Mixed Vegetable Curry Without a Single Drop of Oil

A Successful Experiment

Anyhow I must keep the oil intake within the maximum quantity recommended by health and nutrition professionals that is no more than 20 grams per day. If I cook vegetables in our traditional method, I definitely add a lot more oil. So I decided to try making a vegetable curry without compromising the taste.

I simply boiled these vegetables and with mug (yellow) and musur (red) dal and then, just after serving added some salt and pepper. It was bland but not bad.

The quantity was enough for more than one meal. I had it for dinner. Next morning I mixed some semolina into it because I want my breakfast heavy. I also added a little more salt, just a little turmeric powder and some pepper and goda masala. Then it looked like this:

My Oil-free Upma

It was tasty and filling but no too heavy.

Garbanzo Beans and Kidney Beans with Vegetables

Delighted by this success, I decided to try oil free dishes every day.
So, yesterday I prepared another oil-free dish of garbanzo beans and kidney beans with carrot, fresh french beans, a little potato and cauliflower.
I soaked garbanzo- and kidney beans overnight. During this time I changed the water once. In the morning, I cooked these beans first in the pressure cooker for eight whistles. I cookef them simply in water. Then I waited for some time so that the air pressure inside the cooker reduces. Then I added all the vegetables and added salt, garam masala, a little coriander powder and black pepper, mixed everything well and closed the lid. I let it cook once again for eight whistles. Later I boiled this for a few minutes to make the gavy thicker. I mashed the garbanzo beans and the potatoes a little bit. So, you cannot see the beans a lot but you can see the kidney beans here:

I had it with roti today. It will taste good with steamed rice, too.

Ganapati Festival

Four decades on earth as an ethnic Hindu but never participated in an Arati! How does it sound? Not normal, right?! Well, I am not very religious! But, yes, I do consider knowing my own culture important. At home Mom was never allowed to worship any god's. There was no idol in our house. On rare ioccasion Mom visited temples secretly. I was brought up an atheist but I always felt sorry for Mom.

Rangoli at Ganapati Festival

Ganapati festival is ten days long. One evening my flatmate told me that she was going to attend the Aarati in the Puja pandal nearby. We had two pandals in our neighborhood. The next day I and my other flatmate accompanied her and attended Aarti at both the places.
To our surprise, the local people in our neighborhood invited us, al the girls in our hostel, to the feast they have arranged on the occasion of Satyanarayan Puja: rice, tur dal (a type of yellow lentil), puri, a spicy vegetable curry, papad and bundi (a sweet dish made of tiny gram flour balls). Served on plates made of "Shaal" leaves, the dinner was completely plant based!

The Idol

This is a "modak", a sweet dish that is an essential part of Ganapati Festival. My flatmate got this from home. As you can see, it looks like a fried dumpling. Inside the filling was mainly of grated coconut. So, this was plant-based, too.

Pointed Gourd in Mustard Gravy

Does morning really show the day? Does it? Always? I hope not. Not today!
Yesterday I didn't eat anything after breakfast at 09:00 a.m. I didn't feel well and had no appetite! In the evening I had some fruits only.

Dinner last night!

So, this morning I was dying of hunger. I decided to prepare shorshe bata diye patol ("pointed gourd with mustard paste"). I started cooking and within a few minutes the gas was over. Here is my pointed gourd in mustard gravy, only half cooked!

What to do?! I've kept it in the fridge. I hope, the caretaker will replace the cylinder soon and I will be able to finish cooking it then! Now I'm so hungry and sleepy and tired! At the moment I can just share the recipe with you. 

Peel the gourds leaving some skin here and there. Then slice each into two halves along its length. In a small bowl make a thick paste of mustard- and turmeric powder. Nowadays we buy small packets of mustard powder but the best flavour is guaranteed when you make mustard seed paste at home. But remember, then you have to separate the skin from the mustard. It's a little difficult. You make the paste (may be in a mixer-grinder) and pour some water in it and brown skin gets separated and accumulated at the bottom of the bowl. From above you carefully take the watery golden yellow liquid that is the mustard paste plus water and you add this to your vegetables. However, I prefer using ready made mustard powder and easily make a paste of it just by adding a little water.

