General Tso's Tofu

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: Weekend Special Dinners

Dish: General Tso's Tofu
Today's weekend special is a Chinese-American dish called General Tso's Tofu. It is the vegetarian version of General Tso's Chicken that is quite a popular item on Chinese fast food and restaurant menus in America and Canada. From what I read, this dish is unknown in China and is probably been introduced by one of the many Chinese chefs who came to America years ago.

In the original version, it is a sweet, slightly spicy and the chicken is deep fried. In this vegetarian version, tofu is used instead of the meat and it is baked until crispy.

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Soy Nilgiri Kurma and Dal Rotis

Blogging Marathon# 29: Week 1/ Day 1
Theme: Cooking with Colors
Dish: Soy Nilgiri Kurma --- Green

Today we are starting the 29th edition of Blogging marathon and my theme for this week is "Cooking with Colors". We can all agree that we eat with our eyes first and the more colorful a dish is, the more healthier and appealing it is. So for the next three days, I'm going to post dishes that have one featured color ingredient.

For the first day, I'm cooking with the color 'Green'. I saw this dish being made on a Telugu Cooking show (abhiruchi) and it looked very appealing, so I jotted down the recipe. As I was looking through my notebook for ideas of dishes to make for BM, I saw this recipe and thought this will highlight the color green really well. 

This dish tastes very earthy and is quite delicious. It is a little time consuming to make, but ones all the components are ready, the curry takes no time to finish.

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Multi Grain Rotis with Amma’s Tomato Soup

For day 3 of Blogging marathon, I made these simple rotis with a combination of different flours. I guess you can use any combination of flours to make these healthy rotis. I used atta (whole wheat flour), soy, besan (chickpea flour) and jowar flours.

What did I learn: Sky is the limit for making Rotis.

Ingredients:
Atta (Chapathi flour) – 2cups
Besan – ½ cup
Soy flour – ¼ cup
Jowar flour – ¼ cup
Salt – ½ tsp
Oil/ Ghee – as needed

Method:

• Sift flours and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add warm water, little at a time, to the flour and mix and knead into smooth dough. Knead for about 5-8 minutes.
• Cover with plastic wrap, damp paper towel or kitchen towel and rest for 20-30 minutes. Divide the dough into 8-10 equal parts.
• Roll each dough ball into 5-6” disc.
• Cook on pre-heated skillet (tawa) until brown spots are formed on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Spread oil or ghee while cooking for added flavor (optional).

Serve hot with my Mom’s tomato soup. This is not your typical tomato soup; I’m even not sure why my Mom calls this a soup. It is actually tomato curry thickened with rice flour, it tastes great with rotis or puri. Only change I made is to add some tomato paste to jazz up the bland tomatoes we get here and to give the curry some more tomatoey flavor.

Amma's Tomato Soup:

Ingredients:

Tomatoes – 4 medium, chopped

Onion – 1 medium, chopped

Green chilies – 2, slit vertically

Tomato paste – 1tbsp

Red chili powder – ½ tsp (or to taste)

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Rice flour – 2tsp

Sugar – 1tsp

Salt – to taste

For tempering:

Chana dal – ½ tsp

Urad dal – ½ tsp

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Curry leaves – 6-8

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan; add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start spluttering, add onions, green chilies and sauté until the onions are lightly browned.
• Add tomato paste and chopped tomatoes, cover and cook on medium flame until the tomatoes turn mushy.
• Next add turmeric, red chili powder, garam masala, sugar and salt. Cook for 2 minutes.
• Whisk rice flour with ¼ cup of water, making sure that there are no lumps.
• Add the slurry to the tomatoes and cook until the curry starts to simmer and thicken, should take another 2-3 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Lets see what my fellow marathoners BM#4 have been cooking up today.

Diabetes Diet/Management: Kamalika, Smitha, Suma
Kid Friendly Recipes: Anusha, Cool Lassi(e)
Seven Days of Soup: Priya Suresh
Seven Days of Indian Bread: Jayasree
Seven Days of Cakes:Priya Vasu
Seven Days of Preserves: Gayathri Kumar, Vaishali
30 Minutes Meals: Priya Mahadevan, Srivalli

Soy Chorizo & Corn Stew

I like to try vegetarian/ vegan “fake meats”. I know they are processed and everything but I still want to try them at least once to see how they taste. I’ve had some that I really liked, but some that were totally disappointing and inedible.

