Healthy Green Chili Pickle

Any meal is incomplete without a spicy Pickle and crispy Poppadum in Rajasthan and your scrumptious meal will be always judged by how good you are in making pickles! My mom's house is full of ceramic jars bursting out with new pickles every season, most of which goes to some of the relatives nearby or to unexpected guest who would have praised her cooking after a hearty meal at home.

Oil and salt act as a preservative to the pickles and help it stay fresh for long. Most of the pickle varieties have oil floating up to the brim of the jar, which eventually avoid the formation of molds and fungus and increase its shelf life.

My mom makes a pickle which is water based, and we call it as 'Paani wala Achaar'! I am not a big fan of pickles but often make some of these oil free versions to go with my stuffed Indian flat breads. These two pickle recipes which is very popular in Rajasthan and need less oil.

Most of the houses in Rajasthan eat plain or stuffed chapatti (Indian flat bread) for their breakfast, pickles make a lovely accompaniment. Since I and my hubby do not like much of oily foods, such Pickles make a rare appearance on our table. But there are a few recipes which require minimal oil and can be a good substitutes for any oil laden pickle.

For making the pickle we require a special kind of chilly which is called Athana green chillies, it is broad & fleshy and is found mainly in Jodhpur city of Rajasthan in India. You could make the same using any other chilly which is slightly broad and fleshy. Normally the chillies are pickled whole with a stuffing of various flavorful spices.

Traditionally these green chillies are pickled along with the seeds for that fiery taste, but I remove the seed for a much mellowed pickle.

Preparation time:

20 minutes

Cooking time:

20 minutes

Serves:

4 persons

Ingredients:

12-15 Athana Green chillies or any fleshy chili pepper

1/2 cup coarsely ground mustard seeds

1 tbsp fenugreek seeds

1 tbsp coarsely ground aniseed powder (saunf)

1 tsp. Turmeric powder

1 tsp dry mango powder (optional)

1 tsp onion seeds (optional)

1 tbsp. rock salt/table salt

1/2 tsp. asafoetida (hing)

1 lemon

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

Preparation:

Method; Wash the green chillies and pat dry them carefully using a kitchen napkin. The chillies should be clean and dry without any traces of water on them.

Make an incision or slit in each green chilly length wise from top to the end part. Remove the seeds with a kitchen knife if you want your pickle to be less spicy and fiery.

Take a large bowl and add all the dry ingredients except the oil add lemon in it and mix it well. Stuff the mixed spice mix in each slit green chilly. Fill the stuffed green chillies in a clean jar. Heat oil in wok and pour over the chillies.

1st version (No-oil) ; Take a clean glass jar and fill it with all the stuffed green chillies. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the pickle and cover with a muslin cloth. Keep this jar in sunlight for 7-8 days before consuming.

2nd version (less oil); The other way is to heat oil in a wok and cook the stuffed green chillies for just about 1-2 minutes, without much stirring so as to avoid the stuffing coming out of the chillies. Fill the same in a jar, squeeze the juice of one lemon and keep it aside for a day for the flavors of spices to get infused in the pickle.

This pickle stays good for about a week when refrigerated. Add extra oil to preserve the pickle for longer time.

Serve the pickle with any Indian flat bread of as an accompaniment to any rice recipes.

Lite recipes for right health. Quick-to-cook, easy and healthy recipes for busy couples, bachelors and all those for whom time is precious. Articles on health and eating right will help you combine nutritional benefits of various food in your cooking.

http://www.litebite.in/

In case you like to indulge on food, do visit my other site for exotic and grand recipes, or read about places to visit in India;

http://sanjeetakk.blogspot.com/

Original article

Minty Cottage Cheese and Spicy Garlic Indian Flat Breads

Time flies when you are enjoying what you are doing and doing what you enjoy the most. And I thoroughly enjoyed my vacation at my native Udaipur. Learned to cook a few authentic recipes from mom, visited all the historical places which were in my wish list for long and most important met many of my schoolmates after almost 30 years!

Mom made these two versions of Stuffed flat breads or Parathas for my travel food. My kids dislike air travel and given a choice would always prefer trains over flights. They love to watch green fields, rivers, animals and villages over the dull and gray clouds. So I booked for the flight for one way and came back by train.

