Veggie love, Indian and Italian Style!

Last week, I spent an afternoon cooking. I like to make multiple meals when I get to cooking, and always make extra, for leftovers, guests, mom, neighbors, or the freezer, lol. I had a drawer full of veggies that were starting to be not so fresh, and so I knew it was time for sambhar. This is a south Indian meal served almost daily with dosas, idlis, vadas, or just plain rice. Most families eat this at least once a day in the south of India, and usually with some fish. When mummy first came for a visit several years ago, I watched eagerly, and learned how to make this tasty dish.

I make this once a week, or two at the most. It's a wonderful way to use up all your veggies, and hello, it is sooooo tasty, and nutritious. My husband and I love it spicy, but I usually make it more mild so everyone else can enjoy it, and we just add some lemon pickle to it, for my enjoyment. More on lemon pickle at another time, lol, just know its lemon, and its pickled, in LOTS of red chilli powder, lol. It is sooooo good. We usually just eat our sambhar with rice, but sometimes I do make dosas.

Ok, now for the Italian part, well, I was looking at my lovely veggies, and thought how about I show all you lovely people how I make two completely different tasting meals, with the literally the same veggies. Enjoy reading the rest as you see how people from two different parts of the world, enjoy the same food, but with the addition of some spices, how it can change dramatically. I thought this was pretty cool, so I wanted to share with all of you.

Oh and since I was on a roll, I just went ahead and made three more meals, with some leftover chicken from soup a couple days earlier.

Five meals, and a whole lotta veggies. Check it out!!!

hmmm, what do we have here, well, let me break it down for you ok.
In the front of course the stars of the show, the veggies.
In the middle I have my daal, chicken and carrots, spinach, pickles, and ginger garlic paste.
In the back I have peas, cream of mushroom, mayo, mustard, beans, green sauce, canned tomatoes, and veggie broth.
Lets get cooking shall we!!!

I diced up onions, and celery, and carrots, with some fresh garlic, and a chili pepper. Then let it saute.  This was the base for my MINESTRONE soup.

I added the veggie broth, canned beans, canned tomatoes, cut up zuchini, and squash,  shredded some more carrots,  and added a bunch of italian dried herbs, as I didn't have any fresh. Then I let this baby cook, until everything was nice and tender and then I added my cooked whole wheat pasta.

What makes this Italian, is of course the lack of indian spices, and addition of italian ones, and the EXTRA tang from all those canned tomatoes, which I love, and the difference in legumes. Rather than daal, we used red kidney, and white northern beans, as my protein. Everything else is the same. How cool, right?

Ok on to my sambhar....

Washed up some daal, and put it in my pressure cooker. 

Diced up all the rest of my veggies, big bites, and put that all in the pressure cooker.  I threw in a big handful of curry leaves, and a couple teaspoons of ginger garlic paste, and 3 packets of sambhar seasoning. This is only the 3rd time using these packets, as I've always made my own sambhar mix, but whenever I buy the dosa mix (and I buy it often, as it's instant dosas ) it comes with a packet of sambhar mix. I had so many that I thought I had to try it, and its not bad at all, so for now, I will be showing you this way, since its SUPER easy.

You can add any veggie you like in here, but I like to use carrots, squash, zuchini, onions, tomatoes, eggplant, and these little cucumber looking veggies you find at the indian super market. Didn't have any this time, but they are really tasty. I have also started using radishes, and like the flavor it gives. 

Add water,  to fill, and you can put the lid on here, and let it go. I add a bit more for some extra flavor, and you can too. 

The hing powder, (on top) also called asafoetida and the fenugreek are what give sambhar its unique flavor. SO I added just a bit more of these, along with you guessed it chilli powder, as the mix is very mild.

At this point I simply put the lid on and turned on my pressure cooker for about 40 minutes, then letting it go for another 15 or so on low, then turning it off, and letting the steam go down on its own.

