low cal – Page 3

Bilimbi Saaru /Tree Sorrel Rasam :

May 23, 2021

Bimbuli / Beempuli, anyone? Yes! It is our local name to Bilimbi 😀
Averrhoa bilimbi, commonly known as Bilimbi, “Cucumber tree”, “tree sorrel”, is a tiny, tangy, juicy fruit that regularly appears in Coastal Karnataka cuisine.

Bimbuli is what we call it, and it is also known as Tree sorrel. It is a common backyard tree, and you would find it in every house of the coastal region. The beauty of our traditional cuisine is impressive. When we take only Mangalore cuisine, we find at least 6 to 7 varieties of souring agents used for specific purposes according to the ingredient and the recipe. For example, Kokum, tamarind, Monkey jack (known as Unde Huli or Kethe Huli), Hog plum, Bilimbi (beempuli), Raw mango and the list goes on.

Before the lockdown, I found this in my locality during our evening walk and introduced it to my daughter.

We used to eat this watery fruit by dipping it in salt and asked her to eat it with salt. She, who is fond of any khatta/ souring agent, enjoyed and asked for more. Besides eating, I loved pickle, which my paternal aunt used to prepare and get it.

While talking, remembering good old memories, my mother in law mentioned Bimpuli saaru, which her mom-in-law used to prepare. As a curious learner, I started asking her about the recipe? How did she use to make etc.?

As always, she said, what is the recipe? There is nothing in that saru—a little bit of cooked dal, green chilli and hing.

The next day, I made the saru, which I never tasted before, and it was indeed flavourful and delicious and thought of documenting it in my blog for future reference.

Ingredients:

Bilimbi /Tree sorrel – 6 to 7 or acc to your taste

Cooked toor dal – 1 small Katori

Salt

Jaggery – to taste

Green chillies – 6 to 8 (slit)

Hing – peanut size

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tbl sp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Red chilli -1

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Method:

-Take a one cooking pot, put Chopped tree sorrel, slit green chillies, salt, jaggery, hing, 2 cups of water as well as cooked, mashed dal.

-When chillies and sliced tree sorrels are cooked, adjust the consistency by adding water, if necessary, salt, jaggery or hing. Boil a couple of minutes more and add seasoning.

-To season, heat oil, splutter mustard, red chilli and curry leaves. Yes! It is so simple and tasty.

-This tasty saru is pairs well with hot rice and papad with any vegetable side dish to accompany.

Jowar/Sorghum Dosa:

March 31, 2021

My experiment turned out to a super hit, crispy dosa. As usual, I followed my regular dosa batter recipe by replacing dosa rice with Jowar grains.

Jowar or Sorghum is a gluten-free grain loaded with nutrients and fibre, great in taste. When it is high fibre, it becomes useful for anyone who follows a healthy diet. Being a complex carbohydrate, Jowar gets digested slowly, reduces appetite making it an ideal whole grain option for weight management.

If you are looking for ways to reduce the rice intake, this recipe for you – Enjoy in any form of dosa, like crisp or fluffy. Cone or masala filled, with chutney or sambar.

Ingredient:

Jowar grains -1 cup

Idly rice -1 cup

Urad dal – ½ cup

Bengal gram/Chana dal – 1 TBL sp

Fenugreek /methi seeds – 1 tsp.

Beaten rice – ¼ cup

Method:

-Wash all these ingredients a couple of times. Soak this insufficient water for 3 to 4 hours.

-Drain water from the rice and keep it aside. This water should be used while grinding according to the requirement.

-Grind soaked rice –dal mixture by adding salt into a very fine /smooth batter using a wet grinder or mixer grinder.

-Now, Mix the batter, adjust the consistency, keep this ground batter for fermentation in a big vessel to allow room for puffed/fermented batter.

– It will take anywhere between 8 to 16 hours (according to the outside weather)

-Next morning, mix the batter, check the consistency, adjust and prepare dosas and enjoy.

Note: In Bangalore, I usually soak my lentils around morning, grinding happens around afternoon 2 to 3 pm, and until the following day, I keep the batter for fermentation.

Brown rice – Horse gram Laddu :

March 7, 2021

This Laddu happened by chance. I have heard “Keddasa” unique festival from our region. But, I never knew the details, how to celebrate and its significance until recently. My interest in digging and reading about it started after seeing my Instagram friend, Akshatha’s post regarding Keddasa – a unique practice of our Tulu Nadu.

Farmers of our region observe Keddasa or Keddaso to honour mother earth and obtain her blessings in the next harvest. They believed that the earth goddess would grant crops in abundance by following the tradition.

