Spring Vegetable Risotto

Blogging Marathon# 64: Week 2/ Day 1
Theme: Cook from 1 European Cuisine -- Italian

Dish: Spring Vegetable Risotto

We are on to our second week of blogging marathon today and my theme for this week is to 'Cook from 1 European Country' and I picked Italian cuisine. When I think of Italian food, pizza and pasta are the first to come to mind. But there is so much more to the world of Italian cooking. The many regions in Italy have distinctive cuisines based on the local ingredients available, cooking styles and eating habits.

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For the first day, I have this Spring Vegetable risotto. Risotto is a north Italian rice dish that is cooked in broth to a creamy consistency. Arborio, Carnaroli etc are the principal varieties of rice used to risotto. These are high in starch, round medium or short grained white rice -- they have the ability to absorb liquids and release starch, so they are stickier than the long grain varieties.

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Zucchini Thoran (Kerala Style Zucchini stir fry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 

Day 25: Z for Zucchini Thoran

It is the last and final day of this month's mega marathon and time sure flew right by. For letter Z, I knew I had to make something with Zucchini, but it took me a while to finalize on what to make.

After discussing with Rajani about the possible zucchini dishes to make, I finally made this zucchini thoran from Kitchen Mishmash. Thoran is a very simple and basic Kerala dry curry that can be made with just about any fresh vegetable. I make cabbage thoran quite often, so I tried making zucchini thoran this time.

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Thai Zucchini Curry with Red Curry paste

Blogging Marathon# 58: Week 4/ Day 3

Theme: Bookmarked Dishes

Dish: Thai Zucchini Curry with Red Curry paste
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. Hope you have yummy food and lots of fun with your loved ones. We are going to a Thanksgiving party hosted by a dear friend, so we will definitely be having lots of yummy food and fun today.
I am thankful for a lot of things - big thanks to god for this life, thanks to my family and friends for always being there in both happiness and sadness, thanks to the blogging marathon group for keeping me inspired and motivated to keep cooking and blogging.

I am also thankful that I had this curry recipe in the drafts for today's post, otherwise I would have been scrambling to get this post done :-) I made this Thai Red Curry with Summer squash from Food52 couple of months ago. It came in handy today since I had bookmarked and tried it then.

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Wholewheat Zucchini Bread for #BreadBakers

It's time for #Breadbakers again and I'm so excited to host it this month. The theme I picked is 'Breads using Summer Bounty'. So any bread, quick or with yeast, using fruits, herbs and vegetables from your garden or fresh from the farmer's market can be made. We have a delicious list of breads from the lovely bakers, don't forget to visit their blogs (listed at the end of the post).

I planted a zucchini plant in my raised vegetable bed this year. It started flowering beginning of July and I was hoping for a bumper crop of zucchini. Little did I know that not all flowers become fruit. With no zucchini in sight even after 3~4 weeks, I started to panic. A quick google search even led me to think that there were no bees in our area to pollinate the flowers and I might end up zucchini-less after all. Then one day I saw these 2 big ones -- not sure how I missed them the whole time. Then the next day I found a gigantic 13" one -- I might have to get my glasses checked now. I'm glad that my zucchini story ended on a positive note. Not sure if I'll get more though -- I see flowers but no tiny or big zucchinis :-(

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Roasted Vegetable Wrap

Blogging Marathon# 50: Week 1/ Day 3

Theme: American Sandwiches

Dish: Roasted Vegetable Sandwich Wrap

For the last day of this week's 'American Sandwiches' theme, I have a quick and easy Roasted Veggie Sandwich wrap. Wraps are less messy and very convenient to pack for lunches. Absolutely anything can go into a wrap, like these sandwich wraps I made for a picnic.

Today's wrap has roasted veggies in it with a healthy smear of mashed bean spread. Any vegetable can be roasted and used here. To expedite the roasting part, broiler is used. But if you want to roast them the slow, methodical way, then roast the veggies in a preheated 450°F for 20~30 minutes. Veggies can be grilled on a stove top or outdoor grill. The mashed bean spread can be easily replaced with some homemade or store bought hummus.

