Falafel patties with Chickpeas and Black beans

This is a good protein dish for vegetarians and it tastes great as an appetizer or a light meal with a side of a salad.

Ingredients:
Chickpeas/Garbanzo Beans - 1/2 Cup dry
Black beans: 1/2 Cup dry
Onion - 1 small or half big
Jalapeno/Green Chili - 1
Red pepper flakes - 1 tsp
Garlic - 2 to 3 cloves
Parsley/Cilantro - A small bunch
Salt - To taste
Red Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 2 tsp

Soak the Chickpeas and Black beans overnight. Alternatively, use canned beans. Drain and wash before use.
All all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until the mixture is coarse ground. Mix all the ingredients until well incorporated.
Make patties and bake them or pan fry using very little oil.

Serve with salad or in a pita with Tzatziki and Hummus.

Quick lunch Salad with Black Bean and Avocado

Here's a quick and easy lunch for those busy afternoons when I am home alone. Truth is, this is not a lot of food and would hardly satisfy the Mr. However, it's a perfect light lunch and has all the necessary nutrients. The black beans and the avocado add a richness and makes it hearty and satisfying.

I used a left over Black Bean burger patty, but some cooked black beans or corn would be just as good.

Ingredients:

Greens - Lettuce, Spinach

Avocado - 1/2

Red Onion - 1/4

Tomato - 1 small

Cucumber - 1/2

Black Bean patty - 1 (or 1/2 cup Black Beans)

Dressing of your choice - 2 Tbsp

Chop all the veggies into cubes and roughly chop the greens.

Add everything to a bowl and top with the broken Black bean patty or some black beans.

Drizzle over some dressing and enjoy.

I used this:

Lime and Cilantro Yogurt Dressing - 1/4 cup 

(In a blender, add 1/4 cup yogurt, pinch of salt, squeeze half a lime, a small piece of avocado and a few springs of cilantro, half a jalapeno and blend)

Cilantro Hummus

Cooked chickpeas - 2 cups
Green Chilis/Jalapenos - 2
Garlic - 2 cloves
Cumin - 1 tsp
Cilantro - 1 bunch
Lemon Juice - 1 1/2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
Water - as required

Blend all the ingredients above with required amount of water until smooth and creamy. Drizzle with some olive oil and serve as a dip or a spread.

Poornalu - Stuffed sweet dumplings

Poornalu are a traditional sweet lentil stuffing, dipped in batter and deep fried. They were a festival staple, and I have never seen them being made any other time. I am not a fan of the sweet stuff, but I love the savory outer coating. When I was younger, I would eat the crispy outer coating, and give the filling to my mom. The filling is similar to the one we use for poli.

For the filling: 

Channa Daal - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 cup

Cardamom - 1 pinch

Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup

For the coating:

Raw rice - 2 cups

Urad daal - 1 cup

Salt - 1 tsp

Canola/Vegetable/Sun flower Oil - to deep fry

Soak the channa daal for 4 hrs. Drain and set aside. In a vessel that fits in a pressure cooker, add the daal and 1/2 cup water. Cook for 4 to 5 whistles. Remove and cool.

When the daal cools, mash it. Add the grated jaggery and coconut. In a pan, add this mixture and cook on medium flame. This will become runny as the jaggery melts, but will solidify after a while. When the mixture is thick, turn off and cool.

Soak the rice and daal for about 6 hrs. Grind with water. This should be thicker than the consistency of dosa batter. When a ball of filling is placed in the batter, it should not sink to the bottom.

Make rounds of the filling, golf ball sized. Dip these in the coating.

Heat a pan with oil and when it is hot, drop these balls and fry on medium high, until golden brown. Drain onto a paper towel and serve hot.

Daal Makhani

I used the 16 Bean Usal mix for this recipe. Very nutritious and also very easy to prepare. I did not pre-soak the beans, and just pressure cooked them for 10 to 12 whistles. Since there were different kinds of beans, some of them cooked rather soft ans some remained intact. This gave the dish a creamy texture, without any added butter or cream.

16 Bean mix (Or any mixture of beans on hand) - 1 cup

Onion - 1 big

Green chilis - 2

Tomatoes - 2 big

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Red chili powder - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Turmeric - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Saunf - 1 tsp

The beans I used were a mix of Red kidney beans, Chickpeas, dried black chana daal, black eyed peas, dried geen peas, green mung beans and others. The smaller ones cook up much faster, so they cook up really soft. 

