How to Sprout Chickpeas

Sprouting doesn't really need instructions- This is more for documentation purposes :)

Soak chickpeas overnight, at least. (24 hours is best)

Drain & rinse (Do this approximately every 8 hours).

By the first day you should already see small sprouts.

It's up to you how long you want the sprouts to get. I usually wait 2-3 days.

*Can use cheesecloth or other fine mesh. I use a paint strainer bag (bought it at Home Depot for less than $2), it's very convenient!

Popu (Tempering Spices)

In Indian cooking, seasoning dishes is done by tempering spices. In Telugu, we call this "popu" but  for this post I'm trying to just refer to it in general as "tempering".  The tempering can be done at the beginning of cooking, or at the end-depending on the dish you are preparing. For most of the vegetable curries we make, tempering is done at the beginning. It starts with heating oil in a pan, then adding spices & herbs, one by one, into the oil. This transfuses the flavors into the oil, nicely seasoning the vegetables throughout the cooking process.

When I first started cooking Indian food, I was very intimidated by the number of spices a single recipe required. However, I soon grew accustomed to it, and with a well stocked spice rack, I have mastered the tempering process. You should not try to multi-task as you are waiting to add the next ingredient, as the spices can easily burn, requiring you to begin again. (This I learned from experience :)...)

The combination of spices & herbs will vary depending on the recipe as well as the household. For example, typical South Indian tempering includes green chili pepper and dried red chili peppers. However, we eat less spicy food in our house due to health sensitivities, so our popu is made without these. Some families add asafetida to every dish, others don't.

This is my attempt to provide a mini tutorial, or at least a visual of the spices I commonly use for tempering.

* Not pictured: turmeric, curry leaves, and asafetida & salt.

Top to bottom on right: black mustardseeds,  split yellow peas, split yellow moong dal
Top to bottom on left: garam masala, cumin seeds, split urad dal
Center: fenugreek seeds

Typically, I start by heating about 2 Tbs light olive oil in a skillet, over high heat. I add mustard seeds and dals and wait for the mustard seeds to begin to sputter & pop. At this time I turn the heat to low and quickly add the curry leaves, cumin seeds, and turmeric. I give a quick stir to make sure all the curry leaves come in contact with the oil, and then quickly add in the vegetables for the curry.  This helps prevent burning the spices. 

It may take a couple tries to get comfortable with it, but once you master it, you will be able to make any vegetable into a delicious South Indian curry :)

Peanut Chutney

Perfect for serving with hot idly.

2Tbs raw peanuts
2 Tbs dehydrated, split dalia
1 green chili
1 tsp tamarind concentrate (or can use dried tamarind soaked in the measure of water listed below)
1/2-1 cup water


In a small skillet, toast the peanuts and the dalia until golden brown. Add to blender with the rest of the ingredients and puree until smooth & creamy. Additional water may be needed to reach desired consistency, add little by little until it's smooth.


Make popu with 1/4 tsp mustardseed, 1/2 tsp urad dal, 1/2 tsp jeera, 1/8 tsp asafetida, 6 curry leaves, and 1/4 tsp salt.

Add the popu to the blender and give one final whiz to puree and perfect the chutney.

Serves 4

Chocolate Pudding

Last night I was having a craving for caramel sauce. But since we didn't have any ice cream in the house for me to put it on, I decided to settle for something more acceptable to eat by the spoonful...butterscotch pudding! As I was making it, I remembered another recipe I wanted to try out...so I made pudding again today. And I told my husband we can eat it relatively guilt free since it has no egg, no butter, and only 1/4 of the sugar as last night's indulgence. Relatively guilt free dessert? Seconds please :)

This recipe is adapted from a Turkish rice flour & rose water pudding, courtesy of the cookbook Vegetarian Dishes from Around the World. The original flavor was not our favorite; however, I was pretty excited to realize that this would be a good base recipe to experiment with making various flavors of pudding, requiring NO eggs!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup rice flour
1 can evaporated milk
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs cocoa powder
1tsp vanilla extract

Process:
In a small bowl, combine the rice flour with 1/4 cup of the evaporated milk to make a paste.

Combine the rest of the milk with the sugar & cocoa powder in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Once mixture boils, reduce the heat to low, and add in the vanilla extract.

Take about a 1/4 cup of the boiling mixture and whisk it into the rice flour paste. Once it it smooth, pour it into the boiled mixture and increase to medium heat. Constantly whisk the pudding until it thickens. *By constantly whisking it you help prevent it from sticking to the pan & getting clumpy.

 Once it becomes a pudding-like consistency, turn off the heat. Spoon into custard cups and refrigerate. Or eat it warm. It's tasty both ways!

Serves 2-4

**Update** I have now experimented making this pudding with a few different types of thickening agent. Rice flour, tapioca flour, and cornstarch. With rice flour, it does have a slight after taste and is best eaten warm. With tapioca flour, it gets very rubbery, I do not recommend this version. Our favorite version is made with cornstarch-more velvety texture, best when served immediately, but ok the next day as well.

