Moringa Rasam Powder (Murungaikeerai Rasam Podi)(Moringa Soup Powder)

Category: Home made Powder
Preparation Time: 5 mins  
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Servings: yields around 1 and 1/2 cups

Moringa Rasam Powder

Rasam is a most popular and a very common dish prepared in south Indian homes on a daily basis. There are lot of varieties of Rasam already posted in our blog like Tomato Rasam with freshly ground rasam powder, Pineapple Rasam, Cranberry Rasam, Selavu Rasam, Paruppu Rasam, Horsegram Rasam. 

When I brought homemade moringa powder from home, I started adding a little to our normal rasam. Then thought of making Rasam Podi with moringa leaves and it's a hit at our home. As we all know, Moringa leaves are  packed with nutrients and super healthy. If we have access to fresh leaves we can use it in our regular cooking. But when we are outside India and we dont have easy access, the dry powder comes in handy.

If you're used to buy masalas from the store, it might feel like a hectic task to prepare at home. But once we started, we cant resist ourselves from making these at home. Also we can adjust the ingredients as per our liking and preference.

These home made masala powders are filled with aroma, flavour and most importantly no preservatives. Also when we have babies or toddlers, we can easily adjust the spice level when we make it by ourselves at home.

Make sure to roast the ingredients in low flame or else certain spices will get burnt fast which affects the flavor of the podi. 

Ingredients: 

• Coriander seeds- 1/2 cup
• Channa dal- 1/4 cup
• Toor Dal - 1/4 cup
• Dry Red chillies- 8 - 10 nos (adjust as per spice level)
• Cumin seeds-  3 Tbsp
• Black Pepper- 3 Tbsp
• Fenugreek Seeds - 1/2 Tbsp
  

Sprouted Horsegram Rice using RoseMatta Rice (Mulai kattina Kollu Sadham) (Instant pot & Pressure cooker method)

Category:  Lunch / Rice
Preparation Time: 10 mins + Soaking & Sprouting time
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins
Servings: 2-3 Servings

Sprouted Horsegram Rice (Rosematta Rice)

Horse gram is one of the most protein-rich lentil but it is also one of the lentil that's been under rated & under utilized. Horse gram (Kollu) can help with a number of health problems as it contains a good and rich amount of vitamins, proteins, and iron. In addition to weight loss, it helps in reduction of extra fat from the body. Horse gram is rich in B-complex vitamin and proteins. It helps in purifying menstruation and cures and prevents arthritis. The presence of a good amount of dietary fiber in the gram helps balance sugar glucose and blood pressure levels. As long as caution is exercised in not consuming excessive quantities of this legume, it is highly recommended to include horse gram in your regular diet.

Sprouting process increases the nutritional value of the horsegram and also sprouts can be easily digested. Its very good to include sprouted grains and legumes in our regular diet practice.

I tried this rice in the similar way as our favourite Kongu special Arisi paruppu sadam with some modifications and it turned out to be great! I used Rosematta rice here and we can use any of our regular cooking rice, brown rice or even with millets. I usually cook it in the Instant pot and I also had given the steps for making it in the pressure cooker.

While making for kids, we can avoid the green chillies and reduce the spice level. Also adding ghee enhances the taste and flavour, drizzle a tsp of ghee over the rice while serving for the kids :)

Ingredients: 

• Rice - 3/4 cup (I used RoseMatta rice)
• Sprouted Horse gram - 1 cup 
• Small Onions - 10 nos, peeled and halved or 1 big onion, chopped
• Tomato, chopped - 1 no
• Green chilly - 2-3 slitted (Optional and adjust as per spice level)
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Sambar powder - 1/2 Tbsp
• Sesame Oil / Any cooking oil - 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Salt - to taste
• Water - 2 cups (adjust as per the type of rice)

To coarsely grind:

PB & J Pancake Bites / Whole wheat Strawberry Jam filled mini muffins with Peanut Butter spread

Category:  Breakfast / Kids Recipes
Preparation Time: 10 mins + 10 mins waiting time 
Cooking Time: 9-11 mins
Servings: yields around 15 mini muffins 

PB & J Pancake Bites

Peanut Butter and Jam / Jelly is an excellent combo  and PB & J sandwich is the most popular breakfast dish among the school aged kids in US. During weekends, I prefer making pancakes / waffles / muffins for breakfast. I have already posted Pancake mini muffins here: Whole wheat pancake mini muffins and pancake doughnuts here: Pancake Doughnuts.

