Spicy Greens with Sunflower Seeds (Thanksgiving Side)

Here's another easy Thanksgiving side dish that is also quick and simple to make. Recipe is from Vegetarian Time magazine. Sunflower seeds are roasted or cooked with spicy jerk or barbecue seasoning and then tossed with wilted spinach or swiss chard leaves.

I didn't have the suggested jerk or barbecue seasoning, so I used some homemade Tandoori masala giving the sunflower seeds a spicy Indian twist. These roasted sunflower seeds can be eaten just as is -- they are that good.

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Baked Manicotti

For Day 3 of BM, I made this hearty and comforting baked pasta dish. Turning on the oven makes the kitchen nice and toasty -- perfect for chilly winter nights, so you know where I spend most of my time in winters ;-). This is a stuffed pasta dish with creamy Swiss chard and ricotta filling smothered in spicy tomato sauce and topped with lots of cheese -- great to please a crowd.

Stuffing traditional manicotti/ canneloni pasta can be tricky since cooked pasta tubes are very delicate and have a tendency to tear. So to make life easy I used no-boil lasagna noodles, an idea borrowed from Cook's Country magazine. Filling recipe is adapted from Giada's Swiss Chard & Pea Manicotti. Here's how I made it.

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White Pumpkin & Swiss Chard Curry

White pumpkin (Gummadikaya in Telugu) is a very versatile veggie and can be used to make dals, curries and stews. This time around I had a bunch of Swiss Chard that needed to be used up, so I added it to the curry to boost the nutrition. To make the curry creamy and not make it too dry, I added coconut cream, the top layer in unshaken canned coconut milk. All in all the curry turned out to be quite tasty.

Here’s how I made it:
Ingredients:
White Pumpkin – 3 cups, diced into 1” cubes (Zucchini should be a good substitute)
Swiss Chard – 1 small bunch, chopped
Chana dal – ½ cup, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes
Green chilies – 3, sliced
Coconut cream – 1tsbp, just skim the thick cream that forms on the top of regular coconut milk can
Turmeric – 1/8 tsp

For tempering:

Mustard Seeds – 1tsp

Cumin seeds – 1tsp

Dry red chilies – 3

Method:

• Microwave pumpkin with ½ cup water until tender.
• Heat 2tsp oil in a sauté pan; add the tempering ingredients and once they splutter add green chilies, soaked chana and cooked pumpkin with any leftover water after microwaving.
• Mix well and add the chopped chard. Cover and cook till chard is wilted and the dal is completely cooked.
• Add coconut cream and salt, simmer for another 2 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice or roti.

Swiss Chard & Tomato Dal (Lentil Soup)

Vegan Mofo Day 9:

I love making dal with greens, I think greens make dal special, yummy & nutritious. I used a combination of moong and masoor dal (red lentils), but toor dal can be used too. I pressure cook the greens and tomatoes with dal, but dal & the veggies can be cooked separately too (it just takes longer to cook)

Ingredients:
Masoor dal (Red Lentils) – 1 cup
Moong dal (split yellow colored) – ½ cup
Swiss Chard – about 3 cups, chopped roughly (half of a medium size bunch)
Tomatoes – 2, medium
Green chilies – 2, slit
Tamarind pulp – 2tbsp
Red Chili powder – ½ tsp (or more to taste)
Turmeric – ¼ tsp
Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Hing (Asafoetida) – pinch
Curry leaves – 6-8
Dry Red Chili – 1-2

Method:

• Rinse dals and cook with 3-4 cups of water in pressure cooker. I put the greens, tomatoes and chilies in the pressure cooker in a separate container along with the dal. Cook on medium flame for 4-5 whistles. Wait till the pressure is completely released.
• In a saucepan, heat 1tsp oil; add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add the cooked greens and mix well.
• Next add dal, turmeric, tamarind, red chili powder, salt and 1-2 cups of water (depepnding on the desired consistency). Bring to a boil and simmer on medium-low flame for 10 minutes.

Serve with steamed rice or roti or slurp it as soup.

Update on the Heating situation: We have the guys from the repair company working in the basement as I type this (it's now 8:30PM and this is officially the 18th day we are going without heat). If we are lucky we will have heat tonight, still keeping crossed and toes curled. Will update tomorrow.

Green Chole with Coconut milk

First let me thank all of you for your wishes and blessings for my little prince on his birthday. He had a great time with cupcake party in his day care and a small carrot cake at home with his dad and me.

Coming to the recipe, I know it is a strange name for a dish. But I didn’t want to say Swiss Chard-Spinach Chole, so I shrunk it to just Green Chole. This curry has all of my favorite ingredients: Chole (chickpeas/ garbanzo beans), Swiss chard (which I’m not sure why I don’t use more often), of course Spinach and Coconut milk. It’s a very simple curry dish, but is packed with nutrition and deliciousness.


I love using coconut milk in curries and dals. It gives any dish a slightly sweetish, mellow flavor and creamy texture. I always keep couple of cans of coconut milk, both low-fat and regular and coconut milk powder in my fridge. For dals and curries that only need a little bit, I use the milk powder instead of opening the whole can. I use the cans for making coconut milk based gravies and sauces.

Ingredients:
Chole – 1 16oz. can, drained and rinsed thoroughly or dry beans, soaked and cooked
Swiss Chard – 1 bunch, washed and chopped finely (about 4 cups)
Spinach – ½ bunch, washed and finely chopped (about 2-3 cups)
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Green chili – 1 (optional)
Garlic – 2 cloves, minced
Coconut milk – ½ cup (I mixed 3tsp coconut milk powder in ½ cup water)
Chole masala – 1tsp
Ground Cumin – 1tsp
Red chili powder – ½ tsp
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste
Method:

• Heat 2tsp oil in a sauté pan; add cumin seeds and after they splutter add onions and garlic; sauté until onions turn translucent.
• Add all the powders & salt; sauté for 30 seconds.
• Add chopped greens and chole, cover and cook till the greens are completely wilted, about 7-8 minutes.
• Add coconut milk and ½ cup of water; cook uncovered for another 3-4 minutes. Remove from heat; serve with rice or roti.