Fiesta pasta

One of my favorite restaurants is a Mongolian grill where you pick your choice of noodles, vegetables and sauces in a bowl and they grill it all together for you. I like to make mine spicy and love the grilled and crunchy texture of vegetables. I had recently purchased this pack of colorful whole grain harvest spaghetti and couldn't wait to try it. I decided to make it somewhat similar to what I eat at the Mongolian restaurant. I used broccoli slaw as it would blend well with the long spaghetti. I made the pasta spicy with an Indo-Chinese touch to it.

 

Ingredients

 Two fistfuls spaghetti

2 tbsp ginger green chili garlic paste

1tsp red pepper flakes

2 cups broccoli slaw (or shredded cabbage and carrots can be used)

1-2 tsp curry powder

1/2 cup frozen corn kernels

1/2 cup broccoli florets

1-2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1tbsp honey

1tbsp major grey's chutney

Cilantro for garnishing

1tsp toasted sesame oil (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

Peanut oil for cooking

Method

Boil the pasta according to package directions and keep aside.

Heat oil in a wok or a pan, add ginger garlic chili paste and red pepper flakes. Stir for a few seconds and add the curry powder and the broccoli. Now mix in the spaghetti, broccoli slaw, corn and the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and adjust seasonings according to taste.

Vegetable upma

Upma with peanut chutney

The last few days have been busy and I have not been able to cook much. We are living on the simple home cooked  dal chawal, which is not bad but  I needed a change.The freezer has been extremely useful too for times like these. Since I did not have the time for anything elaborate, I made upma (semolina) with vegetables and added some soy protein to make it more nutritious. The texture of soy granules blended well with the semolina. It was a nice and wholesome meal.

Ingredients

1 cup rava

1/4 cup soy protein (soy granules)

1 onion

1/2 tsp ginger (finely chopped)

1 green chili (chopped)

Mixed vegetables (peas, carrots, tomatoes, bell pepper)

Mustard seeds, urad dal, cashews, dried red chilies, peanuts

1 lemon

cilantro for garnish

Method

Dry roast the rava and keep aside. Heat some oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, urad dal, red chillies, curry leaves, peanuts, ginger and cashews. Stir for a minute and add the onions and carrots. Cook till the onions get translucent and mix in the pepper and frozen peas. Add about 3 cups water and bring it to a boil. Add salt to taste and slowly mix in the roasted rava and soy protein. Stir in between to mix well.  Add the chopped tomatoes I like to add a little sugar too (about half a tsp). Once the water gets  completely absorbed squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and garnish with cilantro.I served it with peanut chutney.

Dal dhokli

This is a typical Gujarati dish. It is dal cooked really well in spices. Later small pieces of chapati dough is rolled out, cut and added to the dal and boiled till done.

Ingredients

For the dal

1 cup toor dal

1/4 cup chana dal

turmeric

1tbsp garam masala or dal masala

1 large tomato chopped

2 carrots choppped

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

1tbsp jaggery or sugar

cilantro

1/4 cup peanuts (raw)

Juice of one lemon

salt to taste

For tempering the dal

1tbsp ghee

1tsp mustard seeds,

1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds

1/4 tsp asafoetida

1 sprig curry leaves

4-5 cloves

For making dhokli

Flour, water, black sesame seeds, carom seeds, cumin seeds, salt, turmeric powder, kasoori methi

Combine the ingredients for making dhokli to make a dough similar to chapati

Method

Wash and boil the dals with salt, garam masala, turmeric powder, peanuts, carrots and tomatoes. Let it cook till done. Mash the cooked dal well. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions and garlic. Saute till the onions turn pinkish. Pour the dal over it.

Prepare the dhokli. Roll out the dough like a chapati and cut it into triangular pieces. Add these to the boiling dal. Cover and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes. Now prepare the tempering

Heat a small pan with ghee for tempering. Once hot add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and asafoetida. Once the seeds splutter add the curry leaves and cloves.  Now pour the ghee over the dal.