Keddasa is observed typically in February, the end of the winter and believed that the earth goddess becomes fertile for farming. Rituals spread in 3 days; those three days are considered a rest for any farming activity to provide rest to mother earth. In this duration, a different offering is also a part of the custom.

A unique dish, known as Kudu -Ari, is made other than the offering. The literal transition of kudu is horse gram, and Ari is Rice. Roasted, powdered horse gram – rice is seasoned with other roasted items; it varies from family to family, such as roasted coconut, peanuts, sesame, Jaggery. Sometimes, the whole moong as well. The perfect way to look after our bone health during the winter months n the name of tradition. How beautiful. To make this Brown rice – Horse gram laddu, I took the inspiration from another traditional unde, known as Thambittu unde, which I shared in my blog, and the recipe is HERE. It is indeed a perfect energy ball or mid-day snack in the winter months, and I loved it.

How I did – Took one small tumbler as a measurement cup.

Here Ready laddu mixture was around 277 grams, and I took 250 grams of Jaggery, and it turned out perfect for our preferred sweet level. You can take equal or a little less.

Ingredients:

Red boiled rice/ matta rice – 1 cup

Peanuts – ½ cup

Horse gram – ¼ cup

Coconut – 1 cup

Sesame seeds – 2 tablespoons

Cardamom powder – 1tsp

Powdered Jaggery – Equal quantity as laddu mixture or little less.

Ghee – 2 to 4 tablespoons

Method:

-Wash rice once or twice, drain the water, let it air dry until it is dry.

-Wash horse gram and let it air dry until it is dry.

-Heat one thick bottomed wok/vessel, add dried rice little by little and roast; it will pop a little and texture will become brittle and a little puffy. Do this procedure in 3 to 4 batches and cool it.

-Dry roast Horse gram as well. When it cools down, make powder in a mixer jar; Sieve this powder and keep it aside.

-Now dry roast, sesame seeds, peanuts, grated coconut until it emits fragrance. Keep aside.

-I did crush the peanuts by using whip mode by using a mixer jar.

-Mix everything, measure the content. If it is 2 cups, take 2 cups of grated Jaggery or a little less than that. If you have a measuring scale, you can measure as well.

-Boil Jaggery put in one cup of water when it melts; sieve this solution to remove any impurities. (Pictorial guide is here)

-Take this liquid and boil further till it reaches one thread consistency. At this stage, you will hear “Tup” “Tup” bubbling sound, too (this is the clue which I have received from the elders)

-When it reaches one thread consistency, mix in the prepared content, ghee, and cardamom powder.

-Mix nicely. At this stage, the mixture will be too wet to handle. So, keep aside for 10 o 15 minutes till the mixture becomes a little dry and ready to handle. When you feel it is ready, take a small amount in hand, make Laddu, and keep it aside.

-When all the mixture gets over, and you have finished the process, store these laddus in an airtight container. This Laddu stays good for long, even at room temperature.

Plantain flower Proso millet dosa :

February 27, 2021

I have discussed plantain flower, traditionally, how to chop, how to use etc., in my earlier blog post, which included my mom’s best chutney recipe. We all know the banana flower is rich in fibre, antioxidants, iron, potassium, calcium, vitamins, and other minerals. It is used mainly to treat constipation and anaemia in villages of our native in and around Mangalore and is part of our day to day cooking.

I Tried the recipe long ago, liked and finalised it with the recipe for my millet calendar project, which was published in 2019 and filing the recipe under Diabetic friendly recipe in my blog.

Ingredients:

Proso millet – 1 cup

Dosa Rice – 1 cup

Urad dal -1/4 cup

Chana dal – ¼ cup

Methi – 1 tsp

Poha – ½ cup

Jaggery – 1 tsp

Salt

Tamarind – 1tsp

Red chillies – 4

Coconut – ½ cup

Plantain flower – 1

Method:

-Wash, soak millet, rice, chana and urad dal, methi and poha for 3 hrs.

-Take one bowl of water with added one serving spoon of buttermilk.

-Chop whole plantain flower, soak in buttermilk water, drain. You can check the process here as well.

– cook the drained banana flower by adding tamarind water, salt, red chillies, jaggery.

-Cool the cooked mixture, grind with soaked items by adding coconut into a smooth paste.

-Ferment and make dosas like any regular dosas and serve with chutney.

NOTE: It can be made as a vegan, instead of buttermilk, use tamarind water and instead of ghee, you can use any vegetable oil.

Millet roti/ pulka :

February 25, 2021

Millets are “no glutenous” flours. To attain soft-edged, easy to roll roti’s, we need to prepare the proper, pliable dough. When you want to prepare roti dough, you can either add little rice flour or whole wheat flour to millet flour. Even though it is not a traditional method, it works out just fine to my family needs. It remains soft even after cooling, easy to make and works out just perfect for any rolls or wraps.

