A healthy breakfast to kick start your day…

I’ve turned into a pancakeaholic, and have been making pancakes by adding different ingredients each time. So far, this dates pancake is my favorite, maybe because I love dates and is such a healthy dried fruit. I’ve said a million times that my most favorite cake is made with dates, dates cake in caramel sauce. Honestly, I haven’t come across a better tasting cake than this and I am sure whoever has tried it wouldn’t debate with me at least on this.

It’s been one of those weeks when I’d been phewing a lot, done with all the phews. After all the hard work I am feeling so relieved and content. I really enjoyed preparing the poster which summarizes all the research that I had done for the past two years. Now, can’t wait to pack my bags and board the flight to Vancouver. Even though I’ve to be at the conference next week during day time, my like minded friends and I are planning to roam around a lot in the evening and for the whole day on Thursday as well. It’s definitely going to be a good break for me from researching, cooking, blogging, gardening and literally everything. Well, I keep forgetting that I am going for a conference.

So guys have a fun weekend and a week ahead as well. I’ll make sure not to check this page until I return…

Dates Pancake

Makes: 6

Ingredients

• All purpose flour or gluten free flour- 1 cup
• Dates, pitted (regular or honey dates)- 15
• Baking powder-  1 1/2 tsp
• Milk, skim- 1/2 cup or enough to make a thick batter
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp

Other ingredients

• Butter or cooking spray- to grease the pan
• Honey or Maple syrup

Preparation

• Combine all purpose flour or gluten free flour with baking powder.
• In a blender, grind the flour/baking powder mix, dates and milk to a thick batter constituency.
• Pour the pancake batter into a bowl, add the vanilla extract and combine well.
• Place a non-stick pan over medium heat, add 1/2 tbsp butter or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
• Pour a large spoonful of pancake batter on the pan.
• Let the bottom side turn golden brown in color.
• Flip it over and cook the other side as well.
• Don’t keep the heat to high as the pancake will burn very fast, so adjust the heat accordingly.
• Transfer to a plate and drizzle honey or maple syrup over it, serve warm.
• Refrigerate any leftovers as this makes a great evening snack as well.

Tips

• This pancake even without adding egg and sugar tastes very rich and delicious, dates will impart the sweetness and the richness.

Delicious chicken balls in homemade tomato sauce…

Happy Mother’s day to my dearest mom and to all the incredible mom’s out there. My mom and I always- argue, we debate, I scream, we have different opinions, I hang up the phone call…Yet the next day we talk as if nothing had happened. This happens only between a mom and a daughter and I am blessed with the most caring mother, I must say she’s way too much caring…

I am having a lovely weekend, though I have to prepare the poster for my conference. Whenever I’ve an exam coming up or some deadline to meet, my mind will start chanting “procrastinate and wait until the last minute”, and it had been doing the same for the past few days. On such circumstances, I truly wish if I could murder my evil mind.

Yesterday, I somehow managed to partially murder my evil mind and started preparing the poster. I was half way through my work and I was slowly getting into the groove. Seeing me working on a Saturday evening, my hubby couldn’t resist saying this “screw it and let’s go for a motorcycle ride”. That was a boost for me, I paused my work and went for a ride. I love riding in the motorcycle, in fact my passion for motorcycle started ever since I was a kid. We went to our favorite spot in our city, a coffee pub located right on the middle of downtown. Sipping cappuccino, enjoying the breeze, the crowd, the people, the birds, and chatting with my man…Simple pleasures of life!

I had made this chicken kofta a few days ago and I was so glad I finally made this. The slightly fried chicken balls by itself tasted so flavorful and delicious, it was then combined in a homemade tomato sauce. We both indulged in it for dinner and after finishing it, my hubby requested me to make this over the weekend as well. Do I need to say anything more about this dish???

The word kofta is derived from persian, which means “ground” or “meatball”. This dish is popular in Middle East, India and Pakistan. This can be made with ground beef, lamb, chicken or mixed veggies.

