Soppina Huli | Vegan Dandelion Greens Curry | Keerai Sambar | Soppina Sambar : A vegan and gluten friendly side dish

I scrutinize the vegetable section of the grocery store whenever I get a chance. Now, with an eight month old, it's not always possible. Couple of weeks back when I saw dandelion greens at the vegetable section, I was taken aback.

Can you spot these yellow flowers..., these are dandelion flowers and I'm talking about that plant...you can see these almost every where in spring season here in America. I stress again.., every nook and corner..

As per my knowledge, they are weeds that grow around the spring time. Dandelions are seen in the nook and corner here in spring season. I was not aware that, they were edible. I didn't dare buy them.
After coming home, I started looking for dandelion greens recipe. Uh uh.., nothing much could be found..but I understood that.., dandelion greens are very good for you. You can read about the health benefits of these greens here, here and here.

I got a big bunch of dandelion greens and made many Indian dishes using the same. We could hardly make out that I have used a new leafy vegetable for cooking. Dandelion greens blend very well with Indian cooking. I have made 6 dishes using dandelion greens so far and everything turned out so yummy!!

Don't call me crazy.., I like to make use of the local and fresh produce as much as possible. They are healthy, and pocket friendly, when compared to the imported counterparts ;)

You could eat this by itself as a thick soup or as a side dish with steamed rice or bread.

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 40 mins
Serves: 4 to 6

Notes: 

• You could use any greens like amaranthus leaves, malabar spinach, hongone soppu, dantu soppu, harive soppu etc instead of dandelion greens. 
• Adjust the spice level according to your needs. I have used both green and red chili in this recipe. You could skip one of them, if you want a mild curry.

Ingredients:
Dandelion greens: About 3 cups, chopped fine, refer notes
Green gram | Hara moong | Hesru kalu : 1/4 cup
Toor dal | Split pigeon peas: 1/4 cup
Green chili: 2 nos
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt: As needed
Water: As needed

For the spice paste:
Oil: 1 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Gram dal | Channa dal | Kadle bele: 1 tsp
Urad dal: 1 tsp
Coriander seeds: 2 t+sp
Cinnamon stick: 1 inch
Garlic: 1 clove, optional
Dry red chili: 2 or 3 nos, non spicy variety
Tamarind: grape sized or 1 tsp, thick extract
Grated coconut: 1/4 cup, fresh or frozen

For the tempering:
Coconut oil: 1 tsp, or any other cooking oil of your choice
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Curry leaves: 4-6 nos, torn

Method:
Wash the dandelion greens thoroughly under running water and chop them fine. You can use the stem of the greens too. No need to discard them.
Wash the green gram and toor dal too. Add the lentils to the chopped greens.

Add the whole green chili, turmeric powder and water to the greens and pressure cook the greens mixture for 3 to 4 whistles.

If you do not have a pressure cooker, I suggest soaking the lentils for 30 mins to 1 hour and then cook it in a sauce pan along with the greens. We want the lentils to be overcooked..kind of mushy.
Meantime, let's work on the spice paste. Heat oil in a small wok.
When oil is hot, reduce the heat to low-medium. Add the cumin seeds, channa dal and urad dal. Roast these for couple of minutes.

Then add the coriander seeds, roast again for a minute.

Add the cinnamon stick and garlic. Repeat sauteing and roasting for another minute.

Add the broken red chili and roast again until the chili becomes crispy.
Turn off the heat and add the tamarind.

Allow the spices to cool down. Once they are cool enough to handle add these to a blender.
Add the grated coconut along with the spices and blend it to a smooth paste. You can add some water to make a smooth paste.
Transfer the cooked lentils and greens to a sauce pan. Remove the green chili from the cooked greens and mash it gently. To the mashed greens, add the spice paste and salt.

Adjust the consistency of the curry by adding water. Boil everything together for 5-7 mins.
Prepare the tempering. Heat oil in a small wok, when oil is hot, add the mustard seeds. When seeds splatter, add the curry leaves and turn off the heat.
Pour this tempering over the sambar/curry and enjoy it hot.

Pudina Chutney | Mint Chutney | Pudina Thogayal : Iyengar Style

Pudina Thogayal is a South Indian version of the mint chutney that is popularly consumed as a side dish for steamed rice. It is very flavorful and goes well with so many South Indian items like dosa, akki rotti, or uttappam. I make this chutney mostly in summers as I harvest mint once in 15 days (I grow it in my balcony garden). Also, mint helps cool down your body in hot and humid summer days.

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 10 mins

Serves: Makes about 1.5 cups of thogayal

Notes: 

• Pick only the leaves from the mint leaves and discard the stem
• Cilantro can be washed and used along with the tender stems. 
• The stems of the cilantro adds volume to the thogayal and also makes it flavorful.
• Do not add more water while making a coarse paste. The thogayal needs to be thick. Add a teaspoon of water at a time and continue grinding.

