Quinoa-Lentil Falafel

Blogging Marathon#66: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Quinoa Lentil Falafel from Food52

Today I have a yummy variation to traditional falafel. This is made with quinoa and lentils instead of chickpeas and fava beans. I bookmarked the recipe from Food52. Original recipe used whole mung beans but I subbed them with some French lentils.

These falafel are baked and are healthier than the traditional deep fried version. Adding quinoa makes them more substantial and filling. Along with quinoa and lentils, chickpea flour or besan is added to bind the falafel and also to impart a nutty flavor.

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Wholewheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Blogging Marathon# 64: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Wholewheat Dishes

Dish: Wholewheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

So for the final day of 'Wholewheat dishes', I have my kids absolute favorite cookie, Chocolate chip cookie. They were so happy when I made them and I was happy that they are made with wholewheat flour are a little more nutritious than the ones with all purpose flour.

Whenever I'm making any baked goodies for the family, I usually sub at least half of the all purpose flour with white wholewheat or wholewheat pastry flour. I don't care if the texture suffers a little bit with the substitution but I feel better serving the family something that is a little more nutritious than just empty calories. My next focus is in cutting down sugar -- lets see how that one goes.

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Coconut Cookies (using Coconut flour)

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Cook with Coconut

Dish: Coconut Cookies

For the final day of this week's marathon under 'Cook with Coconut', I made these cookies with coconut flour, coconut milk and grated dry coconut. You can already understand how coconutty these cookies taste.

Recipe is from 'Good to the Grains' cookbook. The recipe uses barley flour along with coconut flour with no all purpose flour, but you would never know from the light crumb. They are crunchy on the outside and soft and cakey inside.

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Quinoa Oats Idli

Idli is one of my husband's favorite dishes, but me being lazy don't usually make them that often for him. Pulling out my Ultra grinder is a big chore for me and then the weather plays spoil sport and the batter doesn't ferment properly. Well whatever might be the reason I end up not making those idlis.

Here comes in instant idli recipes that don't need grinding batter and fermenting. I've tried a couple of different recipes (like this oats-rava idli) for instant idli, but these quinoa-oats idlis are the best of the bunch. Recipe is from a Telugu cooking show and I made them right away.

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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.

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Warm Millet Salad with Brussels Sprouts, dried Cranberries and Walnuts

I am trying to incorporate more whole grains these days and have been looking for some interesting recipes in my cookbooks and magazines. Found this hearty and delicious Millet and Brussels sprouts salad in Vegetarian Times magazine.

Brussels Sprouts have become my latest favorite and I have been buying them almost weekly these days. Brussels sprouts look like mini cabbage and they have been popular in Brussels, Belgium, and have originated and gained their name there. They are excellent source of Vitamin C and Vitamin K.

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Jonna Rava Kesari with Fruits

Blogging Marathon# 60: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Festival of the month Recipes

Dish: Fruit Jonna Rawa Kesari
Today I have a sweet dish made with jonna rawa or jowar/ sorghum rawa instead of regular sooji or semolina. This recipe is from a Telugu cooking channel and even though I'm not into cooking fruits, this dish looked yummy on TV that I had to try it for myself.

Kesari is traditionally made with either sooji or godhuma/ wheat rawa. Using jonna rawa is a healthy substitute which gives a chewy texture to the dish. 

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Quinoa Salad with Pistachio and Dates

Blogging Marathon# 58: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Salads

Dish: Quinoa Salad with Pistachio and Dates

I love grain based salads. If planned correctly they make for a wholesome meal and you don't have to worry about side dishes or protein to go along with it. This Quinoa salad is one such recipe.

This recipe is also from 'Vegan Eats World' cookbook like yesterday's Avocado Mango Salad. This quinoa salad has all my favorite ingredients, dates, pistachios, baby spinach and of course quinoa. I love dates - they are so chewy, caramely and oh-so delicious. I always keep a bag of them in my pantry for snacking or for making desserts (like this burfi or these nut balls or this decadent cake) or salads like this one.

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Russian Blinis (Buckwheat Pancakes)

Buffet on Table: Breakfasts across Countries

Day 22: Russian - Blinis

We move to Russia for Buckwheat Blini breakfast. Blini are Russian pancakes made with buckwheat flour leavened with yeast and lightened with beaten egg.

