Spicy Tomato and Orzo Soup - Vegan

Winter is nearly on us. Here the temperature is touching 4 C. Well, I know it is not much when compared to some parts of the world. But we are getting used to the English weather and so it is cold for us. I have fished out my scarfs and gloves. Am now dreading the morning when I have to scrape ice of my car's windshield. That is another 10 minutes added to the morning.

Vegan Calzone with Homemade Cashew Pesto Sauce

Th easiest way to defines a Calzones is to call it a folded up Pizza. The outside of the calzone is basically the same as a pizza dough. You can fill it up with sauce, cheese and toppings. Fold and bake. Easy, right?

Now today I am presenting to you the best Calzone you will ever eat. The Sauce is just out of the world (and healthy too). And what's more. This calzone is quite easy to make. It will work great in lunch boxes or for picnics as well.

Chocolate Vanilla Marble Cake - Zebra Cake

Chocolate Vanilla Marble cake has been in my list of cakes for a long long time. Something about this simple butter cake is Magical. I found an interesting cake recipe and decided to follow it. This is my first cake/bake using the Bundt pan that I bought recently. I looked high and low for a decent priced Bundt pan and was glad when I found one in a nearby Supermarket.

Vegan Black Beans, Sweet Potato and Oats Burger - Super Healthy Recipe

Burger has a very bad reputation. Whenever someone thinks of Burger, the thing that comes to most of our minds is the fast food restaurant. That does not make a healthy burger, does it. But it does not have to be like that. Burger could be a super healthy meal if you take the effort to do it. This burger is loaded with Veggies, beans and oats. The flavour and texture of this burger is just amazing.

Vegan Heart Beet Bread - Beetroot Bread - Valentine Bread

Wishing all my readers a very Happy Valentine's Day. When you are a blogger who needs to take care of your blog baby, you end up celebrating most festivals twice. It is a sentiment you will understand only if you are a blogger. The recipes need to make it to the blog before the day of the celebration so that the readers can use it to cook for the festival. Then ofcourse, I have to make something for us, don't I?

Vegan Black Bean and Vegetable Soup

Soups are just the thing for a cold winter day. A bowl of warm soup, some bread and a book to cozy up with. This soup is very precious to me. Want to know why?

Well, you might think it is funny. It is cause of the black beans. When we lived in US, I used to get black beans when ever I needed it for Soups, Mexican food, Burgers etc. Here in the UK, I found out the hard way that you do not get Black beans at all. Yep, you heard me right. So where did I get this one from?

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Pancakes with Strawberry Sauce - Valentine Special - Vegan Option

Valentines Day is just a  few days away. So what are you special plans for the day? How about some yummy breakfast in bed for your loved one?

Nothing says Romance like Strawberries with its beautiful red colour and sweet taste. How do we make it even better? Pair it with some Chocolate. Now you are in heaven, Pancake Heaven.

Stove Top Mac and Cheese with Peas - Kids Lunch Box 3

Lunch - Mac and Cheese, Mini Apple Pie. Apple Pie recipe here.

Vegan Naturally Coloured Red Velvet Cupcakes - Eggless Red Velvet Cake - No Artificial Colour

February is a month with Romance in the air. Whether you care or not, it is hard not to get caught up in the festivities. Valentine's Day is here and you might as well celebrate and enjoy! Now when it comes to celebration, what better way to celebrate than with a piece of cake?

Red Velvet Cake fits the romantic bill perfectly. The beautiful red colour contracted by the white frosting... hmmm, yumm!! The cake has a hint of cocoa and of course as the name suggests, it is red in colour. The frosting is usually Cream Cheese.

Vegan Pancakes - Eggless, Butterless Pancakes

Pancakes are light fluffy breakfast treats made with flour, eggs and milk. I was introduced to them when I moved to America. I had my first pancakes at iHop Restaurant. They make good pancakes and they provide you with an array of syrups to top your pancakes with. Plus you can order them with a variety of fruits. What's not to love.

