Scintillating Spinach Smoothie

January 11th, 2012 Madhuram Posted in Cooking For Kids, Gluten Free Recipes, One-Dish Recipes, Smoothie Recipes, Vegan Breakfast 6 Comments »

Spinach Smoothie Recipe

How many of you feel that you don’t have enough time to prepare a healthy breakfast? Are you bored of having the same old cereal, bread toast and orange juice in the morning? Wish you could makeover your breakfast routine? Then the answer is green smoothies! I know what you are thinking. “Oh! green smoothies, that’s not my kind of thing. It’s not for normal people. I’m not such a raw food junkie”. I too was very hesitant at first but after trying few recipes, I have really started liking the concept. To me the key is “taste”. As odd as it may sound to blend a few greens and fruits together to make a supposedly healthy concoction, once you like the taste, it doesn’t feel weird anymore. You will start wondering how come you missed such an amazing, interesting, tasty and easy way to consume greens all these days. Not only that you will start trying recipe after recipe and each time you will be surprised how good it is.

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Super Soft Sponge Dosa

January 9th, 2012 Madhuram Posted in Cooking For Kids, Gluten Free Recipes, Idli, Low Fat Meals, Vegan Breakfast 7 Comments »

Pumpkin Dosa Recipe

As much as I would love to have soups and salads everyday and limit carbs from rice and other grains, being the true South Indian I am, I cannot simply stop preparing dosas, idlis and other dishes I have been eating all these years. It’s not just food we are talking about. It’s more than that. We are passing our heritage, custom and rituals to our children through food. So I’m very happy that my son loves Indian food as much as he enjoys his pizzas and pastas. But I do have to agree that sometimes it can be boring to eat the same, plain dosa and idli each and every time. So that’s when we have to unleash our creativity to make our meals interesting.

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Gorgeous Green Peas Kheer

December 21st, 2011 Madhuram Posted in Cooking For Kids, Gluten Free Recipes, Sweets 4 Comments »

Green Peas Kheer

I’m not able to blog regularly at EgglessCooking.com because I’m not baking as often as I used to. So no recipes, no blogging. On the contrary, I have tried and am trying so many healthy vegetarian recipes and have been taking pictures and somehow don’t find the time to blog about it here. I have about 20 recipes to share, out of which 10 are amazing soup recipes. Initially I thought of doing 2 posts here every week, on Mondays and Fridays and 1 post every Wednesday in EgglessCooking. It’s still in paper though. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong because I’m always, cooking, washing or doing the laundry and running to the grocery store and other errands. I sincerely applaud all working women who are doing a great job managing both work and home. Hopefully I can put my head together and get a grip on my schedule.

Today I’m going to share a kheer (payasam) recipe using green peas. Even though I have other recipes which I tried before this one, I’m posting this to take part in Priya’s Cooking With Peas event. Over the past 3 years she has extended her unconditional support by sending numerous baking recipes to the events I have conducted. Although I can never match her contribution in quantity because she is so quick and energetic cooking/baking recipe after recipe, I send this unique recipe to her event.

I came across this recipe in a Tamil magazine but have changed it quite a bit to make it even richer and better. As unusual as it sounds to prepare kheer out of green peas, surprisingly it tastes mega-delicious. It tastes nothing like green peas, but much like almond kheer. Now tell me who will not like it? Of course it has to taste good with all the whole milk, pistachios and sugar. No wonder! I’m not calling this a healthy dessert but definitely a different kheer to the usual carrot, pumpkin, rice kheers we are used to. While you are in the mood to try a different kheer, give this ridge gourd kheer a chance too and you would be blown away.

Green Peas Kheer Recipe
Print
Prep time: 15 Mins
Cook time: 40 Mins
Yields: 6 Servings
Serve this gorgeous green peas kheer in your next potluck and be prepared with a notepad to write out the recipe and to accept the lovely compliments you will be getting all day.
Ingredients
  • 1 Cup Green Peas (Fresh Or Frozen)
  • 20 Raw Pistachios (Optional)
  • 1/2 Tablespoon Ghee (Clarified Butter)
  • 4 Cups Milk (I Used Whole Milk)
  • 3/4 Cup Sugar
  • Small Pinch Saffron Strands
  • A Pinch Cardamom Powder
For Garnish (Optional):
  • 1/2 Tablespoon Ghee
  • 1 Tablespoon Charoli Seeds
Procedure
  1. If using the pistachios, soak them in warm water for at least 15 minutes. After that you will be able to remove the skin easily.
  2. While the pistachios are soaking you can start the process for preparing the kheer by heating the milk and cooking the green peas. Heat the milk in a saucepan and see that it does not boil over or get burnt. Keep stirring it quite often. Place the saffron strands in a small cup and add a couple of spoons of the hot milk and set aside.
  3. Cook the green peas either in a pressure cooker, microwave oven or stove top. I used a pressure cooker because I was cooking rice anyhow, so placed the green peas in a plate above the rice.
  4. Once the cooked peas is cool completely, blend it in a Indian mixer or food processor with the blanched pistachios, into a smooth puree.
  5. If doing the garnish, heat the ghee in a small frying pan and once it is hot add the charoli seeds and fry until it turns golden brown. Take care to see that it doesn’t burn. Remove the fried seeds using a spoon and keep it in a plate. Then add the other 1/2 tablespoon ghee and fry the green peas puree for a couple of minutes to get rid of the raw smell.
  6. Once you have fried it enough, add this paste to the boiling milk and keep stirring until all the lumps dissolve. Let the peas mixture cook in the milk for another 5 -7 minutes. Now add the saffron milk (it would have turned yellowish now), squeezing the saffron with your fingers and the cardamom powder to the milk. Switch off the stove. Add the sugar and keep stirring it a couple of times. The sugar will melt from the heat of the milk itself.
  7. Add the fried charoli seeds to the kheer and mix it well. Green Peas kheer is ready now. Serve it hot or cold.
My Notes:
  1. Adding pistachios was my idea and it is optional, but I can say with confidence that it made the kheer extra-ordinary.
  2. Use 3/4th cup of sugar first, taste the kheer and add some more if you want it.
  3. Be sure to fry the charoli seeds in ghee before adding it to anything, because un-roasted seeds tend to be bitter.


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