I found a ton of recipes for these pancakes, some with just buckwheat flour, some with a combination of wholewheat and buckwheat flours. I followed this recipe that used both flours, but I replaced the all purpose flour with wholewheat pastry flour.

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Lemon Oats (Oats Nimmakaya Pulihora)

Blogging Marathon# 46: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Lemon/ Lime Recipes
Dish: Lemon Oats/ Oats Nimmakaya Pulihora

For the 'Lemon/ Lime recipes' theme, I have a very simple and healthy dish with oats today. My husband is not a big fan of oats or may be I should he doesn't like oats cooked in any way. But I like oats, both in savory & sweet preparations like this breakfast oats or this vegetable oats. I usually make these dishes for myself when my husband is traveling :-)

Today's recipe is a healthier alternate to Lemon rice/ Nimmakaya Pulihora. I can eat these lemon flavored oats any time of the day -- filling breakfast or light lunch/ dinner. My peanut loving 2 year old loved it too.

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Cilantro Lime Quinoa

Blogging Marathon# 46: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Lemon/ Lime Recipes
Dish: Cilantro-Lime Quinoa

We are starting another week of Blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is 'Lemon/ Lime recipes'. Adding lemon juice to any dish brings out the flavor and makes it taste refreshing.
I wanted to make Cilantro-Lime rice for today, but used quinoa instead of rice and made this cilantro-lime quinoa. This is a light and fresh tasting dish that is a great alternate to plain quinoa. Lime and fresh herbs make this dish a perfect complement to heavier stews and fried foods, and it's super simple to put together, too, a great plus when there are other dishes cooking on the stovetop.

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Warm Farro Pilaf with Dried Cranberries & Kale

It's November and the beginning of holiday season. I can't believe that the stores here started selling Christmas trees from early October. From my experience, it is better to buy them when you see them in the stores even if it is ridiculously early in the season because by the time you are mentally ready for the holidays, all the stores will be out of holiday stuff and you will have nothing to decorate the house (true story -- from about 2 years ago). So now-a-days I go shopping with an open mind, hopefully I'll find a great deal on summer patio set in the middle of winter -- you never know ;-)

Holiday season also means lots of parties and food. I pulled out my old magazines and bookmarked quite a few recipes for this time of the year -- some festive and some seasonal -- all perfect to entertain for the holidays. So my self imposed theme for 'Cooking from Cookbook Challenge' for November & December will be holiday/ seasonal specials.

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Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables

Blogging Marathon# 38: Week 4/ Day 1
Theme: Revisiting Recipes
Dish: Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables

We are starting the final week of blogging marathon# 38 today and I chose a relatively simple theme. I am going to be revisiting some of my old posts and updating them with new pictures. 

Today I am updating my hearty and healthy Farro salad with roasted vegetables post. I don't know what I was thinking when I was taking those pictures, I used my used pizza stone with stains on them which wasn't the best of backgrounds to use. So here is a simple salad with some updated pictures. 

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Caramelized Onion & Zucchini Quiche (with Spelt flour Crust)

To me making a pie crust has always been a daunting task. I've had couple of bad experiences both with homemade and store bought pie crusts in the past which made me avoid making a pie altogether. To be honest I'm not a big fan of pie. Given a chance I would rather enjoy the filling without the crust.

But quiche is a different story. I fell in love with quiche the first time I ate it about 10 years ago. One of my co-workers brought it over for potluck lunch and I probably ate almost the whole pie. I tried to recreate it at home a couple of time, but the pie crust failed me. I finally gave up on it. I never dared to make it even though it was always on the back of my mind.

Finally this weekend I decided it was time for me to try my hand at making the pie crust and quiche. I already had a bookmarked recipe for quiche with spelt flour crust from Culinate. It is not the recipe that made me bookmark the article, it is the way the author gives you confidence in making the pie crust. She makes you feel that anyone can make a pie crust and the detailed instructions really help. 

This pie crust is made of Spelt flour (equal quantity of whole wheat flour can be substituted here) and uses a stick of butter and half a stick of cream cheese. The dough is soft and really easy to handle. I had trouble fluting the edges and at one corner I trimmed too much of the excess which resulted in shrunken crust after baking. But that didn't really affect the final taste of the quiche, the crust turned was flaky & buttery.

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Chocolate Oatmeal

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 3/ Day 3
Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole Grains 
Dish: Breakfast -- Chocolate Oatmeal

Today's recipe is a very simple breakfast dish that can be whipped up in just few minutes. My son loves oatmeal and he loves chocolate, so I thought why not put them both together. A quick google search landed me at this recipe by Chocolate covered Katie.