In a pressure cooker, add the beans and cover with 3 to 3 1/2 cups water. Cook for about 10 whistles, since they have not been pre-soaked. If soaking in advance, reduce the cook time. Turn off and let them cool.

Chop the onions, chilis and tomatoes.

In a pan, heat the oil, splutter the saunf and add the onion and chilis. When they are soft, add the tomatoes and cook till well cooked.

Add the masalas and salt.

Open the lid of the cooker and add the cooked mixture into the beans.

Mix and add more water if required. 

Close lid and cook for 2 more whistles.

Open and garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or rotis.

Note: If the beans seem under cooked, increase the number of whistles the second time.

Multi bean and grain Adai

This adai/dosa is really rich in protein and tastes good too. I used Usal mix from the Indian store. Any kind of a bean mix can be used here.



Usal Mix - 1 cup
Boiled Rice - 1 cup
Urad daal - 1/2 cup
Chana daal - 1/4 cup
Toor daal - 1/4 cup
Red chilis - 8
Salt - to taste
Ginger - 1 1/2 inch
Cumin seeds - 2 tbsp
Cilantro - 1 handful

Soak the daals, beans and rice for 3 to 4 hrs. Grind with the rest of the ingredients and water. The consistency should look like a thick dosa batter.
Adai takes a little longer to cook than a regular dosa.

Veggie Burgers

This has got to be the weirdest burger I made, yet insanely delicious. Can you imagine, I made the patties with left over Capsicum, Potato and Chick peas subzi? I was not sure if they would hold up and stay firm or be mushy. But they turned out really firm and crisp. I did not have to use a drop of oil to fry them. Just used some cooking spray.

Subji:

Capsicum - 3

Potato - 1

Cooked Chickpeas - 1 cup

Onion - 1

Green chili - 2

Ginger - 1 inch

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Red chili powder - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Turmeric - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

In a pan, heat the oil. Add the fennel seeds, and when they splutter, add the chopped onions, green chilis and chopped ginger. Fry till onion is translucent.

Add the chopped capsicum, potato and cook till soft. Add the chickpeas and the the masalas and salt.

Cook till the vegetables are cooked through.

Patties: 

Subji

Cracked wheat(Fine) - 1/2 cup

Gram Flour - 3/4 cup

Cilantro - 1/2 cup

Mix all the ingredients and form patties. Heat a non stick pan and spray with non-stick spray.

Cook till crisp on each side.

For the Burgers:

Veggie patties - 8

Whole Wheat buns - 4

Lettuce - 1/2

Cucumber - 1

onion - 1

Tomatoes - 2

Yogurt - 1/4 cup

Hot sauce and ketchup

Shred the lettuce and slice the veggies into rounds.

Toast the buns and layer with the veggies.

Top with a couple of the patties, drizzle the sauce and the ketchup and yogurt. 

Serve with chips or any sides of your choice.

Sambar

One of the most popular and well loved dishes from the southern part of India is sambar, and each of the 4 states have their own slight variations of it. I lived in chennai most of my life, so naturally my sambar gravitates toward the tamil version. Here's the recipe:

Toor daal - 1 cup

Shallots - 5 to 6 (else 12 small onions, or 1 big onion)

Green chilis - 4

Carrot - 1

Tomatoes -2

Eggplants - 2

Okra - 2

Bottle gourd or Sorakai - 1/2 small

Sambar powder - 1 1/2 tbsp

Tamarind paste - 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Chili powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Sugar - 1 tsp

Cilantro - for garnish

Hing - a big pinch

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Water - 8 cups or more

Cook the daal with about 2 1/2 cups water in a pressure cooker for about 10 whistles, till it is really mushy and smooth. In a pan, add a tbsp oil and add the onions and chilis. Chop all the veggies into cubes. Fry till the onions are translucent and add all the other veggies. Fry till tender. In the cooked daal, add the sambar powder, chili powder, salt, turmeric powder, tamarind paste, sugar and some water. Mix well. Now add that to the veggies and pour the rest of the water. Let it simmer for about 10 min. In a seperate pan, add 1 tbsp oil  and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and the hing. Once it starts to splutter add the tadka to the sambar. Garnish with cilantro.