What I Want Now: Falafels

Here's a raw version of the Middle eastern classic - Falafels! 

I am sooo having these tommorow. Going to the Farmers Market tommorow is just the excuse - There's a Falafels outlet just nearby to get my fix...Mmmm...

Millet Porridge

Millet is a grain that is totally unknown to most people, including my family. Being dirt-cheap (Rs. 19 for a kilo!) doesn't help its reputation as a poor man's grain. People in the West associate millet solely with bird feed. But there is a dearth of recipes you can make with these tiny little pellets that resemble the tiny beads you find in your bathing/shower gels.

What I have made is an upma, or porridge with red millet seeds. With millet, you definitely need to do some prep work - soaking for 8 hours is a must prior to cooking.

Millet Porridge

Ingredients 

• 1/2 cup of red millet (ragi)
• 1/2 cup of assorted greens
• 1/2 capsicum
• 1/2 tomato
• 2 cloves of fresh/green garlic
• 1 green chilli
• 1/4 onion
• 5-10 curry leaves
• Tablespoon of oil

To make:
Prep Work: Soak the millet overnight in two cups of water. Drain the water upon waking and replace with fresh clean water. I'd soaked mine along with some chick pea.

Boil the millet in water with some salt (Twice as much water as millet) for 20-30 minutes. If the water runs out, add more.

Chop the onion, chillies and garlic fine. I've used fresh green garlic - Dried is fine too. With the fresh green one, you can also use the entire green stalk which is also flavorful.

In a frying pan, add the oil, chopped chillies, curry leaves, garlic, and onion for tempering.

Once the millet is done, turn off the gas. Drain excess water.

Add the millet to the frying pan. Mix well for a minute.

Turn off the gas. Lay aside for a minute.

Then add the capsicum, tomatoes and greens so they are still mostly raw. Mix well.

Roti Wrap

I always hate running out of rotis and naans when I order takeaway, so I make sure to order a little extra. And turns out, the day old rotis/naans are more than a little salvageable. The recipe given below can either be eaten as a pizza (which is what I had in mind when I started making it) or just roll up the roti and have it as a wrap.

Another discovery - You can grate cauliflower to make it look like cheese atop a pizza!

Roti Wrap

Ingredients:

• 1 tandoori roti/chapati
• Half a tomato, sliced
• Handful of greens of your choice
• Handful of peppers, julienned
• Handful of red cabbage, julienned
• 5-10 black olives
• Tablespoon of baba ghanoush
• Dash of olive oil
• 1-2 cauliflower florets (optional)

To make:
On the roti, spread the baba ghanoush. Lay the greens, peppers, cabbage on top.Then the tomato and the olives. Sprinkle some olive oil.

You can bake this in the oven for 15-20 minutes if having as a pizza. If having as a wrap, skip this step.
Finish off with grating the cauliflower florets on top your pizza to make it look like cheese.

Tightly fold the roti from one end to the other, and tuck in!

What I Want Now: Chocolate Chipotle Cake

This dark, gooey chocolatey mess sure looks tempting. Recipe on ManifestVegan.com.

Sabudana Khichdi

Sabu dana, or Sago/Tapioca, khichdi is quick to make, delicious, and very filling. You can have it piping hot or cold. Nutritionally, sago just delivers a large punch of starch, with almost little or no minerals, vitamins, or proteins. So, definitely don't overdo it!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sago seeds (preferably big ones)
• 1 medium sized potato
• Handful of peanuts
• 1 green chilli
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp grated coconut (optional)
• 1 tsp tumeric powder
• 1 tsp each mustard seeds and cumin for tempering
• 2 tbsp oil
• A few curry leaves
• 2 tbsp coriander leaves (chopped)
• Salt to taste

 To make:

• Wash sabudana nicely under running water so that there is no powdery residue left.
• Drain water completely and leave overnight, or for a minimum of 3 to 4hours. The sago should almost double up in size.
• Dry roast groundnuts on gas or in microwave and powder them coarsely.
• Add salt, tumeric, chillipowder, lemon juice and ground nuts and mix well.
• Heat oil, add mustard seeds, chopped green chilli, curry leaves and potatoes cut into fine cubes.
• When the potatoes are almost done, add sabudana and mix well.
• Keep on simmer for 5 to 10 minutes till sabudana is cooked.
• Remove from fire and serve hot garnished with corinder leaves and grated coconut.
  