I make Swiss Oats by soaking oats overnight in the fridge. But in this recipe oats are almost cooked, then put in the refrigerator overnight. This overnight soak makes them creamy and gives the dish a pudding like consistency.This is a very healthy breakfast that tastes exactly like dessert.

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Whole Wheat Banana & Walnut Bread

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole Grains 
Dish: Snack  -- Whole wheat Banana & Walnut Bread

For Day 2 of BM# 35, I made banana bread with 100% whole wheat. My son loves banana bread and I already have more than enough banana bread recipes in my blog, but I still keep looking for more banana bread recipes :-) I have always used half and half all purpose flour and whole wheat flour in the past, but this bread is made completely with whole wheat flour. 

Recipe is from 'King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking'. From my previous experience with baking with whole wheat flour, I thought the bread was going to be dense, but I was totally surprised how moist and fluffy the recipe turned out to be. Resting the batter for about 10 minutes before baking makes the whole wheat soft resulting in a softer bread.

I used egg replacer instead of eggs. I have been baking more eggless recipes with egg replacer powder these days and I'm really happy with the results. If you are into eggless baking, then investing in a bag of egg replacer powder is completely worth the money. It stays fresh for a very long time in the fridge, so eggless bakes are at your finger tips at any time.

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Whole Grain Pancake Mix

Blogging Marathon# 35: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole Grains 
Dish: Breakfast -- Whole Grain Pancake Mix

We are starting 3rd week of blogging marathon# 35 today and my theme for this week is 'Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole Grains'. This edition of Kid's Delight event is being hosted by Sandhya @ My Cooking Journey. She is looking for kid approved dishes that are made with 'Whole Grains'.

When I signed up for this theme I had a lot of ideas of what I want to make for this week. But then I started thinking if any of those dishes will be approved by my super picky 6 year old son. Then I decided to incorporate whole grains into dishes that he loves and I'm glad that he enjoyed the dishes I made for him. 

For the first day, I referred to the 'King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking' cookbook and found this whole grain pancake mix recipe. My son loves pancakes for breakfast on weekends and I make them almost every other weekend. This pancake mix is very convenient to have in the fridge/ freezer and pancakes can be made in no time now.

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Brown Rice Green Pulao (Brown Rice & Mint Pilaf)

I love the nuttiness of Brown Rice and cook with it quite often. I usually make plain brown rice and make side dishes, like Thai Panaeng Curry or Tempeh Rendang. Basically I like to pair brown rice with spicy Asian dishes and rarely with Indian curries. So when I saw this recipe for flavored brown rice recipe on one of the Indian cooking shows that I'm obsessed with, I know I had to make it. The original recipe used cilantro, but I used mint instead. A combination of mint and cilantro would be yummy too.

This is a very flavorful and healthy one-pot dish. Soak brown rice for at least 5-6 hours or even overnight for better taste and texture. Right now my mint plants are growing wild and I'm looking for variety of dishes to use as much of it as possible. This is the first in the series of mint/ pudina recipes that I've been trying in the quest for using up my excess herb.

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Quinoa Pongal

Blogging Marathon# 28: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: BM Pairs
Dish: Quinoa Pongal from Suma's Veggie Platter 

For day 2 under "Cooking from BM members" theme, I'm paired with Suma @ Veggie Platter. Suma has been blogging for over 6 years and I've probably known her virtually for almost 5 years. Her blog is filled with ton of delicious Andhra, Karnataka and kid friendly recipes. I love the way she writes her recipes, she makes everything seem so easy even the most elaborate ones.

I've tried a lot of recipes from Veggie Platter in the past. Her onion-tomoato raita, tomato bhath have become our household favorites too.

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Farro Salad with Roasted Vegetables

After posting sugary desserts for the past 4 days, I thought it was time for something healthy and definitely savory. Also May happens to be the 'National Month of Salad', so what's better than a healthy salad to kick start this month. I didn't know that there was such a thing as salad month, but I guess it's never too late to know about good things, right??

Today's salad is made with "Farro", an ancient grain believed to have sustained the Roman legions. I have heard about and have seen a number of bloggers cooking with it, so I bought some from Whole Foods recently. Since the weather is still a little chilly, I roasted some veggies in the oven and mixed them with cooked farro for a simple, filling and healthy salad.

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