Beet Cheese Balls

These are healthy, easy to make and a great way to consume veggies and proteins. Kids love these balls because of the color and cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Chana Daal
• 1 Beet, peeled and grated
• 1 Finely chopped onion
• 10-12 Spinach leaves
• 8-10 Mint leaves
• 2 Big spoons rice flour (Only if needed)
• 1/2 tsp. Chaat masala
• 1 tsp Red Chili Powder or 2 green chilies finely chopped
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 3-4 Garlic Cloves
• Salt as per taste
• 2 tsp oil
• Cheese cubes - 1 cm in size

Method

• Wash the daal well and soak for 2-3 hours. Drain water and pulse in a mixie. Do not add water to it, or add very little if you must. We need the mixture to be coarse.
• In a bowl, mix all ingredients except rice flour, cheese and oil.
• If you wish to make the balls in appe pan and if the mixture is not thick enough, add some rice flour. If you wish to deep fry them, no need to add the flour. 
• Take a spoonful of mixture in your palm. 
• Shape it like a bowl and put a cheese cube in the center.
• Enclose the remaining mixture to make it round.
• Put appe pan on medium flame, add few drops of oil.
• Keep the balls in it for 4-5 minutes. 
• Turn all the balls when they are golden-brown in color. Cook for another 3-4 minutes.
• Serve hot with ketch-up.

Tips

I added spinach leaves and mint leaves as those were available, you can add chopped cilantro, curry leaves if you wish.

These balls taste pretty similar to falafels. Next time I am going to try making pita pockets if other ingredients are available. 

Quick Vegetable Parathas

Make these quick parathas for breakfast/ bruch/ lunch/ dinner. It's a great healthy option when you do not have much time or energy to prepare a regular Indian meal. All you need to have is some roti dough in your refrigerator!

Other ingredients:
1. Spinach/ carrots/ cabbage/ baby dill/ cilantro - You can use one or more of these. Wash and chop/ grate them.

2. Dry chutney of sesame/ flaxseed/ peanuts - Again use one or more. If chutney is not available, just use salt, chopped green chili/ red chili powder.

3. Cumin powder, black pepper, some lemon juice, grated cheese, crumbled paneer (Optional, but you can use one or more to enhance the taste).

4. Oil/ ghee/ butter


Method:
1. Use ingredients from 1,2,3 and mix in a bowl. Do not over-mix, or it will leave too much water.

2. Take a ball of the roti dough and roll it of the size of a puri. Apply some ghee. Put the mixture in it and bring all the sides together. Rill it with slight pressure. Be careful to not let the stuffing come out.

You can also roll a regular roti, apply the mixture on it and cover it with another roti.

Just make sure that it doesn't stick to the surface. Add more flour while rolling it.

3. On a heated tawa, roast the paratha with ghee/ oil/ butter.

4. Serve hot with yogurt, pickle, ketchup.



If you are comfortable with making rotis, these parathas are really a great option for you to make an easy meal for the while family. It's very easy to modify the ingredients to suit different age groups. For kids, I add more cheese/ paneer and less spices, for adults I add more chutneys, chili. It's a great way to consume more veggies and especially veggies like cabbage and dill that kids usually do not enjoy.

Tomato Puri

When life gives you tomatoes, make tomato puris. That's what I did when we got so many tomatoes from our backyard last year. They turned out so nice that I am eagerly waiting for the tomatoes to grow this year.

I decided to make the purée of these tomatoes and freeze it. I followed the process similar to what's described here. I divided it into several small containers, labeled them with the date and stored in the freezer. It's very useful while making soup or gravies.    

While making the purée, I thought of using some of it to make the purees. So I took a cup of it. Added flours to it (wheat, jowar, besan and bhajani). Added salt, a tsp of garlic paste, red chili powder, chopped cilantro, sesame seeds, coarsely ground coriander seeds and cumin. Added some oil to make the dough as how we make for regular puris. In a wok, heated the oil and fried the puris. The tangy flavor of tomatoes along with the coarse coriander seeds make them delicious! 

Serve them hot with ketchup, chutney, pickle, yogurt or consume them while sipping hot ginger tea on a rainy evening!

Instant Oats Uttapa

Great and easy great way to consume oats with this uttapa.