For seasoning you will need mustard oil, fresh green chilies, sliced, and nigella seeds. By the way, I didn't add green chilies this time. Heat up the oil and add the nigella seeds and the chillies. Add the gourds and stir and mix. Let it cook for some time stirring every now and then. Add the paste of mustard and turmeric and mix everything well. Add water. Add salt. Let it cook till the gourds are thoroughly cooked. 

Serve with steamed rice. 

My Indianised Eintopf Rice Dishes and a Fresh Weight Loss Journey

        After a number of failed (if not barely successful) attempts to lose weight by putting myself on a strict diet I am again trying to lose weight making considerable changes in my food habit. This time I have decided not to give up any particular group of food because I know from my experience that it is a mistake. Earlier I have cut off carbohydrates or fat totally. It was not sustainable. This is the major difference between this attempt between the earlier ones. I make sure that everyday everything i.e all types of food (protien, carbohydrates, fat etc.) are on my plate.

       Also, this time I am cooking evey meal all by myself. Thus, I always know the quantity and the quality of what I am eating.

       I often cook one pot dishes. It saves time and later, the effort of washing several dishes. Everyday I wash, literally, one pot, and my plate. 

        Below you can find some of the vegetable rice dishes and khichuris I am preparing regularly.

Linguistic Notes:

Khichuri is a Bengali (Bangla) word for different types of rice and lentil dishes. Outside Bengal it is called "Khichdi", simply the Hindi word for Khichuri, and does not necessarily need lentils as an ingredient. But in Bengali khichuris, lentil is an essential ingredient and often we use two types of lentils, sona mug (yellow, very tiny species of mug Dal) and musur (the red dal) to prepare Khichuri.

Shaak is the umbrella term used to refer to the different types of leafy vegetables in different shapes and colours. We have a great variety of them in Bengal and I think in other parts of India as well.

Laal means "red" in Bengali.

Eintopf, a German word, literally means "one pot".

Procedure: 

Though ingredients are different for different dishes, the procedure is the same. I always soak the rice and lentils for at least half an hour before cooking, sometimes in hot water. I cut the vegetables and wash them in filtered water, drain the water carefully and keep them at one side. Rice is almost never more than 30 grams and I take the same quantity of lentils. I don't use measuring cups, I have some idea. My cooking starts with heating up about four teaspoons of oil. Then I add the seasoning and immediately add the vegetables. Then I add the spices, usually some cumin powder and turmeric powder, very little black pepper powder and a little goda masala, a typical and traditional Maharashtrian blend of different spices and mix everything well. If I don't feel like using goda masala, I go for garam masala. I keep the flame low and let the vegetables cook for some time. I stir from time to time to make sure that it doesn't start burning at the bottom. In the meantime I drain the water from the rice/lentils that I soaked. Now I add the rice or both rice and lentils, depending on what I am making. I stir and mix everything and add salt. I add water and close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook until five to eight whistles.
Note: Sometimes I skip seasoning nowadays because I am trying to lose weight. In such cases, I boil the ingredients together and later sprinkle a fre drops of cold pressed mustard oil while serving.

Laal Shaak Khichuri

I used nigella seeds and garlic for seasoning. Ingredients are laal Shaak, basamati rice and Red Lentil.

Basamati Rice with French Beans, Carrot and Beetroot

Beetroot Rice

I sautéed shredded onion till  golden and then the other vegetables, too, (shredded green bell pepper and finely chopped beetroot) in mustard oil in the beginning.

Rice and Sona Mug with Bottle Gourd

I boiled all the ingredients and sprinkled some mustard oil and black pepper on top of it just before eating.

Laal Shaak With Loads of Vegetables and a Very Little Rice and Lentils

I used nigella seeds and garlic as seasoning.

