Indian Vegan recipe Archives

Flattened beans with potatoes

Flattened beans with potatoes always reminds me of my mother’s cooking. She cooks the best sabzi of flattened beans with potatoes. In my childhood, we used to get fresh flattened beans (seim ki fali) from the kitchen garden itself. Have you ever noticed that if we pluck vegetables from the plant, then there is a fresh fragrance around it? Vegetables look so good and beautiful that you instantly want to cook them? Whereas, whenever I buy from the market (or online in the current situation), that enthusiasm is not there.

W are doing online shopping for all vegetables and fruits courtesy the pandemic . But for the last two weeks, could not see any variety in vegetables online. I got frustrated and my husband and I went out to buy in a traditional manner, to a brick-and-mortar store. It was sooo good to come out of the house, even though it was only vegetable shopping. I bought so many and was lucky enough to get very nice flattened beans . They were very tender and seeds were also soft and raw. I didn’t want to keep them in the fridge and decided to cook them for lunch.

Flattened beans, paired with potatoes, go very well with roti or parathas. As not many ingredients are required to prepare this sabzi, it makes it very easy to cook. If you like garlic, you can add crushed garlic in oil along with rai, hing and jeera. It gives wonderful flavor.

I also have a post on a Clustered Beans in the blog – if you are interested, can take a look…Gwar ki fali (cluster beans)

Ingredients:

Flattened beans 300 gms
Medium sized potatoes 2
Oil 3 tbsp
Coriander powder 2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Salt as per your taste
Red chili powder 1/2 tsp
Green chilies (chopped) 2
Water 4 tbsp
Salt as per your taste

Process:

Cut both ends of flattened beans, chop them into small pieces and wash. Wash and cut potatoes too.

Heat oil in a pan and crackle rai, hing and jeera. Add potatoes, mix them with oil and let them cook for a minute or two. Now, add chopped beans.

Add all spices, mix everything well, add 2 tbsp water, cover the pan and let it cook on sim heat till potatoes and beans become tender. In between, keep turning them upside-down for even cooking and if you feel that sabzi is sticking to the bottom, add 2 tbsp more water and cover it.

Flattened beans with potatoes is ready to go with roti or paratha.

September 20, 2020

Deeksha Pathak117 Comments

Pyaaz vaale bharva karele

Pyaaz vaale bharva karele, ek katori dahi aur garam – garam parathe bana kar koi khila de…bas, itni choti si ichha poori ho jaaye!!! (bitter gourd stuffed with onions, one bowl of curd along with hot parathe… that is all I ask!) I love pyaaz vaale bharva karele a lot. The only problem is that in Bangalore we don’t get those small sized bitter gourds so easily. This week when I was storing my vegetable deliveries in the fridge, I was pleasantly surprised to see that those small sized bitter gourds were delivered. Usually, once I finish my cooking for the day, I don’t go into the kitchen to cook anything else. But seeing those small sized karela I started chopping the onions. I wanted stuffed bitter gourd for lunch!!

Preparation is not a time consuming process if you are not peeling bitter gourd. Many people peel them and smear with salt and keep it like that for an hour or so and later wash it and continue with the rest of the process. This way a lot of the bitter taste gets washed away and probably those who don’t want to eat karela, might find it interesting to give this method a try.

But my mother never cooked karela by peeling them – so I am also used to cooking them this way. Moreover, as I don’t want all the nutrients to be washed away, I never peel them.

There is one more post in the blog on karela Karele ki Sabzi (bitter gourd)

Some more stuffed vegetables recipes :

Stuffed Chilies(Bharva Hari

Stuffed Green Masala Brinjal

Stuffed brinjal/eggplant/aubergines (Bharva baigan)

Stuffed Capsicum (bharva shimla mirch)

Stuffed Brinjals/Eggplant/Aubergines

Ingredients:

Small size bitter gourd 6
Medium sized onions 2Oil 4 tsp
Coriander powder 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Salt as per your taste
Coarsely grounded fennel seeds 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Dry mango powder 1+1/2 tsp
Oil 4 tbsp

Process:

Wash and cut bitter gourd vertically with a deep cut.

Chop onions fine.

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a pan and sauté chopped onions till they are transparent.

Add rest of the spices along with the remaining 2 tsp of oil.

Mix everything well and sauté this onion masala for 5 minutes on sim heat.

Switch off heat after five minutes and when masala cools down, fill it into all the bitter gourds.

Add remaining 4 tbsp oil in the pan along with karela. Cover the pan and let bitter gourd cook on sim heat till they become tender from all sides. In between, keep on turning them upside – down for even cooking.

Serve them with hot parathas, rotis or as a side dish for rice.

