One Pot Vegetable Stew

I am a big fan of one dish meals. Who wouldn't like it if you could have all the flavors and nutrients in one dish instead of cooking a couple different dishes? These one pot wonders often cook in my kitchen. Though rice tops when it comes to one dish meals, stews and pastas are also the tough contenders when it comes to balanced meals.

One Hot Stove, the host for Blog Bites event is hosting its eighth edition this month, which by the way ends in a few hours. And I am gonna make it just in time :) The theme for this month's BB8 is One Dish Meals, and here is my entry.

Vegetable Stew

(adapted from this recipe)

This is a very simple and versatile stew. All you need is some veggies and spices of your choice. I used onion, potato, carrot, bell pepper, corn, tomato and black eyed peas.


1. In a pot heat 2 tsp oil and add a clove of garlic - grated or minced.

2. Add 1 small onion diced, and saute until translucent.

3. Next add half a carrot and 1 small potato and let them cook for a while.

4. Add pepper, corn, tomato and cooked beans of your choice along with 3 cups of water or vegetable stock.

5. Season with red chilli powder, cumin powder, a teaspoon of sugar (optional) and salt to taste. Feel free to use the spices of your choice. Let simmer for about 15-20 minutes on a medium heat.

6. Serve hot with a dollop of sour cream and toasted bread. Alternatively you can toss in some short cut pasta as the stew simmers.

With proteins from the beans; carbs, vitamins and fibers from veggies and whole grain bread/pasta, this one pot stew is a complete meal. And now off it goes to BB8!

Veggie Cutlets

As a kid I loved everything that was coated with bread crumbs slightly fried on oil, and I still do. Mom used to make veggie cutlets quite a few times. My brother and I loved them for all the tasty reasons and mom loved making them because that way she made us eat all those veggies that we normally would not eat. She also made sure that those weren't too oily. If you don't like certain veggies, this is a good way to eat them. Potato is the important ingredient in this dish as it binds the veggies together.

Ingredients:
3 boiled potatoes (mashed)
1 medium onion (chopped)
2 cups carrot (peeled & shredded)
1 cup green peas
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp red chilli powder (more or less as per taste)
Salt to taste
Oil
Bread crumbs for coating


1. In a pan saute the carrots and onions until tender. You can add the veggies of your choice. Shredded beets can be used instead of carrots.
2. Add mashed potato, peas, red chilli powder and salt, and mix very well. Make sure that potatoes you add aren't too mushy.
3. Take some of this mixture and form patties. Coat all sides of this patty with bread crumbs.
4. Coat the bottom of a skillet with some oil and fry both sides of the patty until bred crumbs turn golden-brown. Serve with tomato ketchup.

The above mix makes about 20-22 palm size cutlets.

Potatoes for Fasting

Fasting is such a common thing among Indians. Though fasting means voluntarily not eating food for varying lengths of time, fasting can be a feast. There are various reasons for fasting most of them being religious. In India, on a fasting day some people would not eat or drink at all, some will only drink water and some will only eat specific kind of food. For my grandmother fasting was a weekly thing and for us kids it was a weekly feast :) Foods that are typically eaten on fasting include sago, potatoes, sweet potatoes, shingada, fruits and nuts mainly peanuts. Ghee is used instead of oil in such preparations. Sabudana khichadi and shingada thalipeeth were the two dishes that my granny made often. Then there was this potato dish that we kids simply loved and always demanded. In Marathi it is called 'Upasachi Batata Bhaji'. Today I had two large boiled potatoes leftover from previous day and 'A' demanded :p this upasachi bhaji. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2)
2 large potatoes (boiled and diced)
1/4 cup coarsely ground peanuts
5-6 green chillies (cut into pieces)
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste


Making these potatoes is a simple two step process. First, heat ghee and add cumin seeds and green chillies. Then add potatoes, peanuts, salt and sugar. Mix well and let it cook for about a minute or so. Top it off with cilantro and serve.

Kacchi Dabeli

Living in the US, street food is something that I really miss. Especially during summer when we go for long walks or may be sometimes when we are sitting in the park, I always say to myself "Ah...I wish there was a chaat vendor or a dabeli vendor". The cravings are so strong that within the next two days some chaat dish is in the making in my kitchen. Two days back while cleaning the freezer I noticed a bottle of dabeli masala. Last time I remember making dabeli was probably 2 years back. I was thinking... has it really been two years? Wow...that's a really long time. So I had to make this now. Of course I bought a new packet of masala :)

Kacchi dabeli is one of the popular street foods in Maharashtra. In Pune, there is practically one dabeli vendor at the corner of every main street or in every residential area. Dabeli is made by stuffing potato mixture inside bread (such as dinner rolls or hamburger buns) and lightly toasting both sides in butter. Here is how to make it.