Chicken Kofta in homemade sauce

Ingredients

For making Chicken balls:

• Ground chicken- 1 lb or grind 3 chicken breasts
• Chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Ground Cumin- 1 tsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 tsp (optional)
• Salt- to taste
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Cilantro, chopped- 3 handful
• Mint leaves, chopped- 5 to 6 leaves
• Mushrooms, cooked- 1 cup (optional)

For making Tomato sauce

• Oil, used for frying chicken balls- 3-4 tbsp
• Whole cloves- 3
• Whole cardamom- 3
• Cinnamon- 2 inch slice
• Bay leaf- 1
• Onions, chopped- 2 large
• Tomatoes, chopped- 3, large
• Ginger-Garlic paste- 1/2 tbsp
• Coriander powder- 1 tsp
• Garam masala- 3/4 tsp
• Tomato ketchup- 3 tbsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Cream or whole milk- 1/4 cup (optional)
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
• Salt- if needed

Preparation

• In a large bowl, combine the ingredients for making the chicken balls.
• I even added cooked mushrooms to the ground chicken mixture, this is just optional.
• If you don’t have ground chicken, you could grind boneless chicken breast in a food processor.
• Make sure to clean the food processor thoroughly with detergent and hot water after grinding the chicken.
• Make small balls out of the ground chicken mixture.
• Heat a large non-stick skillet, add 4-5 tbsp oil and shallow fry the chicken balls in batches. Flip the chicken balls over and fry till it has turned golden brown.
• Transfer to a paper towel and keep aside.
• Heat another pan, add 3-4 tbsp of oil used for frying chicken balls.
• Add cloves, cardamon, cinnamon and bay leaf, saute for a couple of seconds.
• Add onions, add little salt and cook covered till it turns translucent.
• Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for a few minutes.
• Add tomatoes and cook covered till it’s mashed up.
• Add coriander powder and garam masala to it, combine well and cook for a minute.
• Discard the bay lef from the onion-tomato mixture.
• Puree the mixture in a blender to a smooth constituency along with some water.
• Return the sauce to the pan, combine well.
• Add tomato ketchup, combine well and cook for a minute.
• If the sauce is too thick, add some water to thin it down.
• Add the prepared chicken balls to the sauce and cook covered for 5 minutes.
• Add ground pepper, combine.
• Add cream or whole milk if needed.
• Taste and add more salt or ground pepper according to your needs.
• Finish it off with cilantro.
• Transfer to a bowl and serve with naan, roti or rice. Or serve this over pasta.

Tips:

• Use ground beef or lamb instead of chicken.
• The fried chicken balls by itself tastes very delicious.
• For making vegetarian version: mash the cooked potatoes along with cooked mixed veggies and paneer, add spices and make small balls out of the veggie mixture. Shallow fry it in oil, make the sauce and add the veggie balls in the sauce.

Salmon cooked in the healthiest way…

It’s been a very hectic week, tons of work to do as I am attending a conference next week. Preparing the poster of my work, trying to collect more data and lots of experiments, looking forward to a much crazier week ahead. The conference is going to be in Vancouver, so excited and can’t wait…

It’s that time of the year again when I will be seen drooling over the pretty flowers and garden. I’ve already made a few trips to most of the garden center in my location and have bought quite a few plants as well. I feel so relaxed and peaceful when I am among the plants and flowers. Last weekend, I’ve started with my veggie gardening, I was on the cloud nine when I found out that my new house has a raised veggie bed, it has a covering too so it can be covered during winter. I had planted some of the seeds in the veggie bed, while others I planted in the egg cartons. I had saved a few egg cartons as they make a great seed trays, it’s eco friendly and you can save some money on buying pots. Poke a hole in each tray, add soil and put the seeds in the middle, cover with some more soil and wait for it to sprout. Once the seeds germinate and has grown a few centimeters, you could transfer to the veggie bed or bigger pots.

Here are the flowers from my garden, I can’t pick a favorite among these as I love each and every one of them. They never fail to put a smile on my face!