Vegan Mashed Potato

Mashed Potatoes are a very popular side dish served in America and England. Though I love potatoes in most forms, this is one form that I never took a liking to. But little one and husband love it. Its probably their favourite potato recipe. I prepared this Vegan Healthy Mashed Potato with my Christmas Dinner.

Vegan Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Brussel Sprouts have a reputation of being hated by most people. But we love these oven roasted sprouts. I made this as part of our Christmas Dinner.

Vegetarian Christmas and Thanksgiving Dinner (Mostly Vegan)

Wishing all my readers a very Happy New Year 2014. Hope you all had a good holiday and are ready to start the new year! We also enjoyed a few wonderful days at home. Loads of celebration and what celebration is complete without food.

Snowball Cookies - Russian Tea Cookies - Mexican Wedding Cookies - Eggless Cookie

Snowball Cookies also called as the Mexican Wedding Cookies or the Russian Tea Cookies are the simplest cookies you will ever bake. They are quite an interesting cookie to eat, very different from your Chocolate chip cookies or Oatmeal raisin cookies. (I have the recipes for those too, if are looking for them).

We had loads of fun baking these today. Just in time for Santa. Am sure our Santa will be superpleased with the treat we are offering him. The weather is windy and rainy today.  So Santa is sure to appreciate these wonderful snowball cookies that we are going to leave for him under the tree. 

Hershey's Ultimate Chocolate Brownies

Brownie Baking is becoming a routine in our household. All of us love brownies. I have already posted a couple of brownie recipe in my blog.

Triple Chocolate and Coffee Brownie (easy to make and a family favourite)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Brownie (for the love of PBJ)

They have all been baked quite a few times and shared too! Has been a bit hit every time.

Ginger Bread Man Sugar Cookies (Ice Box Cookies)

Gingerbread cookies are just every kids love. I made a version of gingerbread cookies (with the ginger bread flavours) last year. See recipe here. This year my son wanted to make some sugar cookies. The key for him was to decorate the cookies with chocolates. Well, no surprise there, is there? I made a big batch and froze the dough in portions. Have made cookies of many shapes with these. Just pop the dough in the fridge overnight and you are ready to bake. Cookies will be ready in 20 min (5 min to roll and cut, 10 min to bake and well another 5 to cool)

Chocolate Chunk Cookies with White Chocolate

I think it is safe to say that Chocolate Chip cookies are by far the most popular variety of cookies. Who doesn't like Chocolate, right? I decided to make these cookies with big chunks of chocolate. Very easy to put together. Make the dough in bulk and you can freeze it after shaping. Whenever you want to make a dozen cookies, just take it from the freezer and pop it straight to a preheated oven.

Baked Glazed Donut

Donuts or Doughnuts are quite popular in America (and now the rest of the world). There are 2 kinds of donuts - cake donuts and yeasted donuts. I have posted the yeasted donuts once before (cinnamon sugar donuts). That time it was the fried version. This time I am presenting to you the baked version of the donuts

These tasted really good. Personally I liked these better than the fried donuts that I made. But some people in our group felt they will stick to fried version.

Soft Dinner Rolls - Laadi Pav

Dinner rolls are just perfect for soups or just to pass around the table, to eat with butter or just to dip in some olive oil as a pre dinner snack. And here is the perfect recipe for a super soft fluffy dinner roll.

As an Indian, the dinner roll ofcourse takes a whole new meaning. Yes, Pav. Pav Bread is used for the famous chaats of Mumbai like Pav Bhaji, Misal Pav, Vada Pav etc. Check out the recipes for all the chaats in my site. Hope you try some of them

If you are looking for a hard rolls (no they are not hard inside, harder shell and soft inside) for sandwiches, check out here.

Recipe from here

Ingredients

Bread Flour (Or All Purpose Flour) 420 gms to 480 gms (3.5 - 4 cups)
Instant Yeast 1.5 tsp
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1 tbsp
Milk 1.5 cups
Butter 1.5 tbsp
Butter for Brushing 1 tbsp

Method of Preparation

1. Take the flour (420 gms - 3.5 cups), yeast, salt and sugar in a bowl. Mix well.

2. Warm the milk and butter together till it is warm and the butter melted. Mix well.

3. Add the milk to the bowl and knead well till it starts to come together. I use my stand mixer to do this. You can do by hand as well.

