SuvaiArusuvai - Veg Recipes of India

 Salads have become the latest fab for many. People love to eat salads as regular meals. Here is one healthy salad recipe that can be had along with rice or chappati or just as a snack during tea/coffee time. Ingredients: Ground nut - 1/2 cup(fired or boiled fresh groundnut) Sprouted Moong Dal - 1 cup Onion  - 1 big finely chopped 1 big ripe tomato - Finely chopped (can also add 2 to 4 tbspns of Tomato Puree ) Green Chilly - 1 medium sized Ginger - 1 inch piece (grated or finely chopped) Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp Salt - to taste   For seasoning: Oil - 1 tsp Mustard - 1 tsp Urad Dal - 2 tbsp Curry Leaves - a few Coriander Leaves - a few (finely chopped) Method:         In a salad bowl, add groundnut, moongdal, onion, tomato (or puree), ginger, green chilly and the lysalt. In a frying pan add oil and add the mustard seeds and when it splutters add it to the groundnut mixture. Mix thoroughly. Add the lemon juice to it.         This salad can also be decorated with finely

Ingredients: Grated Coconut - 1 cup Sugar - 2 cups Ghee - 1 cup Cashewnuts - 12 cut into small pieces and fry it in 1 tbsp of ghee. Method:      In 1/2 cup of water dissolve sugar and let it boil, Bring it to thick one string consistency. Add the grated coconut to it slowly. Keep stirring and add the ghee little by little. Both the sugar and coconut should get mixed up well and should get hardened. Bubbles should form on the top and the mixture should leave the sides of the vessel. Before removing from flame add the cashewnuts and mix well. Remove and pour it in ghee greased plate. When warm cut into pieces. When cold remove the pieces and store in a clean dry container.

Tired of making the regular payasams for Diwali? Try out this Rabadi, which will sure become a great hit in your family. Ingredients: Milk - 1 ltr Sugar - 100gms Badam - 20 to 25 Melon seeds (Saarai Paruppu) - 1/4 cup Cardamom powder from 4 to 6 nos Saffron Strands - a pinch Method: Soak the Badaam in warm water and peel the skin. Grind the Badaam along with cardamom. Add it along with milk and sugar and boil it. When thick remove from flame and let it cool. Refrigerate it and serve it cool. Sprinkle Melon seeds and saffron strands and serve.

Ingredients: Grated carrot - 2 cups Sugar - 2 cups Milk - 2 cups ghee - 1/4 cup Besan flour - 1/2 cup Khova - 100 gms Cardamom Powder - 2 pinches Method:     In a hard bottom pan, add carrot, sugar and milk and when the mixture comes to a boil add the khova and stir well. When the khova gets mixed thoroughly, add the besan flour (heat ghee in a vessel and add the besan flour to it and make it a fine paste) and when everything gets hardened up and leaves the sides of the vessel, remove from flame and spread on a ghee greased plate. Cut into pieces when cold.

Ingredients:      Besan Flour - 1 cup      Ghee - 2 cups      Sugar - 2 cups      Water - 1 cup Method:       Heat 1 cup of ghee in a vessel and add the besan flour to it and make it a paste. In a hard based pan, add 1 cup of water and when warm add the sugar to it and stir well till it reaches thick one string consistency. Add the besan ghee paste to it and keep stirring without taking hands off. Keep adding the remaining one cup of ghee little by little. When it starts bubbling and changes into white in colour and leaves the sides of the vessel, pour it in a ghee greased plate and spread it evenly. When warm cut into square pieces. When cold remove and store it in a clean and dry container. Chakkari Paagu Besan Flour mixed in Ghee Besan flour poured in the pan Keep stirring till it comes out of the sides Poured in ghee greased plate Ready to pour

Ingredients: Paneer - 250 gms Butter - 4 tbsp Onions - 2 thinly chopped Ginger - 1/2 inch piece Garlic pods - 4 to 6 Green Chillies - 2 Tomatoes - 2 Cardamoms - 2 Beaten Curd - 1/4 cup Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp Salt to taste Milk - 1/2 cup Tomato puree - 1/4 cup Grated Paneer - 2 tbsp Greated Cheese - 2 tbsp Chopped coriander - 2 tbsp Oil - 1/4 cup Method: Chop the Paneer into finger lenghts. Heat oil in a shallow pan, fry the Paneer pieces. When golden brown remove from flame. Put the pieces in warm water for a few mins and remove and drain. In a hard bottom kadai(pan) add 2 tbsp of butter and add onion, ginger, green chilli and cardomom to it. Fry for 3 to 4 mins and add tomatoes and cook it for a few mins covered till it gets cooked. Add 1/2 cup of water and remove from fire. Let it cool and grind it to a fine paste. In the pan add the remaining ghee and add the gravy to it. Add salt, red chilly powder, garam masala powder and bea