Ingredients:

Pudina | Mint leaves:1.5 cups tightly packed, refer notes

Coriander leaves | Cilantro: 1/2 cup, refer notes

Dry coconut: 1/4 cup

Green chilies: 4 nos, adjust accordingly

Tamarind: a big grape sized or about 1 tsp of thick tamarind extract

Urad dal | Black gram dal | Uddinabele: 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp

Oil: 1 tsp

Salt: As needed

Water: As needed

For tempering:
Oil: 2 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves: 4 nos, torn

Broken red chili: 1 no

Method:
Wash the mint and coriander leaves thoroughly and roughly chop them.

In a broad wok, heat oil. When oil is hot, roast the urad dal until golden brown.

When the dal is golden brown, add the green chili and saute for 15 secs.

Add the roughly chopped mint and cilantro. Saute till the leaves wilt and become soft.

When leaves are soft, add the turmeric powder, salt and the tamarind. Turn off the heat and allow the leaves to cool for about 5 minutes.

Scoop out the cooked mint mixture to a blender or mixie jar. Add the grated dry coconut and make a coarse paste out of it. Add couple of tablespoons of water, if needed.
Heat oil in a wok. When oil is hot, add the mustard seeds.

When seeds crackle, add curry leaves and broken red chili.
Scoop out the chutney paste to the wok that has the tempering and heat the chutney until the extra water is absorbed. Cook the thogayal on a low heat for about 3-5 mins.

Turn off the heat. Allow it to cool and serve it with rice or dosa.

Strawberry and apple chutney | Spicy Strawberry Chutney | Sweet n Sour Strawberry Dip : A Vegan Dip Recipe

Learn how to make strawberry chutney with a twist. I have adapted the bajji/gojju recipe of South Canara and given a twist to the regular bajji. You can call it strawberry gojju too...

I bought 2 big boxes of strawberry during one of the trips to the supermarket. After coming home, I tasted them and it was a huge disappointment. The strawberries were too sour to my liking. I made milkshakes, lassi with them, but the amount of sugar that went in making the milkshake turned me off. So, I freezed them for later use.

Now that its been a couple of months that I freezed the strawberries, I wanted to finish them as early as possible.. So started making new and interesting experiments using the sour strawberries. I made this chutney last week. We liked the chutney so much that I made it again yesterday. Try it to believe!

Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking Time: 10 mins
Serves: 4-6 (Makes about 1.5 cups of chutney)

Notes:

• If the strawberries are very sour, I recommend adding only 4-6 strawberries. Adjust the number of strawberries accordingly. I used only 6 strawberries.
• If the strawberries are too sweet, you could use 8 strawberries and to make the chutney sour, you could use a Granny Smith Apple to add the tart to the chutney.
• Do not use Granny Smith apple and very sour strawberries. You get the point right? We need to add some natural sugar to this chutney.
• I use any other variety of apple (like Fuji apple, gala apples, red delicious apple etc) to make this chutney. The apple adds an extra texture and sweetness to the chutney.
• For a very mild chutney, you could add 1 jalapeno with the seeds removed. I use 2-3 Indian spicy green chilies. We like our chutney spicy.

Ingredients:
For the chutney:
Strawberries: 6-8 nos, refer notes
Apple: 1 no, refer notes
Green bell pepper: 1/2 no or 1 small
Green chilies | Jalapenos : 1-3 nos, adjust according to your spice levels.
Salt:As needed
Cilantro | Coriander leaves: 2 tbsp, roughly chopped
Curry leaves: 4 nos, torn
Asafoetida: 1/8 tsp
Jaggery | Brown Sugar: 1-2 tsp, to suit your needs
Salt: As needed
Grated coconut: 1/4 cup, fresh or frozen
Water: About 1/3 cup, more or less

For the tempering:
Oil: 1 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves: 2-3 nos, torn

Method:

Wash the apple thoroughly. Deseed the apple and roughly chop the apple. You can keep the skin of the apple.
Wash the strawberries and roughly chop them.
In a sauce pan, add all the ingredients (except grated coconut) mentioned in the chutney section. I repeat, do not add grated coconut. Bring it to a boil on a medium heat for about 7-10 mins. Do not add too much water. The fruits need to get cooked.

Allow the cooked mixture to cool.
Once cool, add coconut to the mixer and add this cooked mixture. Use the boiled water to make the chutney/dip. The water would be very flavorful. Do not discard the water. That is the reason I asked you to add little water in the beginning, remember?

Grind it to a medium coarse paste. Do not grind it very fine. We need some texture to our chutney.
Prepare the tempering. Heat oil in a small wok, when oil is hot, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. When leaves wilt and seeds splutter, turn off the heat. Pour the tempering over the chutney.
Serve the chutney as a side dish with rice, Indian flat breads, ragi rotti, gluten free sprouts bread or any dish of your preference.

