Kothimbir Vadi | Pan Fried Coriander and Chickpea Cake

A lot of my food cravings are thanks to the magazines I read. Recently, in one of them, there was this delicious looking Kothimbir Vadi or Coriander Vada photo. It had the traditional recipe following the photo where the vadas are deep fried after being steamed. I love deep fried vadas but they are a big bane to my weight loss program, so I try to modify the recipe to make it healthier.

Recently, I had made the Gujrati Handvo which is a pan fried thick cake, very similar to the recipe in this post. Bells went off in my head! I could try the same with this kothimbir vadi. And to my delight, it turned out very well. Everyone loved it at home and they went missing in minutes.

It tastes the best with some coriander and mint chutney, but goes equally well with tomato ketchup. It is a very good option for a packed lunch as it carries well in boxes. It is versatile, you can have it for breakfast or as a tea time snack.

Step by Step recipe:

1) Blend the ginger, garlic,green chillies and half the coriander leaves into a paste along with a little water.
2) Add it to the chickpea flour along with the semolina, yogurt, coriander leaves, turmeric powder, salt and baking soda.
3) Add a little water to loosen the batter, I added around 1/4 cup.
4) Mix well and keep aside for 10-15

5) Heat a small non stick pan or a kadhai.
6) Add around 2 tsp of oil to it.
7) Once the oil is hot, add the half the mustard seeds.

8) Once they splutter, add half the sesame seeds, half the carom seeds, half the asafoetida and half the curry leaves.

9) Now pour in half the batter.
10) Cover and cook on low heat for around 10-12 mins.

11) Now with the help of 2 spatulas, carefully flip the thick pancake.

12) Allow it to cook until the second side browns.

13) Remove from heat and cut into pieces. Serve hot with chutney or ketchup.

Kothimbir Vadi

Pan Fried Coriander and Chickpea Cake.

Recipe Type:  Snacks
Cuisine:          Indian
Prep Time:     30 minutes
Cook time:     45 minutes
Yield:              6-8 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups Besan / Chickpea Flour
1/2 cup Fine Semolina / Chiroti Rava
1/2 cup Yogurt / Curd
1 cup chopped Coriander Leaves
3-4 cloves of Garlic
1" piece of Ginger
2-3 Green Chillies
1/2 tsp of Baking Soda
1 tsp of Carom seeds / Ajwain
2 tsp of Sesame seeds / Til
1 tsp of Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp of Asafoetida/ Hing
1 tsp of Turmeric Powder
2 sprigs of Curry Leaves
4-5 tsp of Oil
Salt to taste
Water

Method:

Blend the ginger, garlic,green chillies and half the coriander leaves into a paste along with a little water.
Add it to the chickpea flour along with the semolina, yogurt, coriander leaves, turmeric powder, salt and baking soda.
Add a little water to loosen the batter, I added around 1/4 cup.
Mix well and keep aside for 10-15 mins.
Heat a small non stick pan or a kadhai.
Add around 2 tsp of oil to it.
Once the oil is hot, add the half the mustard seeds.
Once they splutter, add half the sesame seeds, half the carom seeds, half the asafoetida and half the curry leaves.
Now pour in half the batter.
Cover and cook on low heat for around 10-12 mins.
Now with the help of 2 spatulas, carefully flip the thick pancake.
Allow it to cook until the second side browns.
Remove from heat and cut into pieces.
Serve hot with chutney or ketchup.

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Vegetable Jalfrezi Recipe | How to make vegetable jalfrezi | Mix vegetable curry [Video]

Vegetable Jalfrezi recipe with step by step photo and video instructions. Vegetable Jalfrezi is a mixed vegetable curry with a tomato based gravy. Vegetable Jalfrezi is gluten free and can be made to fit a vegan or plant based diet with simple replacements. 

In a hurry? Jump to Video or Jump to Recipe

Guests coming over and you wanna impress them? Or are you just bored of your usual dinner fare? Jalfrezi can be your answer. Try it !

I saw this lovely photo of Jalfrezi in a magazine, it had me salivating. That one photo was my inspiration to try my hand at Jalfrezi. Jalfrezi has made its presence felt worldwide. It was voted to be UK’s most popular Indian curry a few years ago. And who would believe making it was so easy. 

The only effort needed is actually in cutting the vegetables, but you can totally skip it by buying already cut veggies from the supermarket or using your food processor. And you can relax doing your crossword or watching your favorite show on TV, while it simmers slowly. All it needs is like a check around 5-10 mins. Open the pan, peek, stir, close and back to what ever you were doing. Lovely, isn't it?

The best part is, you can add any vegetables you fancy or use up all your leftover vegetables at the end of the week to make it. I would however recommend adding baby corn as I felt it gives it an added crunch. To make it vegan, replace the paneer with Tofu or totally skip it, you won't be missing out on anything.

