Vegan Whole Wheat Walnut Dates Cake – Sugarless
I have a strong craving for sweets and I often control myself by keeping sugar free for couple of months. This time, I wanted to follow sugar free vegan diet but the craving for sweet could not be controlled and came up with this vegan whole wheat walnut dates cake. I know dates and honey are not sugar free but at least they contain natural sugars and some minor minerals. By now you know my love for whole grains over refined flours or rice, so I tried this recipe with whole wheat flour rather than all purpose flour and it came out very good.
Whole Wheat Rotis with extra fiber and protein
Roti made with whole wheat flour is one of the healthy diets in India and is also a staple food in northern India. Whole wheat flour contain good amount of dietary fiber which helps to reduce constipation, lowers blood cholesterol and helps you in losing weight. Here I mention the idea of using wheat bran and wheat germ as ingredients to get extra fiber, protein and minerals. We can apply little oil or ghee on rotis while cooking to get softer rotis and to maintain softness even after a day of making to consume later. But pulkas without oil made on tawa and direct fire should be consumed immediately for better texture.
Ragi Oats Poridge
Ragi (Finger millet, Nachni, Eleusine coracana) is a gluten free grain known for its high calcium content when compared to other grains. Ragi also has a good amount of few key amino acids. In south India we make various dishes with ragi like sweet ragi malt, salty ragi malt, ragi mudda, ragi roti, …. I got excited with the idea of including ragi and oats in breakfast from archana’s kitchen and came out with my flavour. As always I added my favorite ingredients fruits, nuts, seeds and wheat germ. What a nice way to start your day with this healthy warm breakfast.
Zucchini Soup
A bowl of hot and steaming soup in this cold winter is refreshing and stomach filling. Getting your daily vegetable intake through soup is easy and nutritional. Soups made with vegetables are low in calories and do not have saturated fat and cholesterol. This Zucchini soup is creamy and little sweet even without adding cream or dairy and any thickening ingredients like cashews or Potato or corn starch. My family enjoyed it and If you are a soup lover, give it a try. Main ingredients are zucchini, broth, onion and garlic. Add your own flavors and have fun. Serve this warm in winter and enjoy it chilled in summer.
Beetroot chutney with Sesame seeds
Beetroot is a cardiovascular friendly vegetable with rich antioxidants and Vitamin C. Adding iron rich sesame seeds and other spices with this highly nutritious vegetable gives you a sweet, tangy chutney. My moms recipe for preparing chutney’s is to add more sesame seeds and very less amount of peanuts. Instead of peanuts I added walnuts. The taste is equally good and this chutney is a good combination with rice or pesarattu. Today I made it with Mixed lentils/ whole dal dosa. My little one enjoyed it saying red chutney. Hope you will enjoy this recipe.
Whole wheat banana pancake – Vegan version
Last night, I was thinking about what to cook for dinner and I was not in a mood to elaborate cooking. I wanted something instant like dosa, but unfortunately I don’t have any dosa or idly batter at hand and I want whole wheat as the main ingredient. Idea of making pancakes came to my mind as my daughter loves them.
Okra Barley Dal stew ~ Barley Pappu Charu
Pappu charu, made with toor dal, tamarind juice and little seasoning is very commonly prepared stew in Andhra homes . It is a lighter version of sambar, takes less time to cook and is good with steamed rice. Many Variations like Benadakaya(Okra) pappu charu, Vankaya(Brinjal) pappu charu, Munnakkaya(Drumstick) pappu charu and Mullangi(Radish) pappu charu are famous. It can be cooked without vegetables too.
Paneer Tikka Masala Home Style
Paneer Tikka is prepared using paneer cubes, tri color vegetables like pepper, tomato and onion marinated with yogurt and Indian spices and baked in tandoor oven. Alternatively at our homes, we bake them in conventional oven or gas grills. Paneer tikka can be served as a starter or snack.It is a must have in our barbecue parties. To make gravy curry, baked paneer tikka is cooked for a while in tomato onion base gravy and can be garnished with cream. In this recipe I did not use cream, instead I used nuts to get the rich creamy texture.
Turkey Patties ~ Turkey Muttilu
Making these turkey patties is simple and all the ingredients are simple regular Indian spices. Based on our preference we can make them as either appetizer or burger or pita sandwich. I mentioned baked version here but you can shallow fry or deep fry them. Using fat meat (white or red) in making patties or kebabs keeps them more moist. For daily consumption, I recommend to use the baking method with extra lean meat for a healthier diet. If you are making them for holidays and parties you may use little oil in baking or fry them in oil. When I first baked these patties, I didn’t use any oil other than spray and the outcome is good and my guests appreciated them as well.
Green Mung dal and Barley Dosa ~ Barley Pesarattu
Pesarattu is a south Indian breakfast made with green whole mung dal and served with sweet ginger chutney. Peasarattu with upma is also a very good combination. To make pesarattu crispy, we usually add table spoon of rice, but in this recipe I replaced rice with one of my favorite whole grain barley to make it a healthy meal. You will get the same texture and better taste with barley as you get with rice.Replacing whole mung dal with sprouted mung dal increases the protein content.