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.

Leftover Chapati and Vegetable Cutlets

As the Ramadan fasting is going on, there will be many dishes which will be left over and so one among these are the chapatis which we almost always end up wasting. Last couple of days we have been wasting the leftover chapatis, but I felt bad doing that. So I decided to do something and googled many sites and hit upon this recipe, which can be made easily within minutes.

Many recipes can be made with leftover chapatis, but I liked this as I didn’t have much time left before the Iftar time( breaking the fast). Believe me I made this dish within half an hour including the pics.

This is a very nutritious preparation with all the veggies stuffed in the cutlets.

Instead of egg, we can roll them in semolina or else dip them in egg and roll them in breadcrumbs or corn flakes. As I didn’t have any of these I simply dipped them in eggs and shallow fried them. This turned out to be a yummy iftar dish which I am sure I will repeat for sure. You can freeze the uncooked cutlets and can be made any other day.

Adapted From Foodsand flavorsbyshilpi

Ingredients:

1. Left Over Chapatis- 5 nos
2. Onions- 2 nos
3. Cabbage- ½ Cup
4. Carrots- 2 nos
5. Green Chillies- 2 nos
6. potatoes- 2 nos
7. Red Chilli powder- 2 tsp
8. Semolina- 2 tbsp
9. Salt- as required
10. Egg- 1 no
11. Lemon Juice- 1 no
12. Oil- for shallow frying

Method:

1. Blend the left over chapatis in a hand blender coarsely.
2. Chop the vegetables (cabbage, carrot, onions and green chillies) in the blender and keep this aside. Boil, peel and mash the potatoes.
3. Mix the powdered chapatis, vegetables, mashed potatoes, red chilli powder, semolina, lemon juice and required amount of salt well.
4. Divide this into round balls and spread it on your palm in the shape of tikkis. Meanwhile beat the egg along with salt in a bowl.
5. Heat oil for shallow frying. Dip these tikkis in the egg mixture and fry this slowly in a pan. Serve hot along with tomato ketchup and enjoy.

Cabbage Potato Masala

After all the baking I am back with a simple and a delicious side dish for chapatis and rotis. This is an easy, yet flavorful dish which can be made within minutes.

If you are not a cabbage fan, just try this out and you will love cabbage from then on. Vegetables are an important part of our diet. I have realized that mixing two to three vegetables will make an amazing dish. Just try this interesting preparation with cabbage and potatoes and I am sure that you all will love this.

Ingredients:

1. Cabbage (sliced)- 1 cup
2. Potato (boiled & cubed)- 2 cups
3. Onions- 1 no
4. Ginger garlic paste- 1 tbsp
5. Turmeric Paste- 1 tsp
6. Red Chilli Powder- 2 tsp
7. Garam Masala Powder- ½ tsp
8. Salt- as per taste
9. Oil- 1 tsp
10. Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
11. Curry Leaves- few

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Splutter mustard seeds and curry leaves.
2. Add the sliced onions, when they turn light brown in colour add the ginger garlic paste.
3. When the raw smell disappears, add the turmeric powder, red chilli powder and garam masala powder.
4. Add the sliced cabbage and salt. Stir and close with a lid.
5. When it is cooked well, add the boiled potatoes and mix. Close and cook for about 2 min. Serve hot with rotis.

Vegetable Spring Rolls

This is a very popular evening snack. My Mom used to make this often when I was a kid as this is so delicious and healthy. This won’t take much time to make. This can be done within minutes and is very nutritious for kids.

These spring rolls can also be made with non veg. I have this whenever I go to a chinese restaurant, but nothing tastes better that what we make at home. This is a perfect starter to serve in parties.

The filling inside can be made to our taste. We can add any vegetable as per the availability. After stuffing it with the filling, roll tightly and fry in a medium heat so that it frys well inside.

After coming back from the park, my kid loves to eat something. So nowadays I am making this often and she also likes this a lot. I am sure this will be a yummy snack to enjoy in the upcoming monsoon.
Ingredients:
For the stuffing:

1. Carrots- 2nos
2. Cabbage- 1 cup
3. Beans- 6-7 nos
4. Cauliflower- 1 cup
5. Salt- as required
6. Pepper powder- 1 tsp
7. Soy sauce- 1 tbsp
8. Oil- 1 tbsp

For the batter:

1. Maida / Wheat flour- 1 cup
2. Water- required for batter
3. Salt- a pinch
4. Oil- for deep frying

For sealing:

1. Cornflour- 1 tbsp
2. Water- 1 tbsp

Method:
For the rolls:

1. Mix maida / wheat flour, salt and required amount of water well it form a pouring consistency.
2. Heat a griddle and pour a spoonful of batter and make pancakes out of it. Repeat the process till the batter gets over.
3. Keep this aside.

For the filling:

1. Grate all the vegetables in a hand blender.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add the grated vegetables and salt. Mix well till the raw smell disappears.
3. In this add the pepper powder and soya sauce and mix well till everything is well blended.
4. Keep this aside and let it cool.

For assembling:

1. Take a pancake and keep a spoonful of stuffing inside the pancakes and fold in the edges and roll tightly and seal with cornflour paste.
2. Complete the process with remaining pancakes and filling.
3. Heat oil for deep frying and gently slide the rolls in the oil. Deep fry them till it is golden and crisp.
4. Drain and serve hot along with tomato sauce.