recipe: cream of cauliflower soup

At dinner when I served this soup to Alok, I asked him to guess what soup it is.  He could not guess.

Here is a recipe of vegetarian cauliflower soup I am sharing with you.  At least try halving the recipe and make the soup today.  Then let your family guess; let's see if they can figure out the taste of cauliflower in this creamy cauliflower soup.

cream of cauliflower soup

Continue Reading »»»

Recipe: Eggless White Bread using Milk [Joy of Cooking Recipe]

I used to be scared of working with yeast or making bread at home.  In fact, I was petrified.  Did not know how yeast would work.  Thought making bread was too much of a work.  Was not confident at all to even try it at home.

But one day I thought of getting over my fears of yeast and making bread from scratch.  I bought Fleischmann's active dry yeast, followed the bread recipe from the book Joy of Cooking, and never in my dream could have imagined baking bread at home was so satisfying! 

The smell of freshly baked bread was so divine.  And I realized yeast was really not a big deal.  Neither is baking bread at home so difficult.  And since then, I never bought home any kind of ready made bread from store.

Eggless White Bread - Joy of Cooking Recipe

Continue Reading »»»

Recipe: Lauki Chana Dal

I have a feeling bottle gourd (lauki) is one of the most ignored and rarely used vegetables.  There just don't seem to be enough ways to use them.

bottle gourd, aka lauki, ghiya, or doodhi

If I have to come up with names of some lauki dishes - the main ones I can think of are lauki ki kheer, lauki ke kofte, lauki ki sabzi, and lauki chana dal.  Which other lauki recipes are you aware of?
Continue Reading »»»

Green Chutneys: Tomato, Cilantro, Mint, Peas

Four Green Chutneys

Use them in chaat for papdis, spread them on bread for sandwich, dip samosas or kachoris in them, have them on the side while eating rotis or parathas – chutneys are condiments that add the tang and the zing to something simple.

There are numerous variations, combinations, and textures of chutney recipes.  Some chutneys require slight sautéing then grinding whereas some ground raw.  Some are fruit-based, vegetable-based, or a mixture of both with various herbs and spices.  Some chutneys have chunks, some are dry, some chutneys are thick and creamy, whereas some are thin paste.  Some are sweet, salty, spicy, or tangy, and some are all in one.

Continue Reading »»»

10LB (4.5KG) bag of carrots

I tried to deal with my "carrot situation".  Because each time I opened the refrigerator, this 10LB (4.5KG) bag of carrots stared at me squinting its eyes, and wondering what to do with me.  Oh wait, it was vice versa.

huge bag of carrots from Costco

Continue Reading »»»

Dahiwale Aloo - Potatoes in Yogurt Gravy

In the past my mom used to spoil me with wide variety of options, dishes, and cuisines every day; but I can’t do that for myself very often.  It's too much work.  So I mostly settle with plain ol' potatoes for my regular meals.

 Potato is cooked almost every other day in my kitchen.  And I pair it with different vegetables, different spices, and different dry/gravy versions each time.  This recipe for dahiwaale aloo (potatoes in a yogurt gravy) is pretty simple.

Dahi ke Aloo - Potatoes with Yogurt

Continue Reading »»»

Aloo Beans Sabzi - Stir-fried Potatoes and Green Beans

For some strange reason, I am mostly - MOSTLY - cooking more of dry sabjis than gravy sabjis.  I don't know why.  May be laziness or time constraints in grinding everything in a blender?  But that is a silly reason.  Until the time I figure out why I end up making more stir-fry's and less gravy dishes, here is a simple dry aloo beans ki sabji (stir-fried potatoes and green beans) recipe.

Continue Reading »»»