Zucchini and Artichoke stuffed Portabella Mushrooms

OMG it is HOT!!! The heat-wave is not showing any signs of dying down! It is times like this when I dread having an overactive metabolism!! I am effortlessly covered in sweat, GROSS!! Three showers a day and tons of deodorant is not cutting it for me, I am a hygiene freak!! Along with being tanned all the time, this 1000 degree heat is killing my desire to cook! Confession, I have not cooked a lot of Indian food over the past month. Although, I have been living off salads and cold sandwiches majority of the time, I have started using my oven a lot more and have been trying my hands at baking. This way, I get 'my cooking time' with minimal exposure to the heat. 

I have always wanted to do something creative with portabella mushrooms. Given my new trip of increased oven usage; stuffing and baking portabella mushrooms seemed like a good idea. The other day, I came across palm sized mini-portabella mushrooms at trader-joes, instantly I started imagining a crunchy flavored stuffing. A combination of sweet onions, zucchini, and artichoke did not seem like a bad idea. Tossing the prepared stuffing in bread crumbs helped enhance the crunchy flavor. The only thing that I might do differently the next time, is probably, add one or two table spoons of pasta sauce. This will allow the stuffing to remain moist even after it has baked. Overall, I really liked this dish, I think it can be served as a finger-food appetizer or eaten as a side.   

Serving: 2
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 8 mins
Baking Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 38 mins

Ingredients 
Six mini portabella mushrooms
1 zucchini, sliced or grated
1/4 sweet onion, chopped
2 tbs minced garlic-ginger-jalapeno
2 tbs grated cheddar cheese
3 tbs grated fresh parmesan cheese (2 tbs for stuffing and 1 tbs for garnish)
2 tbs chopped artichoke hearts (I used the marinated ones you get at trader-joes)
2 tsb bread crumbs
2 tbs olive oil 
salt to taste

Directions

1)  Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees

2)  In the meantime, on medium flame, heat two tbs of olive oil in a large skillet. Once oil is hot, add minced ginger-garlic-jalapeno, saute for 2 minutes, add onion and cook for 2 more minutes

3) Toss in the zucchini and let the veggies cook for 4 minutes, occasionally sautee, so veggies do not burn. Season with salt, remove from heat, and transfer to a mixing bowl

4) Add chopped artichoke, cheddar cheese, 2 tbs parmesan cheese and bread crumbs

5) Wash and pat-dry mushrooms, carefully remove stems, using your hands lightly rub olive-oil on each mushroom

6) Divide the filling among the mushrooms caps (about 2 tbs per mushroom), garnish with reserved parmesan cheese

7) Lightly grease baking sheet with olive oil. Place the filled mushrooms on baking sheet. Bake for 15 to 20 mins. Remove from oven and serve 

Meatless Stuffed Bell Peppers

A few weeks ago we had our friends over for brunch. While we have had friends over for lunch, dinner, even breakfast, we never really had people over for brunch. Hence, I decided to take a non-conventional route with the menu, by deciding not to make the regular Indian meal that my family and friends have become so fond-off over the years. I tested uncharted waters with ‘brunchie’ foods, and oh my! It was fun doing that! I went all-out making sure that we had a spread of items… starting with the drinks, appetizers, mains and finally dessert. Another different thing that I did was delegate the drinks and dessert :o).  It was nice to have the husband share some of my pre-party stress along with the post-party tipsiness. He made white-wine sangria (that actually changed color to pink-orange, thanks to all the berries and orange) and a kiwi-caprioska (recipe – courtesy spoonforkbacon.com). Both cocktails were delicious! Sort of stole some of my thunder with the other items! Hear hear to some spouse-rivalry ;o)

(The sangria pre additional white wine)

For the starters, while we had multiple items…we kept it simple – cheese and fruit plate, multiple dips and preserves.

And for the mains, I took it up a notch, by coming-up with three different recipes, including the one for this blog-post: Meatless Stuffed Bell-Peppers. (Well! I did not come up with the recipes the day off. But did a trial run a weekend before, tested the dishes on the husband - my most loyal test subject, got his approval and then decided to included them in the list of things to serve the day-off). At the expense of not sounding too cocky, another smart thing that I did was organizing and pre-prepare a few of the items the night before. Like cooking the stuffing for the peppers or marinating the brussles sprouts or even chopping a few of the veggies the night before. This made the morning of the brunch less stressful.

Coming back to the recipe – meatless stuffed peppers falls into my mantra for what a recipe should be –  easy to prepare, does not need too many ingredients, and is hands-off when baking, oh yes let me not forget – it is tasty too :o).

