thayirsaadham

Hey all,

I started 3 different posts and all three times, I could not write anything. I am by no means a writer. But this is seriously weird. I cannot get one coherent sentence. So, I am jumping right into the recipe.

Ingredients

1. Beans - 1 cup*
2. Onion - 1 (chopped finely)
3. Garlic - 1 clove**
4. Tomato - 2 (chopped)
5. Potato - 1 (chopped)
6. Green beans - 1/2 cup
7. Carrot - 1 (chopped)
8. Spinach - 1 cup
9. Pasta - 1/2 cup***
10. vegetable stock or water - 2-3 cups
11. Olive oil - 1 tbsp
12. Oregano - 1 tsp
13. Salt - to taste
14. Pepper - to taste

Method

Preparing the beans

a. Soak the beans in water overnight.
b. Drain the beans.
c. Bring water to a boil in a large vessel.
d. Add the beans and let them cook on medium heat for around 30-45 minutes. (The amount of time depends on the type of beans. You want the beans to be cooked well.)
e. Around halfway through the cooking time, add some salt to the beans so that it gets incorporated and the beans don’t end up bland.
f. Once the beans are cooked, drain them and keep aside to be used in the soup.

Soup

1. Take a heavy bottomed pan and add the oil to it.
2. Add garlic and saute a little bit and make sure the garlic does not burn.
3. Add the onions and the tomato and saute till the tomato breaks down. You can add salt at this point.
4. Add the potato, carrots, green beans and let everything cook for 5 minutes.
5. Add the vegetable stock / water.
6. Add the oregano.
7. Close the pot and let the soup simmer for 10-15 minutes.
8. Add the beans and let it simmer for around 10 minutes.
9. Now, add the dry pasta and let it cook for the amount of time specified on the pasta box.
10. When there is 5 minutes left for the pasta to finish cooking, add the spinach to the soup.
11. Let everything simmer for another 5 minutes.
12. Add salt and pepper according to taste and we are done.

I started this soup with no idea of what was going to be in it - hence the name. I was sure only about the spices - I was going to add only oregano, salt and pepper. A lot of the soups I make, I add a bunch of spices and the taste of the beans and vegetables gets overpowered by the spices.

I am sending this soup over to Usha’s Healthy Inspirations Event - Soup.

* I used a mix of kidney beans and pinto beans
** This was the first time I used garlic in cooking. I wanted to start slow and hence used 1 clove. Use according to your taste.
*** I used rigatoni because that is what I had. You can use any kind you have or you can skip it totally.

Hey all,
I have been meaning to post something for the past 2 weeks. Every time I start to write something, I get stuck after a couple of lines and the result is that I have lots of 2 line drafts. There is a personal issue back home that is taking up a lot of my time and energy… I have just been sitting around the house in a depressed state. I haven’t been visiting other blogs and I seem to have lost the interest to cook. My work is also suffering as a result of this. Let me stop blabbering. I have decided to take a break. I don’t want this to be a long break and I hope I can come back. So, this is a temporary (hopefully) goodbye from me.
Hope to see you guys soon and please keep posting those awesome recipes. Bye!

Hey all,
Am still here . Things got a bit hectic at work. I actually went 3 whole weeks without touching the stove. Lived on my oldest addiction (fruits) and my latest addiction - oatmeal. Then came a week when I cooked and baked like it was my last week on earth. Actually, come to think of it, I would sooo not enter the kitchen if it was my last week on earth . Anyway, I made traditional south indian food - arachu vitta sambar , kootu, etc. I also baked a banana bread, a cinnamon bread, an orange cake, a pound cake, etc. My waistline expanded in direct proportion to my grocery bill . But I was too lazy to take pictures. I just wanted to cook and eat without obsessing over the bowl colour, placement, background, etc.

I am not a huge fan of the south indian mixture. I eat it very rarely. I prefer the north indian chivda. But I had some cornflakes at home and I remembered Usha’s recipe for mixture and proceeded to make it. I followed Usha’s recipe for the most part except I did not have any golden flax cereal and I have no idea what corn oil is. So, I used vegetable oil. I am reproducing the recipe here with the modifications that I made.

Ingredients

1. Kelloggs corn flakes - 2 cups
2. Peanuts - 1/2 cup
3. pottu kadalai (dalia) - 1/2 cup
4. Raisins - a handful
5. Cashews - a handful
6. Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp
7. Red chillies - 3
8. Curry leaves - 6
9. Salt - to taste
10. Asafoetida - a pinch

Recipe

1. Dry roast the peanuts and set aside to cool.
2. Dry roast the pottu kadalai and set aside to cool.
3. Dry roast the red chillies and the curry leaves for 30-40 seconds. Once the curry leaves become crisp, remove and set aside to cool.
4. Grind the red chillies and curry leaves in a spice grinder with salt and asafoetida.
5. Add oil to a pan and add the raisins, cashews, roasted dalia and peanuts. Let it fry for a minute.
6. Add the spice powder and mix. Let this cook for 20-30 seconds.
7. Add the cereal and mix everything well and saute for 1 minute or two,
8. Let the mixture cool and then store in an air-tight container.

As Usha mentioned, the ground spice powder adds a zing to the mixture that cannot be replicated by adding red chilli powder. I should know since me being the lazy me, I tried with the red chilli powder and was totally disappointed with the result. The chilli powder did not mix thoroughly and the end product did not match my expectations. That’s why you should not take shortcuts

With the weather in Seattle being oh-so-annoying and gloomy with the exception of yesterday (which yours truly spent sleeping), this mixture with a cup of hot coffee went a long way towards improving my mood

Vibaas of Delectable Vegetarian Recipes showered me with a bunch of awards. I am really late in acknowledging them. My apologies for the delay and thanks a ton for the beautiful awards dear .