ONION FLOWER SUBZI

When my cousin contacted me long time back to give her recipe for making subzi with onion flower.  I was quite surprised that onion flowers are available in the market.  Seriously, I have not seen them before till such time, I bought it yesterday from the vegetable vendor.

When she asked me about the recipe, I told her to explain to me how it looks like and honestly, I searched in google but could see varieties of onion flowers and was stunned to see the colourful pictures.  However, I gave her the recipe comparing the same with the green onion or known as spring onion subzi.

When I got them yesterday, I decided to make the subzi with potato and the fresh onions from the spring onion.  It was quite tasty and loved  it along with the phulkas and rice.

One must adopt the practice of including greens in their diet atleast once in a week. greens are always good for health.  video

FLAX SEED THOGAYAL, CHUTNEY

Flax seed has got many health benefits.  It helps in reducing the bad cholesterol in the body.  It can be consumed as it is or in the form of chutney, powder, thogayal or can mix it in the roti flour while making roti.   I had shared the recipe of flaxseed chutney with  www.simpleindianrecipes.com: flaxseed chutney.

Flax seed also linseed is an excellent source of two fatty acids that are essential for human health - linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid," but also, an excellent source of fiber and a good source of minerals  dietary fiber, mnganese, vitamin B1, Omega.

<sup>It also helps in prevention of hot flashes, controlling blood sugar, cholesterol etc.  One must always remember when you  have some advantages, there is also disadvantages.  Side effects associated with flax seed consumption are Flatulence, stomach pain, Nausea, constipation, diarrhea and bloating.  These are the information after browsing through the net.

Any item consumed moderately does not have much side effects.  Since I have triglycerides more, I made it a point to add one teaspoon flaxseed powder in the chapati atta every day.</sup>

I have already posted  in my blog  the flax seed  idli.  pumpkin, flaxseed gun powder, instant flaxseed dosa.


Here I am presenting another variety of thogyal/chutney which goes well with dal rice, dahi rice, dosa, idli etc.

AMLA WAFER, NELLIKKA VARUTHATHU

We all are familiar with the Amla chutneys, pickles and jams or murabbas, juice, amla supari etc.  This Indian Gooseberry may not be liked by everyone due to its taste, but this wonderful fruit has got many health benefits.

You can have eat this raw, put in salt water and keep.  whenever you want, remove and make arachukalaki with coconut and green chilli with little curd.  this one is my favaourite.

This is also known as Amlakka or Amlakai or Amla, Avla etc..  Other names are Usiri Kaya in Telugu, Nellikkai in Tamil and Nelli in Malayalam.   It is rich in Calcium. The health benefits are linked here:

Recently, one of my friend told me that they used to slice the amla very thinly and sun dry the same and make raita out of it.  I just want to try this hence I had purchased 250 gms of this amla and kept for drying.

I was bored and could not get sleep in the afternoon, I thought I will try making wafer of this. You will not believe it was quite tasty.  Those who love to eat amla will definitely like this for a change.  You may feel strange, but it is worth trying.

BHEL KURMURA UPMA

Upma is served for breakfast as well as in the evening along with a cup of tea or coffee.  We make various kinds of upma viz. suji, lapsi etc.  Since I was bored of eating the regular stuff, I thought of making the kurmura upma.  It is pending since long in my list so I tried this and was quite tasty.

Other varieties of upma:
vari tandulachi upma
vegetable upma
adai upma
methi leaves upma
sevai rava upma
tomato upma
bread semiya upma
kuthiravali rava upma
roti upma
sabudana khichadi


video

RADISH GREEN SUBZI

Greens are always good for health.  I always try to make use of the greens of radish, beetroot, colacasia, knol khol etc.   Here I have used the greens of radish and made a simple dry subzi out of it.

TAMARIND SEED DOSA

I have already posted tamarind seed gun powder.  Now I tried the dosa and was quite tasty like the normal dosa.

You have to take little pain to prepare the seeds as you have to roast it, remove the outer skin and soak it.  Bit tedious process but for a change, worth trying it.

ARALU SANDIGE, PUFFED RICE FRYUMS, NEL PORI VADAM

Aralu Sandige is made with Nel Pori  (puffed rice) and white pumpkin and with some spices in it.    In Kannada  Aralu, and Nel pori in Malayalam or Tamil.  It is very easy to make, sun dry  and  store it.

Recently I visited one of my neighbour who has shifted from our building to far away place.  It was during the Sankranti time and as she was giving me the Haldi kumkum and  the til gul laddu, my eyes were looking at the aralu sandige which she had kept for sun drying.

