Barik Chival no Bhagro

 Ingredients:

•  (Barik Chival)  250 grams, chopped
• 2 green chilies finely chopped
• cumin seeds ( jeera)
• mustard seeds
• Salt as required
• Oil
• turmeric powder
• Asafoetida
• Lemon juice if desired
• Gram flour (besan) 3 table spoon

Time Required:

15 minutes.

Serving:

2 persons

Method:

• Take a table spoon of oil in a pan and add mustard, cumin seeds and let it crackle. 
• Add green chilies and sauté for a minute.
• Add asafoetida, turmeric powder and barik chival cut pieces to the pan. Mix everything thoroughly.
• Keep it on low flame and keep stirring after a while.
• Add green gram flour to the mixture and mix well. Cook for few minutes but keep sauting in between.
•  Serve hot along with chapatti/rotli/dashmi.

Health Benefits:

 Low calorie, good source of fiber  maintain improved blood sugar levels and helps to slow the rate of absorption of carbohydrate.

Zinc vitamin C copper, foliates, potassium and iron carry out many important functions in the body including ensuring normal electrical activity in the heart and utilizing proteins. 

Bonus Tip :

You can add plain curd or flavored yogurt to vegetable while cooking and this will give you different taste. Tomato can be added and you will get again a different version of the vegetable.

Fuel Saving Tip :

Remember you can save up to 30% of gas/fuel if you simply switch on the gas stove only after preparation of all required materials within reach. You will not only avoid the idle flame but also will save wastage of 135gs of gas.

AamRas

Ingredients :

• 5 medium sized ripe mangoes ( I used kesar/lalbag species to avoid adding artificial color) 
• 4 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup of sugar or as needed
• 1 tea spoon charoli (Chiraunji)
• 1/2 cup water
• 4-5 Ice cubes

Time Required : 10 minutes
Serving :4 Persons.
Method :

• Take mangoes, wash, peel them and cut into small pieces.
• Add the cut pieces in the mixer and blend with milk and sugar. Add little bit water.
• Serve chilled with bapodi (aamras poli). 

Health Benefits:

Mangoes have high levels of fiber, pectin, vitamin C help to lower serum cholesterol levels, vitamin A promotes good eyesight, prevents cancer.

Bonus tip : If you want some variation in taste, you can add 1 tea spoon of ghee in it.  This will not only give the variation in the taste but also will help to weight gain.

Fuel saving tip - If you soak mango pieces in milk for few minutes, it will take lesser time and electricity to blend.

Cow Pea - Black Eyed Peas (Chawali Bhaji)

Ingredients:

• Cow Pea - Black eyed peas beans (Chawali)  250 grams, chopped horizontally or vertically as desired.
• 2 green chilies finely chopped
• cumin seeds ( jeera)
•  mustard seeds
• Salt as required
• Oil
• turmeric powder
• Asafoetida
• Lemon juice if desired
• ½ table spoon sugar if desired
• Coriander leaves

Time Required:

15 minutes.

Serving:

2 persons

Method:

• Take a table spoon of oil in a pan and add mustard, cumin seeds and let it crackle. 
• Add green chilies and sauté for a minute.
• Add asafoetida, turmeric powder and chawali cut pieces to the pan. Mix everything thoroughly.
• Keep it on low flame and keep stirring after a while.
• Add coriander leaves, lemon juice (if desired), sugar (if desired). Cook for few minutes but keep sauting in between.
•  Serve hot along with chapatti/rotli/dashmi.

Health Benefits:

  Low calorie, good source of fiber  maintain improved blood sugar levels and helps to slow the rate of absorption of carbohydrate.

Zinc vitamin C copper, foliates, potassium and iron carry out many important functions in the body including ensuring normal electrical activity in the heart and utilizing proteins. 

Bonus Tip :

You can add ground nut powder to vegetable while cooking and this will give you different taste. Tomato can be added and you will get again a different version of the vegetable.

Fuel Saving Tip :

If you soak the vegetable in water for some time before cooking, it will require lesser time and energy to cook. Also, you can use the water used for soaking for making daal or other vegetables.

Dashmi

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour 3 cups
• Oil
• Salt 1/2 tea spoon
• Water 2 cups

Time Required:

20 minutes.

Serving:

2 persons

Method:

• Take the flour in a wide plate; add a pinch of salt and 1 table spoon of oil in it.
• Add water and knead into the soft dough.
• After making soft dough, keep it aside for few minutes.
• Put flat pan - skillet (tawa) on the gas stove on medium flame.
• Take small portion of dough and make little loi (small disc).
• With the help of chakla and belan (roller-rolling pin and wooden platform), make small rotis (thin disc).
• After tawa is heated, put roti on the pan.
• After roti is slightly hot, turn it on other side.
• Once other side is hot, put ¼ tea spoon of oil on roti, spread it over the roti and turn the side.
• Press the roti on all the sides so that oil is spread all over the roti evenly.
• Put it roti on other side, add little oil, spread over and press all the sides.
• Dashmi is ready.
• Serve hot along with vegetable, dal, pickle etc.

Health Benefits:

Made up of whole wheat flour which are filled with fibers  rich in carbohydrates  soluble fiber and proteins which boost body energy, increase blood circulation. Easy to digest dashmi prevents constipation. High energy, low calorie food, it influences vata and pitta doshas in positive manner and helps reducing weight. Vitamin E, selenium and fiber present in whole wheat dashmi is said to lower the risk of cancer and heart diseases. 

