Asvadha Wishes You A Very Happy New Year !

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Italian Tomato - Bean Soup

It is an Italian Comfort Food ! If you need a soup which is very easy, quick and spicy, this tomato-bean soup hits the mark. It is a truly delicious and completely satisfying meal anytime of the day. A little extra spice in the soup definitely satisfies our craving for warm, spicy food this cold, wintry days.

This recipe is adapted from "Everyday Italian" - TV show by Giada De Laurentiis on Food Network. The moment I laid eyes on this recipe, I thought I must give it a try. No regrets at all. It is really tasty and will now become a regular meal at my home. I've made very minor changes to the original recipe to suit mine and my family's taste buds.

I've used cannellini beans for this soup, which is white Italian kidney beans. You can substitute with the red kidney beans(Rajma) if you prefer.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (26-ounce) jar marinara sauce (recommended: San Marzano brand)
14-ounce ( 1-1/2 cup) Vegetable broth
1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup Elbow Macoroni pasta ( you can use any small pasta like pastina, orzo etc)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, onion, and garlic and saute until soft, for about 2-3 minutes.

Add the jar of marinara sauce, vegetable broth, red pepper flakes, pasta, salt and pepper. Simmer for 8-10 minutes, until the pasta cooks. Add cannellini beans and cook for 2 more minutes.

Ladle into bowls and serve.

You can also save the left-over by freezing it for later.



This soup goes to My Legume Love Affair event at Tasty Palletes, which is hosted by Suganya. The mother of this event is a Well Seasoned Cook, Susan, an articulate blogger and a great photographer.






This is my last post for this year 2008. Hope to see you all again in the coming year. Wish you a very very Happy New Year. Hope the new year brings us Joy and Peace of mind to all of us.

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Sprouted Mung Salad in Wonton Cups

What a day ! I felt I'll loose my domain name today. With no time to spare at home these days, it slipped out of my mind that I had to renew the domain this week. Today I see a 'parking page' instead of my webpage. I was shocked and thought I lost my domain name and all my effort and the little name and fame I earned this last one year to somebody. I immediatly renewed the domain and made few frantic calls to the hosting company (especially on a week
end morning,and due storm at the east coast there were low representatives to attend the calls - long wait! ah !). I've also posted at forums. What a wonderful response I got from the forums - a nice person guided me through the whole process and helped me till my website is up and running successfully. I feel grateful to people who are there to help us in such crisis. Thank you !

It all started when I sat today to post my entry to JFI-sprouts hosted by Dee at Ammalu's Kitchen. I was close in missing the event this time as I thought it would take me few days for my site issues to get resolved. I'll never forget this event now. Phew ! I can make it now.

Sprouted Mung Salad in Wonton cups

Sprouted mung salad in wonton cups is an inspiration of two recipes combined. One from Ellie Krieger - who cooks wonderful healthy recipes at a show called " Healthy Living " at Food Network and my recipe of sprouted mung salad. Ellie Krieger gave me the idea of using Wonton cups to serve my mung salad. I've spiced my mung salad with chaat masala for that zing we need these cold-wintery days and I've added mango bits for a sweet-sour taste. In the end to top it all I've added a dollop of low-fat sour cream. It's healthy and very tasty tea-time snack.

Ingredients:
serves 6 (3 wonton cups each)

Cooking spray
18 - wonton wraps - I used Nasoya Wonton wraps , bought at Whole Foods Market
2 tsps - Oil
Salt as needed

For Salad :
2 cups - sprouted mung beans
1 - Ripe Mango
2 - Tomatoes
Few coriander leaves
2-3 tsps - Chaat Masala
1 tsp - salt or as needed
4 tsps - lime juice

4 tbsps - Lowfat sour cream

Method:

Method of how to sprout mung beans can be found here

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray 2 mini-muffin pans with cooking spray.

Brush the wonton wrappers with oil, and place each wrapper into a section of a mini-muffin pan. Gently press each wrapper into the each tin and arrange so that it forms a cup shape. The wrapper will overlap itself and stick up out of the cup. Sprinkle with salt and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until browned and crisp. Remove from the pan and allow wrappers to cool.

Meanwhile, peel and cut mango into small bits. Deseed tomato and cut into small bits. Chop coriander leaves finely. In a mixing bowl, toss together the sprouted mung beans, chopped - mango, tomato, coriander leaves, chaat masala, salt, and lime juice. Adjust chaat masala and salt according to your taste.

