Easy side dish for rice If you follow me on Instagram, you all know how the typical meal looks in our household. It’s mostly rice or grain with rasam/sambar/kuzhambu and kootu, a gravy or with poriyal, a dry curry. And this kovakkai(Tamil word for ivy gourd) poriyal is one of the typical dry curries we make. I atleast make this four to five times a month. Guess what? Back in Periyakulam, my native, it is hard to find kovakkai....

It’s been long since I posted a pasta recipe and this lemon shrimp pasta has been one of our most sought special occasion treat 🙂 I’m using a ‘lemon, garlic white wine’ sauce in this recipe which is simply Divine! Also, I’m planning it for our Valentine’s dinner menu. We would rather stay home, make this cozy White Wine Shrimp Pasta and have a nice dessert along with some wine....

Bake of the Day: Bread – Long Sandwich Rolls The taste of freshly baked bread is just amazing. It is time consuming and needs some patience, but it is all well worth it. I baked these long sandwich rolls for last month’s marathon and used them to make Hoagie sandwiches. Initially I was planning on just buying store bought bread but then wanted to utilize the opportunity to bake something new and post it for the mega baking marathon....

Recipe from Sandhya’s recipe:

Puffed Rice: Puffed rice is quite popular in India, and it is used to make a lot of snacks, especially the street side snacks. Be it for bhelpuri or for jhalmuri we need this puffed rice. This masala pori is one such snack made with puffed rice and spices. You can make this chatpata snack in less than 20 minutes. Puffed rice is my dad’s favorite snack. He usually mixes the unroasted puffed rice with a roasted gram or the pottukadalai and whole pepper and munch on it....

For the final day of this week’s blogging marathon under ‘Everyday easy dish for rice/Roti’, I made a South Indian gravy curry. Mixed Vegetable Sagu is a delicious dish made with choice of vegetables and is cooked in a simple coconut gravy. It is a less spicy version of Kurma. There is no ginger or garlic in this one and onion can easily be skipped. This recipe is from Chandra Padmanabhan’s Dakshin cookbook....

This Moist Vegan Chocolate Cake – Eggless Chocolate Cake using curd is everything you’d have ever wanted (in terms of chocolate 😉 – our savior this weekend. ‘Extreme Hot Weather with absolutely No-Grilling’ Warnings The world came to a standstill…atleast for a moment!!! We had everything planned for a fun beach day to grilling at our friend’s place who just bought a new swanky grill…such a bummer !!! But anywho, let’s start afresh with the weekend plans and topping the list is this moist, rich and flavorful cake....

We all love snacks and something savory, especially during tea time. For all those calorie conscious folks and those looking for healthy savory snacks, here I am with a simple 4-ingredient (excluding water) moong dal chaat or moong dal namkeen recipe. Can you believe, I only used 1 tsp of oil while making this recipe. You can even cut it down to ½ tsp. :-) It’s comparatively a low-calorie snack, and it’s vegan too....

Saag is basically a simple stir fry made with fresh greens. It makes a healthy and nutritious side dish to Nepali dal bhat (rice with lentils). The dish takes just a few minutes to cook and is perfect for a weeknight meal. Nepal’s Kathmandu valley has a fertile soil and is renowned for the variety of seasonal vegetables available. Open air farmers markets are popular tourist attractions. December and January are peak seasons for fresh greens....

Fried Chocolate Cake Donuts A deeper, darker, and slightly more indulgent variation of my sour cream donuts, these old-fashioned chocolate donuts are an indulgent breakfast treat. They are cake donuts (meaning no yeast needed!) and are perfectly chocolatey with a sleek vanilla coating. While yeast donuts have a place in my heart, this version is straightforward to make with no complicated techniques or ingredients. Even if you’ve never fried anything before, my recipe is easy enough that you can be successful....

