This recipe is super delicious, and easy to make, pretty cost-effective, and incredibly healthy. It is made with simple ingredients like lentils, rice, caramelized onions, and a blend of spices. You can easily find these ingredients in your pantry. Give this recipe a try and enjoy a taste of Middle Eastern cuisine in the comfort of your own home. In Indian cuisine, there are similar dishes that share some similarities with Mujadara in terms of ingredients and preparation methods....

Ok, like a typical iyer aathu ponnu (Bram girl), I was also eating curd rice regularly till 12th grade. I don’t like sour curd. So my amma make sure the curd is not sour and spoiled me giving curd rice according to my taste. (Blame it on Amma). In my UG hostel, the curd used to be so sour that I stopped eating curd rice. Instead I used to have butter milk....

It’s a new month and we are starting a new edition of blogging marathon today. My theme for this week is ‘Valentine’s Day Recipes’. I am starting off with some fluffy and delicious Oats and Sour cream Pancakes.While chocolate is the first thing that came to my mind when I started thinking of Valentines day recipes. But I wanted to make something that was special enough for the day without the chocolate....

My theme for the last week of this month’s blogging marathon is ‘Dazzling Dals’. Lentils, legumes form a very important part of our diet and I am always looking for new recipes. So when I saw this theme, I took it up to try some new dishes for the family. First up is this ‘Palak Moong’ that is great to serve with both rice or roti.This Palak Moong recipe is from Raghavan Iyer’s 660 Curries cookbook....

The Perfect Easy Pineapple Upside Down Cake There are a lot of cake recipes on this blog, and a fair share of unique cake recipes as well (zebra cake and my ice cream cake certainly come to mind). However, I’m not sure any is quite as unique and demanding of attention as this pineapple upside down cake. A true showstopper, it’s a moist and flavorful vanilla cake crowned with golden, caramelized pineapple rings and cherry jewels....

Using a meat mallet or a rolling pin to flatten meat into a thin, even thickness is one of the best ways to cook quick dinners. And quick dinners are what I’m all about here at Rachel Cooks. I am always looking for ways to make cooking easy and fun, so that you can prepare healthy delicious dinners without stressing out. How long it takes: 40 minutes Equipment you’ll need: meat mallet, skillet Servings: 4 How does flattening meat with a mallet help you get dinner on the table quickly?...

My love for quinoa and one-pot recipes continues. And here I am today with quinoa sambar sadham or quinoa sambar rice. Last April, I posted 26 different biryanis and pulav all made either in Instant Pot or pressure cooker, and this year I am keeping it simple with quinoa pongal, quinoa rasam rice, etc. :-) You can call this as Tamil Nadu style sambar sadham or Vidhya’s style sambar sadham but not bisibelebath....

What is Curried Turkey Rice Bowl? It’s basically a bowl comprising of ground turkey curry with steamed rice. What You Need to Make Curried Turkey Rice Bowl: Once you have all these things together, you can put together your Curried Turkey Rice Bowl in few minutes. It tastes so good that you won’t be able to stop at one bowl (I can guarantee you that) and this totally screams #comfortfood (without the calories)....

Given the wild popularity of my recipe for pickled red onions, I wanted to bring you more easy pickled items. This quick pickled radish recipe might just be my new fave. The great thing about these pickled radishes is that you can use them pretty much anywhere you’d use a pickled onion. They’re similar in flavor, just a little less oniony. They’d be great on these vegan tacos, shrimp tacos, or on vegetarian nachos, amongst countless other things....

Amma used to prepare this often when we were in pannaipuram. We had 3 papaya trees in our back yard. Yeah it’s the same Pannaipuram – the native of maestro Illaiyaraja. Appa got transferred there and I spent 3 most memorable years of my childhood there. I did my 1st to 3rd grade. Here is where I learnt my proper Madurai slang and I got to see the standard festivals that comes in Bharatiraaja movies....

Update Notes: I had posted this recipe back in 2012, now updated it with more content, a recipe card with nutrition information, and new pictures. Nine years and counting, this recipe is still a favorite and a staple in our household. This rice, cheese, and veggie balls is a snack and a perfect finger-food lunch box recipe too. I remember packing it for the kiddo during his preschool days, and this is his absolute favorite dish to carry....

