Beetroot walnut salad

By: Ambika

Ingredients & Method

Take a bunch of Baby lettuce and baby spinach. 

Break ends, chop rough and toss together.

Steam beetroot and broccoli in a steamer,
alternately boil but al dente.
Steaming is preferred. 

Toast walnuts or bake.

Take Feta cheese or paneer cubes. 

Toss all together. 

Add cheese and walnut last. 

Drizzle dressing of Virgin olive oil, apple cider or balsamic vinegar. 

Salt pepper to taste. 

Whip all well and chill in fridge for 15-20 min. 

Polish off this healthy but tasty salad.

Variations or Tips

You can use normal vinegar or even lemon juice

But dont use the synthetic vinegar. Its not good

Boiled Gwar Phali Besan ke saath

By: Ambika

Besan ki Gwar Phali

Ingredients & Method

Gwar phali - 400/500g
Onion - 2 medium (long sliced) - this is optional
Besan- 3/4 tbsp
Mustard oil - 3-4 tsp
Jeera, haldi, red chili, coriander powder, amchur or khatai, salt

Boil gwar in water. I microwave in a glass bowl with full soak water for 10 min on high. Discard water. Peel the gwar ends. Keep them full length or chop half if long.

I prefer the south gwar, light green and fleshy but north gwar is also good.

On the other side, prepare besan by dry roasting it till golden brown. Add coriander powder, turmeric, red chili powder, little salt to the besan itself. By roasting and adding these masalas here it mixes better later. Keep aside.

We do extra besan prep and use it for various besan dry veg but gwar is the family fave😊 ok back to recipe.

Take mustard oil heat up well, add jeera and then add onion. Now you can go without onion as in Rajasthani version but I onion adds to flavor for us.

Add the peeled boiled gwar once onion is light brown. Then shallow fry together. Add salt accordingly to gwar only since besan also has salt added.

Bas with 5 min add the seasoned besan and mix together.

I add besan in batches so it coats well. All done in 5-7 min. Remember gwar is pre cooked.

In the end add amchur and besan gwar is ready to serve. This dish is best with roti and if you are lucky with leftover, a day later tastes better...

Try it.

Variation by Usha

हम फली उबालते नहीं
थोड़ी बड़ी बड़ी काट कर तेल में मेथी का बघार लगाकर फली डाल देते
थोडा पानी भी
जब हलकी गल जाती
तब प्याज़ का पिसा मसाला नमक हल्दी धनिया बेसन डाल देते
फिर धीमी आंच पर भुनते

इससे फली के रेशे नही निकालने पड़ते तो  थोड़ी आसानी हो जाती

Tryout by Prarthana

The best thing was it was made in a jiffy (already had bhuna besan and had boiled the gwar at night.)

Tryout by Mona

I pressure cooked the gwar for two whistles. But was wondering whether the nutrients get lost in the water in which it was boiled. Next time I will use less water. 

They didn't look as green as the other tryouts and were a little sticky, but were tasty nonetheless.

Kele ki Machhali

By: Radha

केले की मछली 

Ingredients & Method 

कच्चे  केले  उबालकर  छिलका निकाल कर  बीचोंबीच से दो टुकड़े  करलो
ओर  हाथ से हल्के से  दबा कर रखलो,

प्याज लहसुन  अदरक का मसाला पीसलो,
अदरक लहसुन  ज्यादा लेना,

कच्चे  मसाले  मे हल्दी,  मिर्ची,  धनिया पिसा ,गरममसाला पिसा नमक, थोडा दही, हींग पाउडर,सबको मिलालो

फिर केले को  कच्चे  मसाले में  कुछ देर के लिए  रख दो,

फिर तवेपर थोड़ा तेल डालकर  थोड़ी  मैथीदाना डालकर धीमी  आंच में  सेकलो

उपर से  बारीक कटी धनिया पत्ती डाल दो,

Tryout by Ambika

Notes by Ambika

I only marinated for 15 min. Since bananas are boiled and good absorbents, that was enough. In fact longer, mine would have broken.

 overall dish took 45 min incl marination

Tryout by Prarthana

Kele ki machchli in the making.had cut the banana in smaller pieces to fit the lunch box.

Jhatpat kele ke pakore

I usually use  Bhajji/Bonda mix for the batter - you can make pakore batter as usual with besan.

It should be on the thicker side - not runny.

Peel the plantain and slice thinly.

Heat oil in a kadhai.

Coat the plantain slices in batter covering evenly on both sides. Fry till golden.

Serve hot with chutney or sauce.

Tryout by Ambika

1/2 tsp oil no besan toasted version