This is a very healthy salmon recipe that I adopted from the cookbook by Rafi Fernandez. It tasted very mild yet flavorful. A great recipe for weight watchers and for everyone.

Baked Asian style Salmon

Ingredients

• Salmon- 3 thick fillet
• Ground pepper- to season each fillet
• Salt- to season each fillet

For topping:

• Carrots, cut like a matchstick- 1
• Zucchini, cut as thin wedges-1
• Ginger, cut like as thin wedges- 2 inch slice
• Lemon zest- of half lemon
• Lemon grass, cut rounds- 1 stalk
• Lemon juice- 1 tbsp
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful
• Green onions, chopped- 1 stalk (optional)
• Soy sauce- 3 tbsp
• Fish sauce (optional)- 1 tsp

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 375 F.
• Sprinkle salmon fillet with ground pepper and salt, rub it over and keep aside for 10 minutes.
• In a bowl, combine rest of the ingredients for topping the salmon.
• Make sure to cut the carrot, zucchini and ginger as thin wedges.
• Place the seasoned salmon over an aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• Top each fillet with the veggie topping and pour little sauce over it.
• Wrap the salmon with the aluminum foil.
• Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.
• Serve immediately along with soup or roasted potatoes or even jasmine rice.

Tangy eggplanty chicken…

Fish and tamarind goes well, but I never thought that chicken and tamarind goes well too. My true intention was to finish up the eggplants in my refrigerator before they got spoiled, making a veggie dish was in my mind. As I started cooking, I found myself deviating in a totally different route. I first cooked the eggplant after marinating them with some spices, added tamarind paste to it and made it into a roast form. It tasted so good that I could’ve had that with roti or rice. Then, all of a sudden I went crazy. I took the chicken out of the freezer, cleaned it, diced it and cooked it, then pureed the eggplant roast, added the cooked chicken to it and added some more tamarind paste to it and sprinkled with cilantro. Yay, I screamed it’s done. I know you must be frowning too, trust me it tasted really delicious and quite different too. Eggplant sauce tasted so flavorful and the mildly tangy taste of this dish was just phenomenal.

Eggplant Chicken

Ingredients

To marinate eggplant

• Eggplant, small- 8, cut vertical or diced ( I used small Indian eggplant)
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Kashmiri red chilly powder- 1 1/2 tsp (or use 1 tsp regular chilly powder)
• Cumin powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste

• Tamarind juice- 4 tbsp (2 inch fresh slice soaked in 4 tbsp warm water, combine in water and strain the juice)
• Oil- 3 tbsp

Other ingredients

• Chicken, boneless, cubed- 3 chicken breasts
• Tamarind juice- 4 tbsp ( I used fresh tamarind soaked in water, if using concentrated paste use only 1/2 tsp or so as it’s very tangy)
• White sesame seeds- 3 tbsp
• Ground pepper or chilly powder- 1/2 tsp or so according to your spice level
• Salt- to taste
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful

Preparation

• I used small Indian eggplants, you could use any variety, dice it or cut vertically.
• In a small bowl, combine eggplant along with all the spices mentioned above to marinate the eggplant, set aside for 5 minutes.
• Heat a large non-stick pan, add 3 tbsp oil and swirl the pan to spread the oil all over the pan.
• Spread the eggplant on the pan, cook covered till eggplant turns tender and starts to turn golden in color.
• If it starts to brown, add some water and cook.
• Soak fresh tamarind in 4 tbsp warm water, combine it in water using your hand and strain the juice.
• If using concentrated tamarind paste, add only 1/2 tsp or so.
• Add tamarind juice to the cooked eggplant and cook for a few more minutes till it turns thick.
• Remove the pan from the heat, let eggplants cool down a bit.
• Puree the eggplants along with white sesame seeds in a blender along with enough water to make a thick paste.
• Keep aside the eggplant sauce.
• Cook the chicken covered in the same pan used for cooking eggplant, cook till chicken has done well.
• Add the eggplant puree to the cooked chicken.
• Add 4 tbsp more fresh tamarind juice, if using concentrated tamarind paste add only a little.
• Combine well and add some water to thin down the sauce.
• Add ground pepper or chilly powder if you want it to be spicy.
• Taste and add salt.
• Finish it off with cilantro.
• Transfer the eggplant chicken to a bowl, sprinkle 2 tsp sesame seeds over it and serve with rice or roti.
• You can even serve this as a soup.