So when I saw Soy chorizo in Trader’s Joes I had to try it and I have to say we really liked it and I’m going to buy this again. It was similar to Yves brand Veggie ground round but much spicy and garlicky.

Ingredients:
Soy Chorizo – 1 package
Corn – 3 cups (from 3 cobs)
Red Bell pepper – 1 medium, chopped
Green Onions – 1 bunch
Garlic – 2 cloves
Tomato puree – 1 cup
Cumin powder – 1tsp
Chili powder – 1tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan; crumble chorizo in the pan and cook on medium flame for about 5 minutes. Remove into a bowl and keep aside.
• In the same pan, add green onions, bell pepper & corn; sauté on medium-high flame for 12-15 minutes or until the veggies are tender.
• Add tomato puree, ground cumin, chili powder and salt. Mix well and cook covered for 5 minutes.
• Return chorizo to the pan along with a cup of water/ veggie broth. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Check for seasonings and serve hot.

I served the stew with some brown rice. Yummyyyyyyy.

Vegan Tacos

Ok I said I don’t like burritos with tortillas, but I do like tacos with tortillas :-). My tacos are made with soy meat, but you can definitely use crumble tofu or cooked TVP (textured soy protein). I added readymade taco seasoning, but this can be substituted with a mixture of cumin powder, chili powder and some dried oregano or marjoram.

Great for weeknight meals and since I don’t like the fuss of wrapping in tortilla, I cook some rice; top it with the taco “meat” and all the other toppings for lunch the next day. Yumm.

Ingredients:

6” Corn Tortillas - 10

Soy ground meat – 1 pkg (I used Lightlife)

Pepper – 1 small, chopped fine

Onion – 1 medium, chopped

Carrots – 1 small, grated (Optional)

Garlic cloves – 2, minced

Tomato puree – ¼ cup

Taco Seasoning – 2-3 tbsp

Salt – to taste

Toppings:

Avocado – 1, diced

Grape Tomatoes – 10, halved

Scallions – 4, chopped

Lettuce – shredded

(Vegan) Sour Cream – ¼ cup

Method:

• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan; add onions, peppers and carrots (if using) and sauté on medium flame till the veggies are tender, about 8-10 minutes.
• Add minced garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
• Add the soy meat (or cooked TVP), crumble with back of the spoon and cook for 4-5 minutes.
  
• Next add tomato puree, taco seasoning and ¼ cup water; cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes. If the mixture is too wet, cook uncovered till the extra water evaporates. Season with salt, keep in mind taco seasoning has quite a bit of salt, so adjust accordingly. Keep aside.
  
• Corn tortillas are quite fragile if not warmed before hand. Heat a skillet on medium-high flame and warm the tortillas on both sides until very slightly browned and pliable. Pile all the toppings and enjoy.

This is of to Vaishali for her Its a Vegan World: Mexican event.

Vegan Potato Pizza

I was looking at my cookbook collection and I realized that I have made a big progression over the years in selecting cookbooks. I bought cookbooks from places you wouldn’t even think to look for books. The first cookbook I bought “Indian cooking” was from Costco and it has very limited vegetarian recipes. I remember just glancing at the book cover and the next thing you know; book was home, didn’t even bother to see what was in the book. My next cookbook was from “Marshalls” and the same thing happened again.

I collected quite a few books that have not much use to me as they have minimum vegetarian recipes. But with time I realized (and a nice little discussion with my DH) that I’m amassing all these book to gather dust and that’s when I started to research a little bit before actually buying (and if you want to know, the last 4 cookbooks I bought were from amazon). I bought all of Isa Chandra’s vegan cookbook collection recently and I’m very very happy with all 3 of them.

I also have to mention about the great library that I have in town; it is a part of a co-operative library system and if my local library doesn’t carry a particular book (which is 9 out of 10 times), they can borrow it for me from any of the 75 other libraries… how cool is that!!! I might have borrowed about 25 books till now using this (or should I say misusing this). If I think I like the book and I should have it, then I buy on amazon. Its been working great for me.

So now coming to the recipe, this is my entry to Vaishali’s (@ Holy Cow-Earth Vegan) Vegan-Italian event. Recipe is from Isa’s Vegan With a Vengeance (VWaV) and has two very unusual pizza toppings: Potato and Tempeh crumbles.
And what do you know Pillsbury Pizza Crust is vegan; and I had Bertolli’s tomato and basil pasta sauce on hand; that cut my prep to practically nothing. I changed the recipe just a little bit since I didn’t have some of the ingredients on hand, but both DH and I liked the pizza very much.

