Life can get pretty busy with a toddler, and thats when this upma comes handy simple easy quick and healthy. Usually served for breakfast but works great for busy nights.

Ingredients

1 cup broken wheat
1 onion chopped
1/2 cup mixed vegetables cut into small cubes, I use frozen ones
1 tsp ginger paste
Few curry leaves chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp tumeric powder
1 tsp corriander powder
1/4 tsp red Chilli powder
2 green chillies slit
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp chopped fresh corriander leaves
3 cups water
Salt to taste

Method

1. Heat oil in a non stick pan.
2. Add the mustard seeds, once the seeds splutter add the curry leaves.
3. Add the onions and saute for few minutes.
4. Add the green chilies and ginger and saute for a minute.
5. Add the turmeric powder, corriander powder and red chili powder. Saute for 1 minute.
6. Add the vegetables. Cook for 5 minutes covered on medium low.
7. Meanwhile bring 3 cups of water to a boil.
8. Add the broken wheat and saute for 2 minutes.
9. Add the boiling water, salt and lime.
10. Mix and cook covered till all the water evaporates and the broken wheat is cooked.
11. Garnish with corriender leaves and Serve.

Seyal Bread - Bread Upma, is the best way to use up old bread, this is also a quick and easy breakfast, its better eaten as soon as it is off the gas, sincethe bread soaks up the gravy and turns soggy really fast, if you are like me then you like it that way, but if you are like my hubby then you like a dry version where the bread holds its shape. He then eats it with tons of ketchup, he cannot eat anything much without ketchup, its like what pickle would be to many of us, he has even eaten rice with ketchup.

Ingredients

8 slices of bread, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup onion, sliced
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 green chili (or to taste)
1/4 inch ginger
2 garlic pods
1/4 cup corriander leaves
2-3 mint leaves (pudina) - Optional
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
few curry leaves
1/4 tsp red chili powder
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp ketchup or maggie chili garlic sauce - Optional
salt to taste
Fresh coriander leaves for garnish

Method

1. Grind the tomatoes, ginger, garlic, green chilies, corriander leaves and mint together.
   
2. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds.
   
3. Once they splutter add the curry leaves.
   
4. Add the onion, and cook till they turn transluscent.
   
5. Add the red chili powder, cook for a minute.
   
6. Add the ground tomatoe, cook till oil seperates.
   
7. Add ketchup.
   
8. Add the water, salt and bring to a boil. Simmer till a thick gravy is formed
   
9. Add the bread pieces.
   
10. Mix well.
    
11. Once the bread is heated through, garnish with coriander leaves and serve.
    

September's Daring Cook was hosted by Debyi of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen! She decided on Indian Dosas from the refresh cookbook by Ruth Tal. It had to be completely vegan, I followed the recipe, made all the parts. But I like my dosas plain with chutney and no fillings. So I just kept them on the side and made some coconut chutney along with it. I loved the Spelt Dosa's, did not expect it to taste this good. I also sprinkled some onions on one, like we do for Onion Uttapam.

Dosa Pancakes
Ingredients
1 cup (120gm/8oz) spelt flour (or all-purpose, gluten free flour)
½ tsp (2½ gm) salt
½ tsp (2½ gm) baking powder
½ tsp (2½ gm) curry powder
½ cup (125ml/4oz) almond milk (or soy, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup (175ml/6oz) water
cooking spray, if needed
Method

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, slowly adding the almond milk and water, whisking until smooth.
   
2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed.
   
3. Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes.
   

Curried Garbanzo Filling
This filling works great as a rice bowl topping or as a wrap too, so don't be afraid to make a full batch.
Ingredients
5 cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced
2 TBSP (16gm) cumin, ground
1 TBSP (8gm) oregano
1 TBSP (8gm) sea salt (coarse)
1 TBSP (8gm) turmeric
4 cups (850gm/30oz) cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (125gm/4oz) tomato paste
Method

1. Heat a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Add the garlic, veggies, and spices, cooking until soft, stirring occasionally.
   