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook,  tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo @oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com I'd love to see what you are up to.

If you like this recipe, do not forget to share it with your friends and family! 

You can follow One Teaspoon Of Life on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or you can subscribe to One Teaspoon Of Life and receive all the latest updated via Email

Video Recipe

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Vegetable Jalfrezi

Vegetable Jalfrezi is a popular Indian mix vegetable curry with a tomato based gravy. Vegetable Jalfrezi is gluten free and vegetarian. It can be made vegan by either skipping the Paneer or swapping it out for Tofu.

Recipe Type:  Curry
Cuisine:          North Indian
Prep Time:     30 minutes
Cook time:     30 minutes
Yield:              3-4

Ingredients:

1 large Onion
3 Tomatoes
0.5 cup Cauliflower florets
0.5 cup Broccoli florets
1 Carrot
8-10 Green Beans
8-10 Baby corn
0.5 Capsicum (or a mix of colored Capsicums/Peppers)
2 Tbsp chopped Coriander leaves
50 gms Paneer or Tofu
1 Tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
2 Tbsp Tomato Ketchup
1.5 cups Water
3 Tbsp + 2 tsp Vegetable Oil
0.5 tsp Turmeric Powder (Haldi)
1 tsp Kitchen King Masala or Garam Masala
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 tsp Sugar or Jaggery (Optional but recommended)
1 tsp Cumin seeds (Jeera)
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat 2 tsp oil in a kadhai. Cut the paneer into batons and fry them lightly until golden brown on all sides. Remove from heat and keep aside.
2. Add the remaining oil to the kadhai and add the cumin seeds.
3. Add the finely chopped onions and saute until golden brown.
4. Add in the ginger garlic paste and saute until fragrant.
5. Puree the tomatoes and add in the kadhai.
6. Cook on medium heat for 8-10 minutes or until the oil separates.
7. Add in the ketchup and mix well.
8. Now the vegetables like cauliflower, carrot and beans which take a little longer to cook. 
9. Add water.
10. Cook on medium heat until the vegetables are almost done.
11. Now add the remaining vegetables like baby corn, broccoli, capsicum.
12. Add the turmeric powder, kitchen king masala, red chilli powder and salt.
13. Cook until the vegetables are done and the curry has the desired consistency. If it is too thin, you can cook it a little longer.
14. Add the paneer to the gravy.
15. Add sugar/jaggery to suit your taste.
16. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rotis or rice.

Step by Step Recipe with Photos:

1) Cut all vegetables except the onion and tomato into baton sized pieces. Cut the paneer /tofu similarly Chop the onion finely. Puree the tomato. 

2) Heat oil in a large pan and add the cumin seeds.

3) Once they brown slightly, add the onions and saute until they are translucent. Add the ginger garlic paste and mix well.

4) Add the tomato puree. 

5) Add ketchup.

6)  Cook on low heat until the oil separates. Approximately 8-10 minutes.

7) Now the vegetables like cauliflower, carrot and beans which take a little longer to cook. 

8) Add water. Cook on medium high heat until the vegetables are almost done.

9) Now add the remaining vegetables like baby corn, broccoli, capsicum.

Add the turmeric powder, kitchen king masala, red chilli powder and salt.

Cook until the vegetables are done and the curry has the desired consistency. If it is too thin, you can cook it a little longer.

10) In the meanwhile, heat 1 tsp of oil in a non stick pan. When the oil is hot, add the paneer / tofu.

11) Fry until the paneer is slightly brown.

12) Add the paneer to the gravy. Add sugar/jaggery to suit your taste.

13) Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

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Vegetable Cutlets with Coriander Mint Chutney | Indian Veg Cutlet Recipe [Video]

Vegetable Cutlet Recipe with step by step video instructions. Indian veg cutlet is a shallow or deep fried patty made of potatoes, mixed vegetables and spices. Vegetable cutlet may be coated in semolina or breadcrumbs. This recipe of vegetable cutlet is vegan.

In a hurry? Jump to Video or Jump to Recipe

I’m free I’m free… from those hectic schedules to those late night calls. I’m finally free, for a short while, but I know to appreciate the smaller things in life.

So what did I do? Well, I actually went to the mall on a weekday evening. Really!! With no laptop to burden me, I happily went to the happiness sale at Bangalore Central. And then I went to my sister’s house and had her cook me dinner. I know, could I get any lazier? I like laziness :D. And then I actually started reading my library book. Oh my dear books have been neglected this entire time. I issued booked, renewed them and then returned them. But finally, I’ve started on “Gone Girl” and am liking it till now. I even went out and watched Minions. Acche din (Good days).