Ingredients:
Pizza Crust – 1, homemade or store-bought (I used Pillsbury brand)
Potato – 1 medium, thinly sliced
Tempeh crumbles* – 3 tbsp (Recipe follows)
Pizza sauce – 1/3 cup
Garlic – 3 cloves, thinly sliced
Onion – 1 small, thinly sliced
Olive oil – for brushing
Method:

• Preheat oven to 450°F.
  
• Rinse potato slices until the water runs clear, 2-3 times to remove any excess starch.
  
• Roll out the dough onto a pizza stone or foil covered baking sheet.
• Spread the tomato sauce with the back of a big spoon on the crust. As per Isa you should still be able to see some of the crust through the sauce-otherwise pizza might get soggy, so that’s what I did.
  
• Scatter all the other ingredients on the crust making sure that potatoes and onions lay flat for even cooking. Drizzle little olive oil on potato, onion and garlic to make sure that they don’t dry out in the oven.
  
• Bake in the oven and check after 8 minutes. Once the crust is lightly browned the pizza is ready, takes about 12-14 minutes.
  
• Remove and let cool before enjoying this unique pizza.
  

Tempeh Crumbles:
Ingredients:
Tempeh – 1 pk, any variety
Fennel Seeds – 1 tbsp
Dried Basil – 1tsp
Dried Oregano or marjoram – 1tsp
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Soy sauce or Tamari – 2tbsp
Olive oil – 1tbsp
Lemon juice – 1tbsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• In a small pan, crumble tempeh; add enough water to almost cover it. Over medium-high heat, simmer until most of the water evaporates; about 12-15 minutes.
  
• Drain remaining water; add the rest of the ingredients and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally till lightly browned; about 10 minutes.

Mapo Tofu

Mapo Tofu is a spicy Sichuan dish with a very long history. It is traditionally made with tofu along with ground beef or pork simmered in a spicy black bean chili sauce with Sichuan peppercorn. I found a vegetarian version of it in Vegetarian Times and it was spicy and delicious. It has double dose of protein with soy crumbles and tofu. The spice level of the recipe was a little muted, so I added some chili paste to bump it up a little bit. It is a quick and easy to prepare for a week night dinner.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
Extra Firm Tofu – 1 12oz. container, drained and cut into ½” pieces
Soy crumbles – 12 oz. pkg (I used Light life original)
Green Onions – 1 bunch, green and white parts chopped fine separately
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Ginger – 1” piece, minced
Sherry – 1 tbsp
Fermented Black bean sauce – 2 tbsp
Chili paste – 1½ tsp (I used Sambal Oleak)
Corn Flour – 2 tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp


Method:

• Add soy crumbles, sherry, sugar, black bean sauce, chili sauce & ½ cup water; bring the mixture to a simmer.
• Stir in tofu, simmer for 3 minutes or until heated through.
• Whisk cornstarch with 2 tbsp water in a small bowl. Add cornstarch mixture to the wok.
• Cook 1 minute more or until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and serve over brown rice.

Bento Bowl

We had spicy tofu bento bowl for dinner tonight. Recipe is adapted from Vegetarian times magazine.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2 people)
For Spicy Tofu
Tofu – 12 oz. pkg, drained and cut into 1" pieces
Soy sauce – ¼ cup
Chili sauce – 3tbsp
Sesame oil – 2 tsp

For the Salad:
Brown Rice – 1 cup, cooked
Mixed Salad greens – 1 cup
Avocado – 1, sliced thinly
Soy sauce – ¼ cup
Ginger – 1” piece, grated
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp


Method:

• Whisk soy sauce, chili sauce and sesame oil in a bowl.
• Heat 2tsp oil in a large sauté pan. Dip tofu in the chili mixture and fry in the hot pan for 8-10 minutes, tossing to make sure that all sides are browned evenly. Remove and keep aside.
• To assemble the salad: Whisk soy sauce, ginger, lemon juice in a small bowl. Mound half the rice in a serving bowl, top with the mixed greens, avocado and tofu. Serve with the sauce.

Grilled Tempeh with Broccoli Rabe and Red Peppers

Tempeh is made from fermented soybeans and has higher content of protein, vitamins and dietary fiber compared to tofu. It also has a different texture and a very strong flavor (slightly bitter). My favorite way of cooking tempeh would be baking it in a marinade and made into a sandwich. Grilling it would be my second favorite; grilling makes it juicy and yummy.

