Simple Gluten Free Kitchen

Vegetarian

Cabbage Kofta Curry

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Here, I am with another vegetarian recipe.

While growing up, we had koftas all the time. It was a treat for us. Koftas are delicious, deep fried meat or veggie dumplings. What I like the best about koftas is that they can be made out of anything, as long as you are able to bind the ingredients together into a ball. The most common vegetarian varieties of Koftas made are Lauki (ash gourd), cabbage, mixed vegetable and malai (cheese and potato) kofta. I made these koftas out of cabbage. In Indian household, koftas are mostly served in a curry.

Khatta Meetha Teekha Kaddu/ Sweet, Sour & Spicy Squash

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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.

Methi Paneer

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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.

Tandoori Gobhi

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Tandoori, the name evokes the exotic image of bright red color chicken pieces but gobhi (cauliflower) is the alternative to tandoori chicken for Veggie lovers.

I can’t believe I never shared a tandoori gobhi recipe on my blog. I eat it more often than chicken. When I read a friend’s post of how he enjoyed tandoori food on his vacation to India, I had an intense craving to make some. So I went ahead and whipped together the most simplest and easiest recipe: tandoori gobhi.

Pesto Pasta with Fresh Garbanzo Beans

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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

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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.

Mochar Ghonto or Stir Fried Banana Blossom

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Growing up I was fortunate enough to be exposed to all sorts of different foods and regional Indian cuisine. My dad served in the Indian Air Force and was posted at various states across India. Hence my mom got the opportunity to learn how to cook and prepare some of the local dishes. Many of which she included in her everyday cooking. One such dish was ‘Mochar Ghonto’. It is a traditional Bengali preparation of the banana flower. It is a healthy, tasty and an easy dish but preparing the flower for cooking is a bit tedious process. However for your convenience I have made this dish with canned banana blossom.