Vegetarian Korean Sweet potato noodles

I had some Japchae at lunch the other day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japchae) and was inspired to try that at home. Here is the quick and easy recipe I came up with.

Ingredients

Sweet potato noodles (Korean noodles) available at any asian store.

Miso Paste (also available at asian stores)

Red Onions

Veggies to stir fry - carrot, beans, peas, baby corn. I found canned baby corn at the local grocery.

Method

1. Cook the noodles as usual, the only change is that these noodles cook very fast, so they need to stay in boiling water for only about 3 mins.
2. Stir fry the onions in oil,.
3. Add the other veggies and sprinkle some water , cover for few minutes to let them cook.
4. Microwave about half a cup of water and add a spoon of miso paste to it and mix well. Miso has a very strong flavor, so tread carefully here..
5. Add miso water to the veggies, some salt to taste and let them simmer in it till the water is all evaporated and the mixture has a thick sauce like consistency.
6. Finally add in the cooked noodles and mix well. Drizzle a few drops of soy sauce on top. Fans of spice can also add a few chili flakes.

It tasted yummy and somehow the transparent look of the noodles made the dish very appealing to me.

Hearty tomato soup

Here's my version of tomato soup, made it today for dinner.

Ingredients
Onion & Garlic finely chopped
Bell peppers - half of red & green chopped
Tomatoes - 4 to 5 pieces
Butter
Clove & cinnamon
Vegetable broth or water

Recipe

1. Melt some butter in a saucepan and add the cloves & cinnamom.
2. Saute the onions, garlic and peppers.
3. Add in chopped tomatoes and saute for a couple of minutes
4. Add the broth/water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Blend everything in a food processor, and then add a bit of milk, salt and pepper to taste.

Brussel sprouts kurma

I made this when my cousins came over to visit, this is mom's recipe with my teeny tiny modification.

Ingredients

• Brussels sprouts - 10 to 12 pieces cut into halves (one bag serves 4)
• Grated coconut (frozen works)
• Cashewnuts - 5/6 pieces
• Green chillies 2 pieces - I actually used Jalapeno instead of green chillies.
• Fennel seeds - 1 tbsp
• Ajwain seeds - Original recipe calls for poppy seeds or khus khus, but this adds an interesting taste too.
• Coriander leaves

Method

• Boil the brussel sprouts in water with a pinch of salt and turmeric added.
• While they are cooking, take all the other ingredients and grind into a paste adding a bit of water.
• Those with a bit of extra time can dry roast the ajwain seeds before grinding.
• In a pan, heat a few table spoons of oil, add mustard seeds and then cook the paste till it loses the raw coconut smell.
• Add the cooked brussel sprouts to this and simmer for 1/2 minutes.
• Tastes great with rice, roti and even bread.

Mixed Vegetable kootu

I had to finish up cleaning my refrigerator, so I gathered all the vegetables left in small quantities and made this tasty kootu.

INgredients

Leftovers of :

Beans
Butternut squash
Zucchini Squash
Carrots

Cocounut powder - 1/4 cup
Red Chillies - 3
Coconut Milk - 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 Tbspn
Salt
Oil
Mustard seeds


1. In a pan or the pressure cooker, put all the vegetables and cover with little water and cook till the vegetables are tender.
2. Grind the coconut powder, red chillies and cumin seeds to a coarse paste.
3. Once the vegetables are cooked, add the ground paste, salt and boil for a minute.
4. Finally , reduce the flame to low and add coconut milk and mix well and boil for another minute.
5. In a sepate pan, add some oil, mustard seeds and curry leaves. When the mustard seeds splutter, add it all to the vegetables and enjoy.

I had about 1 1/2 cups of leftover veggies, so I used these proportions. You can modify to taste as you desire.

Bean and vegetables kootu

I found this beans& vegetables mix at the bulk section in whole foods. It has a mix of green and white lentils, kidney beans, white beans , dried carrots and beans. Looked like a healthy option, so here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup of the 32 beans & veggie mix
   
2. Dry coconut powder - 3/4 spoons
   
3. Red chillies 1/2 pieces
   

Method

1. Soak the grains in hot water for half an hour. If you don't have time to soak, just wait for more than 7 whistles on your pressure cooker, otherwise cook as you would normally cook dhal.
   
2. In a pan take oil, add mustard seeds, urad and bengal gram dhal.
   
3. After the seeds splutter, add the red chillies and coconut and fry for about a minute
   
4. Add the cooked beans, some turmeric powder and salt to taste. These beans do tend to get very thick after cooking so add water as well.
   

P.S: Other ingredients to experiment with - Dry ginger powder, a spoon of tamarind paste, some peanuts or peanut powder..

Lima Beans and Potato curry

I bought Lima beans a month back in anticipation of providing more proteins into our vegetarian diet. I would look at them everyday since then , but had no idea what to do with it. So I kept pushing it away for another day!

Last weekend I was tired of seeing them stare at me and I needed some pantry space, so I soaked a cup of them and decided to use them. So here is a recipe that came out of it and pretty tasty too.

Lima Beans and potato curry

Ingredients
Lima Beans - 1 cup
Potatoes - 2
Onions - 1 small
Tomatoes - 1
Tomato Paste - 1/2 Tbspn
Garlic - 2 pods
Cumin seeds - 1 Tbspn
Garam Masala - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn
Salt - To taste
Chilli powder - 3/4 tsp
Green onions ( cut) - a handful
Cilantro - a handful
Olive Oil - 2 tsps

Method

1. Soak the Lima Beans in hot water for about 3-4 hours.
2. In a pressure cooker, add some oil and some cumin seeds.
3. When the cumin seeds begin to splutter, add garlic and saute till it turns slightly brown.
4. Add the onions , Garam masala, turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Saute for a couple of minutes till the onions lose their raw smell.
5. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and mix well.
6. Drain the soaked Lima beans and add to this mixture.
7. Finally add the potatoes and mix it all well.
8. Add water till it covers the vegetables and beans.
9. Close the lid and pressure cook till 2 whistles
10. Finally, open the lid and add some chopped Green onions and Clilantro.
11. Enjoy with chappatis or rice.

Notes:

1. You can add any kind of Masala for taste.
2. This need not be done in a pressure cooker. It can be directly cooked in a pan with water and covered till everything is cooked
3. Add a dash of lemon of you like at the end when the mixture had cooled.
4. Ginger Garlic paste can be substituted in place of Garlic
5. Use any oil you wish.

Crispy Cauliflower

I tried this out today - its my version of dry Gobi Manchurian.

Ingredients
Cauliflower cut into small pieces
Besan 3/4 large spoons
Corn flour (or corn starch) 3/4 pinches
Ginger-Garlic paste 1 spoon
Red Chilli powder - 1/2 pinches

Method

1. Take a large bowl and mix all the ingredients together except the cauliflower. There's no need to add water, the moisture from ginger-garlic paste is sufficient.
   
2. Add salt to taste
   
3. Add the cauliflower pieces to the bowl and toss a bit to mix with the paste.
   
4. Sprinkle cornflour to the mix. (This is an optional step)
   
5. Heat oil in a pan, add the contents of the bowl and stir fry for about 10 minutes in low flame.
   

Tastes great, my daughter loved it!