Pasta Soup

Pasta soup is a quick twist on a classic chicken noodle soup which is fully loaded with veggies and chicken. Recently when my friend made this delicious, healthy and nutritious noodle soup, I remembered the delicious soup which I had in Banglore.

Julinned Veggies

I ended up making this dish with pasta instead of noodles. A perfect dish to be enjoyed on a cold winter day. This soup is filled with tons of veggies which are cooked along with required amount of water, spices, sauce of your choice in which the boiled pasta is added and when done, enjoyed warm.
The soup can be made in advance and frozen. When needed thaw the soup and add the cooked pasta and serve. We can add any choice of veggies. This will be liked by kids as well as adults. A perfect party hit. Try this out and let me know...

Ingredients:

1. Pasta- 2 Cups
2. Carrots- 2 nos
3. Beans- a handful
4. Cabbage- 1 Cup
5. Ginger- 2 tbsp
6. Garlic- 2 tbsp
7. Onions- 1no
8. Chili Flakes- 1/2 tbsp
9. Garlic Powder- 1 Tsp
10. Basil- 1 tbsp
11. Oregano- 1 tbsp
12. Paprika Powder- 1 Tsp
13. Turmeric Powder- 1 Tsp
14. Garam Masala Powder- 1 Tsp
15. Red Chili Sauce- 1 tbsp
16. Soy Sauce- 1 tbsp
17. Salt- as required
18. Baked Chicken- 1 Cup (See the notes) ( OPTIONAL)
19. Spring Onions- for garnish

Method:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil on high heat and salt it generously. Cook the pasta until al dente. Drain and keep this aside.
2. Julienne the vegetables along with ginger and garlic.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add the garlic, ginger. Saute for a minute. Add the sliced onion, saute for a minute and add all the veggies. Give them a nice stir on a medium heat.
4. Add the all the spices, chili flakes, garlic powder, Basil, oregano, paprika powder, turmeric powder, garam masala. Mix well.
5. Add around 4 cups of water and let it simmer for 10 minutes on a low flame. Add the red chili sauce, soy sauce along with cooked pasta. Give it a nice stir and switch off the flame.
6. Ladle the pasta into bowls. On top add the baked chicken and chopped spring onions. Enjoy a nice, hot soup on a winter day.

Baked Chicken:

1. Boneless Chicken- 2 Cups
2. Red Chili Powder- 1tbsp
3. Pepper Powder- 1 tbsp
4. Salt- as required
5. Turmeric Powder- 1tsp
6. Oil- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and rub this ingredient onto the chicken.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the marinated chicken on a greased baking tray and bake for about 5- 20 minutes or till cooked.

Burnt Garlic Fried Rice and Hot Garlic Chicken

“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”

                                                       Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates

Garlic is called the world’s healthiest food. Garlic is widely used around the world for its pungent flavor. This has many medicinal values. It is highly nutritious and has very less calories. Garlic supplementation improves your immune system. This reduces blood pressure, improves bone health and cholesterol level, which may lower the risk of heart disease. So what are you waiting for??? Include garlic in your daily life and see the magic.

In my house garlic is used in almost all the dishes. We simply love the flavor of garlic. I made this burnt garlic fried rice and hot garlic chicken on a Sunday, as I was lazy to prepare an elaborate lunch. Usually it would be a one pot meal on holidays, but to go along with this fried rice, some side dish would taste wonderful and so here I made two awesome dishes out of garlic which I am sure that you all will cherish.

I had this burnt garlic rice in a Chinese restaurant back in India and as we are big fans of garlic, instantly fell in love with this rice and tried it at home which came out pretty well.  From then on this is made regularly and some of the side dishes for this rice are Chilli mushroom gravy, chilly chicken, orange chicken and so on.. This time I thought of making something that had garlic and this hot garlic chicken was perfect.

