There was a time when I did not care much about what vegetable peeler I used in my kitchen. I initially bought the Rachael Ray peeler. It was orange in color and loved the way it looked. Very fancy!! One day, while cooking with Meera and Pooja (Yes, we like getting together and cook random yummy stuff! ) and Meera happened to have used my peeler to peel carrots. And she went like, "Preethi, this this thing takes out too much of carrot flesh! I'd rather use a knife to scrape the peel off!" And she literally used a knife.
This really put some thoughts into my mind. Like was it really taking out too much of flesh off the vegetables? Then I used her peeler and she was absolutely correct!
And hence it is very important to have a good peeler that takes out very less flesh.
I got the Ikea peeler. Very comfortable and peels like a pro. Doesn't take out much flesh and I love it!! Costs about $5 and a steal! Available in their website or in-store!
Image copied from Ikea website
You read the title correctly. Zucchini noodles!! A healthy alternative to pasta. No carbs?? We love that. It doesn't get healthier than this. You can substitute this in any pasta dish. Happy healthy eating !!!
Nut butters are my absolute favorite. I love peanut, almond and walnut butter. I make them every week and are just amazing. Just eat a tablespoon every morning for that nutrition boost, easier to do this than remembering to eat them everyday.
These have healthy fats which must be an important part of your meal. This recipe is very simple and tastes better than store bought ones.
Ingredients:
- Walnut : 1/4 cup
- Almond: 3/4 cup (you can use 1: 1 ratio of walnut and almond, but I prefer it to be this way).
- Olive oil : 2 tsp
- Honey: 2 tsp
- Salt : 1/8 tsp
Method:
- Roast the almond and walnut in a pan till the skin looks toasted or you get a wonderful aromatic nutty flavor in the kitchen.
- Let it cool and add it to a mixie / blender. I use the blendtec twister jar for this. Gives amazing results!! Blend till smooth and creamy.
- While blending, add salt and honey.
Thats about it. This will need some work while blending. Its not as simple as adding it to jar and let it blend by itself. You will have to interrupt the process a few times, scrape the mix and blend it again. It is very much do-able using the small jar in Preethi mixie (Indians must be familiar with this).
After your done, let it cool and transfer it into a container or a mason jar. You can use this for a week. It needs to be stored in the refrigerator since you dont add any preservatives. Oh wait!! That's awesome right??!! :)
Do try this and let us know in the comments below how you found it.
Or even drop us an email at chaat.sisters@gmail.com and we will get back to as soon as we can.
Its quite cold outside nowadays and who wouldn't crave for a warm bowl of soup. I love the amazing flavor it gives out and best of all, very healthy and you can make it very creamy without adding cream!! Yeah you read it correct. The following recipe has no cream in it all all. But, it is still very smooth and creamy. I used blendtec to blend this soup. It gave me amazing results.
The secret in achieving this creaminess is cauliflower. Who knew this?!! Not me!! It is very rich and creamy and tastes amazing! I enjoy soup because its the easiest way to get your veggies for the day and best of all, has very less calories. Nothing beats home-made soup and this is made out of very simple ingredients.
Ingredients:
- Vegetable medley (cauliflower, broccoli, carrot) from Trader Joe's : 1 packet.
- Onion : 1 medium
- Capsicum : 1 diced
- Cumin powder / seeds : 1 tsp
- Pepper powder : 1 tsp
- Garlic: 2 big pods
- Salt : to taste
- Water
- Olive oil : 2 tsp
Note:
If you don't have vegetable medley, use the following instead:
- 1/2 small cauliflower head.
- 1/2 cup carrot
- 8 to 10 broccoli florets.
Method:
- In a pot, add olive oil and let it heat. Once hot, add cumin seeds (if powder, add it in the end).
- When cumin starts to crackle, add garlic, onion and capsicum and cook till they soften.
- To the above, add all the veggies, salt and pour water to cover the veggies. Cover it and let it cook in a medium flame for about 5 mins.
- Check to see if the veggies are soft and cooked. This can be checked by poking a knife through the veggies. If it cuts it like butter, its cooked. Its ok if they get mushy .
- Let it cool and transfer it to a blender. Blend till smooth or till you don't find any lumps.
- Transfer to the pot again and boil. This time add pepper powder and more salt if necessary.
Serving the soup:
- Serve it hot!! Or warm if your serving it to children.
- Top it with any kund of cheese, croutons, toasted seeds such as pumpkin, peanut or even bread as a matter of fact..
Options to blend the soup:
- You can use a mixie / blender : for this you need to wait for the veggies to cool down. I although used a blendtec. It did not require me to cool it down a lot.
- A hand held blender can be used. I have one, the cuisinart hand blender. It does the job for soups that don't need to be strained such as this. But, if you have to blend tomato soup, I prefer the blendtec since I wouldn't have to strain it. Makes it that smooth.
- You dont have to blend it at all. Have it as a veggie clear soup is also a good option.
Let us know how this recipe worked out for you.
For any queries, please leave a comment or email us at chaat.sisters@gmail.com.
Fall is here and nothing screams 'fall' like a good hearty bowl of butternut squash soup. Its amazing how simple it is to make this dish. Tastes amazing and best of all, I did not use any kind of stock.
The main ingredient used here is of course, butternut squash. The other stuff, you probably have in your kitchen already. Try this out and it will not disappoint your taste-buds.
Ingredients:
- Butternut squash - 1
- Onion - 1 medium
- Carrot - 2 large or 3 medium
- Celery - 2 to 3 stalks (optional)
- Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp (or 1 tsp if you don't like it spicy).
- Nutmeg powder - 1/8 tsp
- Salt - to taste
- Water/ chicken stock - as needed (you can use vegetable stock, but something without tomato in it would be preferable).
- Olive oil - 2 to 3 tbsp
- Any kind of cheese to garnish.
Method:
- Cut the squash into half and remove the seed, brush it with a little olive oil and keep aside.
- Dice the onion into generous large pieces. Do the same to carrot and celery. It needs to be big since all the ingredients would go into an over for about an hour. Cutting it into big chunks will not burn your veggies.
- Add about a tsp of olive oil (or any oil) to the diced veggies, add salt and spread in a baking sheet.
- Place the butternut squash in the tray with the veggies and cook in a preheated oven at 425 degree Fahrenheit oven for an hour or till the squash is soft.
Veggies placed in a try lined with aluminium foil with the squash
After the squash and veggies are cooked in the oven
- At this point, the onions would have cooked and caramelized which will give your soup an amazing flavor.
- Now, take the veggies out of the oven, let it cool for a minute or so. Scoop out the flesh from the squash, add it into the blender and blend till smooth with the help of water.
- Transfer the soup onto a pot and add salt and red chilli powder, nutmeg and cook till it boils. Serve the soup hot, garnish with cheese (I used gowda) and enjoy!!.