Servings – 8

Prep time – 15 minutes

Cooking time - 15 minutes

Baking time – 1 hour

Ingredients

8 multi-colored peppers

250 grams meatless ground soy-protein (I used Yves)

½ cup cooked orzo, cooled to room temperature

3 tbs of olive-oil

1/2 cup of marinara sauce

5 cloves of garlic, minced

2 jalapeno peppers, minced (optional)

4 mushrooms, chopped (any type is fine)

½ a zucchini, chopped

2 shallots, chopped

A hand-full of sweet corn kernels (I get mine from trader-joes)

10 black olives, pitted and halved

1 cup grated fresh-parmesan cheese

Salt to taste

¼ cup of warm water

Basil leaves (for garnish)

Special equipment – Deep baking dish

Directions

1)      Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees F

2)      For the peppers – cut off their tops and discard the seeds and membranes. If needed, cut a very thin slice from the base - this will allow the peppers to stand up. Set aside

3)    In a skillet,  heat 3 tbs of olive-oil on medium heat. Once the oil is hot add shallots and sauté for about 30 seconds, add chopped garlic and jalapeno peppers. Sautee for 2 minutes

4)      Add the soy protein and sauté for 10 minutes on medium-low heat

5)      Add mushrooms, corn, zucchini and salt, let the ingredients cook for another 5 minutes

6)      Stir-in marinara sauce and bring the dish to a boil, mix in olives and turn off the heat

7)      Let the mixture cool a bit and fold in the cooked orzo, allow the mixture to cool for a few minutes, set aside

8)     Pour ¼ cup of water in a deep baking dish, place the peppers in the dish. Fill the peppers evenly with the stuffing

9)     Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes

10)   Remove the foil and sprinkle cheese and place in the oven for another 15 minutes

11)   Remove from oven and carefully transfer the stuffed peppers on to a serving plate. Garnish with basil leaves

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with truffle honey

Recently, I faced a personal and professional set back. Generally, I do not let set-backs bother me. I am more of a "glass-half-full" kinda gal; however, a few days ago, I found myself overwhelmed with emotions and filled with thoughts. All I needed to do was walk into a grocery store and start shopping for produce and groceries. As my shopping cart filled up, the negative thoughts started to fade away. All it takes is a filled shopping cart to cheer up this girl. One of the items I picked up was a packet of brussels sprouts. It is very hard not to like brussels sprouts! Its one of my cheer-me-up-chucky food.



While there are multiple ways to cook this vegetable, we love eating it roasted and tossed in a spoon of truffle honey. I tried roasted brussels sprouts for the first time at Alta, a tapas restaurant in NYC, and I have been a fan ever since. I must say this recipe is fairly simple -few ingredients and requires minimal hands-on time. It is best eaten as a side, I generally club it with a pasta or qunioa dish.

Servings - 4
Prep time - 10 minutes

Marination time - 15 minutes

Baking time - 30 minutes

Ingredients

1.5 pound brussels sprouts

2 tbs of olive-oil (to be mixed with veggie) and 1 tbs to coat baking dish/tray

1 tbs of crushed red pepper

2 tsp of garlic powder or finally chopped garlic

A tea spoon of salt and pepper (or adjust according to taste)

1.5 tsp of truffle honey

1 tsb of lime juice

Directions

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2) Cut of the ends of the brussles sprouts and vertically slice in halves. Discard any loose leaves

3) In a mixing bowl, toss brussles sprouts in oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, salt and pepper. Set aside for 15 minutes

4) Coat a baking dish with 1 tbs of olive oil. Place the flat ends of the sprouts on the sheet and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Half way through the baking time you my need to shake the pan so that all sides get cooked evenly

5) Once cooked, drizzle truffle honey and mix in lime juice. Serve immediately 

Psst....I also recently learned, that some husbands like it charred :o) 

Spicy Szechuan Udon Noddles Stir-Fry with Strip Soy

I am back!!!! I know it has been a very long time since I last posted (equivalent to 10 years if you consider it in the world of blogging). I want to shout out a big thank you and if I could give a big hug to so many of my followers and friends who reached out to me during this lull period, asking when I was going to post next or even demanding to see a new recipe. As thrilled as I was to be the recipient of all this love; work and other priorities just kept on getting in the way. While I did continue cooking, I just found it very difficult to juggle work, life and the Blog :o).  Until now, where I found myself with time to do what I really enjoy - cook, eat and blog :o).