I used broccoli rabe for the first time in this recipe. I have to admit that I didn’t like it. I thought I would because I like Karela (bitter gourd), but this was way too much bitter for my palate. Next time, I’m going to make this with either broccoli or broccolini (never had this before and is on my must-try list; now that broccoli rabe is out of it).

Recipe adapted from here.
Ingredients:
For the marinade:
Low-Sodium Tamari – 4 tsp
Olive oil – 4 tsp
Balsamic vinegar – 1 tbsp
Garlic, minced – 1 tbsp
Dijon mustard – 1 tsp
Dried basil – 1 tsp
Dried Oregano – 1 tsp
Onion powder – ½ tsp
Paprika – ½ tsp
Red pepper flakes – ½ tsp
Salt and Pepper – to taste

For Tempeh:
Tempeh – 1 8oz. pkg any variety (I used veggie style tempeh)
Red Onion – 1 medium, diced
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Broccoli Rabe – 1 bunch, roughly chopped
Red pepper – 1 medium, diced
Garlic – 1 tbsp, minced
Nutritional Yeast – 4 tsp
Salt and Pepper – to taste

Method:

• First prepare the tempeh for marinating. In a medium sauce pot bring some water to a boil. Cut tempeh into quarters and add them to the water. Let the simmer covered for 10 minutes.
  
• In the meantime whisk all the marinade ingredients together in a dish that’s big enough to place tempeh.
  
• After 10 minutes, remove tempeh from water and immediately place in the marinade. Cover and marinate for at least 1 hour.
  
• Preheat grill pan on medium-high heat. Grill tempeh for 5 minutes on each side.
  
• Reserve the marinade. Keep grilled tempeh warm in a warm oven until ready to serve.
  
• Then prepare broccoli rabe and red-pepper. To remove the bitterness of broccoli rabe, bring some water to a boil in a large skillet, cover and cook it for 5 minutes. Drain and keep aside.
  
• Wipe the skillet clean and add oil; when hot, add onions and sauté for 5-8 minutes until onions are soft and golden. Add garlic and red pepper. Sauté until peppers are tender. Then add cooked broccoli rabe, nutritional yeast, salt and pepper. Cook for another 3-5 minutes. Serve along with grilled tempeh and rice.
  

This is my entry to this month’s JFI-Soy hosted by Lovely Sia @ Monsoon Spice. (JFI is the brain child of Indira @ Mahanandi)

Grilled Tofu

I buy tofu on a regular basis, but end up using it in fried rice or some kind of Chinese style dish (or my version of some Chinese dish). But this time I wanted to make something different and searched around quite a bit (since all I have in my fridge is this tofu) before I found this recipe on Vegetarian Times. Recipe is for baked tofu, but I used my stove top grill pan instead. I was quite impressed with my grilling abilities, but it can be done better the next time.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Times Magazine.
Ingredients:
Extra-firm Tofu – 1 14 oz. package

For the marinade:
Tomato Paste – 1 ½ tbsp
No-Chicken stock – ¾ cup
Low-sodium Tamari (Soy sauce) – 2 tbsp
Vegetarian Worcestershire sauce – 1 tbsp (I didn’t have this, so I used an extra 1 tbsp tamari)
Red Wine Vinegar – 2 tbsp
Scallions – 2, chopped
Garlic cloves – 2, minced

For the sauce:
Nutritional yeast – ¼ cup
Oregano, dried – 1 tsp
Corn starch – 2 tbsp
Cold Water – 2 tbsp

Method:

• To make the marinade: mix all the marinade ingredients in a baking dish and slowly slide in the tofu. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
  
• Preheat the grill pan on medium high heat for 3-4 minutes.
  
• Remove tofu from marinade and quarter it. Reserve the marinade.
  
• Spray the grill pan with non-stick cooking spray. Place the tofu slabs on the grill and let them sear for 3 minutes. Lightly press tofu with wooden spatula or tongs once in a while to get grill marks. Turn each tofu piece 90° and grill for another 2 minutes to get the cross hatch grill marks. Flip and repeat.
  
• Remove and keep warm in a warm oven till ready to serve.
• To make the sauce: Mix nutritional yeast and dried oregano to the reserved marinade. Bring the mixture to a simmer and add the corn starch solution. Simmer until the sauce thickens, season with pepper and salt.
  
