A few years back, when I saw a fresh artichoke at the farmers market for the first time, I knew immediately that I’d be taking it home. It was so pretty, with its tightly packed petals and thick stem tinged with purple. How could I resist it? But when I got back to the house, I realized that I had one tiny problem….I had no clue how to cook artichokes....
This post is in partnership with Pure Leaf. When it comes to food “trends,” I’m usually so late to the game. Chia pudding, smoothie bowls, cauliflower smoothies… I didn’t see any of those foods coming and staying (to be honest the cauliflower smoothie thing still sounds a little gross to me). But matcha… I’ve been loving matcha before it was the cool thing to love. I can’t quite remember the first time I tried matcha....
Don’t toss those radish greens! I don’t know who got the idea that radish and turnip greens, carrot tops, kale stems, broccoli stalks, and other common veggie scraps should be discarded, but I’m here to tell you that it’s not true. At this time of year, I’m equally happy feasting on lush radish tops as I am spinach or Swiss chard. They’re not as popular, but they have a lovely peppery flavor, and they’re easy to cook....
INGREDIENTS(Recipe adapted from here) Toor dal / Tuvaram paruppu /Split gram – 1 cupMoong dal /Paasi paruppu / Cherupayar Parippu – 1/2 cupChana dal / Kadala paruppu / Bengal gram – 1/2 cupRed chilli powder – 2 tbspBlack pepper powder – 2 tspHing / Asafoetida / Perungayam – 1/2 tspJeera / Jeerakam – 1 tbspSalt – to taste INSTRUCTIONS: Dry fry all the dals separately until they turn golden brown....
Then you can prepare Kerala appam with yeast. While yeast is a reasonably good substitute for toddy in the appam batter, it does give a different flavour to the appam and not really preferred by some, including us. I don’t remember amma making appam batter with yeast ever, although she may have tried it a couple times to check how it is. To get toddy, she would generally need to give 8 rs....
I’ll cut to the chase and just start with “exciting news” part – we’re writing a cookbook! I haven’t been overly secretive about it, but it’s official… 288 pages of never-been-blogged-before vegetable-ey goodness will be out next April! (I know, I know, a whole year away – I promise it’ll be worth the wait). It’s being published by Penguin US and Penguin Canada, the teams behind some of my favorite books including Oh She Glows and What Katie Ate....
My husband Jack can’t tell a lie. Not because he’s any nicer than the rest of us, he’s just incapable of it. For example, if he made this for me and wanted to hide the fact that it’s made almost entirely of peas, it would go like this: Me: yum, what’s in this? Him: um… well not peas, that’s for sure. It’s endearing, really. He’s the most trustworthy guy you’d ever meet because he doesn’t know how to be any other way....
I’m guest posting today on A House in the Hills (one of my favorite blogs), while Sarah is in Mexico this week. I know, I’m jealous too. To compensate for my vacation-envy, I made these bright little ceviche tacos and imagined myself on the beach soaking in the sun with a margarita in hand. Whitefish gets “cooked” with lots of lime juice. And for a fun twist I made a vegetarian version using chopped up hearts of palm that was equally, (if not more), delicious than it’s pesca counterpart....
We love these cute little sandwiches. The recipe below calls for cream cheese and jam, but you can just as easily use other fillings. Try peanut butter or almond butter and jam, Nutella or cheese and ham. We used a daisy shaped cookie cutter to make ours, but any cookie cutter will work. It’s also nice to alternate the kind of bread you use when making a big batch. Recipe updated, originally posted January 2012....
Typically, usal is made with maki or moth bean sprouts. Using moong sprouts for usal is also not uncommon so I decided to go ahead and do just that. I also learnt from the book that Misal is Usal with has been spiced up a bit more and made into a kind of chaat. I really need to try making some misal at home too, a dish that I have only tried once when I visited TH’s aunt in Mumbai many years ago....
