This also goes to Roma’s JFI-Wheat. JFI originally started by Indira.

Long time back in one of Rachel Ray’s show I saw her frying canned chickpea on stove top and she was mentioning that its a nice and crispy snack. I always thought that chickpeas and green peas were deep fried in oil to get that crunchiness. I used to love these while growing up. It was my grandmother’s favorite snack too but we never made it at home. We used to get it from Ambica Depot. After seeing the show I also wanted to prepare it but somehow did not get to it until last week. Instead of sauteeing it in a pan, I decided to roast it in the oven. Otherwise you would have to stand nearby and keep stirring it.

I immediately googled to see if somebody has already done that and found a lot of results. Here I thought I was the smart one, with this brilliant idea! So I was going through a lot of those recipes and found that the oven temperatures, time to roast were different in each case and the reviews of the result were also mixed. So I decided to follow my own method and was really surprised that it worked out very well. My son generally likes chickpea by itself, but he liked these roasted chickpeas even more.

The recipe is very simple, actually it’s not a recipe at all. You have to just keep in mind the oven temperature and the time to roast it. The amount of chickpeas you want to roast, the seasonings are truly your call. As mentioned before you can roast it in a frying pan on stove top itself.

This is my entry for
JFI – Chickpeas, hosted by MS. JFI created by Indira.
My Legume Affair hosted by Srivalli. The even originally created by Susan.

Next to cauliflower and broccoli, tofu is my husband’s favorite. Actually he would eat anything vegetarian if it’s healthy. For me the criteria is, it has to taste good. So I experiment with tofu to satisfy both our needs. So far our favorite is tofu paratha. I drain the tofu well, grate it, add some Indian spices and divide the mixture into small balls. Then proceed to prepare the parathas as usual, using the tofu stuffing.

The Tofu Mango Pudding did not get his vote. The truth is he is not a “dessert” person. My son, my mother and myself loved it so much.

Recently I was going through Mallika Badrinath’s cookbook and found a recipe for paneer tikkis. Again paneer is my most favorite and his least favorite. He doesn’t eat it because of the fat content and calorific value. I wish I have the self control like him, I would be 30 pounds lighter! I remembered having a packet of extra firm tofu in my fridge, so decided to used it instead of paneer and changed the seasonings to suit our taste.

J and B’s Baked Plantain Chips has become yet another favorite in our house.  This is the 2nd time I’m making it.  Before knowing this recipe I used to find plantains everywhere but I never used to buy it because I did not not know what to do with it.  Then one day I found this recipe and believe me or not I couldn’t find plantains anywhere.  I did not take pictures the first time I made it, because my husband was snacking it away and actually we did not have anything left to be taken with rice.  This time I managed to take a picture before we could gobble them up. 

Yesterday I prepared Uma’s Murmura (Pori) Upma.  The upma was absolutely delicious.  It’s a very light meal, suited for breakfast with some tea/coffee or juice or can be given as after school/work snack.  I made it for my husband, but that day he came from office around 6.15pm.  We usually have dinner around 6.30pm.  So he ate the upma and I also prepared his favorite cracked wheat kanji for dinner.   

I followed the basic recipe, but the modifications I made were adding some peanuts while tempering, 4 tablespoons of crushed tomatoes instead of fresh ones, some curry powder and 4 cups of murmura (pori) instead of 2 cups mentioned in the recipe.  I wish I had prepared some more.  I would suggest using 4 cups of pori per adult.  While measuring the dry pori you would think that it’s a lot, but once you soak it in water, drain the water and sautee it wilts.  Uma, your recipe rocks!  I’m gonna keep preparing this regularly.   I can already imagine a number of variations to this basic recipe.

Dear Uma has passed me the Inspiration Award. Thank you very much Uma.  You inspire me as well with all your unique recipes especially the chutneys.  This award is started by Jamie of Flavour Pantry.  Jamie tells the following,

“This is given to bloggers whose stories and recipes inspire us. Whether it’s to eat healthier, dive back into our past to conjure up something we ate as children, or just make the light bulbs in our brains go on with a new idea for a recipe.

As recipients of this award, please share with us what inspires you and then pass on the Inspiration Award to 4 other deserving bloggers.  Please let them know what the award means and what to do with it.”

What inspires me?
1.  The fact that God has given me a very good life, when so many people in the world are suffering with some disease, poverty, domestic violence, abuse just to mention a few.
2.  My husband inspires me to eat right, keep fit.  He is such a diet conscious person.  Hope I could follow his advice and do some form of exercise regularly.

I would like to pass this award to:

JZ@Tasty Treats:  She is definitely the dessert queen.  If you haven’t already, please check her cakes and other gorgeous creations.

Srivalli:  For coming up with so many events, like Dosa Mela, Roti Mela, Microwave Easy Cooking.

Asha:  You all know the reason right!  Whenever I read her posts, it really energizes me.  She cooks so many dishes from other blogs.  Wish I know her personally too!

Jen:  For all her deilicious and healthy recipes.  And for the time and effort she puts to find out very good recipes, useful information and post them.

Shubha and JZ have passed me the Good Chat Blog Award.  Thank you very much girls.  Would love to chat more!

