs to. I suspect it it Thamizhnadu. When I prepare podimas from sweet potato or…

Rasakalan (Mixed Vegetable Curry)

Rasakalan is a typically Palakkad dish. It is not rasam, kalan or mor kootan. For those not aware of these names, these are various wet dishes that are mixed with rice. Rasakalan seems to be related to mor kootan (yogurt based wet dish) but is also quite different and distinct. Broadly, it falls into the…

Sarkaravallikizhangu Podimas (Sweet Potato Curry)

I am not very fond of sweet potatoes. Especially the sweet taste. But I do stoically consume the tuber once in a while as I know that it is really good for health. Every night, when I plan the menu for the next day, I try to avoid sweet potato – until Hari tells me…

Pudalankai Varuval (Snake Gourd Crisps)

I am very fond of snake gourd. Though it is a bland vegetable, it tastes wonderful whichever way it is cooked. You will find several snake gourd recipes in this blog – kootu, usili, thoran… It can be used to make a mulakootal too. However, I wanted to try something different and make crisps with…

Burmese Salad

It’s been quite a while since I last posted. That’s because of the unbearable heat wave that North India has been experiencing. The temperature has been constantly above 45oC and the heat saps your energy. Combined with the coal crisis in the country, electricity has become a luxury. My energy is at more normal levels…