2. Mash the chickpeas by hand, or in a food processor. Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through.
   

Coconut Curry Sauce
This makes a great sauce to just pour over rice as well. This does freeze well, but the texture will be a little different. The flavor is still the same though. My picture of this sauce is one that I had made, had to freeze, then thaw to use. It tastes great, but the texture is a little runnier, not quite as thick as it was before freezing.
Ingredients
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
½ (2½ gm) tsp cumin, ground
¾ (3¾ gm) tsp sea salt (coarse)
3 TBSP (30gm) curry powder
3 TBSP (30gm) spelt flour (or all-purpose GF flour)
3 cups (750ml/24oz) vegetable broth
2 cups (500ml/24oz) coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced
Method

1. Heat a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.
   
2. Add the spices, cooking for 1 minutes more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.
   
3. Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.
   
4. Let it simmer for half an hour.
   

It has been so long that I have blogged anything, many things happening at the same time. We ad a water pipe burst for the 6th time in the apartment. Finally we decided to move out and by gods grace we found a lovely house and could also move in within 3 weeks. Its a great feeling to be in your own house and yet so much to do its never ending.

These busy days are when I love that we have some left overs. This is a recipe where you just follow your instincts, I don't have measurements for the masalas, its all upto everyones taste. Sometimes I just add Idli Pudi / chutney powder and other times I make it this way. If you like you can even deep fry the idlies, I sometimes bake them too.

Idli Upma

1. Cut the cooked left over Idlies into quarters.
   
2. Mix some coriander powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder, cumin powder, amchur (mango powder), sugar and salt. Make this mix to your taste.
   
3. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Add 1 tsp mustard seeds.
   
4. Add curry leaves once they splutter.
   
5. Add the masala mix made in step 2.
   
6. Add the idlies.
   
7. Mix well and cook for 5 minutes, till everything is heated well.
   
8. I cooked it on medium high, mixing intermediately, to make the idlies little crisp.
   
9. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with coconut chutney.
   

Bread Upma is a quick breakfast recipe and a good way to finish stale bread, and when made in yogurt it is quicker and great during summer. Mama made this today it nice and hot here finally I here many people complaining but I am not.



Ingredients

1/2 loaf bread
2 cups curds/yogurt
2 tbsp besan
1 tsp sugar
2 green chili, slit
pinch turmeric
3 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
3 mint leaves, pudina, chopped
pinch hing / asafetida
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 dry red chilies
10 curry leaves
2 tbsp peanuts
salt to taste
1 tsp oil


Method

1. Cut the bread slices in 4.
   
2. Beat the yogurt well. Add besan, salt, sugar, turmeric, coriander leaves, pudina and green chili to the yogurt. Mix well.
   
3. Heat 1 tsp oil in a kadai. Add hing, mustard seeds. Let them splutter. Add the curry leaves and red chili.
   
4. Add the peanuts and fry them well till they are nice and brown. About 2 minutes.
   
5. Add the yogurt mixture.
   
6. Add the bread pieces. Mix well.
   
7. Cook till the bread has absorbed the flavors and heated through. About 3 to 4 minutes.
   
8. Serve immediately.
   

Note: If you like a dryer version, dip the each piece of bread in the yogurt mixture and keep adding it to the kadai one by one, instead of adding the yogurt first and then the bread. At the end put the left over yogurt if any. And cook as mentioned above.

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(Sweet Roti and Dal Parantha)

Meetho Lolo and Dal jo Lolo is usually made for a festival called Thadri or the cooling festival.The mother goddess is worshipped in various forms, Sittala, being the small-pox goddess, is worshipped by Sindhis. She is the eldest of several sisters, named after different kinds of diseases such as, measles etc. The worship of the goddess, lasts during the whole period of the attack of the goddess (disease).
The annual festival observed in honour of this goddess is called "Thadri", or the cooling festival.

Ladies prepare Meetho Lolo, Dal jo Lolo and curd, boondi raita on the previous day of the festival . On the day, fire is not lit at home, and we eat the thado (cold) food prepared on the previous day. Nowadays we have bhel, pani puri (potatoes boiled the day before), pulliograye or any food that was cooked the day before and can be eaten cold.

This is my entry to the Roti Mela hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all Seasons.



