Radish - Green Tomato Curry

Radish/ Mooli/ moolangi is filled with vitamins and minerals. I have used my home grown green tomatoes and prepared this curry. You also can try and enjoy this yummy, fresh fried spices Curry.

All I used is Radish, green tomatoes, fresh fried spices, coconut and moong dal.

Let us see some benefits of eating Radish in our diet. 

Radish is filled with vitamins and minerals. It helps to digest the food easily. Radish is fiber rich vegetable. Very good for diabetes. Improves the skin health. It is rich in vitamin c. Radish helps to control the blood pressure level. It is full of folate, potassium, vitamin B6. It helps to fight fungus.

Good for people who suffer from constipation. 

Let us see the recipe Now :

Things Needed :

To Cook :

Radish : 2 to 3 

Raw Tomatoes :  5 to 6 

Moong Dal : 1/2 Cup

Spices to Fry:

Urid dal : 1/2 Tsp

Methi seeds : 5 to 6  or 1/4 tsp

Coriander seeds : 2 to 3 tbsp

Red chilly/Byadagi Chilly : 4 to 5 

Ingh /Asafoetida : A little 

Curry Leaves : 6 to 8 

To Grind :

Grated coconut : 1/2 Cup

Fried spices :

Water as required to grind

To Seasoning :

Mustard seeds : 1/2 Tsp

Jeera/ Cumin Seeds : 1/4 Tsp

Ingh/Asafoetida : A little 

Curry Leaves : 6 to 8 

Oil : 1 Tbs 

To Add : 

Required Salt 

Turmeric Powder : A little 

Coriander leaves : 1 Tbs

Method :

1. Wash and cut radish as you wish. Cut tomatoes and wash moong dal.

2. Put cut vegetables and washed moong dal in a pressure cooker and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Keep a small pan and add oil. 4. Fry urid dal and methi seeds till they turn slightly brown. 

5. Add coriander seeds and byadagi red chilly. Fry nicely for 1 to 2 minutes.

6. Add jeera, ingh and curry leaves. Put off the fire. Let it cool.

8. Keep cooked veg and moong dal on fire. Add salt and turmeric powder. Boil for 2 minutes.

7. Grate coconut and grind it with fried ingredients. Add required water to grind. 

9. Add ground coconut mixture and mix it well. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

10. Shift it to a serving dish. 

11. Prepare and add mustard - curry leaves - ingh seasoning. Add cut coriander leaves. 

12. Eat or serve as one of the side dish during lunch or dinner. 

Note :

Radish - Green Tomato Curry goes well with chapatis, rotti, roti, poori, idli etc. 

It is a healthy side dish that is good for all age group. Adding onions and garlic is optional.

Adding toor dal instead of moong dal is optional. 

Time : 30 Minutes. 

Serves : 3 to 4 

Simple Green Gram Curry

This Green Gram Curry is a simple and yummy curry. This curry goes well with all the main dishes.
We do prepare this Green Gram Curry very often,

As I said it is easy, simple, quick and needs very minimum ingredients.
I have used Green Gram /Whole moong, tomatoes, garam masala, rasam powder.
I prepared this curry for having Kuhbz a type of roti. This Kahbz or Kubz is brought all the way from Dubai by our close friend Pushpa Talitaya. This is a bring back memory of eating Kuhbz after some years.
Kuhbz is normally baked in clay oven and it is the traditional dish from Middle easy, Iran, Lebanon.

No Onion or No Garlic Dish.

Let us see the recipe now :

Things needed :

To Cook
Whole moong/Green Gram : 1 Cup
Tomatoes : 2 to 3
Potatoes : 2 (Medium sized)
Methi Seeds : 1/4 tsp
To Add :
Garam Masala Powder : 1/2 Tsp
Rasam Powder : 1 Tsp
Green chilly : 2
Ginger : An inch
Salt : As required
Butter ; 1 Tbs
To Season :
Cooking Oil : 1 Tablespoon
Jeera /Cumin Seeds : 1/2 Tsp
Mustard seeds : 1/2 Tsp
Jeera /Cumin seeds : 1/2 Teaspoon
Curry leaves : 6 to 8

Method :