How: First, make a porridge of millet flour or a mixture of two to three millet flours by boiling water, salt,0ne a spoon of any cooking oil. When it starts boiling, add millet flour and cook until it is glossy.

When it is cool, add rice or whole wheat flour and make a dough. In this way, you would get very soft pulkas.

How I usually do is –

Ingredients:

Ragi flour – ½ cup

Bajra flour – ½ cup

Jowar flour – ½ cup

Whole wheat flour- as needed

Water- 2 cup

Salt

Oil -1 tsp.

Method:

-Take two cups of water, add oil, salt and boil. Now add millet flours and keep this for 2 to 3 minutes or until it cooks. Now remove from the flame and keep aside.

-When it is ready to handle, add whole wheat flour, make a firm ball like Chapati dough. Cover and keep this aside for 10 minutes for resting.

-Then start making a little thicker Chapati than the regular Chapati/ pulka’s and cook both the sides and place it on fire to fluff and serve either as it is or by applying ghee or oil.

NOTE:

-To make Glutenfree roti, add rice flour instead of whole wheat flour.

-To make an initial porridge, you can use the microwave as well.

Bottle gourd Thepla:

February 21, 2021

Bottle gourd Thepla is inspired by Dhapate (Thalipeet): Maharashtra #marathwada region special breakfast. Bottle gourd has numerous health benefits. In our native, bottle gourd is used in treating stomach illness or jaundice, which has the power (anti-inflammatory properties) to heal our Liver and intestine during the disease. Bottle gourd has close to 90% water content and is excellent on the stomach and light on digestion. Apart from this, bottle gourd juice is very good for weight watchers, diabetics, and a healthy heart.

Here, I have taken Jowar flour, considered as a high fibre, protein-rich and complex carbohydrate. Hence, the nutrition quotient increases and becomes a wholesome food for anyone, including low cal diet or diabetics.

Ingredients:

2 cups – Whole wheat flour

½ cup – Besan

1 cup – White Jowar flour

You can increase any of the flour or decrease acc to your wish.

Grated bottle gourd – almost 200 to 250grams

Chopped onion – 1

Salt, turmeric powder, cumin powder – 1tsp, garlic paste – 1 tsp, Sesame seeds – 2 tsp

method:

-Add all these, mix thoroughly, by adding sufficient water and make a dough.

-Keep it aside for half an hour, to rest by closing it.

Now take lemon sized chapati dough in hand and roll this ball using a roller, like regular chapati.

-Cook both sides by using either oil, ghee, or butter, of course as minimal as possible.

Serve with sweetish bottle gourd raita, groundnut chutney powder.

-OR-

If you want to make glutenfree Roti, please omit whole wheat flour, add any preferred flour of your choice. Make a roti dough by using little hot water.

-Pat the dough on a banana leaf or parchment paper and proceed to cook both sides. If you want to see the rotti patting and cooking procedure, please refer to this post.

NOTE: if Bottle gourd is tender, don’t remove the peel. Grate and use it.

Millet –banana stem dosa:

February 18, 2021

Every part of the banana plant has its benefits to our health. Banana stem is one such thing, which is high in fibre and filled with nutritious water. It is perfect for Human gut as well as the kidney.

The juice of the banana stem helps in flushing out toxins as well as to prevent kidney stone formation as well. Overall it acts as a healing food for the human body. In coastal Karnataka, we do use plantain stem or flower in various recipes. I have already shared our traditional Dosa recipe, and it is here, and previously I have shared Raw salad, curd salad and Rasam recipe.

When Plantain stem and millet combine, it is a perfect balance and can be a diet food or whoever is cutting down their rice intake due to their health issues. This dosa turns crispy and goes very well with any side dish of your choice. Tried and did this for my millet calendar project, published in 2017 and filing the recipe under Diabetic friendly recipe in my blog.

Ingredients:

Foxtail Millet – 2 cups

Rice – ¾ cup

Urad dal – ¼ cup

Banana stem – from 6” piece

Methi – ¼ tsp

Poha – ½ cup

Buttermilk – 1 cup

Method:

-Wash millet, rice and urad dal together. Add poha.

-Soak in buttermilk for 2 to 3 hours.

– To chop banana stem, remove the outer cover and make slices of inner pith.

-While slicing, you will find little thread-like fibre, discard that by drawing by hand.

-After slicing into round pieces of dice and use this for grinding.

-Grind soaked items with banana stem and salt.

– Ferment overnight and next day morning you can prepare Dosas.

Note: You can use any millet instead of foxtail. Taste doesn’t change.

