Sweet Potato Quinoa Chili

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Dishes using Root Vegetables

Dish: Sweet Potato Quinoa Chili
For the final day of this week's marathon I made a hearty and comforting chili with sweet potato, quinoa and black beans. This is a one pot meal that is great to make on a weeknight too.

Sweet potato is a tuberous root with a smooth skin with different colors like yellow, orange, red, brown, purple and beige. Even the color of the flesh differs from one variety to the other from beige, through white, red, orange and purple. Something new that I learnt is that the sweet potatoes with white or pale yellow flesh are less sweet and moist than those with red or orange flesh.

Read more »

Spelt Sweet Potato Paratha for #BreadBakers

It's time for this month's BreadBakers' and the theme for this edition is Ancient Grains and is being hosted by Robin at A Shaggy Dough Story. Ancient grains are generally accepted to mean grains that have remained largely unchanged/un-hybridized over the last several hundred years, which means NO MODERN WHEAT. 

I have to say this was probably the most challenging theme I have done for the BreadBakers. Finding ancient grains or even their flour was not the hard part, but finding a bread recipe with just ancient grains was hard. Also my family is not much into rustic breads, so my search for soft sandwich bread without any wheat flour turned up nothing.

Read more »

Sweet Potato-Chickpea Burger

This is one of the simplest veggie burger I've ever made. It is hearty, delicious and is not mushy or crumbly like many other homemade veggie burgers. I saw Tricia Yearwood make these on her show 'Trisha's Southern Kitchen' on Food Network. I knew right away that I had to make these.

Roasting the sweet potato makes it take much better than just boiling. This roasted sweet potato is mashed along with chickpeas, flour and breadcrumbs to make the burgers. It is flavored with some red chili powder, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Feel free to to add some spices, like ground cumin or coriander or herbs to add more flavor and taste. But I thought they tasted great just as is.

Read more »

Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

Bake-a-thon 2014: Day 9

Bake of the Day: Sweet Potato Pecan Pie

I recently took a 'Pie making' class along with a dear friend at Chef Central. The class was the day before Thanksgiving and the 3 pies we brought back from the class were served for dessert on Thanksgiving day.

The crust is the foundation of any pie or tart. A good crust can enhance and elevate the resulting dessert. Conversely, a bad crust can make a wonderful filling lose its appeal. We learnt 3 different types of pie crusts: 3-2-1 Pie dough, Pâte sucrée and a simple cookie crust.

Read more »

Maple Glazed Sweet Potatoes (Thanksgiving Recipe)

Here's another super simple, yer super tasty Thanksgiving recipe with Sweet Potatoes. Sweet potatoes are cooked in a blend of maple syrup and apple cider vinegar. As the potatoes cook this sugar & vinegar thicken into a light glaze making the potatoes glisten. 

Using pure maple syrup and good quality apple cider vinegar is crucial for this dish. The only time consuming part in this dish is peeling and dicing the sweet potatoes -- after that the dish is cooked entirely in the oven.

Read more »

Uganda -- G-Nut Sauce (Ugandan Peanut Sauce with Chickpeas)

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

Country: U for Uganda

Dish: G-Nut Sauce
We are going to Uganda today. It is a landlocked country in East Africa. Ugandan cuisine is influenced by English, Arab, Asian and especially Indian cuisines. Main dishes are usually centered on a sauce or stew of groundnuts/ peanuts, beans or meat.The starch traditionally comes from Ugali (maize meal) in the North and East or Matoke (boiled and mashed green banana) in Central, or a Millet Ugali in the west.
Many tribes in Uganda have their own specialty dish or delicacy. Many dishes include starchy vegetables like Cassava, yam and African sweet potato. Various leafy greens are grown in Uganda.Fruits such as pineapple and bananas are plentiful.

Read more »

Panch Phoron Tarkari & Kulath ki Dal

Kulath ki Dal from Uttarakand: Horsegram is a completely new ingredient for me. I bought it just before April's Mega marathon in the hopes of using it in one of the dishes, but I didn't use it for any of the dishes. But luckily I found quite a few interesting recipes using it and here I am with the very first dish I made with Horsegram.

