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Curried Pasta and Vegetables – A Vegan Pasta Dish

Madhuram — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:55:40 +0000

Recently I have been seeing a lot of Indian/Indianized recipes in the Western cookbooks. The Curried Pasta and Vegetables is one such recipe from the book “1001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes”. As the name suggests the book has 1001 low-fat vegetarian recipes; from appetizers to desserts the recipes are classified under 17 categories. I think I have to keep renewing this book in the library at least for 2-3 months.

Coming to this recipe, I adapted it from one of the recipes in the book. This is also a vegan pasta dish, without any cheese. Since the pasta gets it’s flavor from the curry sauce, the taste gets even better the next day. So you can prepare this on Sunday evening and have it for Monday’s dinner. The curry sauce can also be prepared ahead and it’s also versatile. Just throw in the vegetables you have at hand, the curry sauce and the pasta, you have a wholesome and nutritious meal ready in no time.

Ingredients

Vegetables of your choice – 2 cups (I used a combination of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots readily available in the frozen food section, 16oz pack)

Dry Pasta of your choice – 1 cup (I used Whole Wheat Penne)

Cilantro, chopped – 1/4 cup

Salt and pepper, to taste

Curry Sauce – Recipe follows

For the Curry Sauce

Olive Oil – 1 teaspoon

Onion, finely chopped – 1/4 cup

Garlic, minced – 4 cloves

All purpose flour – 2 tablespoons

Curry Powder – 2 teaspoons

Cayenne Pepper/Chilli Powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Vegetable Broth – 2 cups

Cornstarch – 1 tablespoon

Dry white wine or Water – 1/4 cup (I used water)

Salt and pepper, to taste.

Step-by-Step Procedure For Curry Sauce

1. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to a medium saucepan; saute onion and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Stir in flour, curry powder and chilli powder. Cook 1 minute, stirring.

3. Add broth and heat to boiling.

4. In a small vessel combine the cornstarch and water, until the cornstarch dissolves without forming any lumps. Add this mixture to the boiling broth and bring it to a boil, stirring, until thickened, about 1 minute. (Actually it took more than a minute for the mixture to thicken.)

5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Assembling the Pasta

1. Steam the vegetables for 8-10 minutes if using frozen vegetables. If using fresh ones 6-8 minutes should be fine. Sprinkle some salt and toss the vegetables once, while steaming.

2. Cook pasta as per the instructions in the package. Drain it, reserving around 1/4 to 1/2 of the pasta cooked water.

3. Combine together the steamed veggies, pasta and the curry sauce. Check for seasoning and sprinkle cilantro.

This is my entry for the following events
1. Suganya’s Vegan Ventures
2. Mansi’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Oven Roasted Cauliflower – South Indian Style

Madhuram — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:30:55 +0000

Cauliflower is my husband’s favorite vegetable, so I try to cook different dishes with it. Nupur’s Cauliflower Soup has become such a hit in my house, these days even my mother is asking me to make it quite often. While searching the net I came to know about oven roasted cauliflower and was so tempted to try it. There are 1001 recipes available throughout the net for roasted cauliflower and this is my version.

Ingredients:
Cauliflower, big – 1, cut into medium size florets
Oil – 1/4 cup
Sambar powder – 2 tablespoons
Red Chili powder – 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon
Hing – 1/4 teaspoon
Salt – as per taste
Cornflour – 1 tablespoon

Procedure:
1. Cut the cauliflower into medium size florets and clean it by soaking in a mixture of warm water and salt.

2. In a large mixing bowl combine all the other ingredients and whisk it.

3. Now add the cauliflower florets little by little and toss it well to coat thoroughly with the mixture.

4. Spread it evenly on a greased baking sheet.

5. Preheat the oven at 425F for 15 minutes.

6. Roast the cauliflower for 25 minutes, tossing it once around 15 minutes.

7. To get a crispy texture, turn the oven switch to broil mode for 3-5 minutes, again tossing once in the middle. While doing this make sure that you keep the oven door open and keep your kids out of the kitchen.

Crispy oven roasted cauliflower is ready to be snacked on or as a side dish.

My Notes:
Using the same procedure you can experiment with different flavors like garam masala, curry powder or use a variety of herbs.

Nupur’s Spicy Cauliflower Soup for YRR & T&T

Madhuram — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:15:32 +0000

Zlamushka of Burnt Mouth (Tried and Tasted) has come up with this brilliant idea of visiting one blog every month and cooking from that blog. This month it’s Nupur’s, One Hot Stove. Since I have started “Your Recipe Rocks” event, where we have to cook a non rice wholesome food, from another blog, I chose to make this Spicy Cauliflower Soup. Also cauliflower is my husband’s favorite vegetable and I have not tried a soup out of it.

I did not have red pepper flakes, so I subsituted it with half a red chili, dry roasted it with the cumin, coriander seeds and powdered it. Other than that I did not make any changes to the original recipe. The soup was very tasty. Originally this soup is from a book, “The Art of Simple Food” by Alice Waters. Nupur thank you very much for introducing us to such a wonderful recipe. We all loved it absolutely and I’m gonna keep making it regularly.