Ingredients: Tomatoes - Red and Ripe - 1 kg Water - 2 ltrs Vinegar - 1/2 cup Method: Boil water, add the washed tomatoes to it and close the lid(ensure that the fire is put off). Leave it for about 5 minutes. Remove from the hot water and put it in cold water. Peel the skin and in a juicer blender(better to use that blender, which separates the seeds and juice). If not use a juicer sieve to separate the juice and waste.      In a hard bottom shallow pan boil the puree with vinegar till it reaches the desired consitency. Store the puree in different containers and some of them can also be stored in freezer for later use. Use it immediatly after defreezing.

Many households cook potato as Diwali special. This recipe is made using coconut milk. Ingredients:     Potatoes - 1/2 kg     Coconut milk - 1/2 cup thick and 1/2 cup thin milk     Red Chillies - 2 to 4     Onion (preferably small ones, if not 2 big ones) - finely chopped 1/2 cup     Cumin or Jeera - 1/2 tsp     Dhaniya (coriander seeds) - 1 tsp     Black pepper corns - 4     Curry leaves - 1/4 cup     Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup     Bengal gram - 2 tbsp     Oil - 2 tbsp Method:        In a pan dry roast coriander seeds, cumin, black pepper, bengal gram and Red Chiilies one by one and spread them on a plate and let it cool. Boil potatoes (it should be cooked 3/4th, better peel the skin before cooking) and cut them into cubes. In the same pan, add oil and when hot add chopped onions and saute it till it becomes transparent. Add the cubed potatoes and stir for a min. Add the thin coconut milk and cook for 5 mins. Add the ground powder to the potatoes and cook for another

Ingredients: Almonds - 1/4 kg (soak overnight and peel the skin) Powdered sugar - 1/4 kg Milk - 2 tbsp Saffron Strands - a few Method: Wash the almond throughly after peeling it to remove the brownness. Grind it to a fine paste using milk. Mix the sugar powder to the ground paste and in a hard bottom pan cook the mixture stirring constantly using a large spatula. Do not stop stirring even if it splatters. Keep the stove in low flame, and keep stirring untill the mixture forms a soft lump and leaves the sides of the pan. Spread the cooked mixture in a ghee greased pan and roll it with a rolling pin. When warm, put slices. Decorate each slice with one or 2 strands of saffron. Can also place one or a half of badam on each piece. Remove and store when cold. One can also make Burfi and Rolls using Badaam.

Ingredients: Milk - 1 ltr or 1 small tin milkmaid Maida - 1/2 cup seive well Butter - 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder - 1/2 cup Sugar - 1/2 kg or Powdered Sugar (1/2kg) Method:     Powder the sugar mix it with butter thoroughly to make a paste. Mix maida and cocoa powder and add it to milk. In a hard bottom vessel, pour the mixture and keep stirring until the mixture leaves the sides of the vessel. Pour it in a ghee smeared plate and when cold cut into pieces. 

Ingredients:          Sweet Potatoes - 1/2 kg          Scrapped coconut - 4 cups          Water - 2 cups          Cardamom - 1 pinch          Sago - 2 tbsp          Jagger y - 2 cups Method:           Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into small slices. Cook them in water along with sago till  the sweet potatoes become soft and tender. Extract milk out of coconut. (Thick milk alone will be useful). Mix it along with jaggery to the sweet potato. Keep stirring for a few mins. Before removing from flame add the cardamom powder and mix it well. 

Ingredients: White Pumpkin - grated 2 cups Ghee - 1 cup Sugar - 1 1/2 cups Cardomom Powder - 2 pinches Cashew nuts - 12 broken and fried in a spoon of ghee Milk - 1 cup Method:                    Boil sugar with 3/4th cup of water and make sugar syrup of 1 thread consistency. Heat 2 to 4 tbspns of ghee in a hard bottom vessel and saute the grated pumpkin.   Add the milk to pumpkin and cook it in the milk till the pumpkin is soft. Mash it well in the milk while cooking. Add the sugar syrup to the pumpkin slowly constantly stirring. Add the remaining ghee slowly till it is absorbed completely. Keep cooking till the halwa leaves the sides of the vessel.  Remove from flame, add the cardamom powder and mix well. Decorate it with fried cashew nuts. 

India is a land of diversity and each and every region have its own special recipes. Find here a collection of such recipes that have been tried out and tested by me and a few by my friends and relatives.