Beet and Quinoa Salad

Blogging Marathon# 65: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: 1 Vegetable -- 3 Dishes

Dish: Beet and Quinoa Salad with Spinach

I have another salad with beets today. This one's with quinoa, carrot, edamame and other delicious and nutritious super foods.

Recipe is from Cookie & Kate. Original recipe suggests using spiralized beets and carrots. Spiralized vegetables are quite a craze these days. I have one, but I haven't figured out how to use it yet. But grating the vegetables give the same salad almost same texture.

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Pasta Salad with Black Beans (Vegan recipe)

Memorial day is right around the corner and if you are looking for a dish to make, then here's an easy to make and tasty Pasta Salad with black beans and veggies. It's completely vegan, if you use vegan mayo but if you have regular mayo then go ahead and use it instead.

I am always looking for opportunities to try new dishes, so last weekend I took this pasta dish when I went to meet my blog buddies, Sushma, Rajani, Usha, Mir and Amara. The good thing about this dish is it can be made ahead of time and chilled until ready to serve, which makes it a great dish to make for picnics. barbecues or for take along lunches.

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3 Day Detox Diet -- Detox Soup with Carrot & Green Beans

Blogging Marathon# 64: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Detox Diet

Dish: Detox Soup with Carrot & Green Beans

What I really liked about this 3-day detox diet is that we never felt we were dieting or eating less in the 3 days. The portions of all the meals are quite substantial and we are also allowed 2 snacks each day -- either 1oz. of nuts and/ or 2 pieces of fruit. Today I have the recipe for the soup that is served for dinner during the cleanse.

It is a simple soup with carrot and green beans. Make the full batch on the first day and you are good to go for the next 2 days. Hot soup is poured over fresh spinach and chopped dill and then steeped for 5 minutes for the greens to wilt.

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Quick Pan Handvo (Gujarati Instant Handvo)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 17: Q for Quick Pan Handvo

Q was one of the tough letters to find a dish in Gujarati cuisine (I guess it's difficult in many cuisines). I was almost tempted to make 'Qesar Shrikhand' but it seemed a little odd, so I finally ended up making Quick Pan Handvo instead.

Handvo is a popular Gujarati snack. It is a baked spicy lentil cake made with a fermented batter of rice, lentils and spices. It is crispy on the outside and soft inside. It has been on my to-make list for quite a long time. I was hoping to try the traditional version for this mega marathon, but Oondhiyu dictated the letter selection, so Handvo has to wait for now.

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Russian Grated Beet Salad for #Food of the World

We are visiting Russia this month for the #Food of the World event. I picked a very easy Russian grated beet salad from Natasha's Kitchen.

I have tried a few Russian recipes in the past and for this month I was planning to try my hand at baking a Russian bread, but time just slipped out of my hand and I finally had to pick something relatively simple. That is when I landed on Natasha's grated beet salad.

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Carrot Raita (Carrot Yogurt Dip)

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: Dishes using Root Vegetables

Dish: Carrot Raita

We are starting a new week of Blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Dishes made with Root Vegetables'. Valli wanted us to pick 3 root vegetables from this list and cook 3 dishes for the week.

My first dish is with the most popular root vegetable, Carrot. It is widely used in many cuisines, especially in the preparation of salads. I always have carrots in my fridge and I add them to rice dishes, curries and even make chutney with it. The sweetness in carrots makes them perfect to use in sweet dishes as well, like carrot halwa or burfi or ice cream.

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Greek Style Lemon Rice with Dill

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 2/ Day 3

Theme: Meal Ideas

Dish: Greek style Rice with Dill

For the last day of this week's marathon, I have a simple meal with Greek style Lemon rice with dill. This is a popular side dish served in many Mediterranean restaurants and is very similar to our very own Indian Lemon rice except for the addition of dill. This recipe is from Vegan Eats World cookbook by Terry Hope Romero. 

Lemon rice is the first thing that comes to my mind when I have leftover rice. In fact I even make lemon flavored oats, barley and quinoa. So today's recipe is on the same lines but with dried oregano and fresh dill that add delicious Greek flavor to the dish.

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Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Soup

Blogging Marathon# 58: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Dishes

Dish: Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin Soup

We are in the last week of this month's blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Bookmarked Recipes'. I always jump on the chance of getting some of my bookmarks cleared and this theme is just perfect.

