So back to this paratha. This paratha is easier to make than the Gobhi Paratha, because of the filling. This filling has lesser moisture and so is so much easier to roll. I was happy with that. I love the little green peeking through the paratha with the finished product. Try it out and see what you think of it.
Green Peas Parathas
Yields approx. 9-10
For the dough –
2 cups wholewheat flour
1/2 tsp. salt
Water
1 tbsp olive oil / ghee
Mix the flour and the salt well.
Drizzle the olive oil and mix through.
Bind with a little water at a time to form a soft pliable dough. The dough should not be sticky.
If you find the dough sticky, add some more whole wheat flour. If the dough is too dry and difficult to knead, add a little water.
Knead well, roll into a ball, cover with a damp cloth and keep aside while you make the filling.
For the filling – 1 1/2 cup frozen green peas (you could use fresh too), rinsed, thawed and thoroughly drained
2 birdseye chillies, or to taste
1 tbsp garlic minced
1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves and stalks, chopped
Salt, to taste
1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter) (alternatively you could use olive oil)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Into the bowl of a food processor, place the green peas, chillies, garlic, coriander and salt.
Pulse a couple of times. You want a coarse blend and NOT a paste or puree. You want some larger pieces and some smaller bits, much like what you see in the pan in the next picture.
Heat a pan over medium heat and add 1 tbsp ghee.
Add the cumin seeds and let them sputter, being careful to not burn them.
Add the green peas mix.
Stir around and let it cook out for about 2 minutes.
Remove from the pan and let it cool completely.
**Additionally you will need some dry whole wheat flour for dusting your work surface and some ghee to brush over the parathas.
To make the parathas –
Place a thick bottomed pan / tawa on a medium flame and let it heat up.
In the meanwhile, divide the dough and the pea mix into portions.
1) and 2) Dust your work surface with some flour. Roll a ball of dough between your palms to form a smooth ball. Flatten and using a rolling pin roll out to a disc about 6 inches in diameter. While rolling you need to make sure it doesn’t stick to the work surface. Don’t flip the dough over while rolling. (Note that these measures are approx. just to give you an idea of the sizes).
3) Place the disc in the palm of your hand. I am right handed, so I place the little disc on my left palm.
4) Spread a few drops of ghee on it.
5) Place a spoonful on the filling mix in the centre. You don’t want to overfill the parathas or rolling can get messy.
6) Pick up opposite sides of the disc and press together to seal.
7) Gather in the rest of the edges. Press the edges against each other (like a little dumpling) to seal. Then flatten it gently and press the edges down. Here you are trying to roll it into a little ball carefully without smashing it.
8)Dust a little more flour on your work surface, if needed. Place the seam side down and gently start rolling the little ball out.
9) Roll out to about 8 inches wide. Again, you need to make sure it doesn’t stick to the work surface. You can dust with more dry flour if needed. You also don’t want to roll it too thin because the filling will just ooze out.
Place this on a well heated tawa / griddle and roast for a while moving it around till light brown spots appear on one side. Turn over and cook on the other side till light brown spots appear on the other side as well.
To finish off, spoon a few drops of clarified butter on the paratha and spread. Flip over and repeat this on the other side letting it roast for a few seconds after you add the clarified butter to the side.
Serve hot with butter and a mug of hot coffee for a yummy Indian breakfast or brunch option.
This time around, I served this up for dinner with some mildly flavoured yogurt (plain raita) and some sweet mango pickle. (The pickle is called Chunda / Chundo and you should be able to find it in any Indian store.)
These parathas go very well with any Indian style veggies too.
**Notes –
You can leave out the clarified butter if you want an even healthier version, but it does wonders for the taste.
If you have any dough or filling left over, simply refrigerate and use the next day.
You can also make a plain paratha by simply rolling out the dough, spread the ghee, wrap and re-roll and roast it without the filling. This can be served with your favorite jam or cheese or scrambled eggs or an omelette or anything else you’d fancy.
You could serve this up with plain yogurt too.
For the plain raita –
Good quality, unflavoured yogurt
Salt, to taste
Sugar, to taste (I use about 1 tbsp to 1 1/2 cups of yogurt, approx)(This will also depend on how tart the yogurt is. I sometimes use lesser than that)
Cumin powder
Red chilli powder
Mix the yogurt, salt and sugar and still thoroughly to incorporate the salt and sugar and beat till you are left with a smooth yogurt.
Place in the serving bowl and lightly spinkle some cumin powder and red chilly powder over.
Enjoy.