Fill each cup with Mung salad and top it with a small dollop of sour cream and serve immediately.

This in my entry to JFI - Sprouts. JFI - sprouts is hosted by Dee of Ammalu's Kitchen for the the month December. JFI is a wonderful event started by Indira of Mahanandi.

It is the third year of JFI ( Jihva for Ingredients) which showcases different ingredients which savour our taste buds. The ingredient is picked by the host of that month.

Thank you Dee and Indira.

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Chekkalu A.K.A Thattais

The chilly winters are here and hence my craving for spicy food begins. Chekkalu in Telugu or Thattai as they call in Tamil has been in my 'Brooding-Over' list for a long time now, and what a better chance I can get to treat myself with it once in a while? Simple and basic ingredients which are readily available in our pantry is what is required to prepare this crunchy-munchy snack. Well, as far as the list part goes....I've a 'Drooling-Over' list too and I'll be soon posting the recipes from that list too.

Chekkalu ~ Thattai

This recipe is a traditional one. Although many modifications can be made according to the taste buds, which I'll be mentioning at the end of the post, so that, I don't confuse you. Now, going to the recipe I've made:


Ingredients:

Makes around 25-30 pieces ( depending on the size and definetly including the ones we gobble up while preparing)
Rice flour - 2 cups
Roasted urad dal powder - 1/4 cup ( Slightly roast urad dal and grind into smooth powder)
Sesame seeds - 2 tbsps
Roasted bengal gram dal( Dhalia, Putnala pappu) - 4 tbsps
Butter or Ghee(Melted) - 4 tsps
Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsps or to taste
Curry leaves - Few
Salt - 1 1/2 tsps or to taste
Oil for deep frying.

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together( except the oil for deep frying ) with warm water. Adding warm water tends to crispier ones.
Heat the oil for frying. Roll out the dough into small marbles. Grease a ziploc bag or a plastic sheet with oil and flaten out the balls into discs(thattais) by pressing evenly with the fingers. The thickness should not be less than 1/4 inch.
Add the thattais in oil and cook to a golden brown color and remove.


Mix all the ingredients together( except the oil for deep frying ) with warm water. Adding warm water tends to crispier ones.
Heat the oil for frying. Roll out the dough into small marbles. Grease a ziploc bag or a plastic sheet with oil and flaten out the balls into discs(thattais) by pressing evenly with the fingers. The thickness should not be less than 1/4 inch.
Add the thattais in oil and cook to a golden brown color and remove.


Modifications :

1. You can use par boiled rice instead of rice flour. You have to soak the rice for about 2-3 hrs and grind into soft paste like murukku dough and mix the rest of the ingredients.
2. You can use raw rice instead of rice flour, soak for 2-3 hrs and drain. You can use the wet rice like (1) or dry it well for two to three days in hot sun. Drying in shade will tend to soft thattais.
3. You can replace roasted bengal gram dal with peanuts. If you are using peanuts, roast them for 2-3 mins and remove the skin and break them into halves, else the peanuts will fall out from the discs while frying.
4. Ground pepper can be added to the recipe for the extra spice level.
5. You can substitute ground green chilli paste for red chilli powder for different taste. Cumin seeds can be added too into the dough along with the green chilli paste.


Either way you want to try it, this chekkalu/thattai is a good tea time snack or in-between-meal snack. They store well for 10-12 days in an air-tight container. Try 'em you'll LOVE 'em.



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1st Blogiversary

Yeaaaaaaaaaa ! This is my first post after a wonderful year of blogging. Never thought I would be sticking to it this long. But, now this has become one of the most important part of my life. Some coding, little bit of food photography and other non-cooking skills like embroidery when I've participated in events by fellow bloggers. WOW ! It has taught me so much.


I've made some amazing friends who visit my blog regularly. I'm glad to be sharing the stuff I feel I'm pro at - recipes taught to me by my Mom, friends and from the books that I have in my shelf and cakes I've baked and decorated ! I thank all the friends, the fellow bloggers and visitors who leave such wonderful comments and the ones who are shy. I hope to last in this food blogging world for many years to come and I hope share many more recipes and participate in all the events by the fellow bloggers and hopefully start one too.


I express my gratitude again to all my friends, fellow bloggers and all the visitors. This first post in the second year is a wonderful sweet jelly bean treat for all of you. Thank You !

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