I’ve been trying to cram all the good things in these 2-3 weeks I’ll have before the next project and the next grind starts. So Saturday night, I made my childhood favorite – Vegetable Cutlets, to celebrate. It is still my favorite, but I don’t like what I get in Bangalore. I miss my Goan cutlets with little pieces of red beetroot in them. That’s something special to Goa I think, beetroot is added to cutlets and samosa’s there, and believe me, it just makes them extra special. Tasty, yummmm. 

Cutlets are so easy to make. All you need are mashed vegetables and desire to make something of them. For most non vegetarian cutlets, egg is used as a binding agent to bind the breadcrumbs, but this is a Vegetarian blog, so not eggs here mister. Just use a mixture of milk and flour and dip the cutlets in that before dipping it into semolina or bread crumbs. You can use bread crumbs, but cutlets always have semolina or rava coating on them. If you skip this, the rava coating just disintegrates once it is in the pan and you are left with a shapeless cutlet and oil full of rava. I am speaking from experience here.

I decided to go an extra step and I made this nice green chutney to go along with the cutlet. It tastes just as delicious with ketchup or just like that. But then, I am a chutney girl. Always been one. So I made this chutney, bought some Pao, stuffed some sliced onions and tomatoes and made my local burger. Skip all this and enjoy it just as it is, or go full gourmet and add sliced avocado, cheese or anything else you fancy. It  is all upto you and your family’s taste buds.

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook,  tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo @oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com I'd love to see what you are up to.

If you like this recipe, do not forget to share it with your friends and family! 

You can follow One Teaspoon Of Life on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or you can subscribe to One Teaspoon Of Life and receive all the latest updated via Email

Video Recipe

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Vegetable Cutlets with Coriander Mint Chutney

Indian veg cutlet is a shallow or deep fried patty made of potatoes, mixed vegetables and spices. Vegetable cutlet may be coated in semolina or breadcrumbs. This recipe of vegetable cutlet is vegan.

Recipe Type:  Snacks
Cuisine:          Indian
Prep Time:     30 minutes
Cook time:     30 minutes
Yield:              8-10 Cutlets

Author:                Anupama

Ingredients:

For the cutlet:

3 to 4 Potatoes, medium sized
0.5 cup mixed vegetables (carrot, green beans, green peas)
0.5 Beetroot
2 Tbsp Coriander leaves
1 tsp Red chilli powder
0.5 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Garam masala
2 Tbsp Flour (maida)
3-4 Tbsp Fine semolina (Chiroti rava)
Oil to fry
Salt to taste
Water as required

For the chutney:

0.5 cup Fresh coriander leaves 
0.5 cup Fresh mint leaves
1 Green chilli
1 clove Garlic
Salt
Water

Method:

To make the Cutlet:

1. Boil the potato until done. Peel and mash them.
2. Chop carrot and beans finely. Boil them along with the peas until done.
3. Peel and chop the beetroot and boil until cooked.
4. Drain and add the vegetables along with chopped coriander leaves to the potato.
5. Add all the spices and salt to the potato and mix well. If the cutlet mixture feels wet, add either bread crumbs or dip a slice of bread in water and immediately remove it out, squeeze out the water and crumble the bread into the mixture.
6. Divide the mixture into 10 equal parts and roll them into balls. Gently flatten the balls to make a patty. You can be creative and make fancy shapes too with a cookie cutter.
7. Heat oil in a pan. You can either shallow fry or deep fry the cutlets.
8. Take the flour in a shallow plate and add 0.25 to 0.5 tsp salt to it. Add water by the spoonfuls and whisk until you have a smooth slurry.
9. Dip the cutlet in the slurry and dip in semolina and place it in the pan.
10. Cook on each side until it is golden brown. Remove from heat once both sides are cooked.
11. Serve hot with Ketchup or Chutney

To make the Coriander Mint Chutney:

1. Grind everything in the mixer/blender with 1 tbsp of water

If you liked this, you may also like:

Broccoli Zucchini Fritters

Sweet Potato Kebab

Brown Rice Fritters

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Vegetable Stew Recipe [Video]

Vegetable Stew recipe with video instructions. Vegetable Stew is a mildly spiced vegan stew made by cooking colorful peppers, cauliflower, carrots and beans in coconut milk. Vegetable Stew is a gluten free curry.

In a hurry? Jump to Video or Jump to Recipe

The weather is confusing, on some days it feels like summer and on others it looks like the monsoons are already here. Today was one such a day. It started out sunny and ended up wet.

When it rains, I feel like having some warm comfort food. Don't you?

And a vegetable stew is just that. It is comfort food personified. I made it with rainbow veggies. You can make it with what you have available, but I find that colorful food cheers me up. I watched this food truck on Eat Street that seemed to have the same thinking. It was a healthy food truck where the chef served everything with a colorful salad. Oooh! today's newspaper is saying food trucks are in town. Yeah, baby! I hope I find myself in the neighborhood of one interesting truck. Let me know if you try one out. Until then our little bhel puri carts will have to do.

