PANEER TIKKA (The Healthy Way)

Hi,

I know I promised to be more regular however certain bad things happened as I got delayed in posting my recipes. My mum suffered from a heart attack on 20th of December 2014 which shocked me to the core. Later on as the medical investigations were carried out we found out she had high creatinine and uric acid levels, due to which she had gout attacks. The last gout attack kept her bed ridden for 3 weeks. Now, just as she was improving my maternal grandfather passed away on 23rd January 2015. This was a huge setback for me as he was a father figure to me and had practically raised me and was a huge source of strength and support for me.

So anyways inspite of the bad times life goes on and in order to make my mum's life style healthy I have decided to give some yummy recipes a little healthy twist :) So I decided to make Paneer or cottage cheese Tikkas in the oven in a healthy and less oil method. The key to this recipe is marination, the longer the better.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 LARGE GREEN BELL PEPPER
• 3 RED ONIONS 
• 2 TOMATOES
• 150g FRESH PANEER OR COTTAGE CHEESE 
• 11/2 TBSP OF SHEEKH KEBAB MASALA 
• 2 TBSP YOGURT
• 1/2 TBSP VEGETABLE OIL
• JUICE OF 1 LIME 

PROCEDURE:

• Put the sheekh kebab masala in the yogurt and mix well. as I was pressed for time I used store bought masala. If you are using store bought masala then you will not require any extra salt.
• Dice the vegetables and paneer in to big pieces and put them in a large bowl.
• Now marinate them with the yogurt spice mix, oil and lime jiuce. You can use olive oil instead of vegetable oil.Key to this recipe is marination. Since a tiny amount of oil is used the longer you marinate the better the flavours. You can marinate this overnight if you can or for at least half an hour to an hour.

• Preheat the oven for 10 mins. Line a baking pan with aluminium foil. this eases the process of cleaning. Then put the vegetables and paneer in wooden skewers and put them in the pan.
• Put it in the oven at 200 degree centigrade for 25 -30 mins, do check in between to achieve the amount of char you desire. 

• Remove them gently from the skewers when done and garnish them with onion rings and slit green chillis. Serve with mint chutney :)

Do try this recipe , as its a healthy alternative to the kebabs we get from restaurants. 

P.S. Sorry for the quality of the pictures as they were taken by my phone camera :)

TOMATO AND LENTIL SOUP

I love making soups at home from scratch instead of cooking soups using soup packets. When we soups from fresh ingredients it is much more healthier (without preservatives and MSG), tastier and quite easy to make :) Earlier I used to make simple tomato soups (since tomato is my favourite vegetable) but this time I decided to add lentils (Dal) to the soup for a different taste :) It turned out to be delicious and super tasty.

INGREDIENTS:

• 7-8 large ripe tomatoes
• 1 medium carrot (optional)
• 5-6 cloves of garlic(optional)
• 1 large onion
• 2 tbsp dried basil
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp butter  (optional)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2-3 bay leafs
• 1 cup masoor dal
• 2 green chillis
• 3 cups water
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste

PROCEDURE:

• Roughly chop the tomatoes. carrot, onion, garlic cloves and keep aside. Wash the masoor dal very well. As i didnot have carrots at home this time I did not use them :)

• I use a pressure cooker to make this soup, however if you want you can use a large pan. Put butter and olive oil in the pressure cooker and add the chopped onions and garlic and bay leaves. Cook till the onions are translucent. If you want you can skip the butter or instead of oil use only butter the taste remains same, I use olive oil to make it healthy :D

• Now add the carrot and the lentils and stir well. You can use any lentils you want, personally masoor dal is my favourite :)

• Then add the tomatoes, the basil, the oregano, salt, pepper,chillis and mix well. You can use any other seasoning you want, I am a big fan of basil and oregano. However I would advice to add less amount of salt here and you can adjust later on. Then add the water.

• I usually let it cook for 3-4 whistles and then cool it for a whlie.
• I do not have a hand blender so I cool the soup before I blend it, however if you have a hand blender you should blend it while it is hot.

• Strain the soup well in order to get a smooth soup. I do not add any flour or cornflour as I always get a very good consistency, but if you wish you can if your soup is too runny.
• Once the soup is blended then adjust the seasonings. 

This recipe can be modified as you wish by adding other vegetables or you can make it non-veg by adding chicken etc. I hope you will try it out and please do tell me how it went.

GAZPACHO

I have been studying Spanish for the last one and a half years and it is from there that the inspiration for my blog’s name came from. 

Gazpacho is a tomato-based, vegetable soup which is traditionally served cold. It originates from, Andalucia, a region in southern Spain. Gazpacho is a favourite in Spanish cuisine. It is a refreshing, healthy cold soup which is usually consumed during the summer months. I hope you try this one out and do tell me how it goes :) :)

Ingredients:

For  Soup:

• 4 medium ripe tomatoes

• 1/2 large green bell pepper (you can use red or yellow if you want)

• 1 onion

• 2 garlic cloves

• 1/2 large cucumber

• 2 slices of bread

• 2 Tbsp Olive oil

• Salt to taste

• Black Pepper to taste

• 1 Tsp vinegar

For Garnish:

• Cucumber finely diced
• Onion finely diced
• Tomato finely diced
• Green Bell Pepper finely diced

Procedure:

• Cut the vegetables roughly. Since we are going to blend the soup there is no need to chop the vegetables finely.
• Put the tomatoes in a blender and blend for 2mins.

• Now add the garlic, onion, bell pepper, cucumber, bread, oil and vineger to the tomato mixture. Blend for 3-4 mins. (It is preferable if the bread is a day or two old)

• Than add salt and pepper as per your taste.
• Pour the soup in a container (i used a microwave friendly container) and chill for at least 2 hours. (if you have time you can refrigerate it longer.)

• Before serving garnish with the diced vegetables. You can also garnish with croutons.