[Ekadesi] Buckwheat Dosa

I heard so much about buckwheat dosa and happened to taste it in our cousin’s place. It tasted more like wheat dosa. I decided to try it on an Ekadasi day and bought a pack of whole buckwheat long back. But I did not try it as I was not sure about the recipe. Two weeks back I gathered all the courage to try it out when Prabu sadly said ‘Oh! Quinoa again for dinner?’. Gosh! I am getting mad on thinking over new dishes everyday ;) For my surprise dosa turned out very tasty and Prabu loved it. I am going to make it for dinner on upcoming Ekadasi days till Prabu gets bored of it :D

I am sure we can make this on a normal day too. It’s an healthy dosa and makes a very nice dinner option. I made tomato bhaji for the side dish. Kids also loved the combo.

As usual I made star dosa loaded with cheese for my little mj. Next time I will add grated carrots and beetroots and shredded cabbage. Healthy, isn’t it?

Dosa

Ingredients:

Whole Buckwheat – 2 cups

Coriander leaves – 1 handful

Quinoa – 1/4 cup

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Method:

1. Soak buckwheat and quinoa separately for 2 -3 hours minimum.

2. After 3 hours, wash buckwheat completely as it is very gooey.

3. Grind it nicely with quinoa, cumin seeds, coriander leaves to a dosa batter consistency. You can grind coarsely and make it as Adai topped with shredded cabbage and carrots.

4. Make dosas out of it and offer it to the Lord

Tomato Bhaji

Ingredients:

Raw tomatoes – 6

Oil – 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp,

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Red chillies – 2 to 3

Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Chop the tomatoes finely

2. Heat a pan and add oil

3. When oil is hot add cumin seeds, once it splutters add curry leaves and red chillies and fry for few seconds

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for sometime

5. Add turmeric powder and salt, simmer the stove and cook covered for sometime

6. Once all the tomatoes cooked well mash them well with a dal masher and keep it in the flame for few minutes

7. Bhaji is ready to be offered to the Lord

[Ekadesi] Kadai Paneer

Paneer always takes priority in our list. My Prabhu and my daughter love them even if I give every day. It has a magic that whatever and however you cook, it turns to a delicious recipe. That gives me all the courage to experiment the new recipes. I love paneer butter masala, a rich creamy sabji that goes well with rice and roti, and this is a all time keeper recipe for ekadesi too. Quinoa with paneer butter masala.. yum :) Yesterday I came across a blog post for kadai paneer, that too our version of no onion and garlic, I modified the recipe little bit though. I couldn’t wait to try it, so today our lunch is roti with kadai paneer. It is really really delicious. More than anything it is an easy recipe. That’s what I always need ;)

I always use paneer from Sharma’s kitchen. It is good in texture and softer than the other brands I tried.

Ingredients:

Paneer – 1 packet

Green Capsicum – 1

Tomatoes – 3 or 4

Butter – 1 tbsp

Grated ginger – 1 tsp

Green chillies – 2

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp(adjust to your taste)

Cumin coriander powder – 1 tsp

Garam masala – 1 tsp (Skip it on Ekadesi days)

Kasuri methi – 2 tsp (Skip it on Ekadesi days)

Method:

1. Cut the paneer into fingers, chop the capsicum, slit the green chillies and finely chop the tomatoes

2. Add paneer into warm water in a separate bowl. This is to soften the paneer.

3. Heat a kadai, add butter

4. Add grated ginger and green chillies and fry them till the raw smell goes off

5. Add the tomatoes and cook till it becomes mushy

6. Now add red chilli powder, cumin coriander powder and garam masala(if adding) and keep stirring     till the oil separates. This is very important otherwise you will get the smell of tomatoes in the             sabji.

