Pumpkin and Corn Soup

This is an awesome soup for cold and windy winter days. I use both the pumpkin flowers (if available) and pumpkin to make this soup. I also add tomato to balance the sweet taste of the pumpkin. This soup is a great source of beta carotenes (vitamin A) and it helps to protect and provide immunity against cold and cough. Both my husband and myself love to have this on a cold evening after coming home from work.

Ingredients
1 cup cubed pumpkin
1/2 cup cooked corn kernel
1 tomato chopped
2 inch piece of carrot
1 teaspoon cumin powder
pepper for taste
salt for taste

Method
Boil or pressure cook the vegetables in one to one and half cup of water till the vegetables are soft. Blend the vegetables with cumin powder and pepper. Add desired quantity of water and corn to pureed vegetables and get the soup to a boil. Season with salt and serve hot.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2

Bhindi Do Pyaza / Okra and Onion Stir Fry

Come winter and I like spicy and hot dishes. I lose interest in eating the cold salads, heavy rice items and raitas. We tend to eat more of roti and wheat items during winter. This is one of the recipes I make to spice up our winter. Bhindi Do Pyaza goes well with roti or rice and dal. As the name of the recipe suggests, a lot of onion or pyaz is used. As it takes a lot of time to fry the onions, you can fry in before hand, store it in the freezer and use it when making Bhindi Do Pyaza. Here is the recipe.


Ingredients
1 pounds of okra or bhindi
2 large onions
1/4 teaspoon kalongi seeds or Nigella sativa
one pinch sauf or fennel
1 teaspoon amchur or dry mango powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder or as per taste
1 teaspoon kasuri methi leaves
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
3/4 teaspoon coriander powder
2 pinches asafoetida
1 tablespoon cut slivers of ginger
salt
oil

Method
Mince one large onion into a fine paste. Add 3 tablespoon oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and kalonji seeds. Fry or bhuno for a minute and add the onion. Fry the onion on a medium-low flame, stirring occasionally till the onion is light brown.
Slice rest of the onion and fry in 2 tablespoon oil till transparent.


Mix both the minced and sliced onion. Add turmeric powder, amchur, chili powder, salt, cumin powder, coriander powder, sauf, ginger,kasuri methi leaves and asafoetida. Cut the bottom and top portion of the bhindi and add it to the masala. Mix it well with the masala.

Cover and cook till the bhindi is soft. Check for salt and chili powder. Then, cook uncovered for 10 minutes till it is dry.


Preparation time: 1 hour
Serves: 2

Dill Sabzi / Sepu Sabzi

I make this curry mostly during the weekends, when we get fresh dill from the farmer's market. This is a Maharashtrian sabzi and dill is considered good for all digestive problems.

Ingredients
1 bunch of dill
1/4 cup chana dal or split chick peas
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
4 pinches asafoetida
2 green chilies
salt for taste
oil

Method
Waash and soak chana dal for 20-30 minutes. Cut the dill into one inch thin pieces. In a pan, add 1 tablespoon oil. Add cumin seeds,asafoetida and finely chopped green chili. Fry for a minute. Add chana dal and 1/2 cup water. Add coriander powder. Cook the chana dal till soft. Add chopped dill and cook covered till the dill is soft. Season with salt and Serve hot with roti or rice.


Preparation time: 40 minutes
Serves:2

Stuffed Bitter gourd / Bharwan Karela

I ate this dish at my friend's home and loved it. Bitter melon or bitter gourd is one of the most loved vegetables at my home. I usually make fritters or sabzi with it. But this is a unique dish where the bitter melon is stuffed with sweet and sour stuffing and shallow fried in a pan. It turned out to be delicious and here is the recipe.

