A fresh bowl of soup is something I want to have when I reach home daily from work. Sometimes when I am not very tired, I make something special apart from usual dinner. This is one such soup I tried. We loved it.
Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped vegetables – I used bellpeppers(capsicums) of 3 colors, cauliflower, green beans, carrots 1/2 tea spn fresh chopped ginger 1/2 cup macaroni 1/4 tea spn pepper + 1/4 tea spn red pepper flakes 1 tbl spn chopped basil 2 tbl spn milk 1-2 tbl spn Parmesan cheese 1 tea spn corn flour Salt
Method: Cook macaroni till it is done. Cook the vegetables and ginger in enough water till they are almost done with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes. Add macaroni. Mix corn flour with milk. Add this to vegetables, macaroni mixture. When the soup becomes thick, take off the heat. Add cheese, basil. Serve hot.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 20mins
As I have mentioned earlier, rice is an important and main item in our food. So during the fasting days, we eat rice only once a day and avoid it for all other meals. At my home, we do fasting every panchami (fifth day of fortnight in Hindu calender). During these days, satvik food -pure vegetarian food without onion and garlic, is prepared. We eat rice with lunch but for dinner, we either eat fruits or make something with wheat. Even for breakfast, rice is not used. So I make these idlis on such fasting days.
We have noticed that these are more softer and easier to ferment compared to the normal idlis with rice . So these days, I make these idlis very often. They have slightly different taste and healthier because of the wheat sooji – ganva ravo (Konkani – n is pronounced with nose as in Genhu in Hindi).
Ingredients: 1 and 1/4 cup wheat sooji/rava (the one used for upma) 1 cup urad dal Salt
Method: Rava is either steamed or roasted before adding it to the batter. Roast rava till a nice aroma comes out of it. OR Take the rava in a clean towel and tie a knot around it. Keep this in a cooker and steam (without whistle) for about 10mins. Cool the rava to room temperature. Soak urad dal in water for about 4hrs. Grind it to a very smooth batter. (There will be some air bubbles on top when it is finely ground. Also when you touch the batter, it feels very smooth). Add salt and mix again. Now add the rava and mix with a spoon. Keep aside overnight for fermentation. Next morning, make idlis .
Serves : 3-4
PS: During summer, I add the rava to the urad dal batter about 30mins before steaming the idlis (only urad batter is fermented overnight) as the wheat rava makes the batter sour if over fermented.
