Broccoli is something that many avoid just due to its greenness and shape. I used to be one of those people and would avoid cauliflower too. However, growing up, I understood the need to eat green vegetables. Broccoli is a great source of Vitamin C and K. A mear 100gr of broccoli will provide you aprox 100% RDA of Vit K and above 100% RDA of Vitamin C.
For those who have an issue with the texture or taste of broccoli, this is the perfect recipe. The outsides results in crispy and salty while the center of the vegetable is still green and rich in nutrients.
Baked Broccoli
You will need –
4-6 Garlic Cloves Sliced
Ziploc Bag (or a bowl to properly mix all ingredients together)
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper according to taste – (I used 1/4 Tsp).
Broccoli
Recipe Steps –
Clean/rince broccoli thoroughly
Dry the broccoli properly
Place broccoli in mixing recipient – I used the ziplock, you could use a salad tossing bowl.
Add the oil, salt & pepper, and slices garlic cloves.
Shake / Mix well, and let it rest for 10minutes.
Bake in Oven – 25min @ 180C (It’s what it took for me) – keep checking until the broccoli is brownish in some areas – just don’t let it burn!.
This is a perfect side dish for my meats that I eat, it has the vitamins and specially because its providing me with the dietary fiber to avoid any sugars to linger around as fat.
Lets make some Chicken Seekh Kebabs at home. I love this recipe as it provides me with the proteins I am looking for and with a low-moderate amount of carbs.
Unlike the traditional recipe which is used making a Tandoor, I will pan frying the kebabs slightly and then putting them into the oven to keep them juicy and soft. I recall the school days when my mother used to make these for either a bake sale or because I was about to spend some time with my friends away – 30 reddish kebabs in a Tupperware, those memories.. which apparently some of my friends still recall!
Ingredients List –
1KG x Chicken Keema (mince)
2 x Slices of White Bread
1 x Egg
1Tbsp x Ginger & Garlic Paste
1Tbsp x Jeera Powder
1Tbsp x Coriander Powder (Dhaniya)
1Tbsp x Garam Masala Powder
A few coriander leaves
1Tbsp x Chaat Masala (Can substitute with Aamchur Powder)
1Tbsp x Tandoori Masala (optional)
1x Small onion – finely chopped
Salt according to taste
1Tbsp x Oil – Keeping Kebabs Moist in Oven.
You have to soak the 2 slices of bread in water and squeeze the water out, mix this with all the rest of the ingredients into the chicken mince – make sure everything is mixed well.
Wet your hands, grab small balls of mince and shape them into kebabs –
Chicken Kebab Mix before digging my hands into it.
There are two methods of cooking these –
With 1Tbsp of Oil, pan fry them in a pan until brownish on the outside.
Do the above until they are 1/2 cooked and 1/2 bake them in the oven.
Bake them directly in the oven.
These might not look appealing to some but rest assured they will win the belly of any meat eater – my friend in Spain initially were reluctant to see food shapped like “faeces” specially with those colors.. I mean, Indian food does not have great presentation – after the one bite, they have not forgotten the kebabs.
Chinese chicken comes in many forms and varieties, I called it Chinese because it uses vinegar and soy sauce for the main flavors. I was bored with the regular Indian tastes and asked my cook to show me something new, this dish is her sons favorite one.
Chinese Chicken
Ingredients list –
Garlic chopped – Whole flower
Red Onion chopped x 3
Green Bell Pepper Chopped x 1
Rice Vinegar (or white) x 2 1/2 Tsp
Tabasco Sauce x 1 Tsp
Soy Sauce x 1 Tsp
Salt x 1 Tsp
Black Pepper Powder x 1 Tsp
Maggi Chicken Stock Cube x 1
In a pre-heated pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, add the chopped garlic and onion and keep stirring until the onion softens and becomes brown.
Once its brown, add the seeds from within the bell pepper and stir well.
Mix in the vinegar, Tabasco, soy sauce, the diced bell pepper, salt and black pepper and stir well until the bell peppers soften a bit.
Drop in the chicken stock cube and keep stirring util the cube has properly dissolved in the mixture.
Let it cook for until the spices and cube stock have mixed into the protein and vegetables. – DONE
Koki – Indian whole wheat thin bread – Koki is ideal for breakfast, for me its a sunday thing, for others its an everyday thing – it depends on how you prepare it, what you add and your taste buds.