Tips:

• The cooked eggplant tasted really good, you can serve that as a side veggie dish.
• The eggplant sauce by itself tastes good too.

One of my favorite Indo-Chinese dishes…

I had been slacking at everything last week and it felt really really good. However, over the weekend I opened the covered raised veggie bed and sowed some seeds in it. I can’t wait to see them sprouting, hopefully within a few weeks I can see that. Other than that nothing much exciting has happened. Here are the pretty lilies from my front lawn garden…

I wanted to share the recipe of chicken manchurian for so long. I’ve made this quite a few times, every time I make this it tastes better. Well, I haven’t come across any Indo-Chinese dishes that I dislike, all are just delicious.

Chicken Manchurian

Ingredients

• Chicken, boneless cubed- 3 chicken breasts
• Oil- for frying chicken

For making batter

• Corn starch- 1/4 cup
• All purpose flour or gluten free flour or rice flour- 1/2 cup
• Ginger-garlic paste- 1 tbsp
• Chilly powder- 1tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Water- enough to make a thick batter

For making sauce:

• Oil- 3tbsp, used for frying chicken
• Ginger, chopped thin- 2 inch slice
• Garlic, chopped thin- 3 cloves
• Onion, chopped- 3 medium
• Soy sauce, low sodium- 3tbsp
• Tomato sauce, low sodium- 1 cup
• Sesame oil- 1 tsp
• Sambal Oelek or ground pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Green onions, chopped- 2 stalks
• Cilantro, chopped- 2 handful

My recent favorite way of cooking fish…

Glad that Thursday is here, can’t really wait for the weekend. After the run, as soon as I got home I started sneezing and was down with cold, don’t ask me about the sore body. No pain no gain, right? Well, all the pain and sickness vanished when I saw my picture on the front page of the newspaper on Monday Here is the link :)

I am feeling much better today, tylenol worked really well on me. Also, the weather is turning warmer which is a big relief. I am gearing up to build a new garden from scratch again as I moved to a new house. I love my new backyard, it’s spacious and beautiful. Last weekend, I bought the first plant of this season, Gerbera and today one of my co-workers gave me a few lilies. Flowers and plants and greenness make me happy.

Lately, I am into baking fish. Only thing I’ve to do is just marinate the fish and pop it in the oven. After turning on the timer I can just walk away and not care about the fish. After around 20-25 minutes, it will be ready to enjoy. I usually serve this baked fish with roasted or baked veggies, salad and sometimes along with a scoop of rice. This is without a doubt a healthy dish and great for weight watchers.

Baked Paprika Tilapia

Makes: 4 fillet

Ingredients

• Tilapia fillet or bass fillet- 4 fillet
• Paprika- 3 tsp
• Ground cumin- 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground pepper- 1/4 (add 1/2 tsp to make it spicy)
• Salt- to taste
• Olive oil- 2-3 tbsp to drizzle over fish

 Preparation

• Preheat oven to 375 F.
• Combine paprika, ground cumin, ground pepper and salt in a bowl.
• Spread the spices over the fillet, keep aside for 10 minutes.
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil, spray with non-stick cooking spray.
• Place the marinated tilapia over the aluminum foil.
• Drizzle olive oil over each fillet and pop it in the oven
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• After 20 minutes of baking, take it out of the oven.
• If you want the fish to be browned, you could slightly pan fry the baked fish in a pan greased with little olive oil.
• Be very gentle as the baked fish would tend to fall apart.
• Serve warm with roasted or baked veggies, rice or salad.

