My grandmother used to prepare a sambar using methi (fenugreek leaves) leaves called “Pulla Keera” meaning tangy greens. It requires little more tamarind than the regular sambar and a tempering of mustard seeds, fenugreek (methi seeds) and green chillies which gives this side dish an unique flavor. Toor daal rice mixed with ghee, spicy potato roast and this sambar is simply a heavenly combination.

I had a bunch of beets with the greens. So I decided to prepare the sambar using beet greens instead of methi. The beet leaves sambar tasted very good and comforting. Grandmothers’ recipes are always versatile and foolproof.

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.

I love to create my own recipes. Since I’m a novice baker, I’m trying only other’s recipes for now. I just try to tweak it here and there. So for the time being my experiments are limited to Indian cooking only. That’s how I put together this recipe. May be some of you know this one already, but I’m very happy because, I tried it for the first time and it was very tasty.

I asked my husband to get 1 zucchini to try the oven baked zucchini fries, but he bought 4 instead. Anyway it worked out good because I was able to come up with 3 new recipes. They are zucchini pappu, chocolate chip zucchini bread and zucchini soup. I’ll be posting the other 2 very soon. I wanted to post the zucchini bread first, but when I mentioned about the zucchini recipes to my friend Laksh of Lakshmusings, she told that she would try zucchini pappu. So I thought I should post that one first.

Ingredients:
Zucchini 1 medium size, peeled and grated (don’t drain the water)
Tomato 1 medium size, cut into small pieces or 1/4 cup crushed tomatoes
Toor Dal 1/4 cup, pressure cooked
Sambar Powder 1 teaspoon
Green Chilli 1 medium, slit it
Salt 1/2-3/4ths of a teaspoon according to your taste
Water 1/4-1/2 cup as required

For Tempering:
Oil 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon
Channa Dal and Urad Dal 1 teaspoon each
Curry leaves 3-5 leaves

Procedure:
1. In a sauce pan add the oil and after it heats add the rest of the tempering ingredients.
2. Once the dals turn golden brown add the grated zucchini, slit green chilly, tomato puree/tomato pieces and sambar powder,little water and close the lid. Zucchini itself has water content in it, so just add little water to make sure that the zucchini does not stick to the bottom of the vessel while cooking.
3. Once the zucchini is done add the cooked toor dal and let it boil for another 2-3 minutes.
4. Garnish it with cilantro.

Variation:
I have tried the exact same recipe with ridge gourd and bottle gourd too.  They also taste very good.  You may also add a teaspoon of tamarind extract with the zucchini, if you like it sour.

My Notes:
Nowadays I use crushed tomatoes a lot in my cooking. It’s very economical when you compare it with the price of fresh tomatoes and also saves you time in the kitchen. Once you open the can pour the contents into another jar/plastic box and store it in the refrigerator. One 32 ounce can lasts for 2 weeks for me and it’s only 79 cents, when a pound of fresh tomatoes is anywhere between $1.50 to $2.00 and they also rotten quickly. Moreover I came across one more fact that cooked and canned tomatoes have more lycopene than the fresh ones. Anyway I’m not telling “don’t buy fresh tomatoes”, it’s just my observation. I thought I can share it with everybody here.  Moreover my husband does not like too much of tomatoes in his diet, so this works for me.  His favorite dish with tomatoes is Tomato Rice, I use crushed tomatoes in that too.