I like my veggies to be a bit firm, but mostly cooked very soft. I then add my seasoning, which I didn't take a picture of.
All this means, is taking a bit of oil, and frying up some flavor in it. I choose, mustard seeds, onions, curry leaves, cumin seeds, red chillies, and a bit of hing powder at the end. I poured this over my sambhar and let it sit. Then I added my tamarind paste, which is soaked to release the pulp. Sorry for not taking pics of these steps, don't know why I didn't, but next time I will try to be more thorough.

MINESTRONE SOUP .......AFTER

SAMBHAR.......AFTER

GREEN CHICKEN ENCHILADAS.... one of my favorites. 

I also did not take pics of the daal, or the chicken salad. Next time I will make these I will surely take some better pics. I guess I was focusing on the veggie dishes above. Oh well, I hope you liked that, and if you are ever in need of a healthy veggie meal, try one of my suggestions above. You'll love it!

I am linking up to these parties:
Metamorphosis Mondays
Get your Craft On
Topsy Turvy Tuesdays
Talented Tuesdays

Inspiration Friday




Also don't forget that I have officially started my AMAZE me AUGUST weekly party starting every TUESDAY, so please go HERE to enter and join in the fun. Show me what you got girls, I look forward to all the AMAZING things you will be sharing.
As always ENJOY!

Special requests, or mad love always welcome:)
bellabeforeandafter@gmail.com

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Dinner, and Mehndi with Princess M and her friends.

Ok so time for a little fun. We went to the zoo yesterday, forgot my camera at home, darn, but if you only knew how many zoo pictures I have already. Oh well. Next time I will get more.

Here at Zoo Atlanta they have an awesome family membership, my neighbor actually got one, for $99. For $30 more she added me and now either one of us can go anytime, bring a guest for free, and up to 4 kids ANYTIME for a year. Hello, check out your local zoos, and see if they have any great deals. This has got to be the best deal in town, and that's exactly what they advertise. :0

After the zoo, I made my trip to Trader Joes, bought a few yummy things, mostly Sauces, bread, chips, and a few other non perishable items. Its a good hour from my house especially with traffic.

I promised my little Princess she could have a few friends sleep over before school starts, and do Mehndi n their hands. We were supposed to watch Twilight, but I forgot to get it, so we watched AMADEUS on Netflix instead. LOL. I love that movie.

We started the night with dinner. The girls all helped make a pasta dish, salad, and garlic bread. Who doesn't like Italian right? After pigging out, we put on our jammies, and went to do Henna.

The girls, had fun, I was pleased with my first attempt at doing Mehndi. I think I am hooked. It was great fun, and once I got into it, I just started doing my own design, rather that trying to perfectly copy pics.

Here's some before and after pics.

Enjoy!

Before pic, I try to cook with as much organic food
as possible. Once you get used to the added cost
you learn to budget for it. Cut out all other junk food, and
you may even save money. :)

My Princess M, one carrot, 2 ribs celery, 5 cloves garlic,
one onion, finely processed. Now nobody sees it, but
eats it anyway. Forgot my mushrooms, and bell peppers.
No biggie, just as good without. 

Princess chopping salad. 

This sauce is so yummy, and at only $2.29 a great DEAL.

Dinner, on my not so lovely plastic plates. I want to
replace these with metal ones, like in the Indian
food joints. I do have ceramic, but with kids never
use them. Too bad. 

Princess M and her design choice.

Friend #1

Friend #2

Girls together, posing on my dirty ottoman. My kids
have spilled everything possible on this thing. 

My hand, lol.

My son Big B just HAD to have something too. Manly
or course, but I don't know how to do skulls, and such, so
he settled on chinese writing for COURAGE.

Hope you guys like it, and if you ever want to try doing this yourself, its not that hard. Find yourself an Indian store, they are likely to carry the mehndi cones, or shop online, there are tons of sites. Always use 100% natural henna, never the ones that have black in them. Henna should be reddish orange when dry on the skin, never black.

Bella

For more wonderful ideas check out some of the parties I'm linking up to at Party Hardy.


Including:

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