SRC: Strawberry Oat Smoothie
Usually my husband is the one who whips up the smoothies in our house. I have also consciously started taking some juice or a homemade smoothie to work over the last couple of weeks. Its been a nice change and has helped me lay off the coffee and give me a burst of energy that I need. I just made a couple of changes to the recipe for this smoothie like leaving out the cinnamon and I also cut down the honey to half. You could adjust the sweetness to your liking. I would like to try it soon with the cinnamon and see how that turns out. Let me tell you a little about this smoothie. Even though it didnt have any cream, yogurt, ice cream or avocado, it turned out nice and creamy and that was a pleasant surprise. I reckon I have the oats to thank for that. They also give the smoothie good substance and a glass of this great stuff will keep you going for a while. I have a punnet of blueberries that I will use to make another batch of these smoothies. Thanks Leslie for introducing me to a great new twist on the smoothie. 🙂
Strawberry Oat Smoothie
(Makes 2)
1 1/2 cup cold milk
12-15 strawberries
4 tbsp. dry oats
2 tbsp. honey
Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and puree till smooth.
Pour out into a glass and enjoy!!!
Breakfast Quesadillas
Breakfast Quesadilla
1 flour tortilla
Crunchy peanut butter
1 banana, sliced
Dark chocolate chips
A knob of butter
Spread some peanut butter on the tortilla.
On one half of the tortilla arrange the banana slices and sprinkle the dark chocolate chips over.
Fold the empty half over and press down lightly to make sure the peanut butter can do its thing and get everything together.
Add a knob of butter in a pan and over a low-medium flame toast the quesadilla till it gets nice and crunchy.
Then add another knob of butter to the pan and carefully turn the tortilla over to the other side and let it crisp up nicely.
I cut it into three wedges just to make it easier to handle.
Serve up…. and oh, please proceed carefully, the melted filling is hotter than you think it would be.
SRC: Spinach Stuffed Omelette
SRC: Blueberry Pancakes
Here we are at October’s SRC reveal. How I love reveal days! I’m happy to say that this month’s reveal treated me to the yummiest breakfast in a long, long time. For this month, I was assigned Kim’s blog, Everyday Mom. Kim’s blog has so much deliciousness packed in one place, I was spoiled for choice. She cooks and bakes with her 3 gorgeous children and you will see them featured in her posts. I was torn between quite a few of her recipes, like this Crunchy Kale, and this Chicken Satay Salad, and the yummy Mango Panna Cotta, these super fun Tortilla Bowls, Zuchinni Fries and these Black Bean Sweet Potato Quesadillas. Can you imagine the dilemma I was faced with? It was hard to pick one for the reveal. I will be making a few of these in the coming days but for the reveal I went with an absolute winner – her Pancakes. Now if you’ve been around for a while, you know I’ve posted pancake recipes in the past, namely my Coconut Pancakes, these Almost Vegan Pnother aancakes and Nigella Lawson’s Pancakes. So why another post on pancakes, you might wonder. Well, until now, I’ve never had the opportunity to make pancakes using buttermilk. And for the first time I had access to some yummy blueberries, that I’d picked up on a trip to Sydney’s Paddy’s Market at Haymarket.
An easy recipe to put together and a treat for breakfast, this recipe ticks all the boxes for me. The buttermilk does its magic and makes such fluffy pancakes, I was thrilled. Never before have I had such fluffy pancakes. I stuck to Kim’s recipe but halved it, since it was for just the two of us. I made some plain buttermilk pancakes (just incase my husband wasn’t feeling like the blueberry ones – he’s undecided on whether or not he likes blueberries). To the rest of the batter I added a handful of blueberries, but no other changes were made. We had the pancakes with some honey drizzled on top. They were so delicious, even my ‘undecided about blueberries husband’ enjoyed them. This will be my go-to recipe for pancakes from now on – Thanks Kim.
In the pan – on its way to becoming some brekkie deliciousness |
And last, but definitely not the least, some blueberry pancakes.
Blueberry Pancakes
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste / vanilla extract
Maple Syrup, to drizzle over
A handful of blueberries (Approx. 1/4 – 1/3 cup)
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Combine the wet ingredients and add to the dry ingredients. Whisk together till combined.
Gently fold in the blueberries.
Heat a pan, spray some oil to coat the pan.
Pour a ladlefull of batter onto the hot pan. Leave some space for the batter to spread a little.
When you see bubbles appearing and bursting on the top, flip the pancakes over and cook till done.
Serve with some maple syrup! Yumm!!!
Thanks Jane – The Heritage Cook for hosting our very own Group A month after month and April – Angel’s Homestead for making sure that our fun Group here at the Secret Recipe Club runs smoothly and continues bringing a ton of yum to our tables every month.
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Mini Eggless Banana Walnut Muffins
Can you tell that I absolutely love bananas? They’ve always been one of my favorite fruits. If you’re new here and don’t believe me, check out these beauties – Banana Bread, Bananas Foster, Stuffed French Toast and Monkey Business. See I wasn’t kidding. Today I have yet another banana treat for you. And let me tell you that these were absolutely wonderful. Even though they were an eggless bake, they were light, moist and super yum. I made mini muffins this time just as an excuse to have a second helping, maybe even a third 😉 These were so great that the next time I whip these up, I’m going to make them the regular muffin size. I think that tells you how much we enjoyed them. I hope you do too! Oh, I love my new silicone mini muffin cups. They are so gorgeous, they just brighten up my day. Am I crazy to want them in every color available 🙂 ? Unfortunately I forgot to use them while baking the muffins but they do make a pretty picture. Can’t wait to bake with them.