Ingredients
4 bitter melon/ bitter gourd or karela
1 medium onion
1 medium tomato
1/4 teaspoon dry mango powder or amchur
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder or as per taste
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon jeera or cumin seeds
1 1/2 tablespoon grated jaggery or gur
1/4 teaspoon grated ginger
1 garlic clove (chopped)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt for taste
oil for frying

Method
Wash and peel the bitter melon. Make a slit on each bitter melon and remove the seeds with a spoon. When you make the slit, ensure that the bitter melon should not be slit into two parts. If you don't like the bitterness of the karela, then rub salt on it and keep it for 20-30 min. Squeeze all the bitter from the melon.
In a pan add a tablespoon of oil and add jeera. Fry it for a minute and add the ginger and garlic. Add chopped onion and fry it till golden brown. Add chopped tomato and cook it till soft. Now add all the powders and jaggery and stir well it all the spices are well blended into the masala.



Stuff this masala into every bitter melon. Tie the bitter melon with a string to avoid the masala from coming out while frying it.

Add a tablespoon of oil in a flat pan. Drop all the tied bitter melon in the pan and fry on a medium flame till all the sides are golden brown. Serve hot with chapatti or rice.

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Serves: 2

Lentil Curry without Coconut / Konkani Sar Upkari

This is one of the healthy dishes made with lentils. Coconut is not used to make this curry. I make this dish very often during the weekends when we feel like eating something light. While boiling the vegetables and the beans, add just the required amount of water. The water in which the vegetables and beans are boiled is used to liquidify the curry, so don't throw the water after boiling the vegetables. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup lentils (choose from white navy beans or whole toor dal, whole peas, whole dried yellpw peas, whole moong, whole mooth, whole chana, horse gram (kulith), adzuki beans, black eyed beans)
1/2 cup cubed vegetables(choose from ash gourd, raw papaya, potato, yam(suran), bottle gourd)
1 teaspoon coconut oil or any oil
2-3 green chilies
salt for taste

Seasoning:
3-4 pods of garlic
Or
1 teaspoon mustard
1 pinch of asafoetida

Method
Soak the beans over night. Wash the beans and pressure cook them with slit green chilies and 1/4 teaspoon salt till the beans are soft. Cook the cubed vegetable in water till soft. Add the vegetables to the beans. In a seasoning pan add oil and heat it. Add crushed garlic pods and fry the pods till they are pink in color. Optionally, you can add mustard and asafoetida to the oil instead of garlic. Add the seasoning to the curry and adjust salt. Serve hot with rice and dal.

Preparation time: 25 minutes excluding soaking time
Serves: 3-4

Kolhapuri Vegetable Curry / Rassa Bhaji

This is a very spicy and tangy curry which is perfect to have on a cold, rainy day. Kolhapuri curries or sabzi is spicy and very flavorful. Kolhapuri chicken and mutton curries are very popular in Maharashtra. "Rassa" means gravy, so the curries usually have quite a bit of gravy with the meat or vegetables. I decided to try this rassa curry using vegetables. The red color of the curry is due to the byadgi chili I use in the masala. This chili is mild in pungency and imparts a very red color to the curry. Alternatively, Kashmiri chili can also be used to impart red color.  Byadgi or kashmiri chilies are less pungent in flavor. Other varieties of chilies can be used to impart more pungency. Here is the recipe.


Ingredients
1 capsicum
1 potato
3 cups cauliflower cut into big pieces of 2 inches each
1/2 cup peas
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
3 medium tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 1/2 tablespoon coriander seeds
4-5 red chilies (byadgi)
1/2 inch stick of cinnamon
3 tablespoon grated coconut
3 cloves
1/4 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
2 cardamom
6 tablespoon coriander leaves or cilantro
2-3 pepper corn
oil for frying
salt for taste

Method

Cut capsicum into two inch pieces each and fry it for 5-10 minutes till brown on all sides. Fry cauliflower for 4-5 minutes on high flame till crisp. Chop onion into small pieces. In a tablespoon of oil add chopped ginger and onion. Fry onion till brown. Chop tomatoes into small pieces and add it to the onion. Cook tomato till soft.
Soak red chilies in water for 5-10 minutes. Grind red chilies, coconut, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, pepper, coriander seeds and cumin seeds into a very fine paste. Add this paste to the tomato-onion mixture. Add tamarind and salt for taste. Add the vegetables in the curry and cook the curry till the vegetables are soft. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with roti or rice

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Serves: 3-4