At first I could not figure out as to what it was so i asked her out of curiosity.  She explained me the recipe and gave some sandige.  I came home and fried the same and really liked it. You can serve it with  Sambhar rice, rasam rice, bisibela bhath etc or with a cup of tea.

Aralu sandige, Puffed rice fryums, nel pori vadam

 video here

RAAB with rice and curd

Raab is a traditional healthy drink during winter.  It helps in building immunity and soothing when you have cough and cold.  This dish is prepared by Gujaratis and Rajasthanis  specially and served to the nursing moms.

The ingredients used in this helps in building immunity and keep the body warm during winter.

Normally, it is made with bajra flour, jaggery, soonth powder and little bit cumin powder and ghee. will be posting this recipe soon.  However, I am giving you a savory version of Raab with rice and curd which my neighbour gave me once when I was having high temperature and it was really really awesome to have hot hot raab at that time. .  I have made slight variations  from the original recipe and made the same with little variation.

STUFFED BHINDI

I have made the stuffed bhindi several times, but today only I realised that I have not posted the simple, easy and tasty recipe on my blog.

Okra or bhindi has got medicinal values the prominent one is it controls the blood sugar level and cholesterol.  If the bhindi is put in  water overnight after after trimming both the sides and the next day morning the water is consumed on empty stomach, it helps in controlling your diabetics.

Besides the medicinal values, each and every items has got its own taste and we make it more tasty by adding the masalas in it.  Here comes a simple recipe stuffed bhindi with a simple curry powder.

TAMARIND SEED RICE

I have posted recently Tamarind Seed Gun Powder.  With the same gun powder, I prepared the rice which was quite tasty with the raw tomato raita and papad.  The heath benefits are also mentioned in the said recipe.


It is quite easy to make and you will enjoy the rice as you enjoy the other rice varieties.

TAMARIND SEED GUN POWDER

I  am bringing back my child hood memories in this blog by posting this recipe.  In our child hood,we used to roast the tamarind seed, break the outer cover and eat it.  You have to keep the same in your mouth for sometime and with the help of saliva, it becomes soft.  We really used to enjoy the same by not frying it in the kadai, but put it in the charcoal after cooking our food, then remove it from the fire, break it with a stone.

We also used to enjoy the tamarind mixed with red chilli, salt, jaggery and bit of coconut oil and make a lolly pop with the stick and enjoy.  Another interesting one is break the raw mangoes on the treee itself, fill with chilli powder, salt and eat it.

Coming back to the recipe now, since the seeds are edible, I thought of  making something out of it.  I tried making the gun powder with it and did not feel that I am eating the tamarind seed gun powder.

When you fry the seed, you will get nice aroma somewhat like peanut.   You must ensure that it is not burnt as the taste will differ.   After browsing through the net, I got some interesting information about the health benefits of the seed which  I am writing after the recipe.

MIRCHI KA RAITA

Mirchi ka raita is prepared with the large green chilli or bharwan mirch it is known as.  We can make nice bhajias out of this stuffed with potato masala.

When I saw the fresh green chilli with the veg vendor, I could not resist myself from buying this.  However, I made it with only one chilli and rest, i used for bhajias.  This goes well with rice as well as parathas.  I had made green peas paratha and served with it.

VAZHATHANDU BHAJIA, BANANA STEM BHAJIA

BANANA STEM OR VAZHATHANDU BHAJJI OR BHAJIA IS QUITE TASTY.  IT CAN BE SERVED AS AN EVENING SNACK.

FEW BENEFITS ARE GIVEN BELOW;

Health benefits of the juice:  Apart from helping to remove the stones from gall bladder, it also helps in reducing the weight, hyper acidity, people who are suffering from constipation, for diabetic patients and effective fro treating urinary tract infections.

Since it is bit time consuming to clean and cut the same, you can cut and store the same in fridge by putting it in the butter milk.  But I recommend always use fresh ones.

Banana stem has got many health benefits, the most important one is to prevent the kidney stone.  If you take juice of the same in the empty stomach, you will be relieved from the trouble of kidney stone.

We can make various dishes out of this.  Since so many days, I wanted to make bhajia out of this.  recently I made sabudana banana stem vada.  we can make poriyal,pachadi, raita etc. out of this.  We also use this for making killu karuvadam.

video is already uploaded. Link is Vazhathandu Bhajia

 banana stem sambhar, banana stem chutney,  banana stem kofta kadhi, banana stem kofta sambhar, banana stem thoran