For those who missed my post on Saturday, I have updated the eggless baking recipes page with more links to eggless cakes, eggless cookies, eggless muffins, and eggless breads.  I (my husband, actually) has created a new submit form for eggless recipes.  Earlier I used to go from blog to blog searching for eggless recipes and compile them into a list.  To make it more easy, please use this form to submit your eggless recipes which I have missed or the new ones you will be posting in your blog.  I’ll update the links as and when possible.

I have wanted to try baking spring rolls for a long time now.  While in Canada, I saw an episode in Food TV where the host was preparing baked spring rolls using phyllo pastry sheets.  I remembered the procedure, but forgot the temperature and time it has to be baked.  I searched for the recipe in Canada’s Food TV website but could not find it.  Then I found it here.  I got spring roll pastry from the Indian store.  I checked the ingredients and it doesn’t have eggs.

Filling:
1. Shred cabbage and carrots, slice scallions finely.  You can also add thinly sliced green peppers.
2. In a frying pan add a tablespoon of oil and saute all the vegetables, add salt, soy sauce and pepper powder.
3. Let it cool.

Procedure:
1. Thaw the spring roll pastry as per the instructions in the package.
2. Carefully remove a sheet and spray with non stick spray on both the sides.  (I don’t know whether spraying on both the sides is necessary, but I did it anyway.)
3. Keep the filling in the bottom and wrap it as you would wrap a tortilla.
4. Grease the baking sheet and place the wrapped spring rolls and bake it at 350F for 30-35 minutes or until they are golden brown.
5. I also flipped the rolls after 15 minutes and flipped them back again after 30 minutes.

The spring rolls were very crispy and tasty.  Everybody loved it, especially my son had 2 of them at one go.  You would never deep fry your spring rolls again, once you taste this.

My Notes:
1. The sheets have to be removed very carefully, because they are fragile and tend to tear easily.  A couple of mine tore but I was able to wrap them anyway and the filling did not come out.  The author of the recipe has clearly explained how to remove the sheets in the “Reviews” section of her post, but I did not go through it at first.  I saw it after putting the rolls in the oven.  Next time I’ll surely follow her tips. 

Variations:
1. I think we can make potato puffs with these wrappers instead of using the puff pastry sheets which are very high in fat content.
2. As I have mentioned earlier, baked spring rolls can be made with phyllo pastry sheets also, but I have not tried it.

I bought a packet of soy beans and was searching for recipes in the internet and came across this recipe. It’s simply soaking the beans overnight and roasting in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  As soon as I saw this recipe, I wanted to try the same procedure with some other beans also.  I had green mung beans in hand.  So I soaked 1/2 cup of each beans separately with lots of water and a teaspoon of salt.  Next day morning I washed the beans, drained the water and added some more salt and pepper powder and kept it for another 2 hours.  I first tried the soy beans, did exactly what was mentioned in the recipe.  I had to roast it for 25-30 minutes to get the desired crunch.  As mentioned in the recipe, be careful at the end because it tends to get burnt during the last few minutes.

My Notes:
Roasting green mung beans was easier when compared to soy beans.  The roasting time was very less; around 10-15 min is enough.  Personally I liked roasted mung beans.  But one word of caution, this has to be consumed on the same day itself, the next day it becomes very hard to bite.  The soy beans was good even after 2 days.

Variations:
1. You can add any seasonings you want, cayenne pepper, garlic salt, etc.
2. I think this method will work for chick peas (garbanzo beans), green peas also.  In that case you can have a healthy mixture of beans for snacking, which is rich in fiber and proteins.

This recipe comes from Sunita, who is yet another inspiration for me. I think she is an “Ace of Pastries”. The coriander rosti is both simple and delicious. You can find her recipe here.

When I first came across this recipe I thought she had skipped some of the ingredients, so ignored it and went further. I went back once again and checked the comments section to see if I could gather some information. Then only I was assured that the recipe really required only 3 ingredients. Baking can’t get any simple!

Potato Rosti:

Baking it for the first time, I tried it with 1 large potato. Peel the potato, cut into 4 parts and microwave for 4 minutes. Cool it and grate it. I divided the grated potatoes into 2 parts. For the first batch I simply followed her recipe, mixed half of the grated potatoes, coriander, salt and pepper. Baked it for 40 min at 400F. It was very crispy and tasty. It’s a very healthy snack without oil. I think that depending upon your taste you can also reduce the baking time to 35 min, so you may not feel that the bottom is burnt. I got 8 rostis for this quantity. It was good by itself, we also had some ketchup with it.

Zucchini Rosti:

I always like to give a twist to a recipe by adding some other ingredient(s). I think it’s fun to experiment. Moreover with a toddler around, I have to do a lot of sneaking vegetables. I don’t know why I chose zucchini, but as soon as I thought about making some modification, zucchini just flashed in my mind. 

I used the other half of the grated potato, 1 medium zucchini (grated), coriander, salt and pepper to taste. Dropped spoonful of the mixture on a greased baking sheet and baked it for 40 min at 400F. These rostis were very green in color and the top was not fully cooked as in the previous case. So I set the oven to broil mode for another 2 minutes. I got another 10 rostis. The taste was very good but this one was not as crispy as the potato rostis. Either I should have reduced the quantity of zucchini or should have baked it for some more time. Anyway I was very happy because my son just loved it.