Its adapted from the fabulous VeganYumYum. Note: Fettuccine is traditionally pasta with egg in it so its not vegan by default. I bought vegan fettuccine from an organic store in Singapore. If you are vegan, please double-check the fettuccine you buy. Fettuccine in Vegan Tomato Basil Sauce Serves 2 Ingredients: 5 bundles* of (vegan) fettuccine 1 cup mushrooms, sliced thin (use any kind you like) 2 ripe tomatoes 4 cloves of minced garlic 1/4 cup raw, unsalted cashews 1 tbsp tomato paste (important) 1/3 cup water 1 tsp black pepper Fresh basil leaves, chopped 2 tbsp olive oil Salt to taste How I Made It:...
In case it isn’t obvious… I love lemons. Ending a dish with a squeeze of lemon or a bit of zest, to me, makes the whole world seem just bit brighter. And now I’m revealing my newest lemon-y obsession… lemon thyme. I have a bunch of it growing in my garden, and it just smells so amazing. Sweet, bright, fragrant… move over basil. (Ok, not really). My first thought was that this lemon thyme needs to be in a cake....
How to Make Pan Seared Salmon Burgers We keep the salmon simple. To get a really nice sear, we brush a little agave over the salmon and season with salt and pepper. When we add the salmon to a hot skillet the agave caramelizes and browns. The salmon only takes a few minutes on each side. While the salmon cooks, we make the simplest spicy mayonnaise to go with it. Start with store-bought or homemade mayonnaise then stir in chopped chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, lime juice and fresh cilantro....
Paneer parathas are delicious and definitely work the extra time if you decide to use homemade paneer for the parathas. The filling can be spiced the way you like and there are different varations. I decided to keep it simple since anything too large in the filling can cause a tear in the paratha and I am quite paranoid about that. I figured out, thanks to quite a few blogs and books out there, that one of the tricks to making smooth parathas without them tearing while rolling is to add some maida or plain flour to the atta while making the paratha dough....
Who else loves peanut butter blossoms?! If I see these festive treats on a cookie plate around the holidays, I reach for one right away. I think they’re kind of genius. Peanut butter cookies are great on their own. So are chocolate kisses. But together, this pair is completely irresistible. I love how the rich chocolate candy melds into the soft, sugar-crusted cookie. And I mean, nothing bad ever happens when peanut butter and chocolate team up....
The secret to the most flavorful, delicious stuffing is the type of bread you use. Our homemade garlic croutons guarantee the best flavor and texture for your stuffing. Our croutons can also be made up to two weeks in advance, making your life easier! Of all the traditional side dishes, stuffing is at the top of my list! My Grandma always made the best onion and sage stuffing. It was from a box, but I swear she did something to make it her own....
These oatmeal cookies are truly the best! From Sarah Copeland’s cookbook Every Day Is Saturday, they’re soft and chewy, warmly spiced, and flecked with raisins and nuts. Perfect, if you ask me. A few weeks ago, I got an intense craving for good oatmeal raisin cookies and hastily threw together ingredients that I had on hand. I ended up with oat-ball-type cookies that were…just ok, and my craving continued. So when I flipped through Every Day Is Saturday this week, Sarah’s oatmeal cookie recipe grabbed my attention....
A few days ago, my mom and I were out shopping for dinner again. As we stood in the bakery section at Whole Foods snacking on bread samples, we kept reaching for more and more pieces of this sweet potato bread. We didn’t buy any… it’s the sort of thing that’s best eaten in the store because it’s far too dangerous to have around the house. However, that night I went to bed and had a dream about making this dessert with that bread… along with pumpkin puree and coconut milk that I had leftover in my fridge....
We have a few chili recipes on the blog, and honestly, I love them all, but this is the chili I’ve made the most. It checks all the comfort boxes for me: tender ground beef cooked with beans in a hearty, flavorful, spiced tomato sauce. (Yes, I add beans to my chili, but of course, you can leave them out.) More of the most loved chili recipes on the blog include this healthier turkey chili, my vegetarian chili with quinoa and sweet potato, our white chicken chili, and this authentic Texas red chili (it’s good!...