This dal is from Uttarakand and it is a very simple and earthy dish which is very mildly spiced. Using rice flour makes the dish thick and creamy.

Read more »

Austrian Vegetable Strudel

For this month's International Food Challenge, our host Briju Parthasarathy is taking us on a culinary tour of Austria. She gave us 4 Lower Austrian dishes to choose from and I picked the Austrian Vegetable Strudel.

Some wiki gyan about Strudel: Strudel is a type layered pastry with a -- most often -- sweet filling. Strudel is most often associated with Austrian cuisine but is also a traditional pastry in the whole area of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The savory strudel is filled with crisp tender vegetables and cheese. It almost sounded like the veggie pastry we used to get back home at the bakeries. Original recipe had rutabaga, parsnip etc, but I used vegetables I had on hand; sweet potato, carrots, green beans and red pepper. Also to add some protein, I added some soy granules as well.

Read more »

Sweet Potato Curry with Peanut sauce

Blogging Marathon# 27: Week 3/ Day 5
Theme: Seasonal Dishes - Fall Entree
Dish: Sweet Potato Curry with Peanut Sauce

Before I talking about Fall and the dish, just wanted to tell you what my 5 year old asked me this morning: "Weekend separates one week from the other, that means weekend has to be really strong, right??" I was like 'I guess so', not knowing what else to tell him.

We say fall is in the air as soon as the days start to get shorter. We have sunlight until around 8:30PM in summers i.e., June-August. Around the end of August, it starts to get dark around 7:00PM and nights start to get chilly. There's a slight nip in the air and the trees start slowly changing color. Its beautiful to watch trees go from green-yellow-red, very pretty. What's not pretty is when the leaves start to fall and you have to clean the yard constantly :-(

We crave for dishes that are spicy, warm and comforting. This is one such dish that gets its spiciness from ginger, garlic and some good dose of sriracha hot sauce. It is quick and easy to make too, perfect for weeknight meals. I added some chopped Chinese Broccoli, but any hearty greens like kale, collard greens or swiss chard can be used.

Read more »

Vegan Burger made with Refried Beans

Vegan MOFO Day 2: I planned to cook today's vegan lunch in 30 minutes and post it under '30 minute meals', but little did I know that my 3 week old had her own plans. I was hardly in the kitchen for 10 minutes, she started to cry and wanted to be fed and so my 30 minute meal ended up being more than an hour meal. Even though I wasn't able to make the meal under 30, but I'm sure it can done if there are no distractions.

One of my favorite things to do while on maternity leave is to watch tons of TV. Feeding time is the best time to catch up on Law & Order: SVU marathons and loads of cooking shows. One of the cooking shows I've started watching is Bal Arneson's Spice Goddess on Cooking Channel. I'm not too thrilled with her Americanized Indian accent and her over using of spices, but this Veggie Burger did catch my attention when I watched it. She used canned refried beans as the base for the burger and I thought that was a pretty genius idea.

Read more »

Pancakes with Sweet Potatoes

I've been thinking on what to make for Kid's Delight-Deceptively Delicious event going on in my blog. My 4 year old used to be very flexible and would eat everything that I gave him, but nowadays he's become a little picky and unpredictable which is why I try to add healthy ingredients to foods that he enjoys and wouldn't notice the "other" stuff that's in it.

He loves pancakes for breakfast, so I sneaked in some sweet potato puree into the yeasted pancake batter that i was making this weekend to boost their nutrition and they turned out delicious too. I used vegan butter and egg replacement powder to make these vegan, but feel free to substitute with butter & egg for a non-vegan version. 

Read more »

Vegan African Squash & Sweet Potato Stew

We have been having trouble with our electricity at home, thanks to the crummy contractor we hired to renovate our bathrooms a year ago. He messed up the internal wiring and now whenever we try to start the computer or run a vacuum, the fuse blows up. So had been away from the computer for the past 4-5 days. Hopefully we'll have it fixed (with a licensed professional this time) very soon.

