Undhiyo (उंधियो) - Vegetable Stew

 Winter months are lazy months. Cold weather restricts outdoor activities and everyone seems to be always hungry at home this time. I prefer one pot meals and usually have some soup preparation ready in the freezer to thaw and use.

Sankrant is a winter time festival. It is celebrated in different places and each region has their own special food prepared during winter months. In Gujarat, they prepare undhiyo - a winter special dish made using assorted vegetables available locally. A variety of root vegetables are used in this recipe.

Undhiyo needs elaborate preparation but it is totally worth making it. This was my first attempt at it and everyone in the house loved this dish. I plan to make this at least once every winter.

Undhiyo has multiple layers of assorted vegetables. There is elaborate preparation to be done. 

Keep below spice powders ready to cut down on total cooking time.

Green chili paste - wash and cut green chillies and blend it to form a paste.

Ginger paste - wash and cut ginger and blend it to form a paste. Add little water for grinding, if needed.

Garlic paste - wash and cut garlic and blend it to form a paste. Add little water for grinding, if needed.

Cumin powder - dry roast and powder cumin seeds

Coriander powder - dry roast and powder coriander seeds

Servings:

6 people

Ingredients:

For Methi Muthiya:

1 cup besan or chickpea flour

1 1/2 cup methi or fenugreek leaves, cleaned and chopped

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

1.5 tsp green chili paste

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp cumin seed powder

3 tsp coriander seed powder

1 tsp turmeric

salt as per taste

 Knead all ingredients together and roll into balls. Heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry these balls on a medium flame. Alternatively, you can also air fry them using minimum oil.

For Vegetable gravy:

4 small eggplants or brinjal

2 raw banana or plantains - do not remove the peel or skin.

1 medium sized purple yam

1 medium sized elephant yam

6-8 baby potatoes

1 medium sized sweet potato

3 cups of assorted Indian beans - Surati Papadi, Val papadi, (flat beans, broad beans, fava beans) - cleaned and cut 

Ingredients for vegetable gravy masala:

2 cups fresh garlic greens - cleaned and chopped

2 cups cilantro or coriander leaves - cleaned and chopped

3 cups of freshly grated coconut

1.5 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tsp ginger past

2 tsp garlic paste

1 tbsp chilli paste

1 tbsp coriander seed powder

1/2 tbsp cumin seed powder

1 tsp ajjwain or carrom seeds

1 tsp turmeric powder

Salt as per taste

For gravy:

Gravy Stuffing: 

Add all ingredients for vegetable gravy masala together. Set it aside for a few minutes while you prepare vegetables for the gravy. This gravy masala will be used as a stuffing in vegetables and will also be used for flavoring the gravy.

Preparing the vegetables: 

Divide the gravy masala stuffing into 4 portions. You will use it to stuff some vegetables, and for few other vegetables, this will be used to marinate and add flavoring.

Slit open eggplant, do not cut it open all the way. It is cut similar to when making stuffed eggplant. Add gravy masala stuffing in the slit, just enough to keep the eggplant together without breaking into two pieces. Cut raw banana into two horizontal pieces and slit open each raw banana piece and add the gravy masala stuffing. For assorted beans, mix together gravy masala with beans and let it marinate for 5-10 minutes. For the remaining vegetables, add the left over gravy masala and mix it together.

Seasoning:

1.5 tbsp oil

1 tsp hing or asafoetida

1 tsp carrom seeds

Layering:

Make sure you use a large vessel to cook, the pot needs to be big enough to hold all the vegetable preparations.

In a large pot, you will layer all these vegetables together and slow cook the stew. First you need to do regular oil seasoning. Heat the pot and add oil. Once the oil is heated, add hing and carrom seeds. Next we will layer the vegetables one by one. First goes assorted Indian beans, then add stuffed raw bananas, followed by sweet potato, potato, yam and eggplant. Add fried methi muthia (fenugreek balls) on the top layer.