Ingredients:
(Serves 4-6)
3 medium potatoes (boiled and mashed)
1 medium chopped onion
1.5 tsp dabeli masala (more or less as needed)
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Handful of pomegranate arils
2-3 tbsp tutti-frutti(optional)
12 Dinner rolls or hamburger buns
Handful of salted/ masala peanuts (optional)
Tamarind-date chutney (sweet)
Thin shev (optional)
1 small onion - finely chopped
3-4 tbsp Butter/ vegetable spread
For tempering:
2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
A pinch of asafoetida and turmeric
1. First step in the making of dabeli is to make potato stuffing. Make the tempering and add to it chopped onion. Saute until tender.
2. Add mashed potato, salt, red chilli powder and dabeli masala; and mix well.

3. Take a dinner roll and split it open. Slather the inside with sweet tamarind-date chutney.
4. Add some potato stuffing, peanuts, pomegranate arils, tutti frutti and finely chopped onion.
5. Heat the pan, add some butter and lightly toast the bread (both sides).
6. Sprinke some thin shev if you like and serve hot.

Sweet Tamarind-Date Chutney:
Take tamarind and dates (I use pitted dates) in the ratio of 1/2:2. Add some water to it and microwave for about a minute (this will make both tamarind and dates soft and easy to squish). Squish it and strain the pulp. Add some jaggery (taste for sweetness) and a pinch of salt. Also add cumin powder if you like. Sweet chutney is ready.

Aloo-Methi Paratha

I am kind of a picky eater when it comes to some greens. If not eating greens was an option, I wonder how many people would actually eat them. But if you can use greens to make something so delicious and tasty, you would definitely eat them :) I simply love aloo- methi(potato-fenugreek) parathas for this reason. You can eat them for breakfast, lunch, brunch, and even dinner. The stuffing can be made ahead of time. You can also make a little extra stuffing and may be use it again within 3/4 days for a hearty and healthy breakfast. So here is the recipe.

For the stuffing you need-
4 medium potatoes - boiled, peeled and mashed/ grated
1 bunch of methi (fenugreek leaves) coarsely chopped or 1 cup frozen methi(you can also use kasuri methi which is dried fenugreek leaves)
5/6 green chillies paste or finely chopped(more or less as per your taste)
Juice of one fresh lemon or less depending upon your taste
1 Tsp sugar
1/4 Tsp Ginger-garlic paste
Salt to taste
For tempering-
1/2 Tsp oil
1/4 Tsp mustard seeds
A pinch of asafoetida
A pinch of turmeric

In a pan add some oil and make tempering. Add chopped methi and saute it for a minute or two. Take the pan off heat and add mashed/grated potatoes, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, sugar and salt. Mix it well. The stuffing will look like this -


For making the dough take some whole wheat flour and add to it a pinch of salt and a couple of pinches of turmeric. Add water and mix well until a soft ball is formed. Add some oil and kneed the dough properly. To make parathas, take a small ball of dough and roll it with the help of a rolling pin. Put the stuffing at the center and close all sides like you would do with a dumpling. Take some flour and roll out the paratha. It will look like this-


Now place it on a tawa and cook both sides until they are done. Paratha will become golden brown when done. When you flip it, add some oil on paratha. Your paratha is ready to eat.


Serve it with yogurt, ketchup or sour cream, or simply eat it without any condiment. It tastes even better when served hot.

Aloo Tikki

Diwali is here and we had a potluck dinner planned for this evening. I made a sweet dish and also a starter dish of Aloo tikki (potato patties). Who doesn't love potatoes? And this one is super-simple and super-yummy. All you need is just four ingredients right from your pantry - potatoes, red chilli powder, garam masala, and bread crumbs, and of course some salt.

Boil some potatoes and mash them with a fork, so that they retain their texture. Add salt, red chilli powder and some garam masala, and mix well. Divide the mixture into equal sized balls(so that tikki is about 2" in diameter). To make a tikki, press the ball between your palms and cover both sides in bread crumbs. Coat the bottom of a pan with oil and shallow fry the tikkis until golden brown. Serve it with tomato ketchup or sweet tamarind-date chutney.


I used 8-10 large potatoes which gave me 50 tikkis. I used plain bread crumbs, but you can use seasoned ones. I would suggest using red potatoes as they are less starchy and don't become very mushy.