Coming to today's recipe, I never thought Peanut butter based dishes could be this tasty. I was ranting and raving about this dish ever since I tried it. Peanut butter gives this stew both creaminess and slight sweetness that complement the texture and sweetness of both squash and the sweet potato.

Very simple to put together and the ingredients can be easily substituted with what you have on hand. I used butternut squash, but you can easily use any other winter squash like acorn or kabocha or even sweet pumpkin (thiyya gummadikaya). You can add cooked chickpeas or cannellini beans to add protein and make the dish more wholesome. Stew can be made as spicy as your palette can tolerate or bland-I think mine was somewhere in the middle. Served over rice or couscous, this is a very filling and comforting dish.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian times.
Ingredients:
Butternut squash – 2-3 cups, peeled and diced (½ of a medium sized squash)
Sweet Potato – 1 medium, peeled and diced
Onion – 1 medium, chopped

Other Veggies – 2 cups chopped, I used frozen mixed veggies which had cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini and carrots. Feel free to use any veggies you have on hand. Original recipe only had cauliflower.

Ginger – 1” piece, finely grated
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Fresh Red Chili (like fresno chili) – 2, slit
Diced tomatoes – 1 15 oz. can (or 3 fresh ripe tomatoes chopped)
Peanut butter – ¼ cup
Cinnamon – 1/8tsp
Chili powder – ½ - 1 tsp (or to taste)
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp peanut oil in a large pan, add onions and sauté till transparent.
• Add ginger & garlic and cook for 1 minute.
• Next add sweet potatoes and butternut squash along with ½ cup of water or vegetable broth. Cover and cook till the veggies are half cooked.
• Add the remaining veggies; cover and cook on medium heat till all the veggies are cooked through, about 15 minutes.
• Stir in tomatoes along with cinnamon, chili powder, salt and ½ cup of water or broth. Cover and cook till the stew thickens a little bit.
• Whisk peanut butter with 3tbsp warm water into slurry. Slowly stir in peanut butter into the stew and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
• Serve warm over rice or couscous.

Vegan Sweet Potato Naan

VEGAN MOFO: Day 3

This dish is a combination of two of my favorite desi bread recipes: Sweet potato roti & whole wheat naan. I used soy milk instead of yogurt to make the naans nice and soft. Sweet potato gives the naans a nice orange color and boosts the nutrition too.

Ingredients:

Atta (whole wheat flour) – 3 cups
All purpose flour – ½ cup (optional)
Sweet potato – 1 medium, chopped
Soy milk – ½ cup
Yeast – 1¾tsp (= 7oz. sachet)
Salt – ½ tsp Sugar – 1tsp
Vegan Butter (for brushing) – 2tbsp, melted (optional)

Method:

• Boil, steam or microwave sweet potato until cooked through. Mash into smooth paste adding the soy milk.
• In a large bowl, add all the ingredients and knead into soft dough using warm water as needed. Cover with plastic wrap and rest for at least 2 hours. Dough almost doubles in size.
• After 2 hours, knead the dough lightly and make large lemon size balls.
• Preheat a griddle/ skillet. Take one ball at a time and roll into either an oval or circle shaped discs. Sprinkle water on one side of the disc and place it wet side down on the hot griddle. Cook until bubbles form on the other side of the naan. Flip and cook on the other side until blisters are formed.
• Brush the butter on both sides (generously) before serving.

Serve hot with a gravy curry of your choice.


I made Saag-Aloo-Paneer & Paneer in Creamy Cashew sauce. Thanks for the recipes: Sandeepa & Trupti. These curries & the naans made my dinner spread look totally 5-star restaurant style.

Moroccan Vegetable Tagine

First some Wiki Gyan: “Tagines in Moroccan cuisine are slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce. They are traditionally cooked in the tagine pot, whose cover has a knob-like handle at its top to facilitate removal. While simmering, the cover can be lifted off without the aid of a mitten, enabling the cook to inspect the main ingredients, add vegetables, move things around, or add additional braising liquid”.