These stuffed flat breads were the perfect accompaniment in the journey along with some ready-to-eat food that I packed along. I had them for my breakfast, lunch and the dinner as well. The breads are extremely easy to make and are scrumptious to snack upon with a hot cup of tea.

Preparation time:

20 minutes

Cooking time:

15 minutes

Serves:

2 persons

Ingredients:

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup cottage cheese

1 tbsp of dry mint leaves

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp chilly powder

1/4 tsp. Turmeric powder

Salt as desired

1/2 tsp dry mango powder (optional)

1/2 cup Water

vegetable oil

Preparation:

Take a large vessel and add the wholewheat flour, salt and 1 tbsp of oil in it and rub the dry flour with finger. Add water and knead the dough. Quantity of water may vary according to the flour, if the flour is coarse of home ground it will need more water while a fine ground flour will need a little less.

In another bowl and add the fresh cottage cheese, chilly powder, turmeric powder, cumin seeds, salt, crushed dry mint leaves in it. Mix all the spices and the cottage cheese well.

Take a small ball of dough make a perfect round by rolling it in the palm. Dust it with dry flour and flatten it on a board using a rolling pin into a small circular disc. Spread a teaspoon of oil over it and add about a tablespoon of the above cottage cheese mix and spread it thoroughly.

Make a cut along the radius of the circle as shown in the picture below and start folding the rolled dough in a circular motion till it makes a single long tubular shape. Flatten the dough as shown in the picture below and roll it again into a large circle using dry flour. Make all the flat breads in the similar manner and keep them aside.

Cooking:

Heat a girdle and put the rolled out flat bread on it. Turn to the other side and add 1/2 tsp. oil to the sides of the flat bread. Fry both the sides for 2 minute and cook till golden spots appear on it.

Serve hot with tomato sauce or any spread of your choice. Pack them in an aluminum foil for a great travel and picnic food.

Lite recipes for right health. Quick-to-cook, easy and healthy recipes for busy couples, bachelors and all those for whom time is precious. Articles on health and eating right will help you combine nutritional benefits of various food in your cooking.

http://www.litebite.in/

In case you like to indulge on food, do visit my other site for exotic and grand recipes, or read about places to visit in India;

http://sanjeetakk.blogspot.com/

Original article

Avoid The Unnecessary Expenses Of A Vegan Diet

A lot of people drawback from the idea of a vegan diet because of the "unknown" expenses that may come with the practice. Vegans cannot easily choose to eat anything and becoming a "picky eater" may really become the reason to spend more on your food budget especially if you will not be able to avoid the unnecessary expenses of a vegan diet.

Is vegetarian living really expensive? Well for some people, embracing a vegan diet will be synonymous to the idea of spending more for better food options but this will not be the case especially if you will just know the ways to avoid the most common reasons why you may be spending more for vegan meat substitutes.

Here are some of the tips that will prevent unwanted expenses while sticking to a vegan diet:

• Stay away from mock meats. People who are just starting to follow a vegan diet may crave for the usual meat treats that they enjoy such as burgers, hotdogs, and barbecue and this will not be a problem since there are mock meats that can offer you the satiety that you want from what you are eating. However, these products also come at a higher price and you will surely be spending more than your desired budget if you will give in to these tempting treats. It will be okay if you will only try these mock meat products once in a while but making it a part of your daily vegan diet will surely hurt your pocket!

• Avoid fast food. Nowadays you can easily find vegetarian meals from the usual fast foods that are located in your area and though the idea may seem great, this often results to spending more than what you want. In fast foods, vegetarian dishes are special "items" on their menu and you can expect to see that these are priced higher than their usual offerings.

• Know more options other than organic. Of course organic products offer great benefits but you should also be aware of the added price that comes with the produce. Remember that vegan living doesn't always mean organic so if you see vegan options that are cheap but not organic, you should know that you are not violating any vegan conditions.

Definitely, the idea of going vegan doesn't have to deal with lots of expenses because if you will just know the ways to control the cost, there will be no reason to spend more on vegetarian meats. Sprouting seeds, tofu, textured soy, and tempeh are just some of the options to spend less and for sure, as you learn to come up with your own vegan recipes you will find it easier to stick to a healthy diet without its unwanted costs!

Healthy eating need not be expensive even if you will choose to follow a vegetarian lifestyle and explore the variations that sprouting seeds, textured soy, organic soybeans, and other vegan meats can offer. Click on the links to know the best ways to spend less while on a vegan diet.

Original article