No Carb Zucchini Pasta

Zucchini Pasta

Zucchini pasta is a gluten free, vegan pasta. It is great for picky eater kids.  Zucchini has lots of vitamins. It is low in calories, contains no saturated fats. Thus it makes ideal dish for weight watchers.

I have tried zucchini pasta with different sauces and ingredients and every time it tastes great. My favorite one is with pesto sauce recipe is below.

Prep time : Ten minutes
Cook time : Five minutes

Mandoline peeler 

Ingredients:

• 2 Fresh Zucchini
• 2 Tbsp Pesto sauce
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Pepper
• 2 Tbsp Black beans from can rinsed and drained
•  Mandoline peeler to make ribbons of pasta
• 2 Tbsp Sunflower seeds  
• 5 Cherry Tomatoes

How To Prepare:

1. Wash and clean fresh zucchini. Cut both the ends off.
2. To make Zucchini pasta use a spiral mandoline to transform the zucchini into delicate thin ribbons.

Thin Ribbons

3. No need to cook zucchini in the oven. Squeeze out excess water with cheese cloth if there is any excess water.

4. In a wok on a medium heat add olive oil, lemon juice and fresh basil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. 5. Add pesto sauce, black beans and Saute' for couple of minutes.
6. Garnish with sunflower seeds for the crunch.

Enjoy

Yummy Low carb Pasta

How did your pasta turn out? Let me know in your comments!
 Try carb free gluten free my Spaghetti Squash pasta recipe!

Original Bombay Sandwich

I'm a fan of CHOW reciepes and loved the Pickled Radish and Sweet Butter Tea Sandwich. It reminded me of the Original Bombay Sandwich that I would enjoy as a midafternoon snack.

Original Bombay Sandwich

Good thing about sandwiches are that you can make layers of different kind of vegetables and spreads. Here I have spreads as cilantro chutney which is flavorful, made from scratch. I have layered with boiled potatoes, beets, crunchy raw onions and cucumbers, sprinkled with sandwich masala. Butter, chutney and ketchup are used as spreads. Which gives spicy, tangy and sweet taste that is unique to Bombay sandwich.

Ingredients:

• 8 Slices of white bread I prefer pepperidge farm bread thin slices. Remove the edges.
• 1 Small garden cucumber cut into round pieces
• 2 Medium firm tomatoes cut into round pieces
• 1 Medium red onions cut into round pieces
• 1 Boiled beet and cut into round slices
• 2 Medium boiled potatoes cut into round slices
• 1/2 Stick of room temperature butter
• 5 spoons of ketchup optional
• Small bowl of green cilantro chutney
• Salt and Pepper or Sandwich Masala or chat Masala

Slices of vegetables and Spreads

How to Make:

1. Apply butter on four slices. 
2. Second layer will be chutney spread all over so it covers all the corners. 
3. Third layer will ketchup if desired. 
4. Cover with cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, onions and beets on top of one another.
5. Sprinkle chat masala on in between each layer. 
6. Cover with another slices and cut diagonally or into three pieces.

Layers of cut vegetables 

Sandwich

Slice As you like it

How do you enjoy your sandwich? Did you prefer raw or cooked vegetables? I am eager to try different ways of making sandwiches. Let me know in your comments!

  

Misti Dahi - Yogurt Cheesecake With Nutmeg

Misti Dahi - Yogurt cheesecake

Delicacy Sweets From West Bengal, India 

West Bengal is very famous for its delicacy sweets.  One of my favorite sweet growing up was Misti Dahi.  No need to say that was one of my love affair with yogurt, that explains it is very hard for me to be vegan completely.  Looking back this was a healthy dessert.

Healthy Alternative To Cheesecake

Misti Dahi is creamy and velvety smooth. It is very similar to a cheesecake.  I love to make MISTI DAHI as well as cheese cake without the eggs.

Usually Misti Dahi is made by boiling and reducing milk so it becomes little thick and creamy adding molasses made by dates or plain brown sugar to make it sweet. Earthenware or bakeware can be used to set the yogurt. The reason to use earthenware is because of its porous nature, which allows the water in the yogurt to be absorbed.  Earthenware in picture is courtesy of my Bengali friend Rita Ghosh.

How To Make Misti Dahi

Prep time 10 minutes
Bake time 3 hours
chill in refrigerator over night    

Ingredients:

1 Cup sweetened condense milk 

2 Cup Greek plain yogurt

1 Tsp Rose water optional

Garnish:

Freshly grated nutmeg

Fresh seasonal fruit cut into small bite size pieces

Pistachio and/or saffron

5 heatproof bowls 

How to prepare:

1. Mix the condense milk, yogurt and rose water in a bowl.
2. Whisk till mixture becomes smooth.
3. Divide the mixture equally into the earthen bowls.
4. Cover the bowls with aluminum foils.
5. Place the oven rack in middle of the oven.
6. Heat the oven on low setting of 75 degrees.
7. keep the bowls in the oven for 3 hours.
8. Remove from oven and refrigerate overnight.
9. Garnish with grated nutmeg, pistachio, or choice of your fruit. Enjoy!

Dahi with Pomegranate, yumm!

What do you think of this healthy alternative to cheesecake? Let me know in the comments below!