  
  

What I Want Now: Zuccini Bread

Low fat zuccini bread recipe found on Holy Cow Vegan Recipes. Here's a preview:

(c) http://earthvegan.blogspot.com/

Looks delish, doesn't it?

Watermelon, Zuccini, Carrot Salad

I'm now officially one tooth (giant tooth, I might add, along with the not so pleasant business of abscess and such) lighter. As per doctor's instructions, I am not to eat anything "hot or hard". So, seemed like the perfect opportunity to whip up something raw, after days of not so raw eating habits.

Watermelon, Zuccini, Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots
• 1/4 of a zuccini
• 1/4 of a red cabbage
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 1/2 cup watermelon
• Handful of sunflower seeds

To make:

• Chop the carrots, zuccini, cabbage and pepper into long thin slivers.
• Juice half a cup of the watermelon (just squeeze the juice out with your hands or use a blender). The other one cup of watermelon will be chopped up and added to the salad. Be sure to scrape the watermelon right off the rind and include some of the green portion as well- thats where all the good stuff is, nutritionally.
• Combine all the ingredients except the watermelon juice and the sunflower seeds.
• Add the watermelon juice over the salad - A lame dressing, I know, but to be honest, you dont even need it!
• Finish off with the sunflower seeds on top.
  
  
  

Wednesday Gluttony: Chole Bhature

Ahead of my dreaded dentist's appointment last night, I decided I direly needed some greasy Punjabi food. I have yet to meet a more sadistic man in my life!

Onion and Olive Crackers

My second attempt at baking in two days and this time I did have my hands in the flour-oil-water mixture to form a proper dough. Well, don't know about "proper" - Once again, my baking time is far more than the recommended baking time for crackers and such. I had them in the oven for at least an hour. Can someone suggest what I'm doing wrong? I'm just really paranoid about eating raw dough batter and so would tend to leave the baking tray in the oven even longer than necessary.

Anyway, they turned out looking very sexy...They'll go well with my Baba Ghanoush! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wheat flour
• 1/4 -1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1/2 - 1 cup of warm water
• 2/3 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 cup of fried onions
• 5-10 green olives, chopped up fine
• 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon of dry basil
• 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds (as garnish)

Prep work: Cut an onion lengthwise and fry till its a deep brown color. Do this a day before and place in refrigerator. They should be crunchy.

To make:

To the flour, add the oil and water (leave some in reserve). Along with the fried onions and cumin seeds. Add the chopped olives and the basil.

Form a sticky dough - Adjust the oil and water according to the consistency of the dough you are seeking.

Using a rolling pin or the palm of your hand, roll out the dough into a thin sheet (no more than 1/8th of an inch in height)

 Oil your baking tray and gently place the dough inside.

 With a knife coated in oil or dipped in water, gently cut the raw dough into thin slivers or the shape you desire.

Bake for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown. (Mine took more than an hour - thats my headache to figure out what I am doing wrong)

Raw Baba Ghanoush

Let's be honest - People like making/eating Baba Ghanoush because saying Baba Ghanoush is incredibly fun! Mine is adapted from the recipe on RawAmazing. You'll find many variations of Baba Ghanoush on the Net. Essentially, Baba Ghanoush is eggplant with sesame, garlic, lemon.

Baba Ghanoush

Serving: 1/2 cup

Prep work:
Peel the eggplants. Cut roughly and put it overnight in the freezer. Remove from the freezer approximately two hours before you want to begin making Baba Ghanoush. This is to improve the texture of raw eggplants - No one likes eating them raw! As best I know, freezing does not degrade the enzymes in fruits/veggies. So this is still considered raw.

If you're not bothered about the whole raw food thing, then just roast the eggplants over an open flame to get that charred burnt flavor; cool them off; and then blitz them along with the other ingredients.

Ingredients:

• Two medium sized baby eggplants (I used the small Indian variety)
• 1 tablespoon of Tahini
• Juice from half a lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 5-6 cashews (Optional)
• Dash of olive/sesame oil
• Salt to taste

To make:

• In a mixer, blitz all the ingredients till its a smooth paste.
• Serve with crackers

Frozen eggplant being thawed

 

Notice how the texture has changed