This doesn't look appetizing, right? Believe me, it was very tasty. And healthy.

Rice With Beans and Cauliflower

I used no seasoning but sautéed the vegetables very well before adding the spices.

For the first time in my life I am enjoying being on a diet.

Rice and Red Lentil with French Beans, Cauliflower and Carrot

I soaked rice and musur dal (red lentil) for half an hour. In the meantime I cut the vegetables. The quantity of vegetables was double of that of rice and dal since I want to lose weight 😬. I put everything in a pressure cooker and added salt, black pepper powder, garam masala and cooked it for 8 whistles. But depending on the rice you might have to turn the burner off after 5 whistles. I poured a few drops of mustard oil just before serving. When you don't cook it in a pressure cooker, first start with water in a pot, add musur dal as the water starts boiling. After a few minutes, some foam may start accumulating above the water. Take that out from the top with a wide spoon and throw away. Now add the rice and the vegetables, add the spices and cook until it is thoroughly done. Now add salt and mix well. Don't add mustard oil if you are not familiar with the flavour. 1. You can also replace musur Dal with some other lentil of your choice. I often make it with mug Dal (then you don't have to worry about the foam.). Also, I think when the musur dal is produced with not much chemical/ already very clean the foam might not accumulate. 2. If you use a type of rice that doesn't cook very fast, add it in the beginning with the dal. Mug Dal cooks faster. I sometimes make it with mug Dal and basamati rice.

Cabbage Khichuri (Lentil Rice with Cabbage)

I prepared this in June and took photos but I have the time to post it now.
It is important for me to ensure that I don't spend long time in the kitchen and still have a balanced diet.
So, I often prepare an one-pot dish.

To make this cabbage Khichuri, I cut potato in small cubes and shred the cabbage manually.
I soaked rice, mug (yellow) Dal and musur Dal (red rentil) for about half an hour. You can soak it for a longer time. This yellow lentil is very special. We call it sona mug, a very tiny type of moong, of golden yellow colour. "Sona" in Bangla (Bengali) means "gold". It is not available outside Bengal, at least not easily available. I bring it from Kolkata.

I sautéed the potatoes and then added thinly sliced onions, cumin seeds, one or two dried chillies removing the seeds.

I added the cabbage and let it cook for a few minutes. I then added the spices: turmeric-, cumin- and coriander powder and mixed everything well. It's required to stir from time to time and let it cook without adding water. If you want it a little spicy, you can add a little chilly powder.
Now I added some peas. I get frozen peas from the supermarket near my house.

I have mentioned above that I soaked rice and lentils. Now I drained the water and added it all. Just like earlier, I stirred and mixe everything. And then I added salt and water. I cooked this in pressure cooker. I closed the lid and after six whistles I turned off the flame.
I was very hungry. So, I let the steam out by lifting the pressure. But usually I wait for quite some time and then open the cooker. In the meantime it completely stops sizzling and there is no air pressure inside. You should never try to open the lid of a pressure cooker immediately after removing it from the flame.  If you don't use pressure cooker, you can check progress from time to time and cook till everything is thoroughly cooked.

When I opened the cooker it looked like this from above. Under this upper most layer it wasas really soft.

Pointed Gourd with Coconut

Pointed gourd is not available in every part of India. In Bangalore  and in Pune I rarely found it. In Mumbai I get a smaller type of it and it is always very costly. So, I don't prepare this often. In Bengal we make a number of dishes withis vegetable: light fish curry with poipted gourd, patol posto (pointed gourd with poppy seed paste, pinted gourd with potato in light watery gravy etc. Most of the time we add a little potato also. I prepared this dish on the 12th of June. Finally I have the time to write about it.