• To serve: Slice each tofu slab into two triangles. Serve over brown rice with the gravy.

This is my entry to this month's Monthly Mingle: Grill It being hosted by talented Sig @ Live to Eat. Monthly Mingle is brain child of Meeta @ What's for lunch Honey..

Tofu & Vegetables in Black bean sauce

This is a vegetarian version of lovely Barbara of Tigers & Strawberries Peng’s Home style Bean-curd recipe. I had some baked tofu left over from this dish, that I made earlier, in the fridge. You can use extra firm tofu or baked tofu for this recipe.

Ingredients:

Extra firm tofu – 16 oz. package, drained, chopped into bite size pieces

Mixed vegetables – 2 cups (carrots, peppers, mushroom, snow peas, onions, celery etc – I used frozen snow pea stir fry blend)

Black bean sauce – 2 tbsp
Red chili flakes – 1 tsp
Ginger – 1 tsp
Garlic – 2 cloves, finely chopped
Soy sauce (low sodium) – 3 tbsp
Sesame oil – 1 tsp
Corn flour – 2 tsp (mixed in ¼ cup water to make a slurry)

Method:

• Fry tofu in little bit of oil, so that the pieces are lightly browned evenly on all sides. Remove and keep aside. Skip this step if using baked tofu.
  
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok or large pan, add ginger, garlic and chili flakes. Stir fry for 30 seconds.
  
• Add the vegetables and black bean sauce; stir fry till the veggies are crisp tender, about 7-10 minutes.
  
• Add soy sauce, corn flour slurry and 1 cup water, cook for about 2 minutes until the gravy is thick. Serve with brown rice.

Note: I added black bean sauce to the oil right after ginger and garlic and found out the hard way that its not a very good idea. The sauce hissed and sputtered in the hot oil and all over the stove and counters. So, don't try this at home.

Potato Rosti and Tofu with fresh Tomato and Ginger Sauce

Its that time again for Jihva for Ingredients (JFI) and this time its being hosted by Rosie of What's the recipe today Jim? The ingredient for this month is Ginger.

My entry for the event is "Potato Rosti and Tofu with fresh Tomato and Ginger Sauce", thats a long name.. isn't it?? It also has various components, but it is not difficult to make and the finished results is well worth the effort. Make sure that the tofu is marinated for atleast one hour to allow it to absorb the flavors of ginger, garlic and tamari. (Recipe is from my 'The Greatest Ever Vegetarian Cookbook' edited by Nichola Graimes.)

Ingredients:
Extra Firm Tofu - 1 14oz. package, cut into 1cm/ 1/2" cubes
Potatoes - 4, large, peeled

For the Marinade:
Tamari or dark soy sauce - 2 tbsp
Fresh Ginger - 11/2" piece, grated
Clear honey - 1 tbsp
Garlic cloves - 2, crushed
Toasted Sesame oil - 1 tsp

For the sauce:
Olive oil - 1 tbsp
Tomatoes - 8, halved, seeded and chopped

Method:

• Mix together all the marinade ingredients in a shallow dish and add the tofu. Spoon the marinade over the tofu and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Turn the tofu occasionally in the marinade to allow the flavors to infuse.
• To make the rosti, par boil the potatoes for 10-15 minutes until almost tender. When cool, coarsely grate and season well.
• Take a quarter of the potato mixture in your hands at a time and form into rough cakes.
• Heat a frying pan with just enough oil to cover the base. Place the cakes in the frying pan and cook for about 6 minutes on each side until nice and golden.
• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Using a slotted spoon, remove the tofu from the marinade and reserve the marinade. Spread out the tofu on a baking tray and bake for 20 minutes, turning occasionally, until golden and crispy.
• Meanwhile make the sauce. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a saucepan, add the reserved marinade and the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes, stirring. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes break down.
• To serve, place a rosti, scatter the tofu on top, spoon over the tomato sauce and enjoy!!!!

Serve with a simple mixed leaf salad dressed with lime juice and sesame oil.

Warm Soybeans Salad

I soaked soybeans yesterday morning to make a recipe that I got from Tarla Dalal’s site. By the time we came back home from work last night, it was late and I didn’t have the time or patience to make the dish. But I had to make something for today’s lunch and this was the quickest dish I could think of.

