As most of you know, throughout last week I was worried about my mom’s safe journey to US and now that she has arrived I’m a little busy, so I have not been able to visit all your blogs or reply individually to all your lovely comemnts.  So please excuse me, I’ll catch up with you guys very soon! 

This week I tried RedChillies’ pasta and beans soup.  The soup is very simple to make but has a lot of flavors going in from the peppers, celery, garlic and oregano.  I didn’t have mini peppers, so used a combination of regular size red pepper, yellow pepper and green pepper.  I also used extra 3 cups of vegetable broth. (Look “My Notes”)  Thank you for the recipe RedChillies.

My Notes:
I always prepare my pasta and beans soup directly in a pressure cooker.  I don’t cook the pasta separately.  I add all the ingredients for the soup, including the pasta and extra water or vegetable broth as required and leave it for 1 whistle and turn off the stove.  The pasta is cooked to perfection and also has the flavor of all the vegetables, tomatoes and herbs because it is cooked with it instead of plain salted water.

Since I made the soup in a pressure cooker directly, I’m sending this to Archana’s One Dish Meal Event.  The cooking time is approximately 30-45 minutes inculding prep time and the measurement yields 4-5 servings easily.

JZ at Tasty Treats has passed me the Rocking Girl Blogger Award. 

Thank you very much JZ.  I would like to pass this award to
RedChillies
Roma

Last year during Navrathiri (Dasara), I was preparing green peas sundal (curry).  I soaked dried green peas overnight and pressure cooked it the following day.  But I guess I added more water than required, so the peas were mashed.  I was wondering what to do with so much peas.  First I thought of making cutlets, but my husband is not a big fan.  That day I was going to prepare chapathis for dinner.  So I got the idea of mixing the mashed peas to the roti flour and prepare rotis.  The rotis were so soft and added bonus we get the fiber and proteins of the peas also.  So now I prepare it quite often with different types of beans. 

Ingredients:
There is as such no strict measurements.  It’s just mixing mashed beans with the regular chapati flour and preparing the rotis. 
Any type of cooked beans (I used half a can of red kidney beans this time)
Whole Wheat Flour – 1.5 cups
Salt
Oil

Procedure to prepare the mashed beans:
1.  You can either cook the dried beans yourself and prepare the rotis or use canned beans.

2.  For cooking the dried beans, soak it overnight.  Add the beans and water (more than the usual amount you use) to the pressure cooker and leave it for 1 whistle.  You will get a nice mushy mixture.  You can also add grated ginger/asafoetida while cooking the beans to aid digestion of the beans. 

3.  If you are using canned beans, drain the beans in a colander and rinse it well under running water.  Add the beans and little water and blend it to a smooth consistency, like hummus.  Be careful while adding water, we need a semi solid paste of the beans.

How to make rotis?
1.  Now combine the mashed beans, flour, salt and oil to form the dough.  Knead it well.

2.  Pinch a golf ball size dough.  Knead it again and roll it in whole wheat flour which is set aside for dusting.  Flour the surface and roll the dough into a circle.

3.  Cook it on a heated griddle on both the sides by applying little oil or spraying non stick cooking spray.  You can either cook it one by one or use this tip of rolling out all the rotis at once and then cooking them.

My Notes:
1.  You can use any type of cooked beans or can also use a combination of 2 or 3 types of beans. 

2.  You can also add spices to the flour, like garam masala, red chili powder etc, so that you need not prepare a separate side dish.  These masala rotis can be had with yogurt.

This goes to Srivalli’s Roti Mela.

This one also goes to Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy Event, this month’s theme being Fiber Rich.

 Also thanks to everybody for voting for me in the Open Sesame Contest May 08 edition.