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Zucchini Paratha

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: One Vegetable - 3 Dishes

Dish: Bread - Zucchini Paratha

For the third day of this week's blogging marathon, I wanted to make a bread with Zucchini. I have tried quite a few bread recipes with zucchini, like this sweet carrot-zucchini bread, this everyday sourdough bread and this double chocolate bread. I wasn't in a mood to bake anything or make any sweet dish, so tried making parathas with zucchini.

I kept the paratha recipe simple with just grated zucchini and few spices because I was serving them with a spicy side dish. But you can add more spices and serve it with some yogurt and pickle.

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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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Zucchini Dry Curry (Zucchini Pesarapappu Podi Kura)

Blogging Marathon# 49: Week 3/ Day 1

Theme: 1 Vegetable - 3 Dishes

Dish: Dry Curry -- Zucchini Pesarapappu Iguru

My theme for this week of blogging marathon is to 'Pick 1 veggie and make 3 dishes with it'. I had to think really hard on what vegetable to choose and after a lot of internal deliberations, I zeroed on Zucchini. Zucchini, courgette, green squash a staple along with potatoes and tomatoes in my kitchen and I thought this is a good opportunity to post some recipes that I frequently make at home.

Zucchini is available almost all year round and I make sure to buy them whenever I see some good looking ones. They are pretty bland by themselves and I almost always use them along with other veggies -- roasted or stewed with eggplant and peppers. It is very versatile vegetable and can be used to bake bread, cake and cupcakes too.

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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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Mücver -- Turkish Zucchini Fritters

This is another dish that my friend suggested. I don't remember eating this before, but she said it is a good dish that even my kids might like. She wasn't wrong, even my picky son loved these fritters. Original recipe uses eggs to make the fritters, but I used egg replacer powder instead. The firtters turned out great even without the eggs, they turned out crispy and delicious. 

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Turkish Bulgur Pilaf with Veggies

I thought bulgur was used to make Tabbouleh only until I ate this pilaf. I should have known, bulgur to Turkish is like rice to South Indians -- the many variations of rice we enjoy is incredible. So bulgur
is used in both savory and sweet preparations. Bulgur is made from groats of several different wheat species. It looks like our wheat rawa and it probably is Turkish wheat rawa -- I'm not sure (if any of you do, please add your comment below).

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Dal Kootu (Poritha Kootu)

Dal is something that is made almost every other day in my household. Not just my home, but that is the case in almost every Indian households. Lentils form one of the main source of protein to vegetarians. I am always looking for new ways of making the same old pappu/ dal.

My everyday dals are usually very simple like this tomato pappu or this palakura pappu. But occasionally I do make kootu where dal is cooked with vegetables and coconut-peppercorn masala paste. My mom learned it from a Tamil neighbor.

Today's recipe is from the cookbook, Dakshin by Chandra Padmanabhan. Masala pasta is almost similar to what my mom makes, but the addition of mixed vegetables was interesting to me. This is a perfect recipe to make when you have those odds and ends of veggies in the fridge that need to be used up. Any combination of veggies can be used here -- apart from the ones I have used potato, zucchini, cauliflower can also be added to the kootu.

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Andalusian Courgette Tortilla (Zucchini Omlet)

For this month's 'International Food Challenge', Sharanya of Just Not the Cakes is taking us on a culinary tour of Andalusia, Spain. Andalusia is one of the most populous and second largest autonomous communities in Spain , stretching south from sunny cities Cordoba and Seville all the way to Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea . The name “Andalusia” was derived from the Arabic word “ Al- Andalus”. Andalusia boasts many delicious foods offering travelers a chance to stimulate their palettes while exploring.

Sharanya gave us 4 very simple recipes from the Andalusian region and I picked the Courgette Tortilla recipe. Spanish Tortilla is typically made with potatoes, but this Andalusian tortilla is made with zucchini. It is like a frittata or a fat baked omelette. This is a simple dish that is easy to prepare and served with a salad and bread on the side makes for a filling meal.

