Lisa's Moong and Tamarind Dal

"....they are also a wise choice if you are looking to shed a few pounds." This is what Lisa ends her post with this particular Dal recipe. And its true. Like I've mentioned before, I'm working on reducing my carb intake and this works perfectly for such a diet. Well, it actually did :) And to boot, I love tangy food. I love tamarind. I squeeze lemon in everything and try to use tamarind in every other thing I cook. When I saw, on Lisa's blog, this particular recipe, I knew it was a must-try. We bought Moong Dal for the first time and well, it was kept unused. Now, we are on an 'empty pantry and fridge' before we shop challenge every month. So, we found these and I made Lisa's Moong Dal and Tamarind way before this event came up. Since we are running out of time to try her scalloped potatoes - that is my dream recipe from Lisa's blog, we decided to post this for the Tried and Tasted: Lisa's kitchen hosted by Aparna this time around, a continuation of Zlamushka's admirable initiative! We just added some Sambar powder to add the extra spice to the Dal and its amazing how tasty it was. This is a keeper of a recipe, and a regular at home now. I've already made it thrice since :)

I also want to take the opportunity to say something about Lisa's blog. I'm amazed at the amount and frequency with which she churns out healthy Indian vegetarian food which does not involve chicken tikka or curry powder. I personally think this shows how open she is to other cultures, other cuisines. And I really admire her for making the effort with some very Indian ingredients. Her dishes are healthy, authentic and very local, just like most Indian food is. Thank you, Lisa, for opening my eyes to my own culture.

Also, thank you, Priya for the award. We love you too :)

P.S - A has bookmarked the Red Wine Biscotti! :) Only, since we don't drink, I don't know what he is going to do about the Red Wine ;)

Mixed Vegetable Curry!

N and I love to experiment with food! We try all kinds of cuisines. Also we always seem to have guests for who we are cooking. We generally cook elaborately for our guests. After one such draining week, we craved for simple food and regular desi khana. No other cuisine on the planet offers more regional diversity than Indian cuisine. You travel just a couple of hundred miles from Chennai to Andhra Pradesh and the food is very different! Travel a couple of hundred miles to the west and you enter Karnataka, a whole new culinary world!. You travel a few hundred miles southwest and you enter Kerala. All these 4 states belong to the southern part of india and they all have very different and unique ways of preparing and eating food. I haven't mentioned the other states across India which offer tremendous variety in terms of ingredients and the style of cooking. And I'm not talking subtle variations. There are truly some dramatic variations in Indian cuisine depending on the region.

Coming back to the weekend, I love my South Indian roots, but N and I suddenly had this craving for some good old North Indian Roti-Sabzi. It also helps that with Roti-sabzi, there are fewer dishes to wash :P So, we came up with this on a spur and made it every time since then to entertain guests.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cubed onions
1/2 cup sliced carrots
1/2 cup sliced beans
2 potatoes, cubed
1 green bell pepper, deseeded and cubed
1/4 cup peanuts
1/4 cup poppy seeds (khas-khas)
1 tsp turmeric powder
1.5 tsp garam masala (I used MDH brand)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp cumin seeds
Red chilli powder to taste
salt to taste

1. Microwave the cubed potatoes with some water for some time until they are semi-done. By this, I mean the outer part should start to soften. A fork should still not be able to cut through it.

2. Roast the peanuts and poppy seeds, cool them completely and pulse them in a blender or food processor into a semi-coarse powder.

3. Add 2 tbsp oil to a pan on high heat. Add the cumin seeds when the oil is hot. Add the cubed belle peppers first. I love the burn marks on my bell peppers. I think it goes really well with the smoky flavor of bell peppers and imparts additional 'smokiness' to it. Keep stirring to avoid burning.

4. After half the pieces have acquired the burn marks, add the onions, beans and carrots. Reduce the heat to medium-high. When the onions are translucent, bring the heat to medium and add the salt and all the dry spices. Keep stirring to avoid burning the veggies.

5. After 2-3 mins., add the potatoes. Add the remaining 1 tbsp oil. This way, I make sure that my potatoes are roasted but dont overcook and turn mushy.

6. When the potatoes are almost done, add the peanut-poppyseed powder. Mix well and cook for 2 more minutes.

7. Garnish with finely chopped coriander or some more peanut-poppyseed powder and serve hot with rotis

This dish was so simple and easy to make! Also, the nut mixture makes this dish seem rich, but there is hardly any bad calories playing here! Try it for a weeknight meal and let us know how it came out! Of course, you can add some paneer to it to lend more richness, and any other veggies that you like :)