4. When it starts to pull together, add the extra flour as needed till you get a soft dough, just short of being sticky. I needed 3 tbsp of flour.

5. Shape into a neat round and place it in a well oiled bowl. Cover and let it rest till it is doubled in size (about an hour or 2).

6. Punch out the air and divide the dough into 15 equal portions. I find it easier just to weigh the dough and divide the weight by the number of pieces I want. Then divide each portion to that weight. I know it kind of sounds obsessive. But once you do 3-4 pieces you get an idea and you do not need to weigh and you get really uniform bake on the rolls.

7. Grease a 9*13 baking tray with some oil.

8. Shape each portion into a perfect round. Place it on the baking tray in a 5*3 rows and columns, fairly close to each other, but leaving a little space



9. Cover and let it rise till doubled. It will take another 30-45 min.



10. Preheat the oven to 220 C.

11. Bake the rolls for 10 min. The top would start to brown by now.

12. Take it out. Brush with the melted butter.

13. Bake for another 5 min till it is nicely browned on the top.



14. Let it cool on the tray for a few min and the cool on a wire rack.

Serving Suggestion - Check out the recipe for Bhaji here (coming soon). Its a popular Mumbai street food using this bread!

Vegetarian Chili with Quinoa - Vegan

Chili Con Carne or Chili as it is popularly known as is made of beef and spicy peppers in a tomato sauce. Ofcourse, being a Vegetarian means that I have to adapt this recipe to fit our dietary needs. Usual substitution for any mexican style beef or chicken based dish is beans. So it is no surprise that this version has some in it. Black beans would have been great along with kidney beans. But I could not find any, so settled for just kidney beans. Now for an interesting twist. Saw this recipe and knew I would love it. She had used Quinoa in the Chili. We are big fans of Quinoa at home ever since we first ate it and I always stock it in my pantry.



Vegetarian Chili had been in my list for a long long time. A few years ago, when I was pregnant with my little one, I had to travel on business. I already have a lot of dietary restrictions and add the morning sickness to it and it was a scary trip. On the top of that, it was a meeting at a client location and we went to Philadelphia. I somehow wanted to skip lunch and not be embarrassed in front of the client. But somehow got pulled into the lunch. It was the best lunch I had ever eaten and yes, you guessed it right. I did eat a Veggie Chilli  there and it was just out of the world.

You can serve this as a meal or like a soup with some bread or eat it with some Tortilla Chips!



Can I tempt you with some??



Ingredients

Quinoa 1/2 cup cooked with 2 cups of water
Onion 1
Garlic 4 pods
Tomato 1 can
Tomato Puree 100gms
Green Pepper 1
Big Green Chilli (Jalapeño) 1
Big Red Chilli 1
Water 2 cups (or as required)
Cocoa Powder 1 tsp
Chilli Powder 1 tsp
Coriander Powder 1/2 tsp
Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Salt 1-2 tsp (or as required)
Sugar 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder 1/2 tsp
Frozen Sweet Corn (thawed) 1 cup
Kidney Beans 1 can
Juice of Lemon 1/2
Coriander leaved a handful

Method of preparation

1. Heat a little oil in a pot. Add onions and saute for a few minutes.

2. Add chopped garlic and saute for another minute.

3. Add peppers and chillies (finely chopped) and saute till it starts to cook.

4. Add tomato paste and canned tomatoes. Add the cocoa powder, chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, pepper salt and sugar along with water.

5. Bring to boil and then simmer till everything is cooked and the sauce thickens.

6. Cook the quinoa in a separate pan. Add it to the simmering stew.

7. Finally add the corn, beans, coriander leaves and lime juice. Mix erevything together and simmer till it is all heated through.

This post is for the Palooza (Anu, Radhika and Me) Theme this month. We will be making some awesome soups to suit the season.