Ingredients:
Soybeans – 1 cup
Onions – 1 large, chopped
Green chilies – 3, chopped
Cumin powder – ½ tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Chaat masala – ½ tsp
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 5-6
Fresh mint leaves – 2 tbsp, chopped
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Soak soybeans overnight. Rinse and drain the beans thoroughly.
  
• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and curry leaves and when the seeds splutter, add onions and sauté till tender.
  
• Add soybeans and sauté on medium high till they turn lightly brown.
  
• Turn off the heat and add the powders, salt, lemon juice and mint. Mix well and serve warm or cold.

This is my entry to Pooja's: Creative Ideas - Vegetable of the week - Beans series.

Vegetarian Chili

With the untimely warm weather behind, it looks like winter is finally upon us. Great time to have a big bowl of soup to warm you up inside and out. Traditionally chili is a spicy stew like dish, the essential ingredients of which are beef, pork or other mature meat and chili peppers. You can totally omit the meat and make a vegetarian version.

This version has Veggie Ground round (soy protein). This recipe is from my ex-colleague Angela who was always in the look out for good vegetarian dishes because of her vegetarian daughter. One day she brought me a lunch box full of chili made with soy meat, I was a little skeptical to even taste it because of the texture. But she assured me that it is 100% vegetarian and healthy too. I loved it and got hooked on to soy meat. I changed the recipe to my taste and it is just hearty and perfect for a cold winter evening.

Ingredients:
Veggie Ground Round – 1 package
Onion – 1 large
Green pepper – 1
Red pepper – 1
Garlic – 2-3, chopped
Tomato paste – 1/2 cup
Chopped tomatoes – 1 15 oz. can
Red Kidney beans – 2 15 oz. cans
Canned chipotle chilies – 2-3 (depending on taste)
Dried Basil - 1 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Bay leaves – 3
Vegetable broth – 2 cups
Salt, Pepper & Cayenne pepper – to taste

Method:

• Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan, sauté onions and peppers till soft but not overcooked. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes.
  
• Add veggie ground round and sauté for 5 minutes.
  
• Add the spices, tomatoes, broth and simmer for about 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add the beans (you can use any variety of beans), salt, cayenne pepper and cook for another 10 minutes. Check the seasoning, remove bay leaves, garnish with green onions and serve warm.
  

I served our chili with brown rice with sautéed onions and mushroom and a dollop of sour cream.

Serve with white rice, Spanish rice, baked potatoes or nachos. It stays good refrigerated and also frozen (don’t add the beans if you want to freeze, just thaw and add in the beans when serving). Very versatile recipe, you can play around with the veggies, add mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash etc.

Methi-Soya Chunk Masala

I’m back from my short and sweet India trip. Had a great time with the family, great home food, good long chats, quick shopping and bam.. I was on my flight back. I was a little sick when I started in India and was totally sick after getting here (I guess home sickness and the cold weather hit right in my face). I’m slowly getting back to routine cooking and blog hopping.

I had planned on participating in JFI-Jaggery and I had my mom cook Chalimidi with jaggery, but due to technical difficulties I couldn’t post anything from India. I’m going to post it sometime soon.

Getting back to the dish in question, Methi-Soya Chunks masala, I remembered seeing a dish with methi leaves and soya chunks on one of the food blogs, but I completely forgot which one and couldn’t find it again. I just went with my instincts here and it turned out pretty good. This would go well with Jeera rice or chapathis.

Ingredients:
Methi leaves – 1 big bunch
Mini soya chunks- ½ cup (boiled per package directions)
Onion – 1 big
Tomato – 2 ripe
Green chilies – 2
Milk – ¼ cup
Corn flour – 1 tsp (mix with little water to form a smooth paste)
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric – pinch
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste
Method:

• Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan, add jeera and let the seeds splutter. Fry onions till they turn light brown.
• Add tomatoes and cook covered till done.
• Add methi leaves, turmeric, cumin powder and red chili powder. Cover and cook till the leaves wilt, about 5 minutes.
• Mean while dry fry the boiled soya chunks (optional). I just like the texture of fried chunks.
• After the leaves are wilted, add the milk and bring it to a slow simmer. Add the fried chunks and salt, cook for 3-5 minutes. Add corn flour mixture and cook for 1 minute or until the gravy thickens. Serve with rice or chapathi.