Badanekai Masale Palya | Kathirikai Podi Curry | Spiced eggplant Curry : Karnataka Style

I'm back with another classic recipe of my mom and my grandmom. We love to eat this palya with ragi rotti, akki rotti or as a side dish for rice and nimbe saaru (lemon rasam). This is a Mysore style masala eggplant palya. It is a "no onion-no garlic" recipe.

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Serves:3-4

Ingredients:
Eggplants: About 1 lb (any variety, refer comments below).
Oil: 1.5 tbsp
Mustard seeds : 1 tsp
Urad dal | Uddina bele | Black dal: 1.5 tsp
Curry leaves: 4-5 nos, torn
Sambar powder: 2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt: As needed
Sugar: 1.5 tsp, optional (refer notes)
Lemon juice: 1 tsp

Method:
Chop eggplants into thin wedges or 1/2 in cubes.
Keep the chopped eggplants in cold water. Keeping the eggplants in cold water helps in reducing the bitterness of the eggplant. Also, the eggplant wont change color.

Heat oil in a broad pan. When oil is hot, throw in mustard seeds, followed by urad dal.
When dal turns golden brown, add curry leaves.

Drain the water from the eggplants and add the eggplants to the pan.

Mix well to coat the oil and allow the eggplant to become tender. Keep the heat to medium.
Keep mixing once a while to ensure the eggplants are not getting burnt.

Once the eggplants are half done, add the salt, sambar powder, turmeric powder, sugar and give it a mix.

Allow the eggplants to absorb the spices. Reduce the heat to low and continue cooking for another 3-5 mins.

The eggplants must be cooked, soft to touch and yet firm. That is when you know the curry is ready.
Finally, add the lemon juice, turn off the heat and mix well.
Serve this curry with rice, rotti or a dish of your choice.

Notes:

• If you use long green Mysore badanekai/eggplants, you do not need sugar. These tender green eggplants are not at all bitter.
• I have tried making this curry using all kinds of eggplants like the Chinese Eggplant, small round eggplants, the big bartha kind eggplant, Mysore badanekai. It turns out good with each one of them.
• We like our curry a tad bit sweet, so I add sugar or jaggery. If you don't like, you can skip it. Do not worry, it tastes equally good. 

Spinach and apple bajji | Palak and apple gojju | Spinach and Apple Chutney

My son is in “chutney loving phase” now. Gone are his love for idli, dosa, and other South Indian dishes. He loves eating chutney now. He wants chutney three times a day and seven days a week. He wants to eat the chutney with hot rice. I challenge myself to make healthier chutney for him every other day. So, you can expect a lot of chutney recipes here J

This is one chutney I prepared couple of weeks ago and since then I have made it thrice already. It is delicious, healthy and easy to make. It takes about 20 mins to make this chutney.

Preparation Time: 5 mins

Cooking Time: 15 mins

Serves:3-4

Ingredients:

Red apple: 1 large, refer notes

Spinach: 2 cups, tightly packed

Green bell pepper: ¼ cup, cubed

Green chili: 2-3 nos, according to taste

Turmeric: a big pinch

Tamarind: 1 small marble sized

Salt: As needed

Asafoetida: a big pinch

Brown sugar or jaggery: 1 tsp

Coconut: ¼ cup, fresh or frozen

Water: As needed

For tempering:

Coconut oil: 1 tsp

Mustard seeds: ¾ tsp

Curry leaves: 3-4 nos, torn

Method:

• Wash, core and cube the red apples.
• Wash the spinach thoroughly and roughly chop them. Slit the green chilies.
• Add the spinach, cubed bell peppers, slit green chilies, turmeric and cubed red apples to a sauce pan. Add about a cup of water to it.
• Boil the vegetables for 3-4 mins.  Add the tamarind, salt, jaggery and asafoetida to the sauce pan and boil until the vegetables are soft and tender.
• Allow the mixture to cool. If you are using frozen coconut, add the frozen coconut to the vegetable mix and allow to cool.
• Once the mixture comes to room temperature, make a coarse paste of all the ingredients. Do not add too much water. You can add the water that is used for cooking the spinach and apple. Use water wisely.
• Scoop out the paste to a bowl and prepare the tempering.
• Heat oil in a small wok. When oil is hot, throw in the mustard seeds. When mustard seeds crackle, throw in the curry leaves and turn off the heat.
• Add the tempering to the chutney.
• Mix well and serve it hot with rice or chapathi. 

Notes:

• I use red delicious apple or Fuji apple (sweeter apple) for preparing this chutney.  If you are using a sour variety of apple, make sure to use less tamarind and more jaggery.
• Coconut oil tempering is perfect for this chutney, however you are free to use an oil of your choice.