While some of you are seeing signs of new life and beauty around you, here in Vancouver we are still stuck in the winter. The other day I went for a walk I had to wear mittens even though it was a bright sunny day. Honestly, it doesn’t really feel like spring is going to come soon. We even had heavy snowfall just before valentine’s day followed by glorious sunny days – not many of them but they did exist in between periods of snow and rain. All this variation in temperature put me in the mood for soup. So, when I found wild mushrooms at the Choices market, I decided to make and share my amazing recipe for wild mushroom soup.
Soups, Sides & Salads
Khatta Meetha Teekha Kaddu/ Sweet, Sour & Spicy Squash
Every time I go back to India in the winters I load up on vegetables as much as I can. Breakfast, Lunch, dinner and snack will all have some amount of vegetable. The reason is because a wide variety of vegetables are available in the winter and they are the freshest and tastiest. After coming from India my body was still going through intense vegetable cravings. So, I cooked the best known winter squash, butternut in Indian style. It is one of my favorite and very simple to prepare. In India it is made with a different squash which is not available here but any sweet and firm flesh squash works for this recipe. This dish has a nice balance of tart, sweet and spicy that will engage all of your senses. It goes really well with roti (Indian flatbread), poories (fried puffed bread) and as a side with lentil and rice alike.
Fragrant Hot and Sour Soup
The season now is such that we are having a lot of soups. Hot and sour soup is one that I learned to love and make after living in Asian influenced city of Richmond. There are many versions of this soup, but my recipe is a combination of Chinese and Thai and it turned into the best I have ever had!
Methi Paneer
Fenugreek leaves, also called Kasuri Methi, is an herb/ vegetable with a bitter but an addictive taste. I find myself adding it to everything from rice, to chicken and also rotis. People often like to mix methi with spinach to mellow out the bitterness. I am sharing a recipe where methi is used as a vegetable and to which paneer is added, and so the sweetness and richness of paneer also mellows out the bitterness of methi. This is a highly fragrant winter dish that goes beautifully with almost any indian bread-chapatis, naans, rotis or parathas or with some daal and rice.
The Hearty Summer salad
My summer lunches revolve around salads like this one, made with gluten free grains, garden fresh vegetables, some sort of protein and fresh herbs or greens. I do try to keep things interesting so as not to eat the same thing all the time, but I admit I’ve become a little obsessed on this particular one lately. It is full of flavor, refreshing and filling, with a satisfying mix of textures from the fresh cucumber, juicy & ripe grape tomatoes, sweet green chickpeas and the chewy wholegrain sorghum.
Pesto Pasta with Fresh Garbanzo Beans
Summer calls for simple, easy and fresh meals. The kind that is big on taste, but requires little effort to prepare. If you love to eat pasta salads in summer, which I can’t think of a single reason why you wouldn’t, then this is the recipe you will make frequently! This pesto pasta with fresh garbanzo beans is light, satisfying, flavorful and a breeze to make. It’s great for lunch or dinner, to take to potlucks, picnics or barbecues.
Masala bharay baingan/Dry Masala Stuffed Eggplants
Do you love eggplants? Well I do. I love for the variety of ways it can be cooked – stuffed, roasted, grilled, sautéed, stir-fried, and in curries and spreads. Eggplants come in many shapes, sizes and colors. In terms of taste they are all very similar, only the texture and degree of bitterness varies somewhat. Today’s recipe uses baby eggplants. They are small and round about the size of a hen’s egg. They have more tender and mild flesh, and can be eaten whole, skins and all. Stuffed with dry spices and cooked to perfection, this recipe is such a cute and tasty way to serve one of my favorite veggie and is quite simple and easy to do.
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