WBB# 7-Meatless Sausage Bake

Theme for this month's Weekend Breakfast Blogging# 7 (Brain child of Nandita of Saffron trail) is baking. Good thing is she did not limit it to just muffins and breakfast breads, event is open for savory and spicy bakes too. Here is my savory, but not so spicy Breakfast bake, that does not pack on too many pounds.
I saw the recipe in one of the old Reader's digest magazine and I happen to have all the ingredients on hand. Its quite filling and can be a perfect brunch item paired with a salad. The dish can be prepped the night before like sauteing the peppers and leaving frozen hash browns and patties in the fridge to thaw. Assemble the dish by mixing all the ingredients together and baking it in the morning for breakfast.

Frozen Hash Brown and Sausage Patties (thawing)

Ingredients:
Red pepper - 1 medium, chopped
Green pepper - 1 medium, chopped
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Hash browns - 2 frozen patties (or grated potato), thawed and crumbled
Meatless Sausage patties - 4 frozen, thawed and crumble
Cheddar Cheese (reduced fat) - 1/2 cup
Eggs - 3
Egg whites - 3
Milk - 1/2 cup (low-fat or non-fat)
Garlic powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt and Pepper - to taste


Method:

• Preheat oven to 375 F.
  
• Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan; saute peppers and onions till tender, about 7-10 minutes. Season with garlic powder, salt and pepper and keep aside.
  
• In a large bowl, whisk in the eggs, milk, cheese, crumbled patties and hash browns & onion mixture. Season with salt and pepper.
• Transfer the mixture into a pie pan or baking dish and bake 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Breakfast bake with Toast

Tempeh Jambalaya

I get very excited when I go grocery shopping especially if its specialty store (My husband says I go into a trance when I start shopping.. hehehe). A month ago, we shopped at Whole Foods store and I was really awed by the array of organic products (including fresh veggies, fruits, packaged & frozen food) that they carry. I have to say prices are not cheap and I wouldn’t probably go there every week, but may be once a month for some special products (that are not available in regular grocery stores).
I ended up buying a lot of stuff which also included a package of tempeh*. After looking for recipes online and in my cookbooks, I came up with this Jambalaya** recipe.

Uncooked Tempeh(Photos Courtesy: wikipedia.org)

*Tempeh is a fermented whole soybean product. Tempeh’s fermentation process and its retention of the whole bean give it a higher protein, dietary fiber and vitamins content compared to tofu, as well as firmer texture and stronger flavor.

**Jambalaya is a Louisiana Cajun or Creole dish. It is traditionally a one pot dish made with meats, vegetables and rice.

Ingredients:
Tempeh – 8 oz. package
Celery – 2 stalks, chopped
Carrots – 2 medium, chopped
Peppers (any color, I used red, yellow and orange) – 1 cup chopped
Zucchini – 1 medium, chopped
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Garlic – 3 cloves
Chopped tomatoes – 16 oz. can
Vegetable Broth (low-sodium) – 2 ½ cups (or 1 vegetable bouillon cube)
Long grain rice – 1 cup
Salt and Pepper – to taste

Seasoning blend:
Cayenne pepper – 1 tsp
Paprika – 1 tsp
Pepper – ½ tsp
Dried thyme – ½ tsp
Dried Oregano – ½ tsp
Salt – ½ tsp

Method:

• Mix all the ingredients for the seasoning blend in a small bowl and keep aside. Make sure that all the veggies are chopped approximately the same size, so they cook uniformly.
• Cut tempeh into 1” pieces and fry them in 1 tsp of olive oil till lightly browned on all sides. Remove and keep aside.
• Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a heavy bottom pan***, add onions, garlic, celery, carrots, peppers and sauté for about 5 minutes or until they start to get slightly tender.
• Add zucchini and sauté for another 5 minutes.
• Add tomatoes, rice, sautéed tempeh, seasoning, vegetable broth (or water) and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer covered till rice is cooked, about 10-15 minutes.
• Remove from heat, leave covered for another 10 minutes, fluff with fork, garnish with green onions and serve with a dollop of sour cream.
  

*** I used Pressure Cooker and it about me 20 minutes to cook, excluding, of course, prepping time.

This is my entry for this week's Sweet Nicks ARF 5-A-Day Tuesday.

Soyachunks-Aloo-Matar Masala

When I was in India, I never liked the taste or the texture of soy chunks (meal maker). Even after coming the U.S., the tried cooking with them once before and I didn’t like it. But after tasting soy meat and soy burgers and seeing recipes on other blogs, I decided to try our good old Nutrela soy chunks. Just to be on the safe side with the texture I bought mini chunks instead of the regular ones and I loved the way this dish turned out.

