Vegetable Rice | Veg Masala Rice

Vegetable Rice | Veg Masala Rice…the recipe I followed  neither falls under a pulao nor a biryani variety. When you want something like biryani but not with too much of masala, this is the recipe you are looking for J. This rice is ideal for lunch box and can be enjoyed simply with any raita or chips.

Today I planned of making veg fried rice and hence I cooked basmati rice before. Then I realized I didn’t have spring onions on hand. I didn’t want to continue the fried rice without spring onions, so I followed  this recipe and it turned out yummy.

Ingredients:

• Basmati rice     - 1 cup
• Onion (finely chopped) – 1 No.
• Green chilli (slitted) – 2 Nos
• Tomato (finely chopped)– 1 No.
• Garlic (finely chopped)  - 1 tbsp         
• Ginger (finely chopped)  - 1 tbsp
• Capsicum - 1 No
• Carrot  - 1 No.
• Green peas -  1/4 cup
• Red chilli powder- 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
• Coriander (finely chopped) – 2 tbsp
• Mint (finely chopped) – 2 tbsp
• Lemon juice – 1tbsp
• Salt to taste

For seasoning:

• Oil  -  2 tbsp
• Cinnamon – 1” piece
• Clove – 2 Nos
• Cardamom – 2 Nos.

Method:

1. Wash & soak basmati rice for about minimum 15 minutes.
2. Cook the basmati rice with 1:2 water and salt. Spread the cooked rice in a flat bowl and drizzle some oil over  it so that it will not stick.
3. Cut the vegetables into thin, long pieces and keep them ready.
4. In a flat bottomed non stick pan, pour oil and season with the items for seasoning.
5. Sauté onion and green chillies till onion becomes golden brown in colour.
6. Add finely chopped garlic, ginger and sauté till you get nice aroma.
7. Add chopped coriander and mint leaves and sauté for a minute.
8. Add tomato and sauté till it becomes soft.
9. Finally add  the vegetables and sauté for few minutes.
10. Then add masala powders & salt and sauté well in oil for few minutes.
11. Then add little water and cook the vegetables covered in simmer for 5 minutes.
12. When the veggies get cooked well, add the cooked basmati rice & lemon juice and mix the rice gently with vegetable masala without breaking the rice. Keep covered with a lid for 5 minutes.

Your tasty Veg Masala Rice is ready to serve! It can be served with any raita or  chips.

Note:

• This can be prepared with left-over rice too.
• I have used fresh peas in this recipe, if you want you can even add frozen/ dried ones.

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Corn Fried Rice | Sweet Corn Fried Rice | Corn Veg Fried Rice

Corn Fried Rice | Sweet Corn Fried Rice | Corn Veg Fried Rice is a tasty fried rice and I should say that my family enjoyed  the sweet taste of fresh corn in the fried rice. Once we tasted this dish  at Crowne Plaza, KL, Malaysia but it was very bland. For a long time, I was planning to make this dish with an Indian touch and today, you can see the result of those plans. Nowadays, I decide my weekend menu considering my blog because only on holidays, I have time to take photographs. But  I don’t want to spend too much of time in the kitchen since summer has started in Chennai.  I should also satisfy my son’s holiday meal with something that he likes the most. So I thought of making this fried rice, and needless to say, the dish turned out amazingly well. 

Ingredients:

Basmati rice     - 1 cup

Garlic (very finely chopped)  - 1 tbsp 

Ginger (very finely chopped)  - 1 tbsp

Sweet corn Kernels – ¾ cup

Capsicum         - ¼ cup

Carrot  - 1 No.

Beans   -  3 Nos.

Spring onion  - 2 sprigs

Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp

Soya sauce – 1 tsp

Chilli sauce  - 1 tbsp

Pepper powder - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil  - 3 tbsp

 Method:

1. Wash & soak basmati rice for about minimum 15 minutes.
2. Cook the basmati rice with 1:2 water and salt. Spread the cooked rice in a flat bowl and drizzle some oil over  it so that it will not stick.
3. Cut the vegetables into thin, long pieces. Finely chop the white and green parts of the spring onion and keep them ready.
4. Remove the kernels from the sweet corn. Wash and cook in enough water by adding little salt for about 5 minutes. Drain the kernels from water and keep aside.
5. In a flat bottomed non stick pan, pour oil and add finely chopped garlic, ginger and sauté till you get nice aroma. Add white part of the spring onion, sauté a little, then add all vegetables along with a portion of finely chopped spring onion (green part) and sauté vegetables in high flame for 2 minutes.
6. When the vegetables are 3/4^th done, add the corn kernels and sauté everything in high flame.
7. Then add salt required for vegetables and all sauces, sauté well for 1 minute. By this time, the veggies would have shrunk.
8. Then add rice ,  pepper powder and the balance spring onion , gently mix rice with vegetable- corn mixture. Check for salt & spice  and add if required. After everything gets mixed with the rice evenly, switch off the stove. 