Add about a cup of water mixed with salt, sugar, turmeric and ajjwain and pour it on this layered mixture. Cover the pot with a lid.

Cook this on medium flame for about 40-45 minutes. Alternatively you can pressure cook this for 2 whistles. 

This gravy goes very well with rice or chapati/millet bhakri or any type of flat bread. It stays good for 2-3 days in the refrigerator.

Note:

You can add any other vegetable such as ivy gourd, carrot or any other vegetable that goes well in a stew.

Dil rice (शेपू भात)

Summer months are busy months in my household. We grow vegetable garden and love to spend time taking care of it. Some plants do well, while some just remain as unsuccessful experiments. 

One side effect of growing vegetables is you have surplus vegetables in the house. Week on week, sometimes you get same produce or harvest. The real challenge is coming up with creative dishes to use this bountiful harvest so you are not repeating the same dishes each time. 

Dil (शेपू) is not a popular vegetable in my house but it is growing well in my garden. This time I decided to use most of the leftover vegetables from my harvest and came up with this dish. It feels amazing to have a shorter farm to table turnaround time. Feel free to change vegetables in the recipe as per your choice or their availability.

Servings: 3 people

Ingredients:

10-12 stems of Dil (शेपू), washed and chopped

2-3 garlic cloves or tender garlic shoots

A bunch of green onion shoots, chopped

2 medium sized tomatoes, diced

1/4 cup green pigeon peas (tuvar) (optional)

1/4 cup peas

1/4 cup carrot, diced

1 cup rice, washed and soaked

8-10 cashew nuts

Salt as per taste

Seasoning:

2 tbsp oil

a pinch of asafoetida

1 tsp cumin seeds

crushed pepper

Wash rice and soak them for half an hour. Drain the water after half an hour and keep it aside. In a pot, boil 2 cups of water. I use brown rice hence the water quantity is doubled. If you are using any other type of rice, adjust the water accordingly. Usually rice to water proportion is 1:1 or 1:1.5 based on type of rice.

While the water is boiling, we will saute all the vegetables together. For this, in a heated kadhai, add oil and season with asafoetida, cumin seeds and crushed pepper. Adjust the pepper as per your taste. Add garlic and cashew nuts. Saute for a couple of minutes till the cashews turn slight brown and garlic is well fried. Add chopped green onions and stir fry for 5 minutes. Next add diced tomatoes and mix in. Let the tomatoes cook for 5-7 minutes. Add remaining vegetables like diced carrots, peas and chopped dil leaves. Mix all vegetables and stir for 5 minutes. Add drained rice and mix together. Stir for 7-10 minutes and add boiling water to this mixture. Add salt and cook until rice is well cooked.

Serve with a teaspoon of ghee (optional).

Spinach gravy with Yogurt (पालकाचे अळण)

Servings: 3 people

 Ingredients:

1/2 cup toor dal, cooked

2 cups spinach, blanched

1 cup yogurt or buttermilk

2 tbsp gram flour or besan

7-8 garlic cloves

chilli powder

Salt as per taste

Seasoning:

1 tbsp oil

1 tsp mustard

a pinch of asafeotida

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

5-6 curry leaves

4-5 red chillies

Procedure:

Combine together blanched spinach with cooked dal  and mix well. Keep this aside. In a bowl, add yogurt and one cup water. Whisk it together into buttermilk. Add gram flour to buttermilk and mix it together until all lumps are removed. 

Heat a kadhai and add oil. Once the oil is heated, add asafoetida and garlic cloves. Stir fry the garlic cloves until they turn brown. Now add dal and spinach mixture. Add salt and chilli powder. Cook for a minute. Next add buttermilk and gram flour mixture. Stir it together. If the mixture is too thick, add more water till you get batter consistency. This mixture will thicken up on cooking. Adjust water as per the gravy consistency. Keep stirring the mixture continuously on medium flame. After about 5-7 minutes gram flour will get cooked. Turn off the heat.