I took an easy route and made Soy chunks-matar masala recipe printed right on the box, with the only exception that I added potato to it. If you don’t buy nutrela brand soy chunks, here’s the recipe for you.

Ingredients:
Soy chunks – 1 cup (boiled as per package directions)
Potato – 1 large chopped
Peas – ½ cup (I used frozen, thawed peas)
Onion – 1 medium chopped
Tomatoes – 2 medium chopped
Ginger+garlic paste – 1 tsp
Red chili powder – 1tsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Fry the onions in 1 tsp of oil till lightly browned. Remove from heat, when cooled, grind into a paste.
• Fry the boiled chunks in 2tsp of oil, till slightly browned on all sides.
• Heat 1tbsp of oil in a pan, add ginger+garlic paste, onion paste and fry for 2 minutes. Add chopped potatoes and ¼ cup of water, cover and cook for 5 minutes or till the potatoes are just tender.
• Add tomatoes and cook covered for 5 more minutes.
• Add red chili powder, garam masala, peas, soy chunks and season with salt. Add some water if you want more gravy. Cook for another 5 minutes, garnish with coriander and serve with rice or chapathis.

We had our soyachunk curry with home-made naan. I will post the recipe on 16th October for World Bread day (event hosted by Zorra).

Broccoli-Edamame Saute

I dont have anytime to cook our lunch in the morning. I usually make more the night before and pack it up for lunch the next day. But some days after a long day at work, when it is almost impossible to get the dinner on the table, there is no way I can even think about lunch for the next day. On top of that, both of us work in industrial areas where there are nothing around in walking distance and will have to drive at least 10 minutes to get to the nearest Wendy's (where there are practically no vegetarian items on the menu except for yogurt w/granola and french fries).

So anyway this week, on one of my dog-tired days, I made this quick and easy edamame saute. I had chopped onions (left over from the day before) in the fridge and I used frozen broccoli, corn and edamame (fresh soybeans). All I had to chop was one tomato and that was easy.

Ingredients:
Broccoli florets - 1 cup
Corn kernels - 1/4 cup
Shelled edamame - 1/4 cup
Onion - 1/4 cup chopped
Tomato - 1 medium chopped
Lemon juice - 1tbsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Chaat Masala - 1/2 tsp
Red chili powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, saute onions till transparent and slightly pink.
  
• Add broccoli, corn, edamame (thawed if using frozen), saute for 5 minutes.
• Add tomatoes, cumin, chaat masala, chili powder and salt. Saute for another 5 minutes, dont let the tomato get mushy.
• Remove from heat, add the lemon juice and mix well.

Pack it up in your lunch box, warm it at work and enjoy.

Note: After reading Mythili's post track your wealth, I realized that we should be eating more fruits and vegetables. So this is a great way to enjoy your energy packed veggies especially edamame and broccoli.

Soybean Kura (Sauteed Soybeans)

As I mentioned earlier in one of my posts, I love my beans. I like the nutty flavor and soft texture of all the beans. In India, my bean database was limited to garbanzo (Chick peas) and kidney beans. But after coming to the U.S, my database expanded with black, pinto,navy, lima, adzuki(havent tried this yet), cannellini and last, but definitely no where near least soybeans. Find more about beans here.

So coming to Soybeans, I was always under the impression that they cannot be eaten as regular beans (don't ask me why!!!) May be because so many other things are made of them, I never thought that they can also be eaten as is.

My mom actually started using them for quite a while now. She adds them to her idli batter (soaks a handful of them along w/ Urad dal), wheat flour (gets them milled along with wheat) and also makes gravy curries.

Thats when I bought Soybean flour and started adding it to chapathis, cakes (just a little bit to the flour) and breads. Get more information on Soybeans here.

This is the first curry I made with soybeans and I was pleasantly surprised with the delicate taste and texture of soybeans.

Ingredients:
Soybeans - 1 cup (soaked for at least 4hrs)
Onions - 2 chopped
Green Chilies - 3
Kasuri Methi - 2 tbsp
Chili powder - 1tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

• Pressure cook the soy beans until done.
• Heat 1tbsp of oil in a pan, saute onions till lightly browned.
• Add green chilies, soybeans and saute on medium flame until the beans start to turn light brown for about 10-12 minutes.
• Add kasoori methi, chili powder and salt and mix well. Sprinkle some water if you feel the mixture is too dry.
• Cook for another 5minutes and serve hot.