Deliciously delicious treats which tastes like tiramisu…

What an incredible day it was, couldn’t have been any better!!! Today, I did my 5k run and my hubby his half marathon. We both had been looking forward to this day for a while. It was one of the biggest events in my city and this year there were over 2000 runners. Mother nature showered us with lots of sunshine and warmth which motivated us to keep running. It was so incredible to see people of all age running together with so much enthusiasm and vigor. Certainly, physical limits can be overcome by mental strength. After our run we felt extremely happy as we did this for a great cause, all the money raised went to Thames valley Children’s center. Looking forward to running next year as well…Here is the picture of us after the run clicked by my dear friend Ming.

Yesterday, “Cooking with Thas” turned 3 years old. I started this website out of the blue but with lots of passion. One of the amazing things has been the friendships that I’ve formed with total strangers from around the world who supports me and motivates me to keep blogging. Without the support and love of my readers I wouldn’t have come this far. Heartfelt thanks to each and everyone!

I made these delightful cappuccino cheesecake to celebrate the special day, it was easy to make and tasted delicious. I had bought Astro yogurt a few weeks ago and found the recipe for making this on the lid of the container. I tweaked the recipe quite a bit though.

Cappuccino Cheesecake

Ingredients

For making crumb mixture:

• Graham crumbs or cookie crumbs(or ground almond or ground flaxseeds)- 1 1/2 cups
• Melted butter, unsalted- 1/4 cup or 4 tbsp

For making cheese mixture

• Cream cheese, light- 250 g or 8 oz or around 1 cup
• Yogurt, plain and not sour (fat free)- 3/4 cup
• Egg, large- 1 at room temperature
• Sugar- 1/2 cup
• Corn starch- 1 1/2 tsp
• Instant coffee- 1 tbsp dissolved in 1 1/2 tbsp water

For garnishing:

• Melted semi sweet chocolate- 1/3 cup
• Water- 2 tbsp

Preparation

• For making the crust, use graham crumbs or ground marie biscuits or ground cookies.
• For making gluten free version, use ground almonds or ground flaxseeds. I used ground almonds.
• Combine crumbs with melted butter, keep aside. Don’t over mix it nor make it into a dough form.

For making the cheese mixture:

• In a glass bowl, beat the cream cheese using an electric hand mixer till smooth and creamy.
• Add yogurt to cheese and beat for a few seconds.
• Combine 1 tbsp of instant coffee or espresso with 1 1/2 tbsp water.
• Add all the remaining ingredients and beat for a few seconds till combined well.
• Preheat oven to 325 F.
• Line the cupcake or muffin pan with cupcake liners.
• Spoon 1 1/2 tablespoons of crumb mixture to the bottom of the cupcake liner, spread evenly to form the bottom layer.
• Spoon around 2 tbsp of the prepared cheese mixture on the crumb layer.
• Don’t spoon the cheese mixture till the top of the liner as it will rise while baking.
• Bake for 25 minutes or till cheese mixture is set.
• After the cheesecakes cool down a bit, chill it in the refrigerator for better taste and it sets well too.

For garnishing:

• Melt semi sweet chocolate, I used double boil method, you could melt the chocolate in a microwave as well. Add around 2 tbsp of water to the melted chocolate and combine well.
• After chilling the cheese cakes for 30 minutes or so, garnish with melted chocolate.
• I used a chopstick to garnish the cheesecake with melted chocolate. You could use a fork instead.

Tips:

• You can ignore the crumbs and bake just the cheese mixture.
• Use cocoa powder or chocolate syrup to garnish instead of melted chocolate.

Drool worthy breakfast or brunch…

Somedays I find it hard to stop writing, other days I find it hard to start writing. On days when I feel not so enthusiastic about writing, I start talking about weather and this helps me to slowly get into the groove. So, let me start my weather talk, not today’s weather but about last Tuesday’s. That morning, as I was running around to get my morning chores done before I go to work. My eyes hazily wandered into the backyard. I suddenly had to change my running gear to neutral as I saw a few snow flakes flying in the sky. I blinked my eyes to confirm that I wasn’t day dreaming.  It was really snowing, I screamed “Snow” this time not with joy as I have already changed my wardrobe to summer clothes. After a second blink, the snow was gone and I saw rain. After a third blink, the rain was gone and I saw sunshine…If only I could read what exactly mother nature was trying to say…