This hot garlic chicken is little bit spicy because of the chilli paste, but we can balance it by using kashmiri chillies. I have given the preparation of red chilli paste in the note on the bottom of this post. Let's see how it is prepared...

Ingredients:

For the Burnt garlic Rice:

1. Cooked Rice- 2 Cups
2. Garlic (chopped) 3 tbsp
3. Olive Oil- 2 tbsp
4. Vegetables( Carrot, Cabbage, Beans)- ¾ Cup
5. Soya sauce- 1 tbsp
6. Vinegar- 1 tbsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Pepper- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Chop all the veggies using hand blender so that the vegetables are finely chopped.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add the chopped garlic. Saute for some time so that the oil gets infused with the flavors of garlic. Make sure that the garlic doesn’t burn.
3. Add the chopped vegetables along with required amount of salt. Add the soy sauce, vinegar and pepper powder.
4. In the above mix the cooked rice till all the flavors are well blended. Serve hot.

Ingredients :

For Hot Garlic Chicken:

1. Boneless Chicken- 250 gms
2. Garlic (chopped)- 2 tbsp
3. Ginger (chopped)- 1 tbsp
4. Red Chilli Paste- 2 tbsp (see note)
5. Oil- 1 tbsp
6. Corn Flour- 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp
7. Soy Sauce- 1 tbsp
8. Salt- as required
9. Pepper Powder- 1 tsp
10. Red Chilli Flakes- ½ tbsp
11. Capsicum (cubed)- 1 cup
12. Vinegar- 1 tsp
13. Onion- 1 no
14. Tomato sauce- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Coat the cubed chicken pieces in a bowl of corn flour, pepper powder, salt and soy sauce. Keep this aside for some time.
2. Meanwhile heat a pan with 1 tbsp of oil, add the chopped garlic and ginger. Saute well.
3. In this add the red chilli flakes, red chilli paste, soy sauce, vinegar, tomato sauce and required amount of salt. Stir well.
4. Add the cubed capsicum and onions. Saute for a minute. Add pepper powder and add half a cup of water and let it boil for about 2 minutes.
5. Heat oil for deep frying. When it becomes hot, fry the above batter covered chicken till golden brown in colour. Keep this aside on kitchen towel.
6. Mix one tbsp of corn flour along with ¼ cup of water without forming any lumps. Add this to the above made gravy.
7. Add the fried chicken pieces in this and stir till it thickens. Switch off the flame and serve hot along with fried rice.

Note:

For Red Chilli Paste:

• Soak 6- 7 red chillies in hot water for about 30 minutes. Drain these and grind to a coarse paste.
• Heat 1 tbsp of  olive oil. Saute the ground red chilli paste for about 3- 4 minutes.
• When it is cooled down, store in an airtight container and use whenever required.

Vegetable Fried Rice and Chilly Chicken

                                                                     Eid Mubarak

We celebrated Eid at our Uncle’s place this time. So I didn’t prepare anything special.This time it was ghee rice, Mutton curry, raita and sevaiyaan, all made by aunt :-). The day went on very well with eid prayers, wishing everyone, having a wonderful lunch and so on.

Today’s post is about a vegetable fried rice and chilly chicken which I made a few days ago, and is a perfect combination which can be made on any occasion or even without one :-). This one I made during iftar time. The crispness of vegetables along with the juicy chicken makes this a perfect chinese dish which can be had along with fried rice.

We can also use leftover rice for making the fried rice. Veggies and the rice should not be overcooked, but just make sure that they are crisp.

.Ingredients for Fried Rice:

1. Basmati rice- 2 Cups
2. Water- 4 Cups
3. Carrots, Beans and Cauliflower- 1 Cup
4. Soya Sauce- 1 tbsp
5. Salt- as required
6. Pepper powder- 1 tsp

Method:

1. Wash and drain the rice.
2. Cook the rice with little amount of salt and water, till they turn fluffy and do not stick with each other. Keep this aside.
3. Chop the carrots, beans and cauliflower very finely so that it will cook quickly (I used my hand chopper).
4. Pour oil in a pan and when it is hot add the chopped vegetables and salt and stir for 2 minutes. Add the pepper powder, cooked rice and stir well. In this add the soya sauce and mix.
5. Serve along with your favorite chinese gravy.

