Foodie Workz

The healthier options while cooking is what tempted me to start this blog.  I am always looking for other ways to prepare the ever favorite idlis. Here is one kind....using whole green moong.  Try frying this batter as bondas and the kids are sure to love them!!! 1/2 cup urad dal 1/2 cup green moong 2 cups idli rice 1tsp methi seeds Soak the methi seeds, the dals and the rice separately. overnight.  It is more important that the whole green moong is soaked thoroughly for a longer time.  Drain the water and begin by grinding the methi and the urad dal.  Half way through add the whole green moon w well

Coming back after a long time decided to start on a healthier note with some nutritious twist to the ever preferred idlis... 1 cup jowar 1/2 cup quinoa 1/2 cup whole green moong 1/2 cup idli rice 1/2 cup urad dal 1/4 cup poha 1 tsp fenugreek/methi seeds Start off by soaking the quinoa, whole moong and the jowar.  Basically I soaked these three ingredients double the time that I did for urad dal, rice, poha and methi seeds.  Wash everything thoroughly before starting to grind.  Grind the urad and methi in the idli grinder first till it is smooth and fluffy.  In the meanwhile, grind the quinoa, moong and the jowar individually in the blender jar with very minimal water.  You do not want to add too much water which might end up in a runny batter.  Add the rice to this and let it grind to a coarse consistency.  Now add all the other ingredients and also the ground poha to the above batter and let the grinder run till it is mixed t...

Today we hear of everyone talk about finding alternate ways to keep their carbs consumption minimal.  However, there are these certain dishes which becomes irresistible to our taste buds.  One such dish being the famous Idlis.  Taken with some spicy sambar or the spice powder nobody can say no to these delectable savory steamed rice cakes.  However, the carbs in these do more good than any harm.  In combination with black lentils, it is considered as the most nutritious food providing the necessary carbohydrates, proteins, fiber with minimal fat.  The process of fermentation breaks down the starches so that they are more nutritious and easily digested. Having said all this,  it only makes more sense to enhance its nutrient content by adding more lentils for the calorie conscious people. 3 cups idli rice 1 cup urad dal 1/2 tsp methi seeds 1 cup masoor dal/yellow moong dal Soak the rice, urad dal and methi seeds for about 8 hrs before begi...

As mentioned in my earlier post,  I successfully tried the watermelon dosa with some left over batter I had.  To make it even more nutritious, I added some milled flax seeds which I always keep in stock in my pantry.  I have added these to the dosa batter in the past and my kids have not realized that they were eating them. I got so overjoyed with my attempt that I soaked a small batch of rice over the weekend to make some more crispy dosas.   But this time, I decided to make these dosas using brown rice.  Below I have given the recipe for this as well and the recipe for the quick sambar that I made to go along with the dosas. 2 cups fermented idli batter 1 cup cubed watermelon rind 1 tablespoon  milled flax seeds Grind the watermelon rind into a puree and mix  this and the flax seeds with the batter and make dosas with this batter.  Very tasty and nutritious!! We enjoyed these Dosas with the Moong dal Sambar given below  ...

On one hand, I never imagined that I would be cooking so many things with Barley and on the other hand never thought that I would enjoy eating them as well.  So, here I am trying these adais with barley but however added some rice to lend some crispness to the end product.  Since I had some cooked black eyed peas, I wanted to use up these as well to get some more protien in the food.  Rest of the family could not find any difference from the usual adais.  They enjoyed it as much as I did!! Here it goes.... 1.5 cups of barley 1/2 cup raw rice 1/2 cup of toor dal 1/2 cup chana dal 1 cup of cooked black eyed peas 2 long red chillies salt to taste Begin by soaking the barley first.  The barley needs to soak longer than the rice and the other dals.  Soak the barley for 6 hours and the rice and the dals combined for 3 hours.  Drain rinse and add everything along with the red chillies until you get a coarse paste.  In the meanwhile, process ...