Koki – Whole wheat flatbread
Ingredients list – (yielded 4 x plate sized koki)
2 x red onion chopped
1 x Dhaniya (bunch)
3 x Cups of whole wheat flour
1Tsp x Salt
1/2 Cup x Oil
1 Tsp x Jeera (cumin) Powder
1 Tsp x Dhaniya (coriander) Powder
2 Tbsp x Water
Mix Flour, Salt, Jeera, Dhaniya
Add Onions and mix well
Add Water and oil and mix well
Kneed the dough thoroughly (the more you kneed, the better the taste).
Leave for 30mins.
Take a piece, flatten into disc shapes and heat on a pan. (you can spread some oil on the koki while they are being made if they start to stick to the pan).
Done – Enjoy. This is usually served with yogurt – some people like it with their Indian teas. – It definitely helps having a few pre-made if you keep eating every other hour.
Keema, or mince meat in English, is simply what it is – a dish made of mince meat and spices to give it a juicy aromatic flavor. This is one of my favorite dishes and has scope for usage with other recipes. I am going to use chicken mince as lamb is a bit heavy for me, however lamb will always have much more taste.
keema dry
You will need the following ingredients –
3 x Medium Onions Diced
1 x Whole Garlic Flower (5 pieces) finely chopped
½ x Thumb size garlic – finely chopped
2 x Tomatoes -> I grated them into a lumpy puree
1 x Small red chili – chopped
2 x Tsp Salt
1 x Tsp Haldi (turmeric)
½ x Tsp Red Chili Powder ( The coloring one)
½ x Tsp Dhaniya (coriander) powder
1 x Tsp Garam Masala
500gr x Mince Chicken
Coriander for garnish
In the order above add the ingredients.
First let the onion get brown, then add the rest up to tomatoes and let it cook.
Halfway of the tomatoes cooking add the everything leaving just the chicken mince out.
Once you see the gravy you have made is properly mixed together, add the mince chicken. – mix in well and let it cook by covering the pan for a while.
Stir to mix gravy into the mince properly.
Garnish with coriander and eat.
There you have it, Keema. Usually it has some gravy that goes with it and resembles the mexican chilli con carne dish. This particular dish can be used for many other dishes such as – Lasagne, steamed buns, hotdogs, mexican food. etc
Chicken with Spinach -> I like Indian chicken dishes and I like spinach, so why not make a combined dish. (and they were the only protein and greens I had at home).
So the dish is nothing exceptional from other indian dishes – you will notice that most spinach dishses resemble the Sindhi Palak dish I made earlier – that’s how spinach is made in India.
Ingredients list –
2 x Spinach bunch chopped
500gr x Chicken breast (or any other part you prefer)
3 x White Onion
5 x Garlic pieces – grated
1 x thumb size ginger
1 x Green Chilli
3 x Diced Green Onion
1 x Tsp – Salt
1/2 Tsp – Haldi (turmeric), Dhaniya (coriander), Garam Masala
1/2 x Red Bell Pepper
1/2 Tbsp – Soy Sauce
1 Tsp x Oyster Sauce
1 Tsp x White Vinegar
In a pressure cooker – Add the spinach, haldi, dhaniya and garam masala powder, add salt – close the lid and let it cook for 20mins – aprox 7 whistles.
In a pan, heat up some oil – add garlic and sautee until light brown
Add onion, green onion, ginger and green chilli – mix everything together.
Add the leaves of the green onion (finely chopped), thinly slieced bell pepper and keep mixing.
Add the chicken ( I dice my chicken).
Add the soy sauce, oyster sauce and white vinegar.
Add the spinach to the chicken mix you just made – regulate water / salt.
Egg Bhurji is a simple dish you can prepare in no time for breakfast or lunch – some people like having eggs for dinner too but I would not recommend it. –
Egg Bhurji
You need the following ingredients –
6 x Eggs (I used 3 egg yolks and 6 egg whites) – to reduce the cholesterol amount in the dish.
2 x Finely chopped Onion
1 x Tsp Jeera (cumin) seeds
1 x Tsp Red Chilli Powder
2 x Chopped Tomatoes
1 x Tsp Salt (according to taste)
Heat up oil in a pan and add the Jeera (cumin) powder.
Add the onion and mix until its light brown.
Add the tomatoes and mix until the water content has gone down.
Add the Egg and mix.
Add the salt – mix and taste – Done.
A very simple recipe which can be used with any tasteless ingredients – ie eggs dont really have much taste to them. – Tofu, Paneer, Cottage Cheese, other veggies etc
Lassooni Palak / Garlic Spinach dish is probably a generic dish which is used in many cuisines. For me, the first time I tried it, was at an Italian restaurant in Gran Canaria. It was served with a toasted baguette which was sliced – you were to get a spoonful of spinach and spread it on top of the bread – to enjoy as a starter with drink. This version of lassooni palak is more Indian oriented – it tasted pretty much like the Sindhi Palak recipe but much more bitter.