I would love to buy one of those cute looking Tagines, but I’m not sure if I’m going to use it that often to be spending money on it. Well anyway I used by saucepot to make this delicious vegetable tagine that tasted awesome the next day after all the flavors had a chance to marry.

Recipe is adapted from vegetarian times. I changed it a little bit since I didn’t have some of the ingredients on hand. Also the recipe uses the oven to cook the vegetables, but I used the good ol’ stove as I was pressed for time. It took about 30-40 minutes to make this very filling and nutritious dish.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times
Ingredients:
Onion - 1 small, chopped
Sweet potato - 1 medium, peeled and cubed
Carrot - 1 medium, peeled and chopped
Green Beans - 1 cup, chopped (I used frozen green beans)
Broccoli - chopped into florets, about 2 cups
Chickpeas - 1 16 oz. can, drained and rinsed
Tomato puree - 1 cup
Garlic - 2 cloves, minced
Ginger - 1" piece, minced
Vegetable Stock - 1 cup
Cinnamon stick - 1" piece
Ground cumin - 1tsp
Ground Coriander - 1tsp
Sweet paprika - 1tsp
Cayenne pepper - 1/2 tsp
Salt & Pepper - to taste

Method:

• Heat 2tbsp oil in a large sauce pot; add onions, garlic and ginger and cinnamon stick; cook until the onions start to soften, about 5 minutes.
• Add ground cumin, coriander, paprika, salt and pepper. Saute till the spices are fragrant, about 1 minute.
• Add all the veggies, cover and cook till they are slightly tender, about 6-8 minutes.
• Add tomatoes & stock, bring to a boil; lower the heat and simmer until the veggies are completely tender, but not mushy; about 8-10 minutes.
• Just 5 minutes before the stew is done, add the chickpeas. Stir in chopped parsley before serving.

I served this hearty stew with whole wheat couscous for a complete wholesome dinner.

Only 5 more days left for A.W.E.D-Morocco, rush in your entries before the end of day Friday, Oct 2nd.

Les Recettes pour A.W.E.D France

I took French classes for almost 5 years long long long time ago and don't remember a whole lot now, except for a few words here and there. My only aim was to get a passing grade and get over with it. I struggled to understand why the French had to have genders for every "thing". But now that I think about it, may be I should have paid attention in the class; knowing a second language is such a plus nowadays.

So for this month's A.W.E.D DK @ Culinary Bazaar chose French. My entries are Crunchy Croque Provencal and "French" fries.


Crunchy Croque Provencal:

This recipe is from vegetarian times magazine. Traditionally a Croque sandwich is a hot grilled sandwich made with ham and cheese. This vegetarian version is baked and has tomatoes & onions along with cheese. I made some changes to the recipe since I didn't have some of the ingredients on hand. Click here for the original recipe.

Adapted from Vegetarian Times magazine.
Ingredients:
Rosemary & Olive bread (or French bread) - 4 slices
Coarse-grain mustard - 1 tbsp
Reduced fat Cheddar cheese - 4 slices
Red onion - 2 thin slices, rings separated
Tomatoes - 4 thin slics
Egg - 1, beaten
1% Milk - 1/4 cup
Method:

• Preheat oven to 450F. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray.
• Spread mustard over 2 bread slices. Top each slice with cheese, 1 onion ring, 2 tomato slices. Season with salt and pepper. Top with remaining bread slices.
• Whisk together milk and egg in shallow dish. Season with salt and pepper. Soak both sides of the sandwiches in the milk mixture until liquid is absorbed.
• Transfer sandwiches to prepared baking sheet, and bake 10 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.

These turned out to be one of the tastiest sandwiches I ever had and with my Sweet Potato "French" fries made it a complete meal.

Sweet Potato "French" Fries:

These fries have become my absolute favorite. These are baked instead of fried; they are sweet and savory at the same time which makes them irrestitable. My sweet potato hating husband also likes them. They can be flavored in many different ways, for the french themed fries, I added 'herb de provence'.

Ingredients:
Sweet Potato - 1 medium
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Herb de provence - 1 tsp
Salt & pepper - to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 450F.
  