You can do a second seasoning on this gravy to enhance the flavors. For seasoning, use mustard, asafoetida, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and a few red chilies. If you do not plan to do second seasoning, add all these ingredients during the initial seasoning itself.

This gravy goes well with rice or chapati. Instead of spinach, you can also use fenugreek (मेथी) leaves.

Puffed Rice Balls (चुरमुऱ्याचे लाडू)

 While growing up, this was one of the readily available snack at my place. These are easy to make and require just two main ingredients - Puffed rice and Jaggery.

Ingredients:

1 cup jaggery grated

approximately 3 cups of puffed rice

cardamom powder for flavor

2 tbsp peanut powder (optional)

Serving: makes around 25-30 medium sized balls

In a heated kadhai (pan), add grated jaggery. Stir it until jaggery melts completely. You can add cardamom powder and peanut powder once jaggery is melted. Turn off the heat and add puffed rice slowly. Add little puffed rice, stir it together and add some more. Adjust puffed rice portion until the jaggery syrup coats the rice well. Adding little by little quantity of puffed rice will help coat the puffed rice well with syrup.

Start rolling this mixture into balls (ladoo) while the syrup is warm. Make bite sized balls. If the mixture thickens up and you are unable to roll them into balls, warm the mixture on low flame for couple of minutes until the mixture is loosened and you are able to roll it again.

Store them into airtight container.  

Puris - three way

I rarely fry at home. It is usually limited to special occasions like birthdays, Diwali or Gudi Padwa. It is winter time and the temperatures are dipping. My teenage daughter likes fried food. So I gave in to her food choice and decided to make puris today. Now that I have decided to fry puris, how can I make them a bit healthier? I used wheat flour instead of refined flour and decided to add vegetables.

My fridge had all the vegetables in stock and it was easy for me to choose vegetables for puri. I used spinach (Palak) and Kasuri Methi for one puri variety. Beet root is one of my least favorite vegetable. I know it is a great source of iron so why not use it in Puris? That was my second variety - Beet root puris. For the third variety, I chose carrot (Gajar). Beet root and carrot both are root vegetables and sweet to taste. I decided to make one sweet variety and the other two savory.

So, here is Puri recipe - three way.

Ingredients:
For carrot puris:
1 large carrot - boiled and mashed,

1/2 cup of sugar,

A pinch of salt

1 cup wheat flour

water to knead the dough

For spinach puris:
1 cup of spinach leaves - blanched and cut finely,

1 tbsp of sesame seeds,

1 tbsp of carrom seeds (Ajwain),
1/2 tbsp Kasuri methi,
1 tsp chili powder,
1 tsp garam masala,
Salt as per taste,
1 tbsp besan flour,
1/2 tsp fenugreek powder (Methi) (optional)
3/4 cup wheat flour,
1 tbsp yogurt,
water to knead the dough

For beetroot puris:
1 medium sized beetroot - peeled, boiled and mashed,
1 tbsp of sesame seeds,
1 tsp chili powder,
1/2 tsp fenugreek powder (Methi) (optional),
1 tsp chili powder,
salt as per taste,
3/4 cup wheat flour,
1 tbsp yogurt,
water to knead the dough

Oil for frying

Cut carrot, boil it and drain the water. Mash the boiled carrots. You can retain this boiled vegetable water for soups. In a flat vessel,  add sugar to the mashed carrots, a pinch of salt and add wheat flour slowly. Mix little wheat flour and keep kneading. Add more wheat flour to get dough consistency. The dough is soft like paratha dough. Keep it covered for 15 minutes. Make small balls and keep it ready for rolling.

Peel beet root, cut it into pieces and boil. Drain the water from beet root and store it for vegetable stock or soups. Mash the boiled beetroot. Take a separate plate or a flat vessel for mixing this dough. Add sesame seeds, chili powder, fenugreek powder, yogurt and salt. Mix it well and slowly start adding wheat flour. Keep mixing and add more water if needed to get a good dough. Adjust water and wheat flour to get the right dough consistency - like paratha or chapati dough. Keep it covered for 15 minutes. Make small balls and keep it ready for rolling.