I peeled the vegetables and cut them into pieces as they are in the pictures at the end of this post.
This is how we commonly cut them for many dishes but not for all preparations.
I heated mustard oil and added cumin seeds and dried red chillies for seasoning. I took the seeds of the chillies out so the curry didn't become too hot. UsuallyI add beat leaves, too, but I hadn't any. Also, my mother usually adds a little grated ginger which I didn't use either.
I added the vegetables into the oil with the seasoning and stirred well. I let the vegetables sautéed for a few minutes. Then I added turmeric-, cumin-, coriander-, and red chilli powder. Red chilli powder is optional and I added just a little. I mixed everything well and let it cook for a few more minutes. I added finely grated (and dried) coconut now. I buy this from the supermarket. Now I added salt. Mixing everything well, I added water and I let it boil until the vegetables were thoroughly cooked. Now I added garam masala. I let it cook a little longer to reduce the water. I wanted the curry near dry.
I had it with steamed rice.

Day before yesterday my Mom prepared a curry with coming and bay leaf seasoning. I made the vegetables ready for cooking and then I took these photos to show you how the fresh vegetable looks like.

Ghugni -- a popular Bengali Dish of Garbanzo beans

We call garbanzo beans "kabuli chhola" ". Interestingly "chhola" is "gram" and "kabuli" in Bangla (Bengali) is the adjective of Kabul, the city in Afghanistan and so, means "something related to Kabul/something from Kabul". So, literally, it means, Gram from Kabul. I don't know if garbanzo beans came to us from Afghanistan but it is not the only bean we use to prepare this popular dish, ghugni; we also use Bengal gram, the darker and smaller sister of Garbanzo bean and also, dried peas.
The photo above is the breakfast my mother made yesterday. (I am at my mom's house because my father is undergoing a surgery.) My mother makes this quite often and serves with handmade ruti (the hindi word "phulka" or "phulka Rori" may be familiar to some of you!).

To prepare it, soak the beans overnight and then boil them until thoroughly cooked. Add salt in this process. We use a pressure cooker for this purpose.
Cut potato in small cubes. You can also prepare it without potato.
Heat oil of your choice and  add the potato cubes. Let them fry till they turn brown. Now add the seasoning: dried bay leaves (one or two), sliced green chilies (two to three), half a teaspoon of cumin seeds, finely chopped onion and crushed garlic. Stir everything well and let it dry till the onions turn golden. Now add turmeric- and cumin powder. (IIadd a little confused oriander powder, too, but that's optional). Stir well to mix. If you want tomatoes in this dish, add some, finely chopped, now (yesterday my mother didn't because my father is not suppsed to eat tomato but we sometimes do). If you add tomatoes, now let it cook for some time.
Add the boiled garbanzo beans now. Mix well. You might need to add a little more salt. Add water. Let it boil for some time and let the water reduce. You can also add a little garam masala powder towards the end.

Some like it really hot and spicy. They add some red chilli powder with the other spices. I don't prefer that.

Jhaal Suji -- Spicy Semolina

I often cook a dish and take its photo and upload it here and even then I don't post the recipe because I don't have time. I cooked this a few weeks ago, if not months, and then it remained in the draft status forever.
Finally I am writing again and here is how you can prepare it.
Heat oil and sautée small pieces of potato in it. When they turn golden add shredded onion. You can also use carrots and beans and completely get rid of potato as an ingredient. It is a very versatile dish and you have a lot of freedom as a cook. Only sautée the vegetables in the beginning.
After the onion is glazed, add green chilies, red chilli if you want, cumin seeds and stir and mix. You can add a bay leaf to the seasoning, too. My mother always use it. I also do, if I have it. But it is not always available where I live.
Add a little turmeric powder, salt and a little cumin powder to the vegetables and mix well. Now add wayer. After adding water I add some frozen peas and some ground nuts that I have already soaked for hours. But as I have already mentioned, you can use ingredients of your choice. Use something you can eat without any problems.
As the vegetables are thoroughly cooked, add the semolina. There should be some water left at this point. The vegetables should not be totally dry. After you add the semolina, stir constantly while it gets cooked. It cooks really quickly. Stirring is required to ensure that everything is mixed well and the semolina is not stuck to the bottom of the container.
It is an easy and filling dish.