1. Wash and soak whole moong for 4 to 5 hours or you can cook them without soaking.
2. Wash and cut tomatoes, green chilly, coriander leaves and curry leaves.
3. Wash and peel off ginger outer layer and grate ginger and keep it aside.
4. Wash and cut potatoes with its skin and keep it aside.
5. Keep a pressure cooker on the fire and put whole moong, cut potatoes, slit green chilly and 1/4 tsp of methi seeds.
6. Add required water and cook it for 6 to 8 minutes. Leave it for cooling.
7. Keep a pan on the fire and heat. Add a tablespoon of cooking oil, mustard seeds.
8. Let it splutter. Add jeera and curry leaves. Add cut tomatoes, Grated ginger and fry nicely.
9. Add garam masala powder and rasam powder. Add little turmeric powder.
10. Stir nicely and add required salt. Add cooked moong and potatoes.
11. Add required water and cook nicely for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in between.
12. Shift the ready Green Gram curry to a serving dish, add cut coriander leaves and butter.
13. Serve with rotis, chapatis, poori or even dosas.
14. We had this Green Gram Curry with Kabz, a type or roti You get in Dubai.

Note : 

Soaking whole moong helps the moong to cook well and good nutritious too. Adding more spices is optional. Adding butter is optional. Adding more chilly is optional. Soaking whole moong is optional. You can cook whole moong without cooking also.
Time : Soaking time 4 hours + cooking time 30 minutes.
Serves : 3 to 4.

Quick Capsicum Curry

Capsicum is one of the yummy vegetable and it adds aroma and taste to the food we love to have.
It is used as raw and cooked too. Here is a simple recipe which I tried long back and thought will put up here. It is one of the quick and simple dish but definitely you will end up eating more than what you usually eat.

I have used capsicum and tomatoes with home prepared sambar powder. This curry goes well with all the main dishes.
Let us see some benefits of having capsicum in our diet.
Capsicum is an excellent source of vitamin A and C. It has a rich source of dietary fiber. It has Vitamin E, B6 and folate.  Capsicum helps to get relief from stomach issues, back pain, headaches, skin aging, peptic ulcers, menopause problems. It is good for diabetes. It has anti inflammatory properties.
Let us see the recipe now :

Ingredients :

Capsicum : 3 to 4
Tomatoes : 2 to 3
Sambar Powder : 1 Teaspoon
Salt : As required
To Season :
Mustard seeds : 1/2 Teaspoon
Jeera /Cumin Seeds : 1/2 Teaspoon
Ingh /Asafoetida : A little
Curry Leaves : 6 to 8
Green chilly : 2
Oil : 2 Teaspoons
To Add :
Methi /Fengrik Seeds : 1/4 Teaspoon
Coriander leaves : 1 Tablespoons
Grated Ginger : 1 Teaspoon (An inch)
Turmeric powder : A pinch
Jaggery : 1 Tablespoon.

Method :

1. Wash and remove the seeds from capsicum and cut into small pieces.

2. Wash and cut tomatoes and cut into small pieces.
3. Wash and slit green chilly, cut coriander leaves and curry leaves.
4. Wash and remove the outer layer of ginger and grate it.
5. Keep a pan on the fire and heat. Add 2 tsp of oil
6. Add mustard seeds, jeera and fry. Let mustard seeds splutter. Add slit green chilly
7. Add ingh and curry leaves. Add cut capsicum and fry nicely for 2 minutes.
8. Add cut tomatoes, a pinch of turmeric powder and stir nicely. Add methi seeds and glass of water.

9. Let the capsicum and tomatoes cook till they turn soft.
10. Add required salt, grated ginger and mix it well.

11. Add Sambar powder /curry powder, jaggery and stir the curry well.

12. Let it boil nicely for 3 to 4 minutes.

13. Shift the capsicum curry to a serving dish.
14. Add cut coriander leaves and serve with the main dish of your choice.

Note :

Before You use vegetables it should be washed and kept in plain water for at least 10 minutes.
Wash and Dip full capsicum and tomatoes in water at l east for 10 minutes.
Use of jaggery is optional. Use of any sambar powder is optional.
I have used home made Sambar powder.
Time : 20 Minutes
Serves : 2 to 3

Home Made Sambar Powder

Dry roast 2 to 3 tbs of coriander seeds, 1/4 tsp of methi seeds, 1/2 tsp of jeera, 1 tsp of urid dal, 6 to 8 byadagi chilly and 1 tsp of channa dal separately. (One by one).
Dry grind once it is cooled.
Mix it well and use fresh Sambar Powder to have good aroma.