We are 2 days away from 'Thanksgiving', which means that holiday season is right here and I'm sure many of you are planning on sending/ shipping gifts to your loved ones. I just found out about a really good shipping option for all your international and domestic packages -- Transworthy. Few points that make it better than the other international shipping options are:

• 74% savings on your shipping costs.
• NO waiting in lines to send the package, they pick up the package right from your home or office.
• Shipment can be tracked on the DHL site.
• Convenient payment on their site.

So take a minute to explore more about Transworthy and see if it is a good fit for your shipping this holiday season. Here's a list to my edible holiday gift guide to help you out with what to send :-)

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Chayote & Carrot Dry Curry

Blogging Marathon# 58: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Dry Vegetable Sautes

Dish: Chayote & Carrot Dry Curry

We are starting a brand new week of blogging marathon and my theme for this week is 'Dry Vegetable Sautes or Dry Curries'. I just realized that all the themes I picked for this month require easy to make, everyday dishes which was just perfect because with the upcoming festive season, it is going to be a food fest wherever you turn :-)

This first curry doesn't even need a recipe, it is extremely easy to make. Just saute the chopped veggies until tender and sprinkle some grated coconut on top. My mom used to make a lot of dry curries like that using cabbage, carrot, green beans, snake gourd, chayote and so on.

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Carrot Halwa Ice Cream

Blogging Marathon# 55: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Carrot Halwa Ice cream

Did you ever eat warm carrot halwa with a scoop of vanilla ice cream? That is one extremely rich and decadent dessert to have (also a calorie bomb -- but you are allowed to indulge once in a while, not everyday, mind you!!). My mom and sister love this combination.

This ice cream combines carrot halwa and vanilla ice cream to make a flavor that is sure to be a hit at a Indian themed parties. Recipe is from here and it is just as it sounds, make some carrot halwa, make a vanilla ice cream base -- mix them both and churn.

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Fresh Green Peas & Carrot Curry with Coconut

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Seasonal Veggies & Fruits

Dish: Green Peas & Carrot Curry

Fresh green peas in the pod are something I look forward to buy in Spring. They are super sweet and delicious. Even though peeling them is time consuming, I think well worth every minute for these little jewels.
I add these fresh peas in simple ghee rice, or jeera rice. I don't like to add too many spices and overpower the taste of the peas, so I usually keep the dish very simple.

Today's dish is a dry curry with sweet green peas, carrots and some grated coconut. This is a very quick and easy dish that gets done in a jiffy. Fresh green peas hardly take any time to cook and if diced small, carrots don't take too long either.

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Afghani Carrot Halwa (Carrot and Ricotta Halva)

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes

Dish: Afghani Carrot Halwa

I'm ending this month's marathon on a sweet note with this rich and decadent 'Carrot Halwa' that I bookmarked from 'The New Middle Eastern Vegetarian' cookbook by Sally Butcher. Halwa is very similar to our very own Carrot Halwa with a few additional ingredients like ricotta cheese and powdered milk.

This is one of the recipes that caught my attention as soon as I saw it in the cookbook. I was looking for an opportunity to make this dessert ever since. Carrot halwa is one of my husband's favorite and with him travelling, I didn't want to make this dish just for myself. So finally made it as soon as he got back.

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Vegetarian Thai Massaman Curry

Blogging Marathon# 48: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: 1 Cuisine -- 3 Dishes

Dish: Thai Massamun Curry

After the refreshing first course of yesterday's Green Papaya Salad, I have a spicy, sweet and tangy Thai Massamun curry today. This curry is very aromatic and flavorful and uses a variety of Indian herbs and spices. I thought the curry tasted a lot of tangy, sweet South Indian pulusu.

If you have the curry paste already prepared and ready to go, then this dish does not take long to make. This curry is also very versatile and can be customized to ones likes and dislikes. I added some tofu puffs that I had in the freezer to amp up the protein, but regular tofu or soy chunks can also be used instead.

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Carrot-Zucchini Bread

It has been a while I participated in Home Baker's Challenge and even this month I would have missed the posting deadline if I hadn't checked the FB updates. I remember seeing this month's bakes announcement last month and then completely forgot about it during thew holiday season. Thankfully I remembered about the challenge right on time and made this moist and delicious Carrot-Zucchini bread yesterday.

My son does not like carrots and avoids them like plague. Interestingly, I was looking through my blog posts from few years back and I wrote in one of the posts that my son loved carrots and added them in just about everything. It's all reversed now and he doesn't want to get even close to carrots. So the easiest thing to do is disguise it in some way, so he'll eat it.