7. Once it reaches the right consistency and capsicum and cook for few minutes

8. Drain the water from the paneer and add it to the sabji and add kasuri methi(if adding)

9. Cook for few minutes and switch off the stove

10. Kadai Paneer is ready to be offered to the Lord

[Ekadesi] Poori

This Poori is very very special to me. I made this for the first time for Guru Maharaj’s Vyasa Pooja celebrations. I made palm size pooris that time. After that I made two or three times only as it takes long time. You need lot of patience to roll it out and especially to take it out of the rolling pan :) I am very busy to do that(FYI I renamed the term lazy as busy ;)) Things you need to know before making this are,

1. Don’t make sticky or gooey dough. Then you will never ever make the poori
2. Try to make small pooris. It will make your work simple
3. Don’t add buckwheat flour if the dough is not in right consistency. It gives an odd taste. Better add     either singoda or rajgira flour

4. Oil should be hot enough to fry. Otherwise it will becoe like a papad

Now it is recipe time :)

Ingredients:

Kuttu(Buckwheat) flour – 1 Cup

Singoda(Water Chestnut) flour – 1 Cup

Rajgira(Amarnath) flour – 1 Cup

Salt as required

Water as required

Method:

1. Make a smooth dough out of the above flours with salt and water

2. Roll it to a poori

3. Deep fry in hot oil

4. Offer the pooris with potato or paneer sabji to the Lord and enjoy the prasadam

[Ekadesi] Quinoa Pulao

When I first tried quinoa, I was pregnant and I did not like its smell when it was cooked due to my nausea. Then I started using moriyo and tried to make different dishes using that. Later I came to know moriyo has more carbs, but quinoa is really a good and healthy choice. That time I was out of those initial pregnancy blues :) From then on I mostly cook quinoa only on Ekadesi days. I made quiona briyani, pulao and then ended up in cooking it like rice, mix it with yogurt and have it with broccoli stir fry. Those are really a yummy combo. Last time Ekadesi fell on Sunday and I had to cook for the Bhakthi Vriksha class. I made quinoa pulao after long time and it got me so much of appreciations :) Now I have all the courage to post my recipe :D

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Quinoa – 2 cups

Water – 2 cups

Thin coconut milk – 2 cups (Please don’t use store bought as it contains preservatives)

Butter – 2 tbsp

Cashew nuts – few

Peanuts – 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Green chillies – 2

Ginger(grated) – 2 tsp

Cabbage(shredded) – 1 cup

Mint – 1 handful

Coriander leaves – few strands

Method:

1. Wash and soak the quinoa and peanuts in water
2. In a pressure cooker add butter, once it becomes hot add cashew nuts and fry till they turn golden brown
3. Add cumin seeds. Once it splutters, add green chillies and grated ginger and fry nicely
4. Add shredded cabbage and fry for few minutes
5. Now grind mint and coriander leaves to a paste, add it to the cooker and stir them till its colour changed
6. Add quinoa and peanuts, water and coconut milk
7. Add salt and close the lid
8. Pressure cook it for 3 whistles
9. Pulao is ready now to be offered to the Lord

[Ekadesi] Sabudana Kichdi

Ingredients:

Sabudana - 1 cup

Potatos - 2 small to medium size

Roasted peanuts - 1/2 cup

Curry leaves -  1 string

Grated Ginger - 1 tsp

Green chillies - 2

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp.

Salt as needed

Method:

1. Soak sabudana overnight or for 4-5 hours. Water should just cover the sabudana. Otherwise Kichdi will be soggy.
2. While cooking, drain the water and wash it well under the running water to remove the starch.
3. Boil the potatoes, peel and chop them.
4. Coarsely grind the roasted peanuts.
5. Mix the peanut powdered peanuts, salt and sabudana.
6. Heat oil in a kadai and add cumin seeds.
7. Once it splutters add the curry leaves and green chillies.
8. Fry them for few seconds and add ginger.
9. Fry it till raw smell goes off and then add chopped potatos and saute it for few minutes.
10. Now add and keep stirring it.
11. When the sabudana becomes translucent, take it off the stove.

Now it is ready for offering to Krishna.

[Ekadesi] Pizza

Thanks Narottam Prabhu for the wonderful recipes and Vidya Mathaji for the step by step pictures.

