vegetables of India Archives

Baingan, saim ke beej aur mooli ki sabzi

Baingan, Saim ke beej aur Mooli ki sabji (mix vegetable of brinjal, seeds of flattened beans and radish) might sound a little different combo of veggies but trust me, this combo rocks! Baingan, Saim ke beej aur Mooli ki sabzi is completely my mother’s invention. Whenever we used to get bored during winters, she used to prepare this three mixed vegetables combo.

The best part was that all three vegetables used to be from our kitchen garden. Whenever we used to pluck beans from the vines, there were always some extra beans which had big ripened seeds. These beans couldn’t be used for normal Flattened beans with potatoes sabzi – so my mother used the bean seeds with radish and brinjal and an excellent mixed sabzi was invented!

Though this sabzi can be prepared without onions too, but If you are not against using onions then I would strongly suggest you to add them. Onions enhance the flavour significantly!

Ingredients:

Seeds of flattened beans 100 gms
Brinjal (small size) 4
Radish (medium size) 2
Green chilies, chopped 3-4
Onion (big size) 1
Oil 5 tbsp
Small mustard seeds (rai) 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds (jeera) 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida (hing) , a pinch
Coriander powder 2 tbsp
Red chili powder 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Water 4 tbsp

Process:

Take out the seeds from ripened flattened beans. Peel and cut radish into small pieces and wash both of them.

Chop onion and roast it in a wok with 1 tbsp oil till they are brown in colour. Keep them separate.

Heat 4 tbsp oil in the wok and crackle hing, rai and jeera. Add seeds of flattened beans, radish and chopped brinjals. Always cut brinjal just before adding in the wok. if we cut brinjal beforehand with other vegetables, they start turning black and their taste changes.

Add rest of the spices along with chopped green chilies followed by two tbsp water.

Mix everything well, cover the pan and let the sabzi cook on sim heat till all three veggies turn soft.

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.

When sabzi is cooked completely, add roasted onions and serve with roti, parathe or as a side dish to rice.

October 3, 2020

Deeksha Pathak86 Comments

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

Stuffed raw tomatoes with paneer

Stuffed Raw Tomatoes with Paneer ( cottage cheese ) is a complete party dish to impress your guests at any occasion. I know – these days what guests, what parties – but still, we can give even ourselves a treat to keep spirits high! So cook these stuffed raw tomatoes with paneer (cottage cheese); but if you are not a big fan of paneer then stuff tomatoes with mixed vegetables, followed by cheese, oregano flakes and black pepper.

You might give homemade fresh paneer a try if you are fine with paneer stuffing. Naturally, I have a post on how to prepare Homemade Paneer/Indian Cottage Cheese!! As I used crushed paneer, just add vinegar or lemon juice in hot milk and milk will curdle. Sieve it, use whey for your gravy based dishes or for kneading flour and use paneer for stuffing!

Check out a few more posts for stuffed vegetables in the blog…

Stuffed brinjal/eggplant/aubergines (Bharva baigan)

Stuffed Capsicum (bharva shimla mirch)

Stuffed Brinjals/Eggplant/Aubergine

Stuffed Chilies(Bharva Hari Mirch)

Pyaaz vaale bharva karele

Ingredients :

Small size raw tomatoes 9-10
Crushed paneer 100 gm (reduce or increase as per the size of tomatoes)
Coriander powder 2 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida powder a pinch
Salt as per your taste
Red chili powder 1 tsp
Dry mango powder/lemon juice 1 tsp
Garam masala 1 tsp
Kasuri methi/ chopped green coriander leaves 2 tsp
Oil 4 tbsp

Process:

Wash tomatoes and scoop out the pulp by cutting the top. You can use pulp for preparing gravy by grinding it for gravy based dishes.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add paneer along with all spices. Cook this mixture for five minutes and switch off the gas.

Fill this stuffing in scooped out tomatoes and pour rest of the oil in a pan and place stuffed tomatoes in the pan. If you want, can use the top cut part of tomatoes to cover them, though it is not necessary. I used them as it looks fancy to uncover them before serving!!

Remember, we have to cook tomatoes on sim heat. Sometimes, our gas burner doesn’t give very low heat for slow cooking dishes. If that is the case with your burner, just buy one extra small size pan support and use it. This helps in supplying low heat to the cooking pan.

Tomatoes will slowly start becoming tender. When we cook on sim heat then the pan gets heat only at the center, not around the edges of the pan. Keep shifting the position of tomatoes in the pan for even cooking.