For 1 time use.

Quick Dal

One of the easy, quick and simple dal is cooked in pressure cooker here. This dal is yummy and good to have with all the main dishes. This dal is very helpful,  when are just back from a travel and just want to eat some home food that too with rice.

Here I have used Toor dal, tomatoes, green chilly, ingh/asafoetida, gorikai/clustered beans, ginger, turmeric, coriander leaves and little methi/fenugrik seeds. Cooked every thing in cooker and seasoned with curry leaves, mustard and jeera.
Let us see the Recipe Now :

Things Needed :

To Cook :

Toor dal : 1 Cup
Gori kai /Cluster Beans : 1 Small bowl. (1 Handful).
Green chilly : 2 to 3
Methi Seeds : 4 to 5
Tomatoes : 2 Medium Sized
To Add  :
Salt : As required
Coriander leaves : 2 to 3 Tablespoons
Ginger : Grated : 1 Teaspoon ( An inch ).
To Season :
Ghee / Oil : 1 Tablespoon
Mustard Seeds : 1/2 Teaspoon
Jeera / Cumin Seeds : 1/2 Teaspoon
Ingh : A little
Curry Leaves : 6 to 8

Method : 

1. Wash and cut tomatoes, cluster beans, and slit green chilly.
2. Wash and cook toor dal,cut cluster beans, tomatoes, dry methi seeds with required water. (Pressure cook).
3. Keep a pan on the fire and put ghee. Add mustard seeds and jeera.
4. Add green chilly once the mustard seeds splutter. Add ingh and curry leaves.
5. Add cooked toor dal - cluster beans mixture and mix it nicely.(Smash it nicely).
6. Add little turmeric powder and required salt. Mix it well. Add grated ginger.

7.Let it boil nicely. Add cut coriander leaves and shift the dal to a serving bowl.

8. Quick Dal is ready to serve.

Note :

You can use palak, harive/amaranth leaves instead of cluster beans. Adding more chilly is optional.
Use of oil instead of ghee is optional. Use of onions and garlic is optional.
Time : 20 Minutes
Serves : 2 to 3 .

Lady's Finger - Passion Fruit Curry

Lady's finger/bendekai/bendi/Okra is liked by many and disliked by many too. It has its own flavour and when cooked it leaves out the stick starch and people will dislike for this lady's finger's sticky content.

Lady's finger is very good vegetable and it is said that it helps in keeping your memory intact. It has very good fiber source and good for all age group. It has so much medicinal value and it helps to keep the diabetes away and control the blood sugar level in people who are already suffering from diabetes. It also helps people who suffer from constipation since it is rich in fiber.
Lady's finger brings me very good memory of Our Nigeria Life.
We lived in Nigeria during 1981 to 86. (My hubby spent almost 15 years in Africa). The state named Gangola. The capital city of Gangola is Yola. My hubby was a physics Lecturer there in one of the college. We had a nice two bedroom house in the College Compound. Most of the houses had boys quarters where the students family live and do house chores of the house they belonged to. The boys quarter which belong to teachers, was very close. I used to watch them cooking from our house. They normally cooked outside keeping three stones and put fire wood.
The food was normally cooked in the evening. They used to to cut Okra /Small size lady's finger,
put it to boiling water. Then pour semolina and mix it well. And also they used to add meat or fish straight into it. After some time the food is cooked and they do eat with their whole family. The food was so sticky we could see them pulling the food with their fingers.
That was indeed some good memory.
We Indians definitely won't like that sticky curry right? To remove the sticky content you need to fry bendi/lady's finger nicely, or cook them in tamarind pulp or microwave them with tomatoes. These steps really help to reduce or remove the stick content in the curry.
Coming back to my Lady's finger - Passion fruit curry it is simple and if you don't get passion fruit not to worry. Add some lemon instead of passion fruit. It taste almost the same.
Let us see the recipe now :

Things Needed :

Lady's Finger /Bendekai/ Bendi : 10 to 12 or more
Carrots : 2 (medium sized).
Curry Powder : 2 Tablespoons
Tomatoes : 2 to 3
Jaggery : 1 Teaspoon
Passion fruit : 1
Oil : 1 Tablespoon
Seasoning :
Cooking Oil : 1 Teaspoon
Mustard seeds : 1/2 Tsp
Ingh : A pinch
Curry Leaves : 5 to 6

Method ;

1. Wash and wipe out the moisture completely from Lady's finger. Cut and keep it aside.

2. Wash carrots, scrape out the outer layer slightly and cut them into long pieces.
3. Wash and cut tomatoes and keep it aside. Cut passion fruit and sieve the juice from it. Keep it aside.

