Falafel

Falafel !!  i have had a love-hate relationship with it for a loooooong time.

A perfectionist that i become when it comes to food  flavors and textures, i totally loathed this meditteranian dish each and every time i had it at the restaurants or tried those boxed mixes from the store -- found they made them taste bitter hard and crumbly dry. I would have totally given up on trying this dish again, if not for a close friend who made the same from scratch at home and i thought wow ya why not.. why not make it at home from the very base ingredients. Like they say, sometimes you  appreciate and understand things more when done in reverse. And believe me from the day i reverse engineered the recipe myself, there's been no looking back. This home made falafel version is a keeper in my recipe book forever . I have made it several times  and each time it comes out- ever so moistened , soft and super flavorful inside .

Tzatziki sauce

A Greek sauce generally served with a bread or pita , making it an excellent first course.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Hung yogurt or Greek yogurt
• 1/2 a Cucumber, grated and squeezed to remove the juice
• 1 1/2 Cloves of garlic, grated
• 1/4 tsp Lemon juice
• Dill leaves, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients and serve chilled along with some fresh pitas. 

Roasted red bell pepper hummus with crudités

We recently had some neighbors over and i wished to serve some snacks on a platter , vibrant and fresh just like our new friends. The all easy hummus with crudités did a brilliant job with loads of compliments and accolades for a full evening.

The recipe is true fusion of cultures- French crudités meeting the Middle eastern hummus. Crudités are basically appetizers consisting of whole or sliced raw vegetables usually dipped in a vinaigrette or sauce.And the all favorite hummus which is believed to have originated in ancient Egypt, is a spread made from chickpeas. Actually hummus in Arabic literally means chickpeas itself.

The basic hummus recipe is very versatile as you can add anything to it and a totally new flavor dimension is on the horizon every time. Ideas for flavored hummus can be as wide as your taste palette. To suggest a  few flavors -- try making roasted garlic hummus , greek hummus with olives, roasted eggplant hummus, sun dried tomato hummus, lemon garlic hummus,lemon cilantro hummus,  jalapeno hummus... i mean the variety is infinite here :) You can even try black bean or white bean hummus where you replace chickpeas with black beans and cannellini beans respectively.

Today being the roasted red bell pepper hummus day, lets - get set and go ..

Penne puttanesca

This spicy, tangy and somewhat salty pasta has its racy origins in Naples. Great on taste and quick to make.

Corn,black bean and avocado salad

Back home from an evening run , i was relaxing and contemplating what to eat for a light light dinner. Salad with some carbs fitted my idea well. So i headed to my farmland , my fridge .. and i  instantly had a "yum yum ! at first sight " with the innocent avocados, corn and lime..

Super quick and easy.

Corn vermicelli

I loved to cook even as a child, vividly remember how i would sit along with my grandma to cut and dice vegetables. But for the last decade or more-- the academic and corporate world, replaced the  small and beautiful with the big and mighty aspects of life. Marriage came as a milestone which pushed forward the innate attributes of a cook in me again. My husband makes delicious vermicelli himself but very recently we both looked forward eating our favorite saturday breakfast- Vermicelli , embellished in different , out of the usual  flavors. 

Hope u enjoy this recipe as much as we were enthused to invent it. Simple, fresh and awesome.

Caramelized onion & goat cheese flatbread

Weekends shout pizza to me. The warm gooey pie entices me often, but Mr lovetoeat seems to have lost an appetite for the same for long. In an attempt to work on both of our taste buds, i tried this healthy low fat semi-homemade version the last weekend. And the results with my humble pie were as satisfying as with the distant Ooey goOey relatives of the same!

Salsa

 The word Salsa conjures metaphors like action ,emotion, freedom and energy. Just like the dance form,this recipe is a frenetic rendezvous of flavors in your mouth. Well the american football season has begun and chips with salsa is a staple in my house for the whole season. My husband loves it and i have had many permutation combination to the basic recipe. I share the simplest salsa here, which you can come up in a jiffy.

Orzo with feta and olives

We are variety seekers when it comes to food.  Orzo was a pleasant discovery two years back surfing the aisles in a superstore. Its is a rice shaped pasta with varied uses. 

This particular recipe is a warm salad and a light meal in one.

Bruschetta

Bruschetta [read as brus-ketta] is a hearty snack from central Italy. Its basically a crusty grilled bread, rubbed with garlic and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Variations include toppings running as wild as your imagination. I present to you  the classic vegetarian version topped with fresh tomato, basil and garlic in light balsamic. 

This international snack has a very wide appeal, I was pleasantly surprised when my mother in law urged me to  make these almost every week when she was here visiting us..the tart sweet aged taste really grew on her. The recipe was an super duper hit. 

Quick ,easy, delicious !!

Paneer Skewers

As "s u r r e a l" as it gets, this recipe is yet another all time favorite appetiser. Done the tandoori style, these skewers are mysteriously earthy smoky tangy and charred !!  The aromas from this dish envelopes and sends you on a reminiscent trip back to India where in the heart of winters we all savoured some amazing hot and fresh delicacies out of a "r e a l" tandoor or clay oven.

Arbi Masala

We are all self proclaimed cooks in our family.This finger foods recipe is authored by my father in law and hopefully i did full justice to it by not frying but broiling instead :)

Arbi aka taro, colocasia, arvi, ghuiya-  is a root vegetable. I had nightmares cooking it yrs back myself , but this ugly looking  hairy  knotty root that you see in most international stores is truly underrated and outshined by the likes of potatoes and yams. This is one diamond