Anyway back to the stew. I will not call this a Kerala veg stew, but it is inspired from Kerala. I made this stew with coconut milk like a lot of Kerala curries. This is my sister's recipe. So its been tried and tested on other people before me :)

I made it with cauliflower, tri-colored peppers, carrot, and french beans. You can add green peas, potatoes, frankly, any vegetable you fancy in a curry. Anything tastes good with coconut milk, I swear. This curry is mildly spiced, so it does not take you away from the delicate taste of coconut milk and the vegetables.

It can be eaten with rice or bread. The choice is yours. We enjoyed the stew with rice and spicy jeegujje podi. Ummm... my mouth is watering just remembering my lunch.

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook,  tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo #oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com I'd love to see what you are up to.

If you like this recipe, do not forget to share it with your friends and family! 

You can follow One Teaspoon Of Life on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Google+ or you can subscribe to One Teaspoon Of Life and receive all the latest updated via Email

Video Recipe

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Vegetable Stew

Mildly spiced vegetable stew made by cooking colourful peppers, cauliflower, carrots and beans in coconut milk 

Recipe Type:  Main Course
Cuisine:          South Indian
Prep Time:     10 minutes
Cook time:     45 minutes
Yield:              3 Servings

Ingredients:

1 cup Capsicum ( red, yellow, orange, green)
0.5 cup Cauliflower florets
1 Carrot, diced
6-8 Beans, chopped
2 cups Coconut Milk
3 tsp Oil
2 Cloves
0.5 tsp Black Pepper
0.5" Cinnamon
1 sprig Curry leaves
1 Onion, sliced
1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1-2 Green Chillies, sliced
Salt to taste
Water as required

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the whole spices and curry leaves.
2. Once curry leaves splutter, add the sliced onion and fry until translucent.
3. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute until fragrant.
4. Add the vegetables that take longer to cook like the cauliflower, carrot and beans.
5. Add half a cup of water and salt and cover and cook until the vegetables are partially cooked.
6. Then add the capsicum or bell peppers and cook until all the vegetables are cooked.
7. Add in the coconut milk and salt to taste.
8. Simmer the stew for 3-4 minutes.
9. Enjoy it hot/warm with rice/bread.

If you liked this, you may also like:

Punjabi Dum Aloo

Raw Banana Kofta Curry

Eggplant Coconut Curry

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Roasted Chickpeas with Spices

I miss last week. It was a short week with a long weekend and I was on vacation. Being back at work is soooo boring. I’ve barely had the time to cook anything this week. It’s been work all the way. But I did make this crunchy yummy spicy roasted Chickpeas. Who knew they were so easy to make at home, and here we were spending money to buy the packaged version at super markets. Not gonna happen anymore, na ah.

I started off with dried chickpeas, you can use canned if you are short of time. Dried just results in more prep time but the cooking time is hardly different. It only involves soaking the chickpeas overnight and then pressure cooking them for like 10 mins max. I cooked them until they were just about done, just one whistle in the pressure cooker. Mushy ones will not work well, but hey, mushy chickpeas make good Hummus. So waste nothing my friend.

I always soak a little more than required, as leftover chickpeas can always be used to make this amazing flavor packed salad. Recipe found here - it is perfect for an evening snack.

The best part about this recipe is you can customize it to suit your taste. I added cumin or jeera powder and garam masala. You can add all sorts of things like chaat masala or curry powder. It’s all up to you, after all, YOU are the chef.

Roasted Chickpeas with Spices

Chickpeas marinated in spices and baked in the oven 

Recipe Type:  Snacks
Cuisine:          International
Prep Time:     8 hours (Including soaking chickpeas)
Cook time:     90 minutes (Including boiling chickpeas)
Yield:              2 cups / 1 tin

Ingredients:

1 cup dried or 1 tin Chickpeas
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp Cumin/Jeera powder
A pinch Garam Masala
1 tsp Red Chilli powder
½ tsp Turmeric powder/ Haldi
Salt to taste

Method::

If using dried chickpeas, soak them for 8-10 hours in water.
Drain out the water.
Take enough water to cover the chickpeas in a cooker, add 1 tsp of salt in it and pressure cook it until they are just done. I cooked them in a pressure cooker for 1 whistle. This may change depending on your cooker and the amount of water. You can cook it in a sauce pan as well, but it may take longer.
Once they are done, drain out all the water and place them on a kitchen towel and pat them dry.
If you are using tinned chickpeas, here is where your work begins. Drain and wash the chickpeas and dry them on a kitchen towel.
Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius.
Mix the dry chickpeas with the oil and the spices.
Place them on a baking sheet in one layer and bake for 45-60 mins until they are nice and crunchy. I baked for almost 60 mins, but I started checking on them after 45 mins, you don’t want to burn them.

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