Zucchini Masala Curry

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: One Vegetable - 3 Dishes

Dish: Gravy Curry -- Zucchini Masala Curry

After yesterday's dry curry with zucchini, today I have a gravy curry that goes really well with rotis and even rice. I remember the first time I tried making this gravy curry for rotis couple of years ago. I didn't have any other vegetable in the fridge except for some zucchini and I had to make something to serve along with rotis. So I made this curry with tomato puree and almond butter and it came out creamy and delicious. It has become one of my favorite go-to roti side dish or even rice and has been on the rotation ever since.

I have tried few different ways to thicken the curry and make it creamy: I either add almond butter (or soaked and ground almonds or cashews) or some thick coconut milk. Apart from these vegan options, I have also used heavy cream or some whole milk or yogurt. So the options are endless to make this dish.

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Palak Badam Shorba (Spinach Almond Soup)

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: Recipes from Menu Card
Dish: Palak Badam Shorba

We are starting 3rd week of blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Recipes from Menu Card'. Valli gave us a few menu cards to choose from and I picked the menu from Puranmal restaurant. We are supposed to pick dishes from 3 different courses, so I have 3 yummy restaurant style dishes coming up this week.

I love reading menu cards and even though in a non-Indian restaurant here in the US, there are probably just 3~4 vegetarian dishes that I might be interested, I still make sure to look at all the pages for good measure :-)

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Sri Lankan Vegetable Curry

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes from A-Z International Marathon

Dishes: Sri Lankan Vegetable Curry with Coconut Rice

This is the last week of this month's Blogging Marathon and my theme for this week is 'Bookmarked Recipes from A-Z International Marathon'. It is quite a big challenge to narrow down just 3 dishes from the mega marathon -- I had a ton of them bookmarked during the research and then a ton more from my fellow marathoners.

Some of the mega marathoners did elaborate meals for each country and initially I was tempted to do a complete meal for this week. But reality set in and I realized it would be impossible for me to cook all those dishes, so I decided on simple dishes for this week.

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Almond Butter-Chocolate Chip Muffins

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 3/ Day 3
Theme: Kid's Delight -- Nuts & Legumes for Kid's Lunchbox
Dish: Almond Chocolate Chip Muffins

For the 3rd and final day of this week's BM, I made Almond butter-Chocolate chip muffins. I saw the recipe for hazelnut butter-cranberry muffins lot time back in Vegetarian times magazine. I wanted to make them ever since, finally got a chance to make these for this week. 

I always have almond butter in the fridge and use it quite often to spread on my morning toast and add it to Indian curries to make them creamy. So I used it instead of hazelnut butter in these muffins. Also since I was baking for the kids I added chocolate chips instead of cranberries. These muffins also use half all purpose flour and half spelt flour making them more fiber and whole-grain rich.

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Shahi Baingan (Eggplant in Spicy tomato-almond sauce)

Blogging Marathon# 31: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Main Course
Dish: Shahi Baingan with Bagara Rice

Being a eggplant lover I thought this 'Main Course' theme for BM# 31 will be incomplete without an eggplant dish. So here I am with a very fancy Baingan/ Eggplant curry that goes well with plain or spiced rice or even rotis. I actually made this curry way back in April to go with the Pressure cooker Bagara rice and it is now time for this post to see the light (of your computer).

I wanted to make a different masala base for the eggplants I had on hand and came across this recipe at Daily Musings by Indosungod. It sounded spicy, creamy and delicious. I made a few changes to fit my pantry needs and this turned out excellent.

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Kadai Tofu (Tofu & Peppers in Creamy Tomato Sauce)

VeganMofo Day 18: I rarely used Tofu in Indian dishes, I'm not sure why I have never tried it before. Tofu to me is a very Asian ingredient and I tend to use in Chinese or Thai dishes. I know tofu is very versatile and I finally decided to use it in a way I've never used it before.

Veganmofo is going pretty good so far, I missed 4 days so far and hopefully I can keep up the momentum and finish the month with no further disruptions. The little one is keeping us busy, so most of my blogging is happening only around midnight. 

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Chicken & Spinach Curry

If you are confused from the title, rest assured this is still a vegetarian blog. Today's recipe is made of meat-free 'Chicken' (I used Gardein brand) and meaty mushrooms in a creamy and rich green spinach gravy. Even with meaty, creamy and rich in the description of the dish, this happens to be a Vegan dish that tastes amazing.

I've been meaning to make this dish from Vaishali's (Holycow Vegan) blog for a long time now. "Cooking with Greens" theme for BM and choosing a combo with a gravy dish, finally made that happen. 

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Eggplant-Tomato Kurma (Vankaya-Tomato Kurma)

I'm hosting this month's Dish it Out event on my blog this month and the 2 ingredients I chose are Eggplant & Tomatoes. Eggplant is my all time favorite veggie and that was the first thing that came to my mind when the event creator, Vardhini, asked me to choose ingredients for the event. I didn't want to miss this chance of making new dishes with  my favorite veggie. 

The last day to submit your entries is TOMORROW, MAY 31st. Please rush in your entries before the end of the day tomorrow. 

The first dish I tried is this delicious kurma. I found the recipe for Tomato Kurma in Mallika Badrinath's "100 Gravy varieties" cookbook and I added the eggplant to make this creamy gravy curry. Here's how I made this dish:

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Almond Butter & Chocolate Chip Waffles

I make pancakes or waffles almost every week. It is really convenient to have some homemade goodies stacked in the freezer for quick weekday breakfasts. Every time I ask my 3-year old what pancakes he wants his very prompt reply would be “chocolate”. I try to reason with him and say too much chocolate is not good, but sometimes I have to give in and add some chocolate chips into the batter just to please him.

So for Day 3 of our blogging marathon, I made these Almond butter & chocolate chip waffles. The recipe is from Whole Grains Baking by King Arthur Flour, this cookbook is like a bible with over 600 pages and tons of recipes using whole grains. Original recipe was for Peanut Butter & Chocolate chip Waffles, but I prefer other nut butters over peanut butter, so I used almond butter instead. Also the recipe uses Spelt flour which is a much healthy alternate to all-purpose flour. The waffles turned out just perfect, fluffy and delicious.

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