With the leftover dosa batter after making the masala dosas, I wanted to do something different.   Adding any vegetables to a dosa batter and preparing them becomes an Uthappam.  However, I wanted to try it out differently. I remembered that Kanjeevaram Idlis are done using the seasonings given below which are sauteed with some cashew nuts and then added to the batter or they are just simply added to the batter without sauteing.  I decided to use all those ingredients excepting the cashews and also some vegetables sauteed and then use it in the batter. Here is what I did: 3 cups of dosa batter 3 stalks of celery trimmed 1 small carrot peeled few sprigs or coriander leaves with the stems 3 spring onion stems - just use only the green part 1 green chili chopped finely 1 small piece of ginger chopped 1/2 tsp of pepper cumin powder coarse 2 tsp of chana dal soaked and drained Process the celery stalk coarsely and also the carrot and the coriander leaves.  C...

Idlis and dosas are always very common in South Indian households. These are such a relish which can be enjoyed any time of the day. I am in the habit of making this batter almost every fortnight as it comes in handy to fix a meal or to serve the famished kids after a long day at the school. This time I stuck to the traditional idli/dosa batter with idli rice and urad dal. Having done that, I wanted to make some dosas with masala but did not want to prepare that in the usual style. My kids love having cheese inside their dosas...give an option, they will choose the cheese dosa over the regular plain dosa or masala dosa. So, I came upon this idea of trying dosas in Quesadilla style using some veggies. I deliberated over mixed veggies or spinach and finally settled to making some veggie Quesadilla style dosas. However, since I did not have the mexican seasonings, I just went ahead and used our regular seasoning and garam masala. I could have just used some cumin and chilli powd...

In this health conscious world,every body is trying to incorporate all the good grains into their diet instead of the traditional Rice.  One such grain(or a seed I must say) that has caught every one's attention is QUINOA ( pronounced as kee-n-wah).  This is not new to many of the innovative cooks out there in the blogging as well as the non blogging world.  In fact, I have heard of some friends who eat this like the regular  rice. I have tried Quinoa Upma and Pulao and Puliyogare was my recent attempt.  There are quite a few recipes out there using Quinoa in  idlis, dosas and adais - the typical breakfast dishes of South India.  I too was keen on attempting to do this.  But I was a little skeptical given the fact that my husband does not relish  Quinoa as much as I do.  And getting the kids to eat is going to be out of question. As I was pondering, I decided to include  Quinoa into a variety of Dosa called Venthaya(methi seed)...

1 cup brown rice flour 1/3 cup barley flour 2/3 cup cream of rice 1/2 cup urad dal Soak the urad dal for about 4-5 hours. Soak all the flour and the cream of rice together in 3 cups of water. The paste should be thick in consistency. Grind the urad dal to a smooth frothy paste. Mix this paste with the flour mixture and add more water if needed to bring to the consistency of idli batter. Add salt and let it ferment overnight. It is then ready to be made into idlis.

Parboiled rice ¾ cup Raw rice ¼ cup Barley ½ cup Cracked wheat fine ¼ cup Toor dal ½ cup Chana dal ½ cup Urad dal ¼ cup Moong dal ¼ cup Frozen turnip greens Thanks to the internet, I learned that Barley can be substituted while making idlis, dosas and adais. However, here is my version of Barley adai. Soak all the rice and the dals together and the barley and cracked wheat separately for about 3 hrs. Grind the dal and the rice first adding redchillies and curry leaves. After it becomes a bit coarse, add in the barley and continue to grind for five more minutes. Add the cracked wheat in the end and let it go for a couple of minutes. Add salt to the batter. The batter is ready to make crispy adais. Just before making the adai, add some thawed turnip greens to the batter. Any kind of greens can be added to the batter along with grated vegetables of your choice like onions, cabbage, cauliflower or brocolli. Since this was my first attempt at using barley and also because of...

1 cup fine semolina roasted 1 cup barley rawa ½ cup finely chopped onion 2 cups buttermilk ½ tsp baking soda 1 and ½ tsp salt 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp urad dal 1 tsp chana dal 2 tbsp cashew nuts Curry leaves Coriander leaves How to make the barley rawa Process the barley to the consistency of cracked wheat. This cannot be done in one stretch but intermittently. Pulse it a few times and use the fine sieve to remove the fine powder and the coarse sieve to get the coarse barley. Take the leftover barley and follow the same procedure until you get one cup of barley rawa. While doing this, I ended up with only about ¾ cup(I had only a small amount of barley in my pantry). Roast this barley and let it soak in same amount of water. Combine rawa, salt and soda thoroughly in a bowl and have it ready. In the meanwhile, prepare the seasoning. Roast the mustard, chana dal, urad dal, cashews , chillies and curry leaves. Add the onions and conti...