A vegetable side dish is the norm with most Indian rice dishes. You can eat it on its own with Indian bread (chapatti or roti) or Indian pancakes (dosas). My favourite one was green beans and fresh desiccated coconut. We don’t have the luxury of fresh coconut in...
Happiness is chocolate! Who doesn’t love it! I crave it sometimes…other times I don’t. But I do love a good chocolate cake anytime. This is a gluten free, dairy free, processed sugar free cake. Filled with healthy fats and superfoods, it is so good for you. Welcome to...
I love bliss balls. They are easy to make, quick, simple and leaves plenty of room for loads of creativity. My favorite ones are with a peanut butter and date base. You get the stickiness and the sweetness. Then I add a flour to bind these together, and then add any...
Not your ordinary chilli con carne, this one contains nutrients that can boost your immune system, help with depression and help keep your heart healthy. My family and friends love this version. It took a long time to perfect, but it’s worth it. I try and make this at...
Garam masala, unlike sambar powder, is something I use extensively in a lot of non-vegetarian dishes – tandoori chicken, kheema (mince), chicken curries, lamb curries, etc. You can also use it with vegetarian dishes like channa masala, biryani, etc. I grew up with the...
Pumpkin soup, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin curry, pumpkin pie…there’s a lot you can make out of pumpkin. This was a vegetable I really didn’t like (or eat) in India. That was, until I tasted roasted pumpkin for the first time! After that, this was a veggie I’ve learned to...
What do I have in my pantry? This is a question I get asked regularly. Most Indian pantries have a range of similar spices, although a few bits and pieces would be different. I am from South India, so I would have a few different spices compared to a North Indian....
I haven’t cooked chicken mince until recently. It’s not something that we cook in India. So my first attempt at chicken mince was the well-known spicy Thai basil chicken (Pad Krapow Gai). That was a failure! It looked so easy on the recipe! I tried it again…it was a...
Who doesn’t love pasta…what I love most about it, is that it is so quick and easy to make. I find that store bought pasta and pizza sauces are ‘okay’ – however, they lack two things that I look for in any food – flavour and nutrition. Sure, they have a few veggies...
Chutney puddi (or powder) is a South Indian condiment served with idlis, dosas or mixed in with plain rice. You add some ghee with it. There are more than a 100 varieties of chutney puddi in Bangalore. I’m sure there are much more around other parts of South India. It...
Tandoori chicken at the local ‘dhabas’ (roadhouses) was a treat! I would go on road trips with my friends and we would always stop at a dhaba. These are small restaurants (usually North Indian cuisine) with jute beds for lounging on, or cabanas where groups of people...
I’m not a big fan of salads, so I like to make them chunky and mix all kinds of veggies, herbs, protein and fun stuff in it. This one came together today as a side to the chicken mince cutlets I made. The apple in the salad gave it a bit of sweetness and the...
Aunty Prema is my mum’s friend – she isn’t my mum’s sister though - we call everyone aunty in India! Everyone is like family. Every time we visited her, she would cook us some amazing food. I distinctly remember her bisi-bele-bath. This is a lentil, veggie and rice...