Note: Today (20/7/2018) I again prepared this for breakfast for my parents and myself. So, I am uploading some more photos here.

Eggplant and Potato Curry in Tomato and Onion Gravy

It had been raining in Mumbai for days. I didn't have vegetables left in my kitchen. But my umbrella was broken. And it was not possible to dry clothes, so I didn't want to get out on the road. (In India we don't often use a drying machine and our hostel doesn't have any.) So, for a long time, as long as a whole week, I was eating mainly rice, different types of lentils and onion fritters (because I had some onions left.) So, I was clearly not having a balanced diet for many days.

Onion Fritters and Red Lentil Soup to go with Steamed Rice

Rice-Lentils-Chowli Beans Khichuri and Fried Potato

Eating some green vegetables became urgent. I asked my flatmate if I could borrow her umbrella and my list of vegetables started with "umbrella"! While leaving home for the market, I discovered that my flatmate wasn't there. She had to go out. Started walking in the rain, I got totally drenched as I reached my destination. It goes without saying that the first thing I bought was an umbrella. Then I bought vegetables enough for a week because I was planning a surprise visit to home.

Eggplant and Potato Curry in Tomato and Onion Gravy

I made an easy but delicious eggplant and potato curry to have with steamed rice.
Heating up some mustard oil, I added the pieces of potato first. Make sure that the potato is cut into small pieces, much smaller than the eggplant because eggplant is a softer vegetable and cooks faster than potato. After the potatoes turned golden, I added shredded onion and a little green chilies. If you like it hot and spicy, you can use for seaoning dried red chilli, too; in addition, you can also use cumin seeds.
After the onion was glazed, I added finely chopped tomatoes and turmeric-, cumin-, coriander-, and a little red chilli powder. I also added a little 'goda masala' which is a Marathi traditional combination of spices. I added the eggplant now, after everything else. I usually cut them in bigger pieces, bigger than the potato. I stirred and mixed everything well. Finally I added water and covered it with a lid and let it cook for about twt minutes. At this point you should lower the flame. But in our kitchen the flame is always low, thanks to no regular servicing for the oven in spite of several requests from us.
In about ten minutes it was cooked and the quantity of water reduced. I had it with steamed rice.

Cauliflower in Coconut Gravy

It's a vey easy and quick recipe. I prepared  this in a pressure cooker. I heated some mustard oil and then added some small pieces of potatoes into it. After those turned golden I added the cauliflower pieces. I stirred from time to time to make sure all the sides of the cauliflowers get sautéed a little bit. Then I added finely chopped tomatoes, let all cook stirring every now and then. Then  I added cuminn powder, turmeric,  coriander powder, goda masala, stirred and mixed well. Use garam masala instead of goda masala because today masala is not available everywhere. I added a little red chilli powder for colour but it is optional. Added coconut powder (bought it from the local supermarket) and salt. Stirred and mixed everything very well, added water and  closed the lid. After two whistles I turned off the flame. You can cook it in any type of container. After adding water cook till the vegetables reach the tenderness you want. I had it with steamed rice.

Rice with Peas

I had a difficult day today. Didn't sleep last night well. There is a rat inside the room. Agghh..! Disgusting! As usual, got up very early today when my roomate was getting ready and tried to sleep as soon as she left at about 06:30 a.m. but woke up again and about 08:30. Was half asleep lying lazy till about 11:30 and then got wide awake when I realised that the air conditioner was no longer working and I started sewating profusely. it is already close to 40 degree celcius here. There was no electricity. So, there was no wifi, no drinking water, no lights, no way to charge the phone and call the landlord. And there was no motivation to cook.
 I left the house frustrated, walked up to our ladlord's office a few hundred metres away, paid the rent and informed him about the power cut.
 Then I left for some work. On my way home later in the evening I picked some frozen peas -- for a change because I always buy the fresh ones from the local market --  as I went to the supermarket to get a particular brand of mustard oil and some rice. While entering our building, I enquired with a neighbour and found out that they had electricity.                              Tired, hungry having eaten not a single grain of rice since my dinner last night, drenched in sweat and exhausted in this merciless Indian summer, I made this super quick, super easy one pot rice dish to rescue myself from starvation and collapsing.       