4. Keep a pan on the fire and add 1 tablespoon of oil. Put 2 to 3 seeds of methi seeds.
5. Add Lady's finger and fry till they turn soft.

6. Keep a pan on the fire and add little oil. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter, add ingh and curry leaves.
7. Add cut tomatoes and fry for a minute. Add carrots and stir. Add a glass of water and let carrots cook for 5 minutes.

8. Check that carrots are soft. Add fried lady's finger and stir slowly. Add salt
9. Add passion fruit juice to the curry and mix it slowly.
10. Add very little jaggery. (Optional) . Add sambar powder.

12. Let the curry boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Shift to the serving dish and serve with the main dish you have prepared.

Note :

If do not get passion fruit add lemon extract. / One lemon extract will serve the purpose.
Adding any brand of sambar powder is optional. I have added home prepared sambar powder.
Adding more tomatoes or carrots is optional.
Time : 30 Minutes.
Serves : 2 to 3.

Dil Leaves - Fresh Alsande Curry

Alsande /cowpeas and dil leaves curry is one of the yummy curry and it goes well with almost all the main dishes. I have tried this Dil leaves /Sabbassige soppu, Amaranth leaves / dantina soppu and cow peas. It is yummy, healthy, easy curry.

Leaves are loaded with iron and other minerals and cow peas is full of energy, protein content. I have used very little spices and it is very easy to prepare I can assure.
Use of pressure cooker helps to bind the curry well. It is quick and easy too.
No onion OR No Garlic is used in this Dil leaves - Fresh Alsande Curry.
Fresh Alsande in this season are full of healthy nutritious content. It is always better to use seasonal pods and vegetables.
Let us see the recipe.

I have used :

Dil Leaves : 1 Small bundle
Amaranth leaves : Green : 2 Small bundles
Green chilly : 2 to 3
Ginger : An inch /Grated
Alsande pods/Fresh cow peas : 1/2 Kg
Tomatoes : 3 to 4
Salt : As required
To Season :
Cooking Oil : 1 Tablespoon
Mustard seeds : 1 Teaspoon
Methi Seeds : 1/4 Teaspoon
Jeera /Cumin Seeds : 1/2 Teaspoon
Ingh /Asafoetida : A little
Turmeric powder :  A little

Method :

1. Wash and clean the leaves nicely and cut into small.
2 Remove the pods and wash it once. Wash curry leaves and make pieces using your fingers.

3. Wash green chilly and slit. Wash and remove the outer layer of ginger and wash it again. Grate it.
4. Wash and cut tomatoes and remove the seeds as much as you can. Cut them into small.
5. Now keep a pressure cooker on the fire and heat. Add oil, mustard seeds and methi seeds.
6. Let mustard seeds splutter. Add jeera, ingh, curry leaves and fry for a second.
7. Add cut tomatoes and fry for a minute. Add cut leaves, slit green chilly, turmeric powder and grated ginger.
8. Add cow peas/Alasande pods and mix it. Add a glass of water and close the pressure cooker lid.

9. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes. Put of the fire and leave it for cooling.
10. Open the lid and mix all things nicely. Add required salt and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

11. Shift the ready Dil leaves - Fresh Alsande Curry to a serving bowl.

12. Serve with the choice of your main dish. We had it Dil Leaves - Fresh Alsande Curry for our lunch.

Note :

The leaves and pods should be cooked well to get a good taste. You can add little garam masala. It adds to the taste. I did not use it. Use of onions or garlic is optional. It is like a mudde palya /Thick dry curry. To get a thick curry you need to cook it till it gets thick. Use of less water helps the curry to be thick too. I have kept a small plate on the top of leaves. No Dal is used here.
Time : 30 Minutes
Serves : 3 to 4 .

The advice is : Place a cover on the food. It is always safe. ( The lead used around the whistle pipe spills lead to food and cause health problems.