Ingredients:

Pizza Base:

Boiled Potatoes - 1 can
Potato Starch Powder - one handful
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp.
Salt - a pinch

Tomato Sauce:

Cooking tomato base
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp.
Italian herbs - few pinches
Chilli flakes - few pinches

Toppings:

Vegetables of your choice
Shredded cheese - as needed
Parmesan style cheese - as needed (IMP: Parmesan cheese has rennet. We should not use it. we should use parmesan style cheese)
Italian herbs - few pinches


Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients given under the Pizza ingredients and prepare the dough same as chappathi dough

2. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C
3. Spread it evenly in pizza tray and bake it for 15 minutes

4. After 15 minutes take it out from the oven and let it cool down

5. In the mean time prepare the tomato sauce
6. Heat olive oil in a kadai
7. Add Italian herbs, tomato base, chilli flakes and salt

8. Take it off the stove once it starts boiling
9. Turn the pizza base and apply the prepared tomato sauce

10. Spread the shredded cheese

11. Spread the vegetables like capsicum, tomatoes

12. Again spread the shredded cheese on top of it
13. Now spread the Parmesan cheese



14. Sprinkle some Italian herbs
15. Bake the pizza for few minutes till the top layer of cheese becomes brown



Now the pizza is ready for offering to the Lord.

[Ekadesi] Lemon Moriyo

I feel moriyo is more like rice. So I try the rice recipes that suits fasting requirements with moriyo. This lemon moriyo tastes exactly like lemon rice. It would be a good treat for lemon rice lovers :)

Ingredients:

Moriyo - 1 Cup
Lemon - 1 (Extract the juice)
Sunflower Oil - 2 tbsp.
Peanuts - 2 tbsp.
Curry Leaves - 1 string
Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp.
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp.
Salt - as needed

Method:

1. Pressure cook the Moriyo with 2 and 1/2 cups of water
2. Heat oil in a kadai, add cumin seeds
3. Once it splutters, add peanuts and curry leaves
4. Add lemon juice, turmeric powder and salt
5. Once it starts boiling, add the cooked moriyo and mix well

Note:

Mix the Moriyo with the seasoning when it is hot. Otherwise moriyo forms the lumps that makes difficult to mix it with the lemon paste.

[Ekadesi] Moriyo Pongal

You cannot find the difference between this pongal and the normal pongal. You can use this for non ekadesi too for variations. 

Ingredients:

Moriyo - 1 cup
Ghee - 4 tbsp.
Hing - few (no bottle hing is allowed, only hing like balls allowed)
Cumin Seeds - 3-4 tsp
Pepper - Few(Whole or crushed)
Ginger - a small piece(Fresh and crushed)
Curry Leaves - 1 string
Cashew - 1 tbsp.

Method:
1. Pressure cook moriyo with 2 and 1/2 cup of water and salt
2. Once it is done, mash it well
3. Heat ghee in a kadai
4. Add cumin seeds, pepper, ginger, curry leaves and cashew
5. Add this to the moriyo and mix well
Coconut Chutney:
Grind coconut, green chillies, ginger (fresh), coriander, pinch of salt and one or two tablespoons of yogurt together and make coconut chutney to go with Moriyo pongal

[Ekadesi] Quinoa Briyani

Ingredients:

Quinoa - 1 Cup
Coconut - 3 tbsp.
Tomato - 1
Fresh Ginger(Don't use ginger paste) - small piece
Green Chillies - 2 or 3
Coriander leaves - few

To Temper:

Ghee - 1 tbsp.
Bay leaf - 1
Cinnamon - 1 small stick

Method:

1. Boil quinoa with 3 cups of water till it becomes soft
2. Grind coconut, tomato, ginger, green chillies and coriander leaves
3. Heat ghee in a Kadai
4. Add cinnamon, bay leaves
5. Add potatoes, capsicum, and add the ground paste
6. Cook till vegetables are done
7. Add salt and boiled quinoa
8. Stir well till all get mixed

[Ekadesi] Sweet Potato or Potato Noodles

Ingredients:

Sweet potato or potato noodles - 3 rings (You can get the noodles in Chinese shops. Please check the ingredients before buying)

Sunflower oil - 2 tbsp.

Salt to taste

To grind:

Couscous(Poppy Seeds) - handful
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Cashew nuts - 10
Tomato - 1 (medium sized)

Method:

1. Add the noodles into boiling water and cook it till soft.
2. Cut them into small pieces.
3. Grind all the ingredients given in "To grind" together for some time till it makes a smooth paste.
4. Heat a Kadai and add oil.
5. Add the ground paste and the noodles in Kadai.
6. Add salt.
7. Cook till the oil oozes out.
8. Serve hot.