Instant Salad For Busy Week nights

Apple, Cucumber Mint Salad

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
cooking level very easy

Ingredients:

1 seedless cucumber chopped
1 red apple chopped
1 red onion chopped
1 Salerno pepper seeded, chopped
1/4 tsp of roasted  crushed cumin powder
1/4 tsp of sea salt
1/4 tsp of lemon juice
Few leaves of fresh mint and cilantro chopped finely.

Toss all the ingredients in a bowl. Add seasoning stir and Instant salad is ready!

For variation carrots, radishes,  raw mango, parsnips, pomegranate seeds works well. It is quick, easy and instantly adds nutritional value to any meal. Enjoy.

Ancient Butternut Squash Recipe from my Home Town

Recently my neighbor gave me a fresh butternut squash from her vegetable garden. I have some fresh ridge gourd from my home garden. Suddenly it reminded me a traditional recipe from my home town Patan, from state of Gujarat, India. 

Here, today I have old version of a quick recipe of stir fry Ridge Gourd and Butternut squash in new environment. It is healthy quick and best part of it can be substituted for any other vegetables.

 My Home Town 

Butternut Squash and Ridge Gourd

Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cooking time: 10 Minutes
Serves: Five
cooking level very easy
Gluten free, Jain ,Vegan 

Ingredients:

• 2 cups chopped butternut squash
• 2 cups chopped ridge gourd
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/4 tsp of chili
• 2 tsp coriander/cumin powder
• 2 tsp of olive oil
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• pinch of astofedia
• 1 tsp of lemon juice

Cut Pieces of Ridge Gourd and Butternut Squash

How to Make:

1. On a medium heat in a wok add two spoon of oil.
2. Add a pinch of astofedia and add ridge gourd and squash.
3. Stir fry all the vegetables gently. Add salt, chili, tuermeric and coriander/cumin powder. Add lemon juice.
4. Saute' the vegetables. Cover and let it cook. Stirring them occasionally. It will take 4-5 mintues.

Congratulations, you just made a delicious stir fry vegetable dish loaded with vitamins!

BONUS: For variation peas can be added. Enjoy :)

Ridge gourd and butternut squash stir fry

Have you tried recently any different squash recipes? Let me know in the comments below!

Butternut Squash Soup

Fresh Butternut Squash Soup

I strongly believe in using fresh and seasonal produce. Butternut squash is in season right now at tastes amazingly fresh. This is an easy and fun recipe. 

• Serves: Four
• Preparation time: 30 minutes
• cooking level is very easy
• Vegan and Gluten free

Ingredients:

• 1 Butternut Squash Peeled, Seeded, Chopped
• 1 Tart Green Apple, Chopped
• 1 Onion Chopped
• 1 Celery Rib Chopped
• 1 Carrot Chopped 
• 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
• 1 Chopped Serrano Pepper
• 1 Small Piece of Ginger, Chopped
• 4 Cups of Water or Vegetable Broth
• Few Thyme leaves
• Pinch of Nutmeg 
• Pumpkin Seeds to Garnish
• Salt

Preparations:

1. On a medium high heat in a sauce pan add two tbsp of olive oil. Saute onion, celery, carrots for 3-4 minutes.
2. Add butternut squash, apple chunks and saute for  few minutes.
3. Add four cups of water or vegetable broth and bring to a boil.
4. Add salt, ginger and pepper. Let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Puree the mixture

5. Using a hand blender, puree the mixture to a smooth consistency. Be careful, it will be hot!
6. Garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds. Thyme leaves and/or  my favorite sprinkle with nutmeg. (Candid walnuts is another great option if you don't have pumpkin seeds)

 Butternut squash soup with roasted pumpkin seeds

Bonus Tip: For busy folks, buy pre-cut butternut squash at your local grocery store.

Gluten Free Vegan Squash Spaghetti

 Vegan - Gluten Free Squash Spaghetti  

Summer is over and Autumn bring lots of vegetables. Our garden and super markets overflow with varieties of squash. This fall i fell in love with cooking with squash. I have tried for the first time spaghetti squash. This squash is an oblong seed bearing variety of winter squash. The fruit can be ivory to orange in color. It has large seeds.

Prep time:25 minutes

cooking time: 10 minutes

Perfectly vegan and Gluten free pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Spaghetti squash
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 carrot chopped
• 1 rib celery chopped
• 2 tbsp red bell pepper chopped
• 2 tbsp green bell pepper chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped tomato
• 2 tbsp pesto sauce
• 2 tbsp oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Few pieces of caper

Ingredients

How to prepare:

1. Cut the squash into four pieces.

2. Take out seeds and membrane out of squash.

 Squash cut into four pieces

3. Bake the squash in oven for 20 minutes at the temperature of 200 degrees.
4. With the help of a fork scoop the spaghetti out. It comes out naturally in delicate ribbons.

 Baked squash comes out easily as ribbon

5. In a wok on a medium high heat add oil.
6. Add onions, bell peppers, carrots, celery, capers salt, pepper and pesto sauce.

Stir fry

7. Stir fry all the ingredients gently for 3-4 minutes.
8. Fold in the spaghetti with vegetables. Stir fry for 3-4 minutes more till it is properly mixed.

Squash Spaghetti