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Carrot Poriyal (Carrot-Kobbari Kura)

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy, Healthy & prosperous New Year -- 2015.
Hope everyone had a fun filled joyous holiday. Fun means lots of food in my book and I sure had lots and lots of fun for the past couple of weeks. After all the delicious bakes and holiday specials that I posted at the end of the year, I wanted to start the New Year with a healthy & simple dish.

I watched this recipe on a Telugu cooking show and loved how simple it was with very few ingredients. My mom makes dry carrot curry with coconut, but this recipe uses grated carrot along with some ginger and coconut making it a little different from what I'm used to. I bought a bag of shredded carrots from Trader Joe's for a shortcut, but shredding it yourself will be a good bicep exercise :-)

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Morning Glory Oatmeal

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Morning Glory Oatmeal

For the final day of this year's blogging marathon, I have a very healthy & delicious variation to regular oatmeal. I bookmarked the recipe from Joy the Baker's blog and made it almost a year ago in January of this year. Finally these healthy oats are seeing the light of day today :-)

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Carrot Poli (Bobbatlu/ Puran Poli with Carrot Halwa Filling)

Blogging Marathon# 45: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Diwal Festival Specials
Dish: Carrot Poli (Bobbatlu/ Puran Poli with Carrot Halwa Filling) 

For today's Diwali special, I have a recipe that I bookmarked ages ago from Harini's blog. These carrot polis have tempted me the minute I saw them, but it took me more than 2 years to make them. But it's better late than never -- right??

My husband is a big carrot halwa fan. My MIL makes the most delicious carrot halwa with fresh khoya and the red gajar that is available during winter in India. I'm just too lazy to take up projects like carrot halwa because a) the expectations are way too high and I don't want to disappoint the eaters b) too lazy to grate the carrot. My sister used to grate the carrots for my mom back home, so that is one job I don't really enjoy doing.

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Yemen -- Carrot Rice

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days
Country: Y for Yemen

Dish: Yemeni Carrot Rice

Today we are going to Yemen, an Arab country in Southwest Asia. We are only a day way from our final destination tomorrow and I can't believe how fast the month passed.
The first dish I made for Yemen was a colossal failure -- the first and last failure in my entire A-Z International series. I was quite upset since I planned to make it at the very end and didn't have enough time to remake it. So I picked a very quick and simple (no-fail) recipe for Yemeni Carrot rice from the blog Queen of Sheba. This is an awesome Yemeni food blog that has a ton of authentic Yemeni recipes.

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Japan - Vegetable Curry with Edamame

BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series -- Around the World in 30 days

Country: J for Japan

Dish: Vegetable Curry with Edamame

We are going all the way east to Japan today. I knew it is an island but I didn't know that it is a archipelago of 6,852 islands. Japan always amazes me because it is one of the smaller countries in the world and even after enduring 2 atomic bombs in Hiroshima & Nagasaki back in 1945, it is now one of the most developed countries.
Japanese cuisine is based on combining staple foods, typically Japanese rice or noodles, with a soup and okazu (or side dish) -- dishes made from fish, vegetable, tofu and so on -- to add flavor to the staple food. Japanese cuisine is known for its emphasis on seasonality of food, quality of ingredients and presentation.
Some version of Japanese Sushi is probably found in very corner restaurant in the world. Tempura is also a very famous Japanese dish were veggies and seafood are battered and deep fried. Finding vegetarian dishes in Japan is quite difficult because they use dashi (seafood) stock in most of the dishes.

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Carrot-Onion Chutney

Blogging Marathon# 41: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: BM Pair (Sujatha Ram)
Dish: Carrot-Onion Chutney

For the last week of marathon, we are cooking from our fellow marathoner. I got paired with Sujatha Ram who blogs at Indian Veg Kitchen. Sujatha is a relatively new blogger, but has quite a few authentic and delicious vegetarian dishes. I have many of her traditional desserts bookmarked and wanted to make at least one for this week, but with my husband travelling, I didn't want to eat the calories all by myself.

So for the first day, I made this Carrot chutney based on Sujatha's carrot-small onion chutney. I wanted to make something different to go along with the masala idlis and this carrot chutney sounded perfect to me. Also my son doesn't eat carrot and I wanted him to try this. He didn't know that it had carrot and ate it without complaint. Even my husband and sister didn't know that it was carrot chutney and liked it a lot.

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