      I poured some frozen peas in luke warm water in a big bowl and chopped one tomato. I heated some mustard oil in my pressure cooker until it reached its smoking point and added about a half of a teaspoon cumin seeds and 4 small dried red chilies into it. This is my seasoning. I removed the seeds of those chillies. I always do that. Now I added the tomato into the oil and stirred a little. I added the peas now and then, a little turmeric powder, goda masala powder (optional), coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala powder and stirred to mix well. I added salt now and let it cook on a low flame. In the meantime I quickly rinsed basmati rice with filtered water and then added that too. When I have time, I always soak the rice for about half an hour.                                                                   I mixed all the ingredients together and now added coconut milk in it. No recipe of peas pulao /peas-fried-rice really asks you to add coconut milk but recently I have got so fascinated by it, after cooking caulCaulifl with it recently, the recipe of which I am going to post soon, that I wanted it in my rice too. But it is completely optional. I added a little jaggery (I have stopped eating sugar a few years ago.) And closed the lid. After eight whistles, my meal, my first meal of the day, was ready. I had it at 18:37 p.m. Electricity came back in the meantime. The caretaker told us over phone that somebody turned off the main switch. I don't know how that is even possible because the main switch cannot be so easily accessible. I was however, too tired to check it personally. Will do that tomorrow, but not before having the left-over rice as breakfast.

Lentil Rice with Cucumber

Cucumber Khichuri/Khichdi

In reality there is no Bengali dish called "Cucumber Khichuri". But I invented this dish today, proving "necessity is the mother of invention.".

There was one cucumber left in my fridge. I know it is healthy to eat salad with cucumber; I also know that cucumber raita helps to lose weight. But healthy food rarely tastes good and I don't consume dairy. So, I let the cucumber sit in the frigde, finding no tasteful utilisation if that harmless vegetable.
I had lunch at a friend's house at 17:00 and we all ate too much. On the way home in the evening I didn't feeling like going to the local market. It was New Year and the streets were crowded and the traffic was slow. A friend dropped me home on her way home.
I took rest, chatted over whatsapp a little and sent text messages to good morning and waited for sometime for him to reply. Then I went to the kitchen and found the lonely cucumber there, waiting! I decided to experiment. I decided to make Khichuri, our traditio .n rice and lentil dish, with cucumber. Here it is worth mentioning that we never cook cucumber; we don't even pickle it. We always eat it raw, often with puffed rice or even more commonly, with tomato and onion as salad. Yes, here salad refetes to tomato, onion and and cucumber cut into small pieces and served together, without any dressing and here "sauce" means mainly "tomato ketchup"!

Now back to our cucumber Khichuri, I cut the cucumber in very tiny pieces after peeling it. I heated mustard oil in my presure cooker and added shredded onion and green chillues to it.

After the onion turned golden I added sfhredded garlic and half a teaspoon if cumin seeds. Then immediately I added the cucumber; I didn't want to fry the garlic. I stirred and mixed everything and added mung dal that I soaked about half an hour. I did the same thing with rice, too. The quantity of rice was half of that of dal. At this point I added a little tumeric powder and a little cumin- and coriander powder. I wanted to eat something really simple at dinner. But you can add cumin- and coriander- and turmeric powder before adding rice and dal and mix it well. You can also add a little red chilli powder which I very rarely consume.
I stirred everything to mix them well, added water and closed the lid.  I waited till the cookerwhistled five times and then turned the gas off. I opened the lid only after the cooker stopped sizzling on its own.
I cooked without fully  concentrating because there was an undercurrent of sadness and cry always at the back of my mind the whole time; I was expecting a normal reply from "Good Morning" but nothing came but my Khichuri was delicious!