Mini Eggless Banana Walnut Muffins
Yields 12 mini muffins
2-3 over ripe banans, mashed
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup natural unflavored yogurt
1/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt, or to taste
Preheat the oven to 180ºC and prepare your muffin mould
Mash the bananas in a bowl and add the oil, yogurt, sugar and vanilla and mix well.
Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl. Mix well.
Add the mashed banana mix and fold it into the flour till incorporated. Don’t beat the batter.
Add the walnuts, reserving a few and stir them in gently.
Spoon the batter into paper lined muffin tins and sprinkle the reserved walnuts on top of them.
Bake for 20-30 minutes or till done.
This recipe is linked to –
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday
Savory Sunday
Mix it up Monday
My Meatless Mondays
Bake Fest
Gobhi Parathas
Do you have a favorite paratha? Leave me a comment and let me know what it is. I’d love to try it out!
Gobhi Parathas
For the dough recipe and on how to make the parathas, click here.
For the Filling-
1 head of cauliflower, washed and grated (Do not use the greens)
1″ ginger, grated
1 green chilly, finely chopped
Salt, to taste
Mix well and use a spoonful of this mix to stuff the parathas.
For details on how to make the parathas, go here.
This recipe is linked to –
My Meatless Mondays
A Weekend Breakfast – French Toast
A Little Birdie Told Me
Tuesdays at the Table
Delectable Tuesday
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Sheera with a twist … of Saffron, that is
My version is a little less fancy looking, but tastes the same. I know my Nana would be proud. I use roasted semolina to make this and roasting it brings out a wonderful nuttiness that the unroasted version lacks. I added a few strands of saffron as well. In mere minutes, you will be sitting down to a lovely warm, hearty treat. It is equally yummy if had once its cooled down to room temperature.
Sheera
(Serves 2)
1/2 cup semolina, dry roasted till it emits a light nutty aroma
1/2 cup milk
1/2 – 3/4 cup water
2-3 tbsp sugar, or to taste
1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
A few strands of saffron, added to the milk
Seeds of 2 pods of cardamom, crushed
Slivered almonds and a few raisins (optional)
Heat the ghee in a vessel.
Add the roasted semolina and let it fry off till the ghee is incorporated with the semolina and the semolina has fried off. Make sure you don’t burn the semolina in the process.
Add the sugar and the crushed cardamom seeds.
Add the water and milk and stir continuously while the semolina absorbs the liquids.
When the liquids have almost dried out, add the slivered almonds and raisins and stir well.
Once all the liquids have been absorbed, the sheera is done.
You can garnish it with some more almond slivers, if desired.
This recipe is linked to –
Sweet Tooth Friday
Sweets for a Saturday
Savory Sunday
Meatless Mondays
Mangia Mondays
My Meatless Mondays
Bombay Street Food Special #3 – Rava Idli
South Indian fare is very popular street food in Bombay. Today, I’ve got a little twist on the the traditional fare, but I promise you it is good, so very good. Typically, South Indian snacks like dosas and idlis take a while to make. The batter is made with a base combination of rice and urad dal (black gram). The ingredients have to be soaked, ground and fermented etc. (not necessarily in that order). In time, I’m itching to try out the traditional method. This take, however, is a quicker, simpler version. Its almost an instant recipe. The idlis turn out really delicious and I made a quick coconut chutney that my mum always made to go along with dosas and idlis. My mum has this amazing lady for a neighbor. She is from South India and ever so often whenever she has time away from school, where she’s a full time teacher, assistant head mistress and I don’t know what else, she’d treat us to a huge portion of breakfast snacks like this that she’d make for her family. I miss those days. And honestly, she was the first person I thought about while I was eating these. I should try and coax her to give me her recipe for the traditional rava idli.
But back to the instant rava idlis, they make a quick healthy snack with rava (semolina) and it is steamed. What could be healthier? For me, this is like soul food.
Rava Idli
(Makes 8)
1 cup rava or semolina
1 cup curd or plain unflavored yogurt
Salt to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup water (I used a almost half)
A pinch of soda bi-carbonate
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and make sure there are no lumps.
Let it stand for 20-30 minutes. During this time you can make the chutney (Recipe below).
Pour the batter into idli moulds and steam for about 10 minutes.
Open the steamer and let it cool for a couple of minutes. Then take the idlis out of the moulds. A small spatula or the blunt end of a knife should be just right incase you need to help the out of the moulds.
Enjoy them hot with some Coconut Chutney.
Coconut Chutney
1/2-3/4 cup of freshly grated coconut
1-2 green chillies
Salt, to taste
1/2″ ginger
A ball of tamarind, the size of a large marble, soaked in a little water
Blitz all the ingredients together in a blender. Taste and adjust seasoning.
And thats it. In half an hour you can treat yourself to something yummy and wholesome.
This recipe is linked to –
Tuesdays at the Table
Delectable Tuesdays