Savoury muffins:

February 14, 2021

Perfect for small eats, lunch boxes, travels for all age groups and it is so good to grab and have on the go, or have while working or have while study break or have while feeling indulgent.

In my opinion, it is one healthy guiltfree, cheesy and feels good snack. This cheesy flavoured muffin stuffed with my daughter’s favourite veggies, like sweet corn and capsicum, added the goodness of millet and unbleached flour. It is one more recipe from my millet calendar project, published in 2018.

The recipe goes like this –

Ingredients:

Foxtail millet Rava – 1 cup

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

Cooking soda – 1 tsp

Garlic salt – 2 tsp

Sugar – 2 Tbl sp

Oregano – 1 Tbl sp (pizza seasoning)

Red chilli flakes – 1 Tbl sp

Curd – 1 cup

Water – ¼ cup (to adjust the consistency)

Vegetable oil – ½ cup

Grated cheese – 2 Tbl sp

Chopped veggies – 1 ½ cup (sweet corn, ½ capsicum, ½ onion)

Method:

-Dry roast Rava, cool.

-Mix flour, Rava, chilli flakes and chopped vegetables and cheese.

-In another bowl, beat curd, oil, sugar, salt, oregano, cooking soda and mix until you see bubbles.

-Now pour this liquid over flour and veggie mix. Adjust the consistency by adding water.

-Batter should be little thick but droppable.

-Pour this in a lined cupcake baking tray in a preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 170°C.

Instant Ragi Rava Dosa:

February 5, 2021

Instant preparations are always handy when you are in a hurry or in a “no mood to cook” situation. I usually prefer Ragi Rava dosa to make, because it has the goodness of Ragi/ finger millet and everyone likes it in this form. Dosa turns out very crispy and tasty. One can have it with coconut chutney or any leftover sambar or with pickle or as it is. It has a nice natural flavour as well.

If you plan to make Rava dosa, you can mix the batter and keep it at night itself. Otherwise, no worries, mix and proceed to make dosas. Even some ingredients are optional; if you add coconut, greens, it would surely enhance the taste.

Ingredients:

Ragi flour – ½ cup

Fine Rava – ½ cup

Rice flour – ¼ cup

Salt

Hing – a pinch

Black pepper – ½ tsp

Cumin – ¼ tsp

Grated coconut – ¼ cup (optional)

Coriander leaves – 2 tablespoons (optional)

Methi leaves – 2 tablespoons (optional)

Method:

-Crush black pepper and cumin in a mortar and pestle.

-For dosa mix: Mix in Rava, rice flour and Ragi flour, salt, hing, crushed cumin -pepper and a little water and keep aside at night (optional) otherwise mix in the morning and proceed.

– If you have mixed and kept it at night, add in grated coconut, chopped coriander leaves or methi leaves in the morning.

-Make batter into pourable consistency like Rava dosa or neer dosa batter and check for the salt.

-Now keep Iron griddle for heat.

-When it is ready, grease with oil, pour one serving spoon of batter-like how we make Rawa Dosa, you can see it in the picture below.

-Now close the lid by keeping the gas on full flame.

-After two minutes, remove the lid and keep the gas in simmer. The edges of the Dosa rise a little.

-Now flip this Dosa on the plate, leave for 2 minutes, then fold like this.

– Now keep repeating this with the remaining batter and stack one over the other or take one big plate and stalk one opposite another alternately.

-Serve these Dosa with coconut chutney or with any other gravy of your choice or have it as it is.

Little millet Salad

February 1, 2021

It is a low-calorie lunch or dinner option for weight reduction or diabetic patients- Very filling and at the same time low in calorie and filled with so many nutrients.

Ingredients:

Samai or little millet – ½ cup

Sweet corn kernels – from one cob (boiled)

Sprouted Green gram – ½ to 1 cup

Grated raw mango – ½ mango

Pomegranate – 1

Fresh Coconut – 1 tablespoon

Salt

Coriander leaves.

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 teaspoon

Mustard- ½ teaspoon

Hing- 1 pinch

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Green chilli -1 (chopped)

Method:

-Dry roast little millet for 2 minutes. Wash and cook this in a cooker (one whistle) by adding ¾ cup of water and pinch of salt.

-After cooking, remove the cooker lid and spread the cooked millet in a wide plate and cool.

– When it cools down, mix in boiled corn, sprouted green gram, grated raw mango, pomegranate, fresh Coconut, salt and chopped coriander leaves.

-Do the seasoning by heating coconut oil. Add mustard. When it splutters, add hing, chopped green chilli and curry leaves.

-Add this to salad and mix lightly and enjoy as a meal.