This yummy Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea, and Prunes Salad is the easiest way to keep your gut feeling happy and energetic. So, I was literally excited to see these ‘Probiotic Prunes’ in our local Safeway/Albertson. They are made using California-grown prunes and this source of fiber delivers active cultures 10 times more effectively than yogurt! That is exactly what we needed, as a couple of our family members don’t like eating yogurt (some are vegan), so this was a great solution....

Spaghetti in Pesto Sauce And Creamy Corn Broccoli Fusili From Spicingyourlife Baked Pasta And Pasta in Different Sauces From Maa Simply Too Good Roasted Red Pepper Pasta From Cooking From Heart. Pasta Primavera From Traditionally Modern Food Pasta in Red Bell Pepper Sauce , Pasta Pakoda , Creamy Pasta With Mushroom & Capsicum From Seduce Your Tastebuds Cheese Alphabet Mug Pasta & Pasta Potato Cutlet from CookEatnClick Red Sauce Pasta & Green Sauce Pasta & Cheesy Pasta From Annu...

Learn how to make this delicious coffee cake with a handful of ingredients in a microwave! After apple crisp, I am back with another microwave dessert, and it’s the kiddo’s favorite coffee cake this time. I love baking; there is no doubt about it. But at times, when kiddo (and us too) craves for quick desserts, I resort to these microwave cakes. I know these are popularly known as mug cakes, but I always use ramekins for baking them....

With three kinds of cheese all melted together in a gooey, cheesy dip, this spinach artichoke dip is sure to please. Perfect with almost any kind of dipper, it’s a great appetizer recipe that’s easy to make. Fix and forget it until you’re ready to party. How long it takes: 15 minutes to prep, 1 hour in the slow cooker Equipment you’ll need: mixing bowl, 2 or 3 qt. slow cooker Servings: makes 5 cups Who would think that lowly spinach would be included in so many appetizer recipes?...

Steak lovers, get ready! This one’s for you. Imagine dinner tonight: a tender broiled steak, seasoned with garlic, rosemary and thyme, along with roasted baby potatoes, crisp charred asparagus, juicy tomato bombs, and crunchy bits of Parmesan cheese. Your mouth watering yet? How long it takes: 15 minutes prep, 30 minutes in the oven Equipment you’ll need: sheet pan, oven, sharp knife Servings: 4 The best part is, this steak dinner is a one pan wonder....

With the classic flavors of a strawberry margarita, this sparkling punch is pretty much guaranteed to be a hit. It’s so easy to make you’ll find yourself turning to this recipe often for summer parties. Each batch makes six cocktails but you can easily double it for a crowd. How long it takes: 10 minutes Equipment you’ll need: just a pitcher and glasses! Servings: 6 Don’t you just love the bright red strawberry garnish?...

Sweet potato wedges with Chinese Five Spice. Reading that, are you skeptical? Do you think this recipe is too “weird?” From the second I tasted one of these (I was a little skeptical, too!), they landed a permanent spot in my recipe rotation. And be warned, they’re addicting. I made them on an afternoon when my parents were coming over later to babysit and when my mom got there, I went through all the random stuff in the fridge that she and my dad could eat for dinner....

A Perfectly Sweet Buttercream If you’ve ever been the kind of person to scrape the frosting off your cake because it’s just too sweet, today’s recipe is for you. Swiss meringue buttercream is one of the most common frosting recipes used by professional bakers, yet most home bakers haven’t heard of it. Instead, they use American buttercream frosting, which is thicker and typically very sweet. Swiss meringue buttercream, on the other hand, is light, buttery, and perfectly sweetened....

Banana Pudding from Scratch I hope you bookmarked last week’s vanilla wafers recipe because you’re going to need it today. As promised, here is my 100% from-scratch, homemade banana pudding recipe. While you can substitute store-bought cookies (and I even had to use some in these pictures because someone ate all of my from-scratch ones… Zach), there is nothing like a truly from-scratch banana pudding. And this one is the real deal....