Tomato Saar

I add everyday dishes like veggie dishes, dals and saar for 2 reasons, one is the oft repeated question, if you don't eat meat or dairy products...what do you eat? See, our normal everyday food is mostly vegan, we have all the ingredients at home at any time and its really fast to make. And the second reason is, all of us are pressed for time these days, having a bunch of easy recipes that don't include 5 tablespoons of oil/ghee and heavy frying is so useful. And yes, being a south Indian, the blog will be dominated by southy food.. :)

Saar is a 'soupy' dish, its literally either tomatoes or tamarind boiled with water and seasoned with mild spices. Though it is had with rice, a vegetable dish, papad and pickle, it can be had as a soup too. Amazing as a soup during winter and monsoons.

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

2-3 large tomatoes / 3-4 small tomatoes

1 onion

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Seasoning

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp urad dal

1 sprig curry leaves

2 red chillies

Pinch of turmeric

1/2 tsp (more if you prefer it spicy) crushed pepper/pepper powder

1/2 tsp coconut oil  (or any oil except for olive/mustard)

Keep 2 cups of water for boiling

Chop tomatoes and onion into large pieces

Add it to the water with salt and bring it to a boil.

Reduce flame to medium and leave to cook for around 10 minutes.

Prepare seasoning in that time. 

Heat oil in a frying pan, add mustard and fry till it splutters

Add the urad, curry leaves, red chillies and fry for a minute.

Add turmeric and pepper powders, mix well and remove from flame.

Add the seasoning to the dish and let it boil for another 5 minutes. 

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or as a soup.

#Simple #easycooking #southindianfood

Tendli & Cashew ... Traditional south Indian veggies, banana leaf style

Traditional south Indian food is synonymous with being served on a banana leaf. Offered mostly at temples, weddings, festivals or functions these days, banana leaf meals are a delight. Food served is vegetarian and mostly vegan.  It includes simple vegetable dishes, served with 2 or more salads, at least 2 rices dishes, piping hot sambhar, rasam... yum...

The beauty is that most of the dishes are simple to prepare and very healthy. The veggies are typically lightly cooked, rarely even changing color. For this recipe, the tindli is usually added to the seasoning and cooked, I prefer boiling it and then adding it the seasoning, reduces the need for too much oil. When making south Indian food, I mostly use coconut oil mixed with rice bran oil.

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Prep time :10-15 minutes

1/4 kg Tindli slit lenghtwise
1 cups cashew soaked for 3-4 hours or it can boiled in water for a minute or so.
2 green chillies slit lenghtwise
! tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dhal
1 sprig curry leaves
Pinch of hing (asofateoda)
1-2 red chillies
1 tablespoon freshly grated coconut.
1 tsp coconut oil or oil of your choice.

Boil the tindli with green chillies and salt to taste, in a cooker with enough water to just cover it.
As soon as the first whistle goes off, remove from flame and open cooker as soon as possible to avoid veggies getting overcooked.
Drain it and run tap water over the vegetables.
Heat oil in thick bottomed pan, and add the mustard seeds.
Heat on medium flame till it splutters, add urad dal, curry leaves, red chillies, hing and stir fry for a minute
Add the boiled tindli, cashew and salt to taste mix well.
Heat on medium flame for around 2-3 minutes
Remove from flame, mix in the grated coconut
Serve hot.

This dish goes well with rice and sambhar, rasam dal.

#simple #healthy #fastcooking #bananaleaf #traditional