So I just wanted to try pancake muffins filled with fruit preserves / fruit jam.

We can make it more healthy by using homemade unsweetened peanut butter and fruit jam / preserves made with less sugar.

These PB&J Pancake bites are made with whole wheat flour filled with strawberry preserves and along with Peanut butter spread. These turned out to be yummy, super soft and is a huge hit!!!

Since we are using fruit preserves, I have reduce the amount of sugar in the pancake batter and we can even avoid the sugar.

For eggless version, we can use the batter as in the pancake donuts recipe: Pancake Doughnuts

Super soft!!!!

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients: 

• White Whole Wheat flour / Whole Wheat Pastry flour / Atta  - 1 cup
• Baking powder -  1/2 tsp
• Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
• Salt - a pinch

Wet Ingredients:  

• Egg - 1 no (at room temperature)
• Butter milk - 1 cup (I used 3/4 cup thick yogurt + 1/4 cup water)
• Sugar - 1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp (I used Organic unrefined sugar)
• Unsalted Butter - 2 Tbsp, Melted 

Kongu Nadu Thakkali Kuzhambu / Kongu Cuisine Tomato curry for Rice (without coconut)

Category: Kongu Cuisine / Kuzhambu   
Preparation Time: 5 mins    
Cooking Time: 20 mins    
Servings: 4 servings

Kongu Nadu Thakkali Kuzhambu

Thakkali kuzhambu is one of the common dish in my region (Kongu region). There are lots of variations in Thakkalai kuzhambu and this one goes well with hot rice.

I got this recipe from my Amma & Athai and this is the way they make for rice. For tiffin items, it will be a different version and will post it soon.

Kongunadu cuisine is known for its simplicity and flavorful food. In Kongunadu cuisine, we use simple spices & masalas and most of the ingredients would be locally available. The most commonly used ingredients are small onions /  chinna vengayams (shallots), coconut, curry leaves, peanut / coconut / sesame oil, turmeric, Nattu sakkarai and also millets like Ragi & Kambu. Also we use less oil than other cuisines.

For this recipe, chinna vengayam (small onions / shallots) and naattu thakkali (country tomato / non-hybrid variety) are the best. If we use the hybrid variety tomato, we can add a bit of tamarind for sourness. Coconut is not used in this recipe and instead toor dal is used for thickening.

This goes well with rice along with a poriyal but we can also have this for tiffin items like Idli, dosai, paniyaram.

Ingredients:

To Saute & Grind:

• Peanut Oil / Coconut oil / Sesame oil - 1/2 Tbsp
• Small Onions - 3/4 cup or 1 big onion chopped
• Red chilly - 3-4 (Adjust as per spice level)
• Ripe Tomatoes - 4
• Coriander seeds - 1/2 Tbsp
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Black pepper - 1/4 tsp
• Tamarind - small piece (Optional)

Carrot & Cabbage Stir fry / Carrot & Muttaikose Poriyal

Category: Lunch / Poriyal
Preparation Time: 10 mins  
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Servings:3 to 4 servings

Carrot- Cabbage Poriyal

Carrot & cabbage Poriyal is a simple Poriyal  / stir fry with simple ingredients. But the combination of these veggies is great and suits well with any South Indian meal. This goes well with any spicy Kuzhambu varieties, Sambar, Rasam or we can just mix it with rice and have it.

  Ingredients:

• Carrots - 3 nos
• Cabbage - 1/2 a head
• Coconut Oil - 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Channa dhal - 1 tsp
• Urad dhal - 2 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Red / Green chilly, slitted - 1-2 nos (adjust as per spice level)
• Salt- to taste
• Fresh coconut, grated - 3-4 Tbsp (Or Frozen coconut thawed at room temperature)