Idly (Steamed Rice & Lentil Cakes)

This is a popular South Indian breakfast for a healthy start to the day. It's a day process, but that's allowing for soaking and fermentation of the dough. Start preparations a day ahead of when you want to eat idly.
In the morning, take two medium size bowls. In one, put 1 cup urad dal and 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds. Rinse well and then cover with water and set aside. In the other bowl, put 2 cups idly rice flour (different from rice flour), cover with water and set aside. Allow to soak for at least 8 hours.

In the evening, take a large bowl. Starting with the idly flour, take handfuls and squeeze out the water to drain well. Put into the large bowl.

Drain the dal and put into a blender with 2 cups of the reserved soaking water. Puree for 3-5 minutes. It should get very smooth. If you put your finger in and then rotate between your finger and thumb, it should not feel grainy.







Add the pureed dal to the large bowl with the idly rice flour and using your hand, thoroughly combine the dough. Cover with a lid and set in the oven, leave the oven light on, and leave for over night, at least 10 hours. Longer is fine.

The next morning, take the batter out of the oven. The fermentation process with cause the batter to rise and get light and airy. Stir it well, fill the idly molds, and place in idly maker to steam for 15-20 minutes over high heat.


Serve with chutney, sambar, or just ghee and sugar for a delicious breakfast!
Makes approximately 24 idly.

Balsamic Tomatoes & Black Olives Salad

There are so many salad varieties. The beautiful thing about salads is that they are very forgiving. You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand and measurements don't have to be perfect. You literally just toss it all together in a bowl and serve it.

For this salad, I combined

grape tomatoes
black olives
cubes of mozzarella cheese
green spring onions

Then I added a glug of balsamic vingear, a splash of water, a dusting of sugar, and a couple sprinkles of salt & pepper. (See how specific these measurements are??!!)

That's it! You can serve immediately, or allow to marinate in the vinegar for a little while. I actually made a small slice on each of the tomatoes and allowed the salad to sit  for about an hour to nicely marinate in the dressing.

*I was experimenting with how to cut these fancy green onions. I think this is what works. If someone knows a better way, please share.

-cut off the bottom white bulb and the greens on top so that you are left with about 3-4 inches
-cut lengthwise down about 3/4 of the way, starting from the top greens
-turn and cut 1-2 more times, like you are making an X or *
-place in a bowl of cold water and allow to sit for 20 minutes, or until the pieces begin to curl

Tofu Stix

Ah! I have so many recipes to catch up with posting!! For starters, here's a recipe that I've been meaning to make for probably over a year. Sounds ridiculous when I actually write that. It shouldn't take that long. I should probably set some sort of goal for myself to try a new recipe every 1-2 weeks so I can at least make some progress checking these recipes off my list!

So, tofu stix.

This recipe comes from one of my favorite coaching participants. I think we worked together for at least 3 years. On the day we were scheduled to talk, she would be my first coaching call...and I would always look forward to talking with her. Hearing her enthusiasm to report the goals she had reached was truly a highlight-and such a positive way to start my work day! And even if she didn't reach her goals, she still had enthusiasm to work through what had stopped her. Although I was supposed to be the one to give her guidance, I think she provided me with just as many tips and ideas! This is one of them. So, Rose-Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your wellness journey. This recipe was a hit with my husband!!

Ingredients & Process

To make tofu rub- combine the following ingredients:

1 small onion, finely minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green chile, minced
*I put these 3 ingredients in my mini food procesor
2 Tbs low sodium soy sauce
2 Tbs rice vinegar
1 Tbs mustard (hot mustard, brown mustard, or yellow mustard are all fine)
3 Tbs sesame seeds
1 Tbs nutritional yeast
pinch of salt & pepper

Slice the tofu in strips and rub the marinade into the tofu. You can allow it to sit for a while to soak up the sauce, or just be generous to apply all the rub on the tofu. Place strips on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake in the oven at 350 for 30-40 minutes. I wanted these to turn a little more crispy, so I actually turned up the oven to 400 for the last 10 minutes. Be sure to check on them every 10 minutes and flip to promote even cooking/browning.

Good for snacking. We made it a meal by eating with rice.

Secret Ingredient- Easy Cheesy Sauce

Last night I started making  my new favorite cheese sauce using this recipe. However, I had some cauliflower that needed to be used up ASAP, and I figured our dinner could use a veggie boost. I have the cookbook Deceptively Delicious. I love her recipe for Mac & Cheese using butternut squash puree.I have also tasted an alfredo sauce before that had cauliflower puree. Naturally, I set off to revamp my original recipe.

I steamed the cauliflower, added some water (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup) and pureed in the blender. After I made the cheese sauce, I stirred in about 1 cup of the puree. De.Lish. My husband didn't even notice. I can't keep a secret from him, especially when it's such a deliciously healthy one...so I had him try to guess the secret ingredient. He was surprised!

Try it out and let us know how you like it. Do you prefer cauliflower or butternut squash? I want to try with butternut squash next!