So, without further ado here is a quick, simple, tasty and spicy recipe that will feed your hunger for fiery-hot Asian noodles. I came up with this recipe last night, after I was unable to find a spicy vegetarian recipe that includes soy, bok-choy and szechuan-sauce on the internet. Maybe I just did not search that long, oh well, I always find it easier to innovate, rather than hunt. Eventhough, this recipe includes a melody of veggies, its short cooking time makes all the chopping worth it! You do not need to stick to the veggies I used in this recipe, once you get the basics under control; get creative!! This recipe will taste fantastic with any type veggies. I plan to use eggplant, water-chestnuts and baby corn next time around..slurrrpp. For all my meat eating followers, I think this recipe would taste yummy with chicken or fish. But, for now let’s just stick to soy! 

One quick method that I learned through trial and error is stir-frying the soy strips with some of the sauce prior to mixing it with the veggies, by doing so, the strips absorb the sauce and also get a nice crunchy flavor.  

Ingrediants

2 Bundles (75 grams each) of Koyo Organic Round Udon (or any udon of your choice)

170 grams soy strips (I used Smart Strips)

1 medium red bell pepper
2 baby bok-choy

4 shitake mushrooms

2 scallions

5 cloves garlic

2" peeled ginger root

1 serrano pepper (optional)

6 tbs szechuan stir fry sauce. (the brand I used is San-J gluteen free sauce)
6 cups of water
4 tbs of oil
Salt to taste

Directions

Veggi Prep
1) Mix garlic, ginger and serrano pepper in a grinder (or slap chop) and grind to a smooth paste
2) Trim of the ends of the bok-choy and separate the white part from the green part as they take longer to cook. Rinse and pat to dry and then roughly chop the white part
3) Separate the white part from the greens for the scallions, rinse and chop the white and green parts
4) Remove the stems from the shitake mushroom. Slice the mushrooms into thin vertical strips
5) Roughly chop the red-pepper


Cooking
1) Bring 6 cups on water to a rapid boil; add half tbs of oil and some salt. Throw in two bundles of udon noodles and let it cook for seven minutes. Discard the water, rinse the cooked noodles under cold water and set aside
2) While the udon noodles are boiling, heat 1 and a half table spoon of oil in a stir-fry pan (or small wok) on medium heat, after the oil is heated add in half of the ginger-garlic paste and let it cook for about 2 minutes
3) Once the paste is fragrant, add in the soy strips and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add two table spoons of szechuan sauce. (You can use one table spoon of sauce to tone down the spice level). Coat the strips with the sauce by stirring the ingrediants in the pan. Now, reduce heat, cover and cook for about 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and place the cooked soy in a bowl and keep aside
4) In the same pan, heat 2 tbs of oil on high heat, add-in the remaining ginger garlic paste and stir for 30 seconds
5) Add in the white section of the scallions and let it cook for another 30 seconds. Now throw in the chopped red peppers and white sections of the bok-choy. Stir for about one minute and add in 3 tbs of stir-fry sauce. Reduce heat to medium and let the ingredients cook for about 2 minutes. 
6) Mix in cooked soy strips, the green sections of both the bok-choy and scallion and cook for 30 more seconds (reserve a hand full of chopped scallion greens to garnish)
7) Add in the noodles and combine all the ingredients. Garnish with chopped scallion greens. Serve hot!

Black Eyed Peas Dal

As a child, my baby brother was obsessed with only eating Rajma (a red kidney bean curry). To get a break from Rajma on our dinner table, my mom created funny nicknames for other beans and lentils, convincing my brother that they were somehow related to red kidney beans. For example, she successfully allayed my brother's high-pitched demands for Rajma by narrating that black eyed peas were simply "bald" red kidney beans. And thus was born the nickname "bean-bean takaloo'"(takaloo is the word for "bald" in Hindi). Till this day we refer to black eyed peas by our household nickname. I recently realized how funny this nickname sounds to someone not familiar to my family's crazy ways, when I proudly announced to my husband that I was going to make bean-bean takaloo dal. His look of confusion said it all. Well the name does have a cute ring to it.... Doesn't it?? 

Black Eyed Pea Dal 

(Better known to the Gandhi family as Bean Bean takaloo dal)

Servings - 6

Prep Time - 10 mins (does not inclue soaking time)

Cooking Time - 20 mins

Total Time - 30 mins

Ingredients

1 cup black eyed beans (soaked for 4 hours)

2 tomatoes (grated or pureed)

1 chopped shallot 

2 tbs ginger-garlic paste

1 jalapeno pepper (optional)

2 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp garam masala

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

4 Cups of water

2 tbs oil

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Special Equipment - Pressure Cooker

Directions

1) Bring water to boil in cooker, add in beans and lock in the lid. Reduce heat to medium and let it cook for 5 whistles. Turn off heat and let cooker release air.

