These days I am trying my best to avoid any food wastage. I used to buy a lot of beans/vegetables and had to throw some of it when I could not get to them on time. Now I make a conscious effort not to do so. We have started doing the grocery shopping once in every 2-3 weeks. We buy new vegetables only when we finish off every single vegetable from fridge. So, while we are at it, I am trying to get to the dried beans/lentils that are sitting in my pantry.
Yesterday, I saw a pack of green peas(vatane) and soaked some. This morning when I was thinking about lunch, I thought of making usli (which is my all time favorite dish), but then, I had to use up some bhindi too, so vatane had to be used for gravy. Next in the list was saru-upkari . I started making this, but changed it a bit to give a nice taste/aroma with goda masala. It came out really well.
Ingredients: 1 cup dried green peas(vatane) 4 green chillies 1 tea spn goda masala 1/2 cup onion 1 tea spn garlic 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1 tbl spn chopped coriander leaves 2-3 pieces kokum (or use tamarind or tomato) Oil A pinch turmeric Salt
Method: Soak dried peas overnight in water. Pressure cook peas with turmeric till they are mushy. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add onion, green chillies and garlic. Fry for few minutes. Mash the peas with a spoon. I took 2 big spoonful of peas in blender and blended it to a smooth paste. Add the peas to onion mixture. Now add salt, goda masala, kokum (or tamarind or tomato) and cook till the gravy thickens. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice or rotis.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 30mins
Though they are nutritious,it often becomes difficult to make the children to eat different vegetables. In one of the T.V. programs I saw an unique way of using carrot, palak and beetroot in making chapatis.The three vegetables carrot, spinach, beetroot, give orange, green and red colour. The children are attracted by the three different colours and they may eat these nutritious chapatis.
Check Nivedita’s version here .
Ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cup Wheat flour 1/4 cup Carrot paste 1/4 cup spinach(palak) paste 1/4 cup beetroot paste 1/2 tea spn red chilli powder 1-2 green chillies 1 tea spn cumin powder 1 tea spn garam masala powder (optional) Salt
Method: Take 1/2 cup each of carrot and beetroot pieces.Cook them separately. Grind the palak with green chillies to a smooth paste. Add 1/3 tea spn of cumin powder, 1/3 tea spn of garam masala powder, salt and 1/2 cup wheat flour to this palak paste and make a dough. Grind cooked carrot. Add red chilli powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, salt and wheat flour to carrot paste and make a dough. Similarly grind cooked beetroot with red chillies. Add cumin powder, garam masala powder, salt and wheat flour to the paste and make a dough. Make a roll from each dough. Keep them together. Cut a piece from the combined roll. Make a ball(do not mix too much, otherwise the colours won’t be visible). Roll them into chapatis.Fry on hot tawa and serve with tomato sauce.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 40mins
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