How long it takes: 20 minutes Equipment you’ll need: bowl, rimmed baking sheet Servings: 12 (¼ cup each) A portable snack. I love that roasted almonds are easy to pack, too. My parents package individual portions in snack-size resealable bags and take them hiking or snowshoeing. They’re great for lunch boxes. A party snack. Add roasted almonds to your next cheese board or charcuterie board. Serve them as a nibbler to go with a specialty cocktail like this vanilla bourbon fizz or a cranberry gin and tonic with rosemary....

Here goes the recipe. Ingredients: Toor dal – 250 grams or 1.25 cups approx Red chilies – 2 to 3 (You can add up to 5 and in that case reduce the black peppercorns) Black pepper – 2 tbsps Salt – as required

How long it takes: 35 minutes Equipment you’ll need: large saucepan or Dutch oven Servings: 4 Easy Pasta Fagioli Make it with pantry items. I can usually pull the soup together using a few cans from my pantry and a couple of items from the fridge. It’s pretty forgiving, too, and if I don’t happen to have a particular ingredient, that’s okay. I just substitute what I do have and the soup always turns out great....

This Pesto Sausage Pasta or Pesto Chicken Pasta is one of my absolute favorite recipes to make any given day. The magic of this recipe lies in two main ingredients – Pesto & Sausage. I’m using a spicy garlic chicken sausage and using a store-bought pesto from Costco, which is absolutely incomparable to any other store-bought ones. Ingredients for the Pesto Sausage Pasta: As it’s one of those easy peasy recipes, hence the ingredients are also very basic and everything can be found in 1 grocery store: Pasta – I’m using semolina pasta, however, you can use any kind including gluten-free options....

Recipe for Andhra style idli podi is included in the post. This spice powder is great to make ahead of time and is perfect to serve with dosa, upma and of course, idli. About the Recipe Idli and dosa are quintessential part of South Indian cuisine. They are typically made for breakfast but I think they are filling enough to make for even lunch or dinner. Also great to pack in lunchbox....

A Sweet and Salty Sensation A mashup of ultimate snacking proportions, these potato chip cookies are a sweet and salty dream come true. Sweet, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies punctuated by crisp, salty pops of kettle chips–honestly, what more could you want? These are unique and irresistibly addictive, and I just know you’re going to love them. This recipe is really so easy. There’s no waiting for butter to soften, no need for a mixer, and no chilling....

A New Fall Muffin Recipe Today I’m sharing a super moist and fall-spiced muffin recipe. Not only do my boys love them, but my nephews also gave their stamp of approval (which I take very seriously!). Moist and tender with tall, bakery-style muffin tops, they come together so quickly and easily, and the taste is just unparalleled (and I have a whole flock of toddlers who can vouch for this 😂)....

The main component of these boorelu is the sweet lentil filling. Roundels of filling is dipped in thin pancake like dosa batter and fried until golden. Perfectly made purnam burelu have a crispy outside and a soft, sweet filling in the middle. About the Recipe There are quite a few traditional Indian dishes that I haven’t tried for a long time. But I’ve recently realized that it is important to learn our traditional dishes, not just for me, but more for the kids....

Health Mix Laddus with Ghee Residue This is a semi-homemade recipe as I went with store-bought sathu maavu. But you can use homemade ones very. In fact I have two homemade sathu maavu recipes one on my blog and other on my youtube channel. Now coming back to today’s recipe, back in Periyakulam, Amma used to prepare ghee from scratch if not she will buy butter and prepare the ghee....

How long it takes: 35 minutes Equipment you’ll need: large sheet pan (appr. 13 x 18 inches) Servings: 4 While I made this sausage sheet pan dinner recipe with potatoes, bell pepper, red onion, and carrots, this is one of those clean-out-your-crisper recipes where you can use whatever you have on hand! (Have a package of ground sausage instead? Try creamy one pan gnocchi with sausage & zucchini, Instant Pot pasta with sausage, spinach, and tomatoes or one pan sausage and rice with sweet peppers....