Sweet Potato Parathas - 1

Wish you all a very happy new year 2016.

There was a time when Ishaan was around 2 years of age when I used sweet potatoes very regularly. But that did not continue for a long time. He does not like anything sweetish, so I stopped. Now I am trying to include them back in our diet because of their nutritional values and also because Ayaan is almost that age now. He has a big sweet tooth. Few months back, I saw these very tender and beautiful sweet potatoes at Farmers market. I made a simple stir fry with half of them. The remaining went into these stuffed parathas.

I used a combination of sweet potatoes and normal potatoes for this. I did not want the parathas to be too sweet. I also used lot of masalas to make them a little spicy. I think I need to make these more often, they were just delicious.

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Pictorial: Cook sweet potatoes and potatoes(I do not have them in picture below) in pressure cooker. Peel them when they are cooled down. Add the spices and mash them to remove any lumps. Make the dough. Take small balls of covering, flatten it on the palm and then stuff a small ball of stuffing in them. Seal properly.

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Roll each ball and then roast them on tava.

Sweet Potato Parathas - 18

Sweet Potato Parathas

Ingredients

  • For Stuffing
  • 4-5 small sweet potatoes about 2 cups when mashed
  • 2 potatoes 1 cup mashed
  • 1/2 tea spn red chilli powder
  • 1 tea spn coriander-cumin powder
  • 1/2 tea spn chaat masala
  • Salt
  • For outer cover
  • 1/2 cups water
  • 3 cups wheat flour I use multigrain flour
  • 1 tea spn oil
  • Salt

Instructions

  • Make a dough with the ingredients mentioned under outer cover.
  • Knead the dough very well for few minutes.
  • Apply little oil to the dough and let it rest (covered) for atleast 30-60mins.
  • Cook sweet potatoes and potatoes in pressure cooker.
  • Peel them and mash.
  • Add all the spices, salt and mix well.
  • Make small balls out of the dough and stuffing (I usually make sure I have equal number of dough and stuffing).
  • Take a ball of dough and flatten on your palm, use little oil if needed.
  • Keep a stuffing ball on it and seal the dough properly around the stuffing.
  • Roll them into paratha. (Do not use too much dry flour).
  • Roast on hot tava.
  • Apply ghee from both sides for extra taste (I do that for kids).
  • Serve hot with yogurt or pickle or any side dish of your choice.
Sweet Potato Parathas - 19

Sweet Potato Parathas

Ingredients

  • For Stuffing
  • 4-5 small sweet potatoes about 2 cups when mashed
  • 2 potatoes 1 cup mashed
  • 1/2 tea spn red chilli powder
  • 1 tea spn coriander-cumin powder
  • 1/2 tea spn chaat masala
  • Salt
  • For outer cover
  • 1/2 cups water
  • 3 cups wheat flour I use multigrain flour
  • 1 tea spn oil
  • Salt

Instructions

  • Make a dough with the ingredients mentioned under outer cover.
  • Knead the dough very well for few minutes.
  • Apply little oil to the dough and let it rest (covered) for atleast 30-60mins.
  • Cook sweet potatoes and potatoes in pressure cooker.
  • Peel them and mash.
  • Add all the spices, salt and mix well.
  • Make small balls out of the dough and stuffing (I usually make sure I have equal number of dough and stuffing).
  • Take a ball of dough and flatten on your palm, use little oil if needed.
  • Keep a stuffing ball on it and seal the dough properly around the stuffing.
  • Roll them into paratha. (Do not use too much dry flour).
  • Roast on hot tava.
  • Apply ghee from both sides for extra taste (I do that for kids).
  • Serve hot with yogurt or pickle or any side dish of your choice.
Palak Paneer with Almonds - 20

My new year resolution is to eat/cook with more vegetables. The problem I face with this is, I buy lot of vegetables in a week and then they sit in fridge and pass their prime time. This weekend, after a very long time, I prepped all the vegetables – washed them, cut them into pieces, dried them and stored in boxes/zip lock bags in freezer or refrigerator. This is helping so much in fast cooking during weekdays and I hope this will also bring down the wastage. Now I have to figure out something similar with spinach(palak). I buy big box of baby spinach from Costco. I make dal, paratha etc with it, but still have some leftover. Last week I prepared this palak paneer with almond paste. I called it palak paneer, because it had palak and paneer!. This is probably the closest to the classic palak paneer that my family will eat. I made it quite spicy, the way we like it.

Many years ago, on a cooking show I had seen the addition of kasoori methi (dried fenugreek) to Palak paneer. I followed the same to give it a bright methi taste. This is by no means traditional palak paneer (calling it a palak paneer may be a stretch!)n- I made it to suit our taste buds. Check Anita’s Palak panir or Manisha’s Palak paneer posts for authentic versions.

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Pictorial: Blanch tomatoes in boiling water. Make ginger-garlic paste. Blanch spinach. Blanch almonds. Fry onions with ginger-garlic paste. Add masalas and fry.

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Add ground spinach-tomato paste, kasuri methi. Then add almond paste. Add paneer and cook.

Paneer in Creamy Spinach - Almond gravy

Ingredients

  • 3 cups baby spinach
  • 2 big tomatoes about 2 cup chopped
  • 1 tea spn freshly made ginger-garlic paste
  • 1/2 cup onion
  • 1/2 tea spns cumin seeds
  • 1/2 cup almonds
  • 1 tea spn garam masala
  • 2-3 green chillies
  • 1/2 tea spn coriander-cumin powder
  • 8 oz 227grms paneer cubes
  • 1 tea spn kasuri methi dried fenugreek leaves
  • Oil
  • Salt

Instructions

  • Boil 2 cups of water.
  • Add tomatoes to it, after about 3 mins, add spinach.
  • Switch off the heat, let it sit there for a mins.
  • Take the tomatoes and spinach in mixer bowl along with green chillies and grind to smooth paste.
  • In the same water, add almonds and boil for 4-5mins (I use them with skin).
  • Grind the almonds to a paste (I made a coarse paste for some texture).
  • Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds.
  • Then add onion, ginger-garlic paste. Fry for few minutes.
  • Add garam masala, cumin-coriander powder and fry for 2 mins.
  • Now add the ground spinach paste, salt and cook.
  • Crush the kasuri methi slightly with fingers and add it to the gravy.
  • Add almond paste and then paneer cubes. Cook for 5-6 mins.
  • Serve hot with rotis/chapatis or rice.