Ever since I made up my mind to eat a good breakfast, I have been into experimenting different BF dishes. Last weekend, I made this cocoa crepes and topped it with my favorite homemade strawberry preserve. On the side, placed caramelized pears. I felt something was missing. Yes, it was a scoop of yogurt strawberry ice cream on top of the crepes. Make it one scoop or two or as many as you want…

Cocoa crepes topped with strawberry sauce and ice cream

Makes: 5 crepes

Ingredients

• Gluten free flour or all purpose flour- 1 cup
• Cocoa powder- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Vanilla extract- 1 tsp
• Water or milk- 1/2 cup or (use 1/4 cup water+ 1/4 cup milk)
• Butter, unsalted- to cook crepes

Making homemade strawberry sauce or preserve

• Strawberries, fresh or frozen cut half –  1 1/2 cups
• Sugar – 3 tbsp
• Lemon juice – 1 tsp

• Pears, cut long or halved
• Ice cream of your choice

Preparation:

• Add flour, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and water or milk to a blender.
• Blend it to a smooth batter constituency.
• Add enough water to make some what thick batter; thinner than pancake.
• If you want you could add an egg while blending the batter.
• Place a non-stick pan over medium heat, add 1/2 tbsp butter, let it melt.
• Remove the pan from the heat, let stand for 10 seconds and pour a spoonful of batter over the melted butter.
• Place the pan over the stove.
• Using a spatula gently spread the batter to a round shape.
• If you pour the batter on the pan when it is over the stove, because of high heat the batter will break apart.
• Cook the crepe, flip it over and cook the other side too.
• Place the cooked crepe on a plate.

Making homemade strawberry preserve or sauce

• Place the halved strawberries along with the sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes till it’s slightly mashed up.

Final Touch:

• You could replace the strawberry sauce with honey or store bought preserves of your choice.
• Spread the prepared strawberry preserve over the crepes.
• In the same pan used for making crepes, melt 1 tbsp butter and place the halved pears over it.
• Let it caramelize or turn golden brown in color on both sides.
• Serve the caramelized pears on the side.
• To make this dish even more drool worthy, top with a scoop of ice cream of your choice. This is just optional.

Simplicity personified…

Give me lobster everyday and I’ll be one happy soul. Being a lobster fanatic, I don’t know why it took me so long to make lobster in my kitchen. I usually order lobster at restaurants and most of the time I had to dive in deep into the dish in search of lobster. There is nothing more disappointing than finding a teeny weeny bit of lobster. A few weeks ago I had lobster at a French restaurant, ‘the tasting room’, unlike other restaurants they were generous and the sight of huge chunks of lobster meat cheered me up and I enjoyed it like anything.

Hope everyone had a lovely Monday. It was an unbelievably windy day, as I walked through my campus I felt the wind might knock me down, glad that I am intact. While I was driving, I felt the car vibrating, glad that my car is intact. After reaching home, looking into my backyard I saw the barbecue grill lying flat on the ground, the wind did have a tug of war with the heavy grill, glad that I don’t have to buy a new grill…

I wrapped up Sunday by serving this garlic butter lobster. As always my goal was to cook in the most simplest way, yet it should taste delicious. I made a simple marinade as I didn’t want to overly flavor up the lobster and wanted to enjoy the taste of it.

Garlic Butter Broiled Lobster

Ingredients

• Lobster, 5-6 oz- 2 halved
• Garlic, grated fresh- 1 clove
• Lemon zest, grated- zest of 1 small lemon
• Mint, minced- 3 to 4 leaves (optional)
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Salt- little
• Butter, melted- 2-3 tbsp