Blanch spinach and chop it fine. In a separate bowl or plate, mix spinach with kasuri methi, sesame seeds, carrom seeds, chili powder, garam masala, fenugreek powder, yogurt, salt and besan flour. Mix it well. Add little by little wheat flour, mixing it well. Add more wheat flour or water as needed to get the right dough consistency. Keep it covered for 15 minutes. Make small balls and keep it ready for rolling.

Keep two separate kadhais for frying puris - one for sweet carrot puris and the other for savory beetroot and spinach puris. Heat kadhai and add oil. Keep the flame on medium and start rolling puris. I chose to finish rolling sweet puris first and then started rolling savory puris. Once the oil is hot, test the oil by putting a tiny portion of the dough in boiling oil. It should come up to the surface instantly. This means the oil is well heated for frying. Fry all varieties of puris and let it cool down. Once cooled down, store them in tight air lid containers.

Tip: If you want to make these puris vegan, skip the yogurt and just use water for kneading the dough.

You can have these puris as snacks or with a vegetable gravy as meals. They stay fresh for at least a week (that is if they are not finished by then). :)

Enjoy!

Mushroom Masala ( अळंबीची भाजी )

I started enjoying mushrooms recently. I have not experimented much with mushrooms yet, this is the only dish I cook. All these years, I never cooked them, for some reason, I thought they were heavy to digest. I remember eating mushroom flavored dish in a restaurant long back and having a tummy upset. Ever since then, I did not have mushrooms, even while ordering a dish at a restaurant, I would specifically ask them not to add mushrooms!
I am trying to cut dairy and oil from my diet, relying solely on plant based food to get all the nourishment. While doing grocery shopping, my husband picked mushrooms few months back, and I thought, "why not give it another try?"

So here I am, enjoying mushroom gravy now :)

I have used water based seasoning for this recipe, you can use oil instead, if you want to.

Ingredients:
6-8 white mushrooms, sliced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp garam masala,
salt as per taste,
jaggery as per taste (optional)
coriander leaves for garnish

for grinding:
1/4 cup grated coconut,
a handful of cashew nuts, soaked
1/2 tsp jeera,


for seasoning:
2 tbsp water,
1/2 tsp mustard seeds,
a pinch of asafoetida,
1/2 tsp cumin or jeera,
1/2 tsp turmeric,
5-6 curry leaves
3-4 green chillies,
1/2 tsp grated ginger,
10-15 cashew nut pieces,

Serving: 2-3 people

In a heated kadhai (pan) add water for the seasoning. When the water starts bubbling up, add mustard seeds, asafoetida and jeera. Let it simmer for a minute. Add rest of the seasoning ingredients and cover it with lid for another minute. Now add chopped onion and mix well. Let it cook for 2 minutes, covering the pan with lid. Next, add diced tomatoes and stir. Let the tomatoes cook for 5 minutes. Add garam masala and sliced mushrooms. Cook for few more minutes. Next add salt, jaggery as per your taste and let the gravy simmer for some time until mushrooms are almost cooked.
Grind together coconut, cashew nuts and jeera with little bit of water to form a chutney consistency mixture. Add this coconut mixture to the simmering gravy. Adjust water in the gravy to get the required consistency. Simmer for 8-10 minutes. The curry will thicken with coconut and cashew paste mixture.

Enjoy this curry as a side dish or with rice or chapati. It goes well with bread too.

Banana Berry Smoothie ( बनाना बेरी शेक )

Banana Berry Smoothie

1 large orange, peeled
1/4 cup blueberries
1/2 cup raspberries
1 kiwi, peeled
1 banana, peeled
4-5 blackberries (optional)
4-5 strawberries (optional)

Juice the orange manually or using a juicer. Add the remaining ingredients and orange juice to a blender and blend until smooth. You can enjoy it fresh or refrigerate it for an hour and serve it chilled.