Your tasty Corn Fried Rice is ready to serve! It can be served with tomato sauce, any raita or veg/non-veg Manchurian of your choice!! We had this fried rice with cucumber raita and tomato sauce. Try this once & it will be in your regular menu J

Note:

• I have used fresh corns in this recipe, if you want you can even add frozen corn.
• You can add ajinomotto if you want more Chinese favour which I don’t prefer to add.
• You can use white pepper powder also instead of black one.

Tags: Indo Chinese Fried Rice recipe, Restaurant style corn fried rice, How to make corn fried rice at home? Sweet corn and mixed vegetables fried rice, Indianised version of  corn fried rice, corn -veg fried rice, fried rice without ajinomotto, Fried rice varieties, Sweet corn fried rice, How to prepare sweet corn fried rice at home?, Frozen corn fried rice recipe, Sweet corn recipes, Frozen corn recipes, Corn recipes.

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Egg Fried Rice (Indo-Chinese Version)

Egg Fried Rice is very easy to prepare and it can fit into any special lunch/dinner menu too.  I prepare this rice only on holidays or for dinner since in my family, we prefer to eat when it is hot hot!.  Today,  being Sunday, I prepared this for lunch with all the fresh veggies on hand. We discuss more about fried rice in my earlier post for Vegetable Fried Rice. So, I am straight away going for the recipe.

 Ingredients:

• Basmati rice     - 1 cup
• Garlic (very finely chopped)  - 10 pods
• Egg – 2 Nos.
• Capsicum         - ¼ cup
• Carrot  - 1 No.
• Beans   -  3 Nos.
• Cabbage – 2 leaves
• Spring onion  - 2 sprigs
• Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp
• Soya sauce – 1 tsp
• Chilli sauce  - 1 tbsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil  - 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Cook the basmathi rice with 1:2 water and salt. Spread the cooked rice in a flat bowl and drizzle some oil over  it so that it will not stick.
2. Cut the vegetable into thin, long pieces. Finely chop the white and green parts of the spring onion and keep them ready. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl with a little salt and pepper powder.
3. In a flat bottomed non stick pan, pour oil and add finely chopped garlic and sauté till you get nice aroma. Add white part of the spring onion, sauté a little, then add all vegetables along with a portion of finely chopped spring onion (green part) and sauté vegetables in high flame for 2 minutes.
4. Then add salt required for vegetables and all sauces, sauté well for 1 minute. By this time, the veggies would have shrunk.
5. Now, slide all the veggies to one corner of the pan and pour the beaten egg to the other side and allow it to cook. When the egg is done, scramble into pieces and mix with the veggies.
6. Then add rice ,  pepper powder and the balance spring onion , gently mix rice with egg-vegetable mixture.  Check for salt and add if required. After everything gets mixed with the rice evenly, switch off the stove.

Your hot Egg Fried Rice is ready to serve! It can be served with tomato sauce, any raita or veg/non-veg Manchurian of your choice!!

Note:

• Don’t skip adding capsicum &  spring onion in this recipe.
• You can add ajinomotto if you want more Chinese favour which I don’t prefer to add.
• You can use white pepper powder also instead of black one.
• If you find difficult cooking egg in the same pan, you can scramble it separately and add it to the rice.

 Tags: Indo Chinese Egg Fried Rice recipe, Restaurant style egg fried rice, How to make egg fried rice at home? Egg and mixed vegetables fried rice, Indianised version of egg fried rice, vegetable egg fried rice, egg fried rice without ajinomotto

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Mixed Vegetable Chutney | Cabbage-Capsicum-Spring Onion Chutney

Mixed vegetable chutney can be prepared very easily with leftover veggies. But the secret in making yummy chutney lies in selecting specific combination of  vegetables in  specific  proportions. We can add those vegetables which our kids normally don’t like to eat but the challenge is to hide those flavours so that your kids don’t find out the ingredients you have added. So it is purely in our hands to prepare either a  chutney or a medicine! It is always better to follow some tested proportions while making vegetable chutney.

Today, I have tested the chutney with capsicum, cabbage & spring onion and this spicy chutney  tasted great with hot idlis. Immediately, I want to share the recipe for the same so that you can also enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Cabbage ( finely chopeed) – ¼ cup
• Capsicum  (finely chopped)– ¼ cup
• Spring onion (green part- chopped) – ¼ cup
• Spring onion (bulbs & white part) – ¼ cup
• Tomato  (chopped ) – ¼ cup
• Red  chillies – 3 Nos
• Green chillies – 2 Nos
• Coconut (grated) – 2 tbsp
• Tamarind – 2 pods
• Gingelly oil – 2 tbsp
• Mustard – 1 tsp
• Urad dhal – 2 tbsp
• Asafoetida  - ½ tsp
• Salt to taste

Method:

1. In a kadai, pour gingelly oil and temper with mustard and urad dhal.
2. When urad becomes golden brown, add red chillies, green chillies and asafoetida and sauté well.
3. Add spring onion bulbs and sauté well.
4. Add finely chopped cabbage and sauté till the raw smell of cabbage goes off and colour of the cabbage turns to light brown.
5. Then add capsicum and sauté until the raw smell of capsicum goes off.
6. Add tomatoes and sauté till the skin of the tomatoes get wilted.
7. Then add coconut and spring onion(green part) and sauté well till you get a nice aroma.
8. Allow the contents to cool.
9. Grind the ingredients along with salt and tamarind and transfer the contents to a serving bowl.