2) In a pan heat oil on medium heat. Add in cumin and mustard seeds, once the seeds start to crackle add in garlic-ginger paste and chopped jalapeno pepper. Sautee for 2 minutes and then add in chopped shallot. Let is cook for about 5 minutes

3) Add in coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and sauté until fragrant

4) Mix in tomato puree cook for another 10 minutes. Reduce heat to avoid burning. The mixture is cooked once oil starts to separate 

5) Open lid of the pressure cooker and turn on the heat on medium-low. Add mixture to the beans and mix in salt to taste. Bring to a boil and occasionally stir* and then garnish with cilantro

* If you feel the consistency is too think add 1/2 cup of water

Alphonso Mango Cake

I had a short hiatus from posting my recipes on SimplyVeggie, as I have been traveling and eating out, a lot. I was in Mumbai for a good part of November and December, I returned to New York 10 pounds heavier, 100 memories fuller and just in time for a friends wedding in DC. Before I knew it, December came around, one of my favorite times of the year - the city gets dressed up (glittering lights, ribbons, and garlands on every lamp posts), our calendar gets filled up with holiday parties, and we get to spend time with family and friends.....And the awesome spreads......You cant help but overeat at potluck holiday parties with so much tasty food to sample. No wonder hitting the gym after the holidays is the most common new years resolution.  

Still nostalgic about Mumbai, I decided to make Alphonso Mango Cake with mango whipped cream frosting for a holiday dinner party this year. Alphonso is a special type of mango that is famous for its sweetness, richness, and fiberless texture. I love love love Alphonso mangoes!! it is one of my favorite fruits. The season for this fruit is typically April to June - which is summers in India. Growing up, I spent countless summers indulging in Alphonso mangoes. In the US, the fruit is not easy to come by, as you probably will not find them in your local grocery store. My craze for this fruit led me to drop $45 for a box of six mangoes, that were even not the best quality. This was before I learned that the fruit is easily available in pulp or canned slices through out the year (not the most organic, but it suffices). You will find Alphonso mango pulp or slices at your local Indian store. The brand I generally stick to is Swad's - Ratnagri Alphonso mango. 


The cake is easy make, can be eaten warm or cold, with the frosting or without. I hope you enjoy it with loved ones this holiday season....Happy Holidays!!


Alphonso Mango Cake

Servings - 12
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Baking Time: 60 minutes
Total Time: 80 minutes


Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tbs orange juice

1 cup mango puree

1/2 cup chopped walnuts
9" baking pan

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease your baking tin

2) Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well

3) Separately mix flour and baking soda, and then blend into the creamed mixture

4) Fold in buttermilk, orange juice, mango puree and chopped nuts. Pour batter in pan*

5) Bake for 40-50 minutes. Once baked, remove from oven and let it stand for 20 mins.

*Tip - Avoid filling the pan till the rim, this will give the cake rising space

Mango - Frosting

1 cup whipping cream

2/3 cup mango puree
2/3 cup sugar

Directions

1) Using a electric mixer beat the whipping cream until thick and you can make peaks

2) Fold in sugar and mango puree
3) Chill in the fridge

Assembling

1) Let the cake cool for 20 mins. Remove from baking tin and level
2) Use a spatula to spread frosting on cake
3) Decorate with the fruit of your choice. (I used a tin of mango slices and six thinly sliced strawberries

Red Radish and Bartlette Pear Salad

Happy Wednesday!! It has been a busy few-weeks for me, with days getting shorter my work hours seem to be getting longer. When I tend to get busy I start snacking on all the wrong things, so last night I decided to make something healthy and quick. Here is a salad that will bring some color to your week - Red Radish and Bartlette Pear Salad. It is simple, fast, a good side that can be made within a matter of minutes. The not-so cold weather over the past few days inspired me to come up with this recipe. I can't believe that it is the middle of November, and New-Yorkers could grab outdoor meals multiple times over this week and last week. 

Since, radish and pear have strong natural flavors, I kept the dressing for this salad very simple - I used lime juice for citrus and truffle honey for sweet. Adding zuma tomatoes gave a nice pop of color and complemented the overall flavor. Even though I did not use nuts or cheese in this salad, I believe if used they will only enhance the flavor of  this salad. Enjoy!

Servings: 2
Prep time: 10 minutes     
Cooking time: 0 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes


Ingredients
3 red radishes, sliced
1 Bartlette pear diced
handful of zuma tomatoes halved
2 cups spring mix or any salad mix 


Dressing Ingredients
Juice from 1/2 a lime 
1 tsp of honey (I used truffle honey)
1 tsp olive oil
salt to taste




Directions
1) Mix all the dressing ingredients in a screw top jar and shake well. Keep aside
2) Toss radish, pears and tomatoes in a mixing bowl

3) Plate the spring mix on two salad plates, layer the fruit-vegetable mix on top. Drizzle the dressing