September 8, 2020September 12, 2020

Deeksha Pathak63 Comments

Vrat ke aaloo – methi

Vrat ke aaloo – methi ki sabzi is very easy to cook. As the spices added are mild, this vrat ke aaloo – methi (sabzi with potatoes and fenugreek leavesfor fasting days) is ideal for kids and those who are sensitive to spices. I don’t use white salt in food during some specific days of fasting. Sendha namak/pink salt/ rock salt is used to prepare savoury items. So, for this sabzi also I used sendha namak along with Homemade Kasuri Methi(dry fenugreek leaves) which gave such nice flavour to this that I didn’t miss hot spices.

If you don’t have dry kasuri methi leaves, use fresh fenugreek leaves by adding along with potatoes. As homemade kasuri methi leaves have strong flavour, use them wisely.

But in case if you are don’t like the taste of fenugreek leaves, omit them and continue the whole process with potatoes only. Dry crisp potatoes will be wonderful for your kiddo’s lunch box or else have them with hot pooris for lazy Sunday brunch!!! Your parents or grandparents would be happy to have this less spicy sabzi in their plate😊

Ingredients:

Boiled potatoes 3

Kasuri methi 1 tbsp

Green chillies 2

Oil 2 tbsp

Jeera (cumin seeds) 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder 1+1/2 tsp

Sendha namak as per your taste

Amchur (dry mango powder) 1/4 tsp

Fresh coriander leaves 1 tsp

Process:

Boil and peel potatoes and heat oil in a pan and splatter jeera.

Mash potatoes in small pieces and add it the pan along with all spices and chopped green chillies. Cover it and let it cook for 10 minutes on sim flame.

Keep stirring potatoes from time-to-time. Potatoes will start becoming crisp from the bottom and their colour will change. After 10 minutes, add kasuri methi, mix it well and again cook for a few more minutes. Just before serving, add finely chopped fresh coriander leaves.

Continue reading “Vrat ke aaloo – methi” →

September 4, 2020

Deeksha Pathak69 Comments

Tamatar ki chutney

I like tamatar ki chutney along with poori and paratha a lot in brunch. I like the word “brunch” a lot. It suits occasionally lazy people like me 😉. It allows us to cook just two meals rather than three in a day.

Generally while having poori for brunch I prefer to have curd along with sukhe aaloo ki sabzi Sukhe aaloo ki sabzi (boiled potatoes with Indian spices). But last weekend I thought of trying salty, sweet, tangy and spicy tamatar ki chutney. My mother used to prepare it as a side dish for stuffed parathas and was my favourite!

A small tip:

To prepare this chutney, always buy sour tomatoes, instead of sweet ones.

Ingredients :

Tomatoes, green chilies, dry mint powder or fresh mint leaves, salt, sugar, red chili powder, oil, turmeric powder, rai, cumin seeds and asafoetida. You can go with your choice of flavours like parsley, basil, rosemary, garlic, ginger etc…

Process:

Wash tomatoes, green chilies and fresh mint leaves.

Cut tomatoes into big pieces and chop green chilies.

In a pan heat 2 tbsp oil (I used mustard oil) and crackle rai, cumin seeds and asafoetida.

Add tomatoes and green chilies in the oil along with salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.

Cover it and let it cook on medium to sim flame for 15-20 minutes. Tomatoes are very tender so they don’t take long time to get cooked.

In between turn them upside down but don’t let tomatoes become completely mashed up.

Once tomatoes are cooked add sugar (according to your taste) and sprinkle dry mint powder for flavor. If you don’t have dry mint powder, chop finely fresh mint leaves and add.

Tamatar ki chutney tyaar hai!!!

Garnish with green mint leaves.

There is one more Chutney recipe in the blog . If you are interested can take a look…Coriander Chutney (dhaniye ki chutney)

June 24, 2018January 4, 2021

Deeksha PathakLeave a comment

Stuffed Brinjals/Eggplant/Aubergine

Stuffed brinjals/eggplant/aubergine is one of those dishes from brinjal which is loved by all those members of your family who do not like this vegetable a lot. To make family members eat brinjals is a very difficult task. So stuff them with onions, their choice of spices, or roasted gram flour. Personally I love vegetables in stuffed form a lot. Stuffed form just add on glamour in simple veggies! Try lady finger, bitter gourd, tinda or even tomatoes or chilies- all these vegetables tastes fantastic in stuffed form. Slowly I will be posting recipes for all these vegetables with stuffing in the blog. But till then you can check this recipe Stuffed Chilies(Bharva Hari Mirch)

These stuffed eggplant can be served with plain paratha, roti or side dish for rice. This dish will enhance the flavor of your meal!!!
(Pardon the picture quality of ready stuffed brinjals, had guests in the house and I was feeling awkward to take pictures at the right frame.

Ingredients :

Small size brinjals
Oil
Spices : coriander powder, red chilli powder,turmeric powder salt, a pinch of asafoetida (hing), garam masala, dry mango powder (amchoor), grinded fennel seeds(kuti hui sauf)