In a pressure cooker – add the onion and garlic – move until light brown (under no circumstance let it burn).
Mix in the potatoes.
Add the garam masala, jeera and dhaniya powder – mix well.
Add the red chilli powder.
DONE –
Optional – I like my spinach to have a tangy taste – this is usually achieved by adding tomatoes – I did not have them this time – so I added some aamchoor. (unripened mango powder)
amchoor powder
To be honest, this dish doesnt really have much variation when compared to the sindhi palak – it just has loads of garlic – hence the name.
Butter chicken is mine and pretty much many other indians favorite chicken dish. The dish has primarily an orangish color to it, some food color is used anyways to enhance its presentation. – otherwise the onion and tomatoes mixture below results into a brown color.
Ingredients for 1 KG Butter chicken dish.
Chicken to be marinated overnight :
1 kg Chicken breast – (leave them as is, i sliced them a bit thinner so they cook entirely for sure.)
250 gr Yogurt
Finely chopped mix of 6x Garlic Cloves (because indian garlic are smallish) + 1/2 Thumb size ginger
Mix the garlic and ginger into each other as much as you can. Use a blender if so to make into a paste.
Mix all ingredients into the yogurt, mix well and add the chicken to it.
Cover and leave refrigerated overnight.
a few garam masala ingredients
What you want to cook the chicken and get a barbecue texture – the one which real indian tandoors give to the tandoori chicken. You will do this now while you prepared the gravy mixture below.
I polished the black oven tray with oil so the chicken would not stick, poured the whole marinated mix onto the tray and baked.
chicken marination baking
I used my oven, if you don’t have one, you can just cook the chicken on a fry pan – try to dry out the water.
The gravy mixture :
4 x red chopped onions (small ones)
3 x small white onions
1 teaspoon Jeera seeds (cumin seeds)
1 nut mace (in the pic above, the orange thing. – its the protective cover over the nutmeg)
1 thumb size cinnamon (like in the pic above – 1 of those)
4 x elaichi (cardamon)
5 x clove seeds
1/2 star anise (dark brown looking dried flower in pic)
9 x garlic cloves
1/2 thumb sized ginger
4 x Kaju (cashew nut)
2 x kashmiri dried chilli ( the wrinkled red ones which do arent spicy)
I used a cooker but you can use a saucer too. – Add the following into it and mix until light brown – red & white onions, jeera seeds, nut mace, cinnamon, cardamon, cloves, star anise.
Once the mix is light brown, add the garlic cloves, the ginger (slice it), cashew nuts.
Add the kashmiri chillis, tomatoes and mix well until tomatoes are saucy.
Add the garam masala, haldi (turmeric), dhaniya (coriander), jeera (cumin) and mix well.
the mixture before saucing
This is the final stage –
In a blender, make the mixture above into a sauce.
In a pan, add the butter, the red chilli powder, mix until butter is dissolved and add the sauce we just made.
add salt according to taste.
mix the chicken and 1 cup of water into the pan. – DONE
Optional – i tasted the dish and wanted a stronger flavor, so i added a bit of indian chicken spice mix. I also sprinkled some methi (fenugreek leaves), the combination with the sauce gives out an amazing arome.
Lauki (bottle gourd) is a vegetable which has been grown in India for centuries. Its one of the first vegetables planted by mankind and its perfect for many recipes due to its taste.
Lauki ki Sabzi – Bottlegourd
For people who are trying to keep off carbs and calories, this vegetable is perfect, it has only 12Kcal/100gr and most of the vegetable contains water. – ideal for weight loss.
Ingredients List –
250gr Chopped Lauki (Bottlegourd)
3 x Chopped Red Onions
6 x Chopped Garlic cloves
1/2 Thumb size chopped garlic
1 Tablespoon oil
1 small green chilli
3 x Chopped Tomatoes
1 Teaspoon Jeera seeds (Cumin)
1 Teaspoon Haldi Powder (Turmeric)
1 Teaspoon Jeera Powder (Cumin)
1 Teaspoon Dhaniya Powder (Coriander)
1 Teaspoon red chilli powder
1/2 cup of water
Heat up pressure cooker and all oil.
Add jeera seeds, ginger and garlic – sautee for 1 minute
Add onion, green chilli, and stir until the mixture is brownish
Add the tomatoes, haldi, dhaniya, jeera and keep mixing until its all meshed together and is brown.
(with excess oil, you will know the mix is ready if the oil is visible from the bottom sides.)
Add the lauki, add the red chilli powder and mix well
Add the cup of water and close the pressure cooker lid, cook minimum for 5 whistles.