Ingredients for Chilly Chicken:

1. Boneless Chicken Pieces- 250 gms
2. Soya Sauce- 1 tbsp
3. Salt- as required
4. Egg- 1 no
5. Corn Flour- 1 tbsp
6. Pepper powder- 1 tsp
7. Onions- 2nos
8. Capsicum- 1 no
9. Garlic ( chopped)- 2 tbsp
10. Tomato sauce- 2 tbsp
11. Corn Flour- 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Mix the chicken pieces, ½ tbsp soya sauce, egg, pepper powder, corn flour and salt in a bowl. keep this aside for around ½ an hour.
2. Heat oil to deep fry and fry the marinated chicken pieces are cooked thorough.
3. Cut the onions and capsicum to big cubes.
4. In a pan heat little oil, add the cubed onions, capsicum and garlic and fry with little salt over high flame. The vegetables should retain its cripsness.
5. Add the lightly fried chicken, soya sauce and tomato sauce. Stir well.
6. Mix corn flour in little water and pour this in the above gravy. Mix well. Boil till it thickens and serve along with fried rice and enjoy.

Easy Vegetable Biryani within minutes

Once I had a different style of chicken biryani at my friend’s place when we went for lunch. This was made within minutes in pressure cooker. We loved this a lot that I noted down the recipe and after 2 - 3 days I tried making this chicken biryani with vegetables as I didn’t have chicken at the time.

This is a simple one pot meal. As Ramadan fasting is going on, nowadays I am looking out for  easy and less time consuming dishes, which can be prepared pretty quickly. This is a perfect lunch box item for kids too. You can add as many veggies as you like. This can be served along with raita / paneer dishes/ chicken dishes. I served this along with paneer butter masala.

For the coconut milk, I have used coconut milk powder instead of grinding and taking out the coconut milk.For the colour of the biryani, I added red chilli powder and turmeric powder. This is a basic biryani, but  just thought of sharing this recipe with all of you.

Ingredients:

1. Rice( Basmati)- 2 Cups
2. Vegetables (Carrots, Potatoes, Beans)- 2 Cups (cubed and diced)
3. Onions (sliced)- 2 nos
4. Tomatoes (chopped)- 1 no
5. Green Chillies (slited)- 2 nos
6. Ginger and Garlic Paste- 1 tbsp
7. Red Chilli Powder- 1 tsp
8. Turmeric Powder- ½ tsp
9. Garam Masala Powder- ½ tsp
10. Salt- as required
11. Coconut Milk (thick)- 2 Cups
12. Water- 2 Cups
13. Clarified Butter- 1 tbsp
14. Oil- 1 tbsp
15. Cloves- 4 nos
16. Cinnamon- a small stick
17. Cardamom- 3 nos
18. Bay Leaf- 1 no

Method:

1. Wash and drain the rice for about ½ an hour.
2. Heat ghee and oil in a pressure cooker, add the whole spices ( cloves, cardamom, bay leaf and cinnamon). In this add the sliced onions and fry till translucent.
3. Add the chopped tomato to the fried onions, stir well. Add the ginger and garlic paste and stir till the raw smell disappears.
4. Add the vegetables, give it a stir for about 2 min. Add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala powder. Stir till fried.
5. Add the coconut milk and water and let it boil.In this add the washed and drained rice and salt. Mix well.
6. When it starts boiling close the cooker without putting the whistle and keep the flame in lowest flame possible and cook for about 15- 20 min.
7. Switch off the flame, let it cool. Open cooker and mix the biryani carefully. Serve this along with raita.