• Cut sweet potato into thin slices.
  
• Add oil, herbs, salt and pepper into a bowl. Add the potato slices, toss around to coat.
• Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet (covered with foil for easy clean up) and bake for 15-20 minutes.

These are not as crunchy as regular potato fries, but they are much more nutritious and delicious.

Sweet Potato Soup

My 16 month toddler has just started to get used to real food (not that bland baby food anymore.. yay), he keeps me thinking of what new to make for him. Wholesome baby food website has been very helpful for me with lot of recipes and nutritional information.

I try to feed him the same food that we eat except when I think it is too spicy for him to handle. For cases like that I make a little extra of some of the dishes and freeze for later use. This is one of those recipes that freezes extremely well and comes in handy when needed. This soup is full of yummy veggies-sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips and leeks.

Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes – 2 medium, peeled and chopped
Carrots – 1 medium, peeled and chopped
Leek – 1 medium, chopped and cleaned (see how to here)
Parsnip – 1 medium, peeled and chopped
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Bay leaf – 2
Chili powder – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Brown sugar – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Vegetable Broth (preferably low-sodium)/ Water – 3 cups
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2 tsp oil in a medium sauce pan; add all the veggies and bay leaf with a pinch of salt. Let the veggies sweat for 10-12 minutes on medium flame.
• Add water/ broth, cumin powder, chili powder & brown sugar; bring to a boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender.
• Puree into smooth consistency either in a blender or immersion blender. Pour back into the pan, add half & half, season with salt and pepper; simmer for 3 more minutes. Serve warm.
• To freeze: After the soup is completely cool, pour into ice cube trays; cover with plastic wrap and freeze until set. Once frozen, transfer them into freezer safe plastic bags and use within 3 months.

This is my very Orange entry to Aparna’s @ My Diverse Kitchen “Food in Colors-Orange”, an event started by Sunshinemom @ Tongue Ticklers.

Quick and Easy Sweet Potato Dessert

This dessert requires only 2 main ingredients, Sweet Potato and Jaggery. It is extremely easy to make and tastes absolutely divine and is very healthy too.

Ayurveda has suggests that jaggery purifies blood, acts as a lung protective agent from air pollution, regulates liver function and keeps the body healthy and strong of all ages. Jaggery contains Proteins, Minerals and Vitamins, which are essential constituents for the body. It is also a potent source of Iron and has a higher Iron and Copper contents than white sugar. It is also a superior product among natural sweeteners with regards to the Vitamin contents.

Sweet Potato on the other hand is a powerhouse of nutrition. Sweet potatoes are bursting with beta carotene (vitamin A), high in vitamin C, good sources of fiber and are fat & cholesterol-free.

So the combination of these two is a killer dessert that is good and good for you. I added ghee to make it a little decadent, but it is completely optional.

Ingredients (makes about 4 servings):
Sweet potatoes – 2 medium, chopped
Jaggery – ½ cup, grated
Ghee – 2tbsp (optional)
Elaichi – pinch (optional)

Method:

• Take the chopped sweet potato in a microwaveable dish. MW on high for about 4-5 mins with little water until tender.
• Heat ghee in a pan, add the cooked sweet potatoes and jaggery, cover and cook on medium-low flame until jaggery melts and forms a thick sauce about 5-6 minutes.
• Add elaichi powder and take off heat. Enjoy hot or cold or at room temperature.

This year is the first time ever that I started container gardening. Until now it was sharing a balcony less apartment with room mates or living married in a light less basement.

Finally we moved to a townhouse that has not one but two balconies and I was dreaming of planting all these flowers, tomatoes, chilies etc. But after a little reality check (my son’s voice brought me back to this world), I settled with two flower pots, 2 basil plants (one regular and one lemon) and a pot with methi.

Now the million dollar question is if these plants going to survive the summer. Well that is what even I’m wondering, but both my husband and I are watering them religiously everyday (if not rains in NJ are taking care of that) and I’m planning to give them some plant food. I don’t want to leave any leaf unturned to save my plants (no pun intended). Wish me Luck..