Meetho Lolo



Please click here for the recipe, the original recipe is from Alka of Sindhi Rasoi

Dal Jo Lolo




Ingredients
200 gms. Yellow Moong Dal
½ glass Water
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp amchur (mongo powder)
¼ tsp. Turmeric Powder (For the lola)
4 handful Wheat Flour
17-18 tsp. Ghee
Salt to taste
Sufficient water to make a dough

Method

1. Soak the dal for about 2 hours.
   
2. Put it in a thick vessel and add salt, water and turmeric powder. Cook on a slow flame till the dal is tender and water has dried up.While cooking, remember to stir the dal 2-3 times.
   
3. When the dal is ready, sprinkle red chilli powder and mango powder and mix well.
4. Let it cool completely.
   
5. Adding salt and sufficient water, make a dough of the wheat flour, as you would for chapatis.
   
6. Divide into equal portions. Take each portion, roll out a little, apply a little ghee on it, fill a little stuffing of dal and fold and roll again like a chapatti, but slightly thicker.
   
7. Heat the tava, rub a little ghee , fry the Lola applying one teaspoon of ghee while turning sides, on a medium flame, till done.
   
8. Serve with Boondi Raita.
   

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Koki is a typical Sindhi breakfast served with curds, pickle and papad or just tea. It is something like a paratha made using wheatflour, onions, green chilies, corriander leaves and lots of ghee, but after marriage I learnt that you can add more veggies to this like grated carrot and shredded cabbage. It is made crisp and most of them love it when its crisp like a biscuit. Well these days we put less of the ghee for health reasons but even then its tastes great and a wholesome breakfast. And the benefit is it tastes great when cold too, it has a shelf life of about 24 hrs,so is ideal for picnics or while travelling long distances.

This is my entry to the Roti Mela hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all Seasons.





Ingredients

3 cups wheat flour
1/2 onion finely chopped
1/2 carrot, grated (optional)
1/4 cup cabbage, shredded (optional)
3 green chillies finely chopped
3 tbsp. coriander leaves finely chopped
2 tbsp. ghee/ oil
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp Annardana seeds
salt to taste
Extra Ghee or Oil

Method

1. Add all ingredients with the 2 tbsp of ghee/oil.
   
2. Mix well add very little water, knead into a stiff dough.
   
3. Make a tennis size ball from some dough.
   
4. Roll it to a dics of 1/2 inch thickness (this is a thick paratha but feel free to make it as thin or thick but remember the more thicker the longer the cooking time)
   
5. With a knife make a checkers like design on the rolled out dough.
   
6. Place the checkers designed side down first on a medium high tawa. Cook for a minute.
   
7. Turn sides and cook this side completely add generous amounts of oil/ghee.
   
8. Turn add more oil/ghee and cook till this side is cooked too.
   
9. Repeat for the rest of the dough.
   
10. Serve hot with yogurt, chutney, ketchup or have with a cup of tea
    

Note If not using the carrots and cabbage just put in more onions. The amount of veggeis you add in is optional some like it more and some less of them. I like to have lots of them in my koki.

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This is a simple but yet lovely breakfast for a summer morning, though its supposed to be summer here like yesterday but we had some flurries on Saturday night, I could not stop my self from making this.

This is my contribution to the Fun 'n' Sun event hosted by easycrafts.





Ingredients
1 cup semiya
11/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup milk
1/2 inch ginger grated
1 green chili, chopped
1/3 cup cucumber, chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Channa dal
1/4 tsp urad dal
1/4 tsp oil
2 dry red chili (optional)
little curry leaves (optional)
3 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
salt to taste
Sev/Bhujiya/boondi for garnish

Method

1. Cook Semiya as per packet instructions. Drain and keep aside.
   
2. In a large bowl beat the yogurt well, add the milk, salt and cucumber.
   
3. Once the semiya is cooled add it to the yogurt and mix well.
   
4. Heat oil in a pan, add the dry red chili.
   
5. Add the mustard seeds, channa dal and urad dal.
   
6. Once they start to splutter switch of the gas, add the green chilies and ginger and pour over the yogurt and semiya mixture.
   
7. Mix in the coriander leaves. Adjust seasoning.
   
8. Serve with Spicy sev, bhujiya or bhoondi.