Sambar Vadai with Coconut Chutney

Vadai - Just grind Urad Dhal that has been soaked in water for 2 -3 hrs. Add cut onions, coriander leaves and salt. You can also add whole black pepper, shredded cabbage and carrot. Make one vadai with just this mixture. If it comes out too oily, then add rice flour, mix them up and make the vadais.

Sambar - Pressure cook moong dhal along with the vegetables for the sambar. In a pan add mustard seeds. Once it pops, add lots of sliced onions, green chillies and diced tomatoes. After a couple of minutes, add the tamarind water, sambar powder, turmeric powder and salt. After it boils for 10 mins, add the dhal + vegetables. After 5 mins add the special sambar powder(Gosthu podi). Usually you need to add ground coconut also, but I skip it.

Coconut Chutney - Grind coconut + Dalia + green chillis + salt. Once it is ground add mustard seeds + urad dhal that have been fried.

Tomato Side Dish - 2 different ways

Tomato With Spring Onions- This is the diet version. Tomato and spring onions go so well together that it hardly needs anything else to flavor it. In a hot pan, add oil and then add sliced spring onion. Fry it for a couple of minutes and then add finely diced tomatoes, masala powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Let it cook together for 10 mins and dish is ready to be served.
Tomato Kurma -  Grind tomatoes with ginger and garlic. In a hot pan, add oil, then add sliced onions. Once it is cooked, add the ground tomatoes, chilli powder, masala powder, tumeric powder and salt. Once it cooks, add ground coconut + cashewnuts(soaked in water for 10 mins). Let it cook for 10 mins and then add some cilantro leaves. The dish is ready to be served.

Mixed Vegetable Curry

Add oil to a hot pan. Then add sliced onions, diced garlic, ginger, diced mix of vegetables( I have used Potatoes, carrot and peas), diced tomatoes and coriander leaves all at the same time. Then add chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and salt. Keep the pan hot and keep frying these without adding water, without covering the pan, till the vegetables are cooked. This will make them a little crispy too. Enjoy!

Bisibelebath with Raita and Appalam

Pressure cook rice(with extra water than usual) and Sambar paruppu along with the vegetables(potato, carrot, peas, bell pepper, etc). Fry lots of sliced onions, tomato and diced ginger and garlic after the mustard seeds pop in oil. Then add tamarind water, sambar powder, turmeric powder and salt. After it cooks, add the dhal and vegetables. Then add MTR bisibelebath powder and after a couple of minutes, add mashed rice and required salt. Mix them together. It needs to be little watery so once the rice cools down, it will be the right consistency to eat. Add ghee and raita is the best side dish for this.

Pongal With Brinjal Gosthu

Pongal - Pressure cook Rice + Moong dal along with ground ginger + green chillies. Once done, add salt and fried jeera + hing + whole black peppers + cashewnuts.

Brinjal Gosthu - Grind brinjal in mixie. Fry diced onion, add tamarind water, sambar powder and turmeric powder. Once it comes to a boil, add the brinjal and salt and once it cooks, add the gosthu powder and cook for 2 mins. You can do the same with tomatoes also.

Rajma Masala

Use the medium sized Rajma Beans. They taste better than the large ones. Soak them for 5-6 hrs. Grind Onion + Garlic + Ginger, add it to the Rajma beans and pressure cook them all together. In a pan, fry some diced onions and ground tomatoes. Add masala powder, chilli power and salt and once the tomato is cooked, add the cooked rajma/onion mixture, add water and necessary salt. Cover and let it simmer for 15-20 mins. Add some diced raw oinions on top and the Rajma Masala is ready to be served.

Bell pepper, Onion and Tomato side dish

Cut bell pepper, onion and tomatoes into big pieces. Grind onion + little coriander seeds + jeera. After grinding this add cashewnuts(soaked in water for 10 mins, you can also use roasted and peeled peanuts) and grind it all together. Don't grind it to a very fine paste, else the gravy will become sticky. In a pan, add oil and add the ground ingredients, chilli powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Once it gets cooked, add the vegetables and salt. Add very little water and cook it till the vegetables are 90% cooked. There should be a little bite to the vegetables when we eat it. This can be a thick side dish or add more water to make it into a gravy. Click on the photo to view a larger picture. It's a delicious and quick dish to make.