Your spicy, capsicum-cabbage chutney is ready to be served with hot steaming idlies or crispy dosas! You can also have this chutney for sambar rice, curd rice, etc.

Note:

• Normally I don’t do tempering once again. If you want, you can temper with mustard and curry leaves in a tsp of oil.

Tags: Vegetable chutney, How to prepare chutney using vegetables?, Mixed vegetable chutney recipe, Left over veggies chutney, How to use left over veggies for making chutney?, Side dish for idli/dosa, Chutney recipe for hot idlies, spicy chutney recipe for idli/dosa, Capsicum-cabbage-spring onion chutney recipe

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Vegetable Soup/Mixed Vegetable Soup

Soup… Everyone would like to have a hot steaming cup of soup especially during rainy days and  my family is no exception. Even though we have tasted many soups at the restaurants and so many  ‘ready to make’ soups are available in the market (they may be delicious too!), nothing can compensate for our home-made soups because it is more hygienic and we have the satisfaction that we have served our family the total goodness.  Though it is my family’s favourite, I hardly find time to make it.  But today’s weather essentially forced me into making it.

The   recipe, I have given here neither falls into clear nor creamy soup category. It is a low calorie version with a full pack of nutrients. 

The home made, mixed vegetable soup involves two steps.

Step 1 Preparation of  Vegetable Stock:

Please check my post “How to prepare Vegetable Stock at Home?”

Step 2 Preparation of  vegetable soup:

Ingredients:

• Butter – ½ tsp
• Carrot, cabbage, beans, capsicum (finely chopped) – 1cup
• Garlic(finely chopped) – 3 pods
• Spring Onion & white part (finely chopped) – 3 Nos.
• Spring Onion green part (finely chopped) – 1 tbsp
• Vegetable stock – 3 cups
• Boiled & cooled milk – 1 cup
• Pepper powder & salt to taste

Method:

1. In a sauce pan, sauté spring onion (white part) and garlic in butter until you get a nice aroma.
2. Add finely chopped veggies and sauté for a few minutes without changing the veggies’ colour and losing the crunchiness.
3. Add the vegetable stock prepared  in step(1), and bring it to a boil.
4. Add  chopped required pepper powder and salt.
5. Finally add milk and switch off.
6. Garnish with chopped spring onion.

Your delicious, hot, appetizing vegetable soup is ready to serve!!

Tags: Low calorie vegetable soup, Vegetable broth preparation, preparation of vegetable stock, Cream of vegetable soup low calorie version, Home made vegetable soup, Mixed vegetable soup

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Vegetable Fried Rice

Preparation time :10 minutes     

Cooking time : 10 minutes

Serves 2 

Difficulty :  Easy

Whenever we go the restaurant, most of us order vegetable fried rice because it is a favourite dish for many. The restaurants serve the dish in different styles – some soak the dish in  oil, some serve with few strings of vegetable, some simply sauté the rice with salt and name it as fried rice, charging around Rs.180/- for the salted rice. Also, in restaurants, they will definitely add ajinomoto. There are  many controversial statements on the usage of ajinomoto.  I am not going to discuss on that issue but I can say if we prepare fried rice at home, these problems could be eliminated. Since it is easy to prepare, ideal for lunch box too, we can give it a try following the recipe. But the recipe depends mainly on the ingredients rather than preparation. Having the following ingredients on hand, go ahead with vegetable fried rice.

Ingredients:

• Basmathi rice   - 1 cup
• Garlic (very finely chopped)  - 6 pods
• Capsicum         - ¼ cup
• Carrot  - 1 No.
• Beans   -  3 Nos.
• Cabbage – 2 leaves
• Spring onion  - 2 sprigs
• Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp
• Chilli sauce  - 1 tbsp
• Pepper powder - 1 tbsp
• Sugar   - ¼ tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil  - 2 tbsp.

 Method:

Cook the basmathi rice with 1:2 water and salt. Spread the cooked rice in a flat bowl and drizzle some oil over  it so that it will not stick. Cut the vegetable into thin, long pieces , chop finely  the onion in the spring onion and keep it ready.  In a flat bottomed non stick pan, pour oil and add finely chopped garlic and sauté till you get nice aroma. Add onion, sauté a little, then add all vegetables along with a portion of finely chopped spring onion and sauté vegetables in high flame for 2 minutes. Then add sugar, salt required for vegetables and sauce, sauté well for 1 minute. Then add rice ,  pepper powder and the balance spring onion , gently mix rice with vegetables.  Check for salt and add if required. After all the vegetables get mixed with the rice evenly, switch off the stove. You can serve it with tomato sauce, any raita or veg/non-veg Manchurian.

Note:

As I told, fried rice is ingredient specific, capsicum &  spring onion is a must in this recipe.

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