Ingredients:

2 Cups powdered oats,

1 Cup rava (sooji),

1 1/2 Cup yogurt,

Water, 

Oil,

Salt,

1 Green chili finely chopped,

3/4 Tsp baking soda,

Onions, Cilantro finely chopped

Method:

1. Mix oats powder, rava, yogurt in a bowl. Add water to make consistency for uttapa.

2. Add salt, chili, baking soda. Cover the mixeture and keep aside for half an hour.

3. On medium flame, heat a nonstick pan. Sprinkle oil and spread the batter to make uttapa.

4. Top it with  chopped onions, cilantro. 

5. After 2-3 minutes, turn the uttapa. Heat for another minute from the other side.

6. Serve hot with ketchup or chutney.

Instant Rava Appe

Make these instant appe for breakfast or time-time snacks. Children and grown-ups - all love them :)

Ingredients:
1 Cup rava/ sooji
3/4 Cup Yogurt OR 1 Cup buttermilk
Water
Salt,
Baking soda,
Oil,
Mustard seeds,
1 Tsp finely chopped curry leaves,
1-2 Tbsp finely chopped Veggies

Method:
1. Heat oil in a wok. Add mustard seeds to it. Add curry leaves, chopped veggies (I used 1 tbsp each of onions and capsicum). Cook for 2-3 minutes.
2. In a bowl, mix yogurt and sooji. Add water if required - we need consistency like idli batter.
3. Add cooked veggies to it. Add salt per taste. If you like, add 1 finely chopped green chilly.
4. Add 3/4 tsp of baking soda and mix well. Cover it and keep aside for 15 minutes.
5. After 15 mins, heat appe pan, and 1-2 drops of oil, and add the mixture.
6. Cover it, and let t cook for 4-5 minutes. Flip all appe and cook again for 1-2 minutes.
7. Serve hot with ketch-up or your favorite chutney.

Tip: You can add other veggies such as carrots, spinach.

Dry Fruit Ladoos

These quick ladoo's are really good during merciless winters. The kids love those too. They are really easy to make and you can easily substitute the ingredients with the ones that are available.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Jaggery - grated or coarsely chopped
1/4 Cup - powder of edible gum
1/2 Cup - Coconut powder
1/2 Cup - Almod powder
1/4 Cup - Walnut powder
1 Tbsp Ginger powder
1 Tbsp - Poppy seeds powder
1/2 Cup - Ghee (melted butter)

Method:
1. Heat 3 Tbsp ghee and add gum powder to it. Let it all puff up and make sure it does not burn. Remove from flame and set aside.
2. Heat 2 Tbsp ghee and melt the jaggery keeping medium flame.
3. Turn of the flame when all the jaggery melts.
4. Add the puffed gum and rest of the ingredients to it.
5. Quickly roll the ladoos. If the mixture is dry, add some ghee to be able to make the ladoos.
6. They are ready to be served. Keep in an air-tight container.

Notes:

• I had all the powders ready, so the preparation time was very less. 
• You can adjust the amount of jaggery and ghee as per your taste. If you find it too sweet, take less jaggery, you might have to add more ghee for binding.
• You can modify the recipe to add cashews, sesame seeds, flaxseed powder as per your liking. 

Wheat Oats Almond Cookies

Celebrate Christmas with these easy, healthy and yummy cookies!

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup wheat flour
• 1/3 Cup Oats Coarsely crushed
• 1/2 Cup Butter 
• 6 Tbsp Castor Sugar
• 3 Tbsp Almond flakes
• 1/2 Tsp baking soda
• 1/2 Tsp baking powder
• 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Essence
• A pinch of Salt (optional)

Method:

• Bring the butter to room temperature.
• Mix butter and sugar well in a bowl. 
• In another bowl, mix flour, oats, soda, baking powder, salt.
• Add this to the butter and sugar mixture.
• Add almonds and vanilla extract. 
• Mix everything together gently.
• Take a small portion of the mixture and shape using your palms.
• You will be able to make around 25 cookies from this mixture.
• Preheat oven to 350 F, place parchment paper in baking trays.
• Put all cookies in the baking trays.
• Bake them for 15-17 minutes.
• Take out of oven and place on wire rack to cool down.

Cookies are ready to serve, keep left-over cookies in an airtight container.