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Poblano, Corn & Veggie Tostadas (Vegetarian Recipe)

Blogging Marathon# 37: Week 3/ Day 2
Theme: Street Food from Around the World 
Dish: Poblano, Corn & Veggie Tostadas from Mexico

After exploring Korea, we are going to Mexico for today's Street Food from around the World. Mexican food was probably the first international cuisine that I really liked when I came to US. In those days, there were not too many International restaurants in India and the only international dish I ate back then was Domino's pizza, which if I remember correctly didn't really like.
But after coming to the US, I became more open minded about trying new dishes and Taco Bell soon became my favorite fast food place, both because of the vegetarian options available and it was affordable for a graduate student. One dish that I still order, at least one, is Nacho cheese chalupa. I make Mexican food atleast once a week and I have quite a few recipes posted here already.

Most of the dishes we get here in the US are the American version of Mexican food. So I wanted to see what is traditionally served as street food in Mexico. Street food in Mexico is called Antojitos, or small cravings. Most of them include corn as an ingredient. These dishes include tacos, chalupas, tamales, gorditas, tostadas etc.,

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Veggie Nachos

Being a food blogger, one thing that I sure don't do is post recipes ahead of a specific holiday/ festival. I wish I was more planned in that aspect. Coming from apparel retail background, I've seen companies start working on a season at least 9 months in advance, ie., designers start working on Summer designs (that will be in the store some time in April) some time in September of the previous year.
In the same way, there are quite a few bloggers who start posting recipes for summer before the end of spring. While they are thinking ahead, I am usually posting recipes I made at the end of winter (!!!!!!), that is how organized and planned I am.
Well today's dish was meant for Super Bowl Sunday and of course it is a week late. I saw Rachael Ray make this on her show and the use of veggies on nachos sounded tasty and I wanted to make it for my nacho-loving son. I actually served it for lunch (!!!) along with cilantro-lime rice.

These are infact a healthier version of traditional cheese laden nachos. Most of the cheese is replaced with sauteed veggies. My son liked them quite a lot and I'm sure I'll be making these often in the future.

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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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Baked Vegetarian Chili Rellenos (Low fat)

Blogging Marathon# 31: Week 1/ Day 3
Theme: Mexican Cuisine
Dish: Baked Chili Rellenos - low fat 

I usually try to include 1 dessert recipe whenever I pick a theme for BM. So keeping that in mind I tried to make a Mexican flan and made it eggless. But unfortunately my caramel got burnt and the flan was way too rubbery. Imagine my embarrassment when I took it over to my friend's place for dinner -- it was so bitter, we ended up eating ice cream from my friend's freezer :-(

After that colossal dessert failure, I figured it's best to try something savory. I had bought some poblano chilies without any particular recipe in mind. I remembered this amazing Chile Rellenos dish that we ate at a Mexican restaurant years ago and wanted to give it a try.

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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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Eggless Zucchini Chocolate Cupcakes

For the 3rd day of BM# 23 under "Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes & Muffins", I made Zucchini chocolate cupcakes with a fudge chocolate frosting. Even though these cupcakes are not technically considered "healthy", they sure pack a healthy amount of shredded zucchini. By substituting the white flour with whole wheat flour and reducing the sugar a little bit, these cupcakes can definitely make a healthy and delicious breakfast food. Since it is the holiday season, I didn't make any healthy substitutions.

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Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread

We begin the 3rd week for Blogging Marathon today and my theme for next 3 days is "Kid Friendly recipes with Chocolate" for Kid's Delight event. I know first hand how much my kid loves chocolate. I mentioned about his LOVE for all things chocolate a number of times here and so when I saw the theme with chocolates, I thought this what could be better than making more chocolate delicacies for my son.

Since all these recipes are going to Vaishali's Kid's Delight - Chocolate event, they have to be eggless. So for today's chocolate delight, I made this "Double chocolate Zucchini Bread" from King Arthur flour site. The original recipe had eggs, but I used egg replacer to make it eggless.

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