Preparation

• I didn’t have the nerve to buy the whole lobster, so I got the halved frozen lobster.
• Rinse the lobster under running water.
• Place the halved lobster with the shell side down on a cutting board.
• If you look at it, you can see that the meat has a thick white covering with small thorns on it.
• Using a kitchen scissor, cut the covering and remove it so that the meat forms the top layer.
• In a small bowl, combine all the other ingredients.
• Butter should be melted.
• Dip a pastry brush in the butter garlic marinade, and brush it evenly on the lobster meat.
• Let stand for a few minutes.
• Place the marinated lobster on a baking pan lined with aluminum foil.
• Turn the broil mode in the oven to low.
• Keep the oven rack in the middle (don’t keep the rack on top)
• Place the pan on the rack and broil for 10-12 minutes. ( Broiling time depends upon the thickness of the tail, so keep an eye)
• Don’t over broil it as the lobster will burn.
• Remove from the oven and serve warm.
• I served the lobster along with quail egg fried rice and boiled purple sweet potatoes.

Tips:

• Broil the lobster in the shell so that it will remain moist

Pile up greens/veggies in your shopping cart and forget about the supplements…

I was listing all the green veggies that I have tried so far and was trying to find out if I dislike any of them. I was surprised to learn that I actually don’t hate any greens nor any veggies. I love all of ‘em. Do I sound weird???

While living in India, I wasn’t aware of many veggies that is commonly found in N.America as either it wasn’t available in my hometown or my mom never bought it. For instance: asparagus, leeks, chard, broccoli rabe, collard greens, bok choy, brussel sprouts etc are some of them. Among these veggies, I am so glad to have introduced to asparagus in particular as I am a huge fan of it. On the other hand, there are a lot of veggies that are common in my hometown and are not available here. One of the greens I used to have a lot was leaves of drumstick tree (it was stir fried with coconut or made into soups, combined with lentil) which is rich in all kinds of nutrients and one of the healthiest among the greens. I haven’t seen this green here, not even in the frozen aisle of Indian or Asian stores. However, fresh drumsticks are available in Asian stores and frozen ones at every Indian stores.

Confession time: I have this weird habit of peeking into others shopping cart while I do my grocery shopping. I know, I should mind my own business. Grocery shopping cart speaks a lot, it actually reveals what kind of person you are. If there is a huge pile of greens, veggies and fresh ingredients, then obviously it belongs to someone who is very health conscious. The sight of some carts have made me faint too, carts that are loaded with frozen pizzas, ice cream, pops, frozen desserts, boxed goodies etc etc. May be I shouldn’t be that judgmental, after all it’s all personal choices.

Anyway, while surfing through my evernote recipe folder…Wait, have I told you how much I love evernote? So much, as evernote has made compiling and saving my recipes much easier and I can access it from any computer and my mobile too. If you haven’t yet installed evernote, do that as it’s free and you are going to love it too.

So, I came across the recipe for green soup in yogurt that I had made a few months ago, I then searched for the pictures in picasa. Pictures didn’t appeal much to me, but the recipe was great and healthy and rich in nutrients. If you cannot stand eating veggies or greens raw, try this soup as you won’t feel like you are having veggies and it tastes good. A very healthy soup that will make you happy and healthy…

Green Soup in Yogurt

Ingredients

• Broccoli florets- 2 cups
• Spinach- 2 cups
• Celery, chopped small- 3 stalks
• Water- to puree the cooked greens (or add homemade chicken stock)
• Yogurt, fat-free and not sour- 1 1/2 cups
• Ground pepper- 1/4 tsp
• Soy sauce (optional)- 1 1/2 tbsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation

• In a large pan, add broccoli florets, spinach and celery, cook covered till just tender.
• Puree the cooked greens in a blender along with some water or chicken stock.
• Return the puree to the pan, heat for a minute.
• Add yogurt, ground pepper, soy sauce and salt to taste.
• Combine well and heat it for a minute.
• If the soup is too thick add little water to thin it down.
• Have a taste and add more ground pepper or salt if needed.
• Serve in soup bowls, place a dollop of sour cream or thick yogurt on the middle of the soup.
• I served this soup with baked potatoes.

Tips:

• If you want you could add other greens like kale too.
• If you want you could add chicken stock instead of water, it would taste much more flavorful.