As green raw tomatoes are firm tomatoes, it takes some time for them to become soft on sim heat. Once tomatoes are done, sprinkle some kasuri methi or green coriander leaves for garnishing just before serving and uncover them!!

September 12, 2020

Deeksha Pathak106 Comments

Mooli ki bhujiya (sabzi)

Mooli ki Bhujiya sounds as if we are talking about a snack recipe. But when we add leaves and roots of radish together and prepare vegetable (sabzi), it is called Mooli ki bhujiya (sabzi). In North India, radish is available only during winters. But, here in Bangalore, good quality radish is available during summers too.

Initially, around 16 years back when we shifted to Bangalore, it was really difficult to find radish with leaves. Leaves used to be cut and thrown away from radish by the vegetable shop owners. But now in front of my apartment a vegetable vendor sells radish with all the leaves. In fact, whenever I show interest to buy leaves too, the sellers are amused and give me plenty of leaves free of cost. Probably they are relieved that their garbage is being cleaned up by customers!!

This sabzi requires raw radish – so be careful while choosing. Radish will not remain tender when it starts ripening and will not taste good. Remove the stems if they are too thick and attached with the leaves. Use soft leaves and soft raw radish.

I have one more recipe with radish in the blog – if you are interested can take a look…Mooli ka paratha (wheat flour flat bread stuffed with spicy radish)

There are a few more posts on different vegetables in the blog. You can check this link to look at them Vegetables (Curries).

Ingredients

Radish with leaves

Oil 2 tbsp
Tiny mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida 1/8 tsp

Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 +1/2 tbsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Green chillies chopped 2
Salt as per your taste

Process :

Take radish and leaves, wash them nicely in the running water and chop them separately.

Heat oil in a wok and crackle tiny mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida.

Add chopped radish and leaves along with all spices except salt – mix this nicely and cover for 5 minutes.

When we prepare leafy vegetables, their volume gives an impression of large quantity. But leaves shrink while cooking – so always add salt once the leaves settle down after 5 minutes of cooking.

Now add salt – mix it well and again cover the wok.

Keep on stirring sabzi continually till radish becomes tender and all moisture dries out. Mooli ki Bhujiya (sabzi) is ready!

June 22, 2020June 23, 2020

Deeksha Pathak71 Comments

Stuffed brinjal/eggplant/aubergines (Bharva baigan)

During my childhood, I had seen that most kids used to hate brinjals. On the other hand, I had always liked them and my mother cooks them wonderfully! Brinjal is a very simple vegetable and this quality gives us an opportunity to cook it in many different ways. Stuffed Brinjals/Eggplant/Aubergines and Baigan ka bharta (roasted balloon eggplant/brinjal cooked with spices) are two varieties which I have already posted in the blog. This new recipe of stuffed brinjal or Bharva Banigan is done with thin vertical purple brinjals. I had always liked this variety of brinjals and when my mother used to chop them for dinner, I used to eat one or two pieces raw. Sounds crazy, but I always had this habit of eating a few vegetables raw whenever my mother would be chopping them (there are cows, and then there is me!!).

In my previous stuffed brinjal recipe I had used only spices for stuffing, but here along with spices I have also used onions. Try this recipe – you are sure going to love it.

Ingredients:

Brinjals, finely chopped onion and green chillies, grated ginger

spices; salt, red chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, dry mango powder, coarsely ground fennel seeds, asafoetida and oil.

Process:

Wash brinjals and keep them separate.

Finely chop onions and green chillies and grate ginger. You can add garlic too.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add onion, chilly and ginger mix and saute it till onions are transparent.

Reduce heat to sim and add all spices and saute everything for 5 minutes . If required add 1 tbsp oil more, but not more than that.

Cut brinjal vertically and slightly deep with the help of knife and fill in ready onion massala.

Heat 4 tbsp oil in a non stick or heavy bottomed pan and keep all stuffed brinjals in it and cover that. Keep the heat on sim and if available, use extra small burner, so that brinjals can be cooked nicely on sim heat.

In between, keep turning them upside down for even cooking till brinjals are soft from all sides. I like the outer skin of brinjal little bit crisp so I cook them bit more .

Serve these delicious stuffed brinjals as a side dish with rice or roti and enjoy your meal!!

September 29, 2019October 2, 2019

Deeksha Pathak53 Comments