My Weekend Kitchen

Romanian Roasted Eggplant Dip

September 19, 2018 Leave a Comment

I love exploring new cuisines and living in a new country provides so many opportunities to do that! During our first month of coming to Bucharest, friends of ours took us out for a traditional Romanian dinner. When I saw roasted eggplant salad on the menu, I was pretty intrigued as to what will an eggplant salad look like. I was expecting something like grilled eggplant slices with salad vegetables but when it came, it was actually an eggplant dip. I fell in love with it in the first bite — smoky, peppery, and smooth. It was like the Mediterranean baba ganoush and yet not. It has a character of its own. It is Salata de Vinete!

I love using it as a spread on toast or as a dip with chips and assorted vegetables. It is very versatile. The recipe is simple, and I often make it ahead of time and keep in the refrigerator for snacking in the evening!

Hope you love exploring the world of Roasted Eggplant dishes and vegetarian Romanian dishes with this recipe!

kanda dal, dry lentil fry, sookhi chana dal

Dal Kanda | Dry Chana Dal fry

Monday was “Pehli Raat” — the first night of the Islamic New Year. The Bohra community all around the world celebrates this evening by eating together from one big plate. The entire family sits around this big plate called thaal, offers gratitude for the blessings and welcomes the New Year.

This was a beautiful tradition I became part of after marriage. This year for the main course, I wanted to make something that reminds my husband of his childhood. Dal Kanda is a dish that his grandmother used to cook on every 26th of each month as it was the dish to celebrate a revered saint. The complete meal is dal kanda, poori, and rice kheer.

The name “Dal Kanda” literally translates to lentils and onions. Unlike regular Indian lentil preparations, dal kanda is a dry preparation. Chana dal is cooked in open pot till it is soft but not mushy. A spicy onion masala is cooked separately and then the cooked dal is added to it.

As we welcome the New Year, I wish you a blessed year by offering this very simple and flavourful dry lentil preparation from the Dawoodi Bohra cuisine. Hope you like it!

Lemon Chia Fresca

The Mayans called this little black seed, CHIA, which means strength . For long it was the secret superfood of the South American long-distance runners and warriors till the whole world discovered it and used it in many recipes!

Lemon Chia Fresca is my favorite post-run drink. Cold and refreshing it is an instant energy booster. Exactly what I need after a run in the park or on a hot summer afternoon.

Lemon Chia Fresca might just be the easiest health drink you can make at home – simply soak chia seeds in water with a little lemon juice. I always make ahead a big bottle of it and then feast on it all day. It keeps me hydrated, provides the necessary muscle building protein post-exercise, helps in weight loss and also boosts the metabolism. But most importantly, it makes me happy :-).

While this is the recipe for the simplest chia fresca, you can make your own variations by adding different flavors or using a fruit juice base instead of water.

easy Indian homemade tomato ketchup recipe with fresh tomatoes and no preservatives

Easy homemade tomato ketchup with fresh tomatoes

I love my fries with a dollop of ketchup. always.

Not just fries, I spread ketchup in sandwiches, I dunk my samosa in it, and I also sometimes add it to my pilaf and curries!

But it was only very recently when I turned the ketchup bottle over and seriously read the list of ingredients. I was left feeling cheated: Tomato concentrate -34%; emulsifiers, onion powder, fructose, thickening agent etc.

So I decided to go back to the basics and called my mother! 😀 She had been making tomato ketchup at home ever since, using fresh tomatoes and absolutely no artificial preservatives or thickening agents and blah blah. I used to think it would be complicated to make tomato ketchup at home. But it is super easy. Most of the cooking is passive and I just need to let the heat and tomatoes do their work.

This is her recipe which dates at least in her notebook to 1966. I can assure you that one taste of this ketchup and you will forget about store-bought ketchup for good. Just try it :-).

Savory Jowar (Sorghum flour) pancakes

jowar cheela, sorghum flour pancake, vegan omelette

As I leave for 10-days of silence, I wanted to share a recipe that is wholesome, nutritious, and delicious. These savory Jowar pancakes are great for breakfast and anytime-breakfast-meal. I love the fact that they are super easy for morning cooking and I can add as many seasonal vegetables that I want.

We call them cheela in Hindi, they can also be called vegan omelettes as a mix of flour is used to make the batter instead of eggs. As they pack easy and taste good hot as well as cold, I usually pack them for my lunch box and many times for travel. I just need a little ketchup or chutney to make it a complete meal.

How to freeze blueberries

Breakfast for 12? Not a problem, when you have a stack of frozen blueberries in the freezer! Just throw them in the blender with bananas, honey, and you are good to go!

Frozen blueberries is the best meal prep hack I learned a few years ago! Of all berries, blueberries freeze most beautifully and easily. Buy fresh blueberries at the peak of season, wash, dry, and pop in the freezer. They don’t even really need to thaw, just feast on them as is or add them to:

Berry Smoothies and cereal bowls,
pancakes or
banana muffins

Methi Thepla

When I was a kid, long-distance travel usually meant road or train travel. I have a feeling it is true for many of us. Am I correct?

Every time we had a travel coming up, mom would make all these healthy travel snacks to carry with us, especially when the journey was for 2-3 days. For the first day it was usually paratha and potato veg fry, but for days after that, it was always thepla! A traditional Gujarati flatbread made with kneading vegetables, spices, and yogurt into flour.

This methi thepla (or fenugreek flatbread) is a complete meal in itself and it doesn’t really need anything to accompany. Just roll and eat on-the-go!

What do you pack in your travel snack bag?

Sabudana vada | Tapioca pearl fritters

sabudana vada recipe for Navratri fast, gluten free tapioca pearl fritters

I tell all my friends that rains are best enjoyed in India! No other place has the same “mitti ki khushboo”, the intoxicating earthy aroma of the mud which comes with the rains.

As a child I enjoyed many rains jumping in puddles and making paper boats. And when we were done, as we went inside the home to clean up, mummy would have prepared delicious snacks like these sabudana vadas to feast on! These vadas are perfectly crispy on the outside and very soft on the inside. The trick is to soak the sabudana or tapioca pearls in just enough water.

Paired with spicy green coriander-mint chutney and a cup of hot tea, it brings back the memories of all those monsoon months! 🙂

What is your favorite memory of rains?