Bonus Tip :

You can add milk or paneer water while making dough, which will make dough softer and healthier. Keeping dough after kneading for half an hour will make soft dashmis.

Fuel Saving Tip :

Remember you can save up to 30% of gas/fuel if you simply switch on the gas stove only after preparation of all required materials within reach. You will not only avoid the idle flame but also will save wastage of 135gs of gas. 

Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes 7 medium sized
  
• Cinnamon (dalchini)
• Ginger
• Bay leaf (Tejpatta)
• Kalmi
• cumin seeds ( jeera)
• Pure ghee 1 table spoon
• Salt as required
• Turmeric powder
• Asafoetida 1 tea spoon 
• 1 red chili
• 10-15 grapes washed
• Jaggery powdered 3 tablespoon  
• Coriander leaves finely chopped for garnishing

Time Required:

15 minutes.

Serving:

4 persons

Method:

• Wash the tomatoes and boil them in a pan.
• Put them in cold water and peel the skin. Adding in cold water will make it easy to peel the skin.
• Blend the tomatoes and washed grapes to become soft puree.
• Filter the puree with big funnel.
• Take a table spoon of ghee in a pan and add cumin seeds, red chilly broken into 2-3 parts, bay leaf (tejpan) and let it crackle. 
• Add Asafoetida and  5 cups of water and let it boil.
• After it starts boiling, add the tomato-gravy to the pan.
• Add kalami, salt, jaggery and let it boil.
• After 5 minutes, garnish with coriander leaves.
• Soup is ready to take in it bowl.
• Serve hot along with Khichdi or Rice.  It is good for patients also. 

Health Benefits:

Rich source of vitamin A,C, K, foliate and potassium, low in calories and fat-free tomatoes provide thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, magnesium, phosphorus and copper.

Eating tomatoes daily protects against high blood pressure, high cholesterol, strokes and heart diseases. Moreover, we can call it as youth beauty fruit since tomatoes make skin look great. Lycopene in it makes skin less sensitive to UV light damage which is main cause of fine lines and wrinkles. Beta carotene helps protect skin against sun damage.

Bonus Tip :

You can add black pepper and curry leaves which will give you different taste. 

Fuel Saving Tip :

Remember you can save up to 30% of gas/fuel if you simply switch on the gas stove only after preparation of all required materials within reach. You will not only avoid the idle flame but also will save wastage of 135gs of gas.

Calabash - Bottle Gourd (Lauki) Dosa

Ingredients :

• Bottle gourd 1 medium sized
• Rawa
• Green chilies 3 finely chopped
• Oil
• salt to taste
• coriander leaves finely chopped

Time Required : 20 minutes
Serving : 2 persons

Method :

• Take the bottle gourd, wash, peel and grate it.
• Take the rawa, add grated bottle gourd, green chilies,  coriander leaves, water, salt to taste and make a smooth batter. It should not be very much watery or very much thick.
• Take a pan (non stick if possible), grease it with oil and put on the high flame.
• Add batter to it to form a dosa.
• Cover the lid and keep it for 2 minutes on sim flame. ( If you are not doing multitasking, like I usually do, you can keep it on high flame for a minute). 
• If its brown on the back, turn the side, put little oil and cook for a while.
• Serve hot with green chutney, tomato sauce/ghee as preferred.

Health Benefits :
Bottle gourd which is low in calories and fats and rich in essential minerals, iron, proteins, high in fiber is having the health benefits as preventing fatigue and excessive loss of thirst, preventing constipation and dehydration relaxing, curing jaundice.

Bonus tip :  You can add rice floor/besan/wheat floor to make  the batter which will make it more healthy and you will get different taste as well.

Fuel Saving Tip : If you keep aside the batter for some time say half an hour, you will require less time/energy to cook the dosa.

Calabash - Bottle Gourd (Lauki) Halwa

Ingredients:

• 1 Bottle gourd  1 medium sized 
  
• 6 cups of milk
• 1/2 cup of sugar or as needed
• 1 tea spoons cardamom powdered
• 2 tea spoons almonds thinly sliced
• 2 tea spoons cashew nuts thinly sliced
• 1 tea spoon charoli (Chiraunji)
•  1 tea spoon muskmelon seeds
• 3-4 threads of saffron (kesar)
• 1 pinch of edible green color (if desired)

Time Required : 30 minutes
Serving :4 Persons.
Method :

• Take bottle gourd, wash, peel and grate it.
• Take grated bottle gourd, milk and cardamom powder in the pan and bring it to boil. Once started boiling, put the gas on sim flame. 
• Stir continuously for 20 minutes.
• Add sugar, green color and let sugar dissolve completely. Keep stirring.
• Add almonds, cashew nuts, charoli, muskmelon seeds, saffron threads and keep on sim for 5 minutes.
• Halwa is ready to serve.
• You can either serve it hot or it can be served as chilled too, as per personal choice.

Health Benefits :

Bottle gourd which is low in calories and fats and rich in essential minerals, iron, proteins, high in fiber is having the health benefits as preventing fatigue and excessive loss of thirst, preventing constipation and dehydration relaxing, curing jaundice.

Bonus tip : If you want some variation in taste, you can add 1 tea spoon of ghee in it. For softer halwa, over cooked calabash.

Fuel saving tip - If you put a lid on pan, it will take lesser gas to cook. But don't forget to stirring.