Curried Chickpeas with Butternut Squash Soup

I made this soup for a vegan special yesterday, for about 15+ servings over a hot plate. Comfort food :)

Ingredients: Onion - 1, chopped into small pieces; Diced Tomatoes - 2 cans; Butternut squash puree (from imagine) - 3 packs;  Carrot -  2 diced; Chickpeas - 1 large can; Salt & pepper - to taste; Curry Powder - 3 tbsp; Paprika - 1 tbsp; Coriander + Cumin Powder - 2 tbsp. 

• In a pot, add olive oil and once hot, add the onions and saute till translucent. Season with salt & pepper
• Add the carrots, cook for a few more minutes. Add the chickpeas, tomatoes.
• Saute for a couple of minutes, add the spices. Cook about 10 minutes or so till the veggies are tender.
• Add the squash puree. Simmer for about 10 minutes and adjust the seasoning.
• I used a hand blender to puree part of the soup and left about 1/2 of it chunky. Serve with warm bread!

Cookie Time

I will be visiting my brother and a few friends this weekend and made a bunch of cookies today to take with me. My brother wanted chocolate chips in the cookies and so here are delicious White chocolate almond raisin coconut cookies with oats! Quite a mouthful :) 

 

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Mix the wet ingredients: 1.5 cups of sugar, 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup ghee (I ran out of butter hence substituted ghee) -- cream together. Add 2 eggs, flavor (I used Kentucky bourbon sorghum vanilla syrup!).
• Add the dry ingredients while mixing: 2 tsp baking soda, 2.5 cups of flour, 1/2 tsp salt.
• Stir in the add-ons: 1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds, 1/4 cup raisins, 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, 1/4 cup coconut flakes, 1/4 cup rolled oats.
• Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
• Use a ice-cream scoop, space them well apart and bake for 12-15 minutes till golden
• Cool and enjoy!

With these amounts and a standard scoop, I got about 52 cookies. 

My Baby is 3

Kalki turned three today! Its so hard to believe that he is already 3 and he has been enriching our lives for the last 2 and 1/2 years. We celebrated yesterday with a big non-fat frozen vanilla yogurt. He also got  hardy balls that he can't really chew on to play with now. And a new rope toy. He is a very happy baby and he makes us happy :)

 

 

 

Another Sweet Treat

Breakfast from a couple of days ago: Challah bread with raisins from Whole Foods made into a French Toast with leftover 2 tsps of sweetened condensed milk, one egg, a tsbp of coconut and a tbsp of chopped walnuts :) A hearty one for sure!

Plantains with Peas

Inspired by a recipe on Global Table Adventures, I made this as a side for last night's dinner. I didn't have corn and hence substituted peas. I made this spicy by adding berbere spice mix. I also sprinkled a tsp of coconut on this before turing off the heat. Checking Cameroon off my list!

Ingredients: Plantain - 1; chopped into small pieces; 1/2 Red Bell pepper - diced; Peas - 1/2 cup (I used frozen);  Salt & Pepper to taste; Berbere - 1 tsp (use any spice mix). 

• In a pot, add olive oil and once hot, add the peas and cook for a couple of minutes
• Add the plantain & red bell pepper. Season with salt & pepper & spice mix.
• Saute for a couple of minutes, add about 1/4 cup of water.
• Cover & simmer for about 5 minutes till the plantain is tender
• Uncover and cook for a couple more minutes to slightly roast the veggies.

Happy Baby

Nothing makes my baby more happy than going for a long swim in a lake & playing with sticks :)

 

 

 

Isthmus Green Day 2012

Volunteering for the Isthmus Green day, 4 of us managed to stuff 1000 bags with about 11 different things in a span of 3 hours yesterday. And today is the big day happening at Monona Terrace in Madison.  The keynote speaker is Mark Bittman and I am so excited to see him and hear his presentation this afternoon. Moreover I will be volunteering again at the main stage during his talk. I don't own any of his books, so hoping to come home with may be a picture with him. To top off the excitement - Dane County  outdoor farmers market starts today at the capitol! yay!

Green Eggplant & Lentils stew

When S brought home amazing Thai green eggplants, I knew I had make mualle again. This time I made it without pressure cooking and also with a Caribbean spice blend that one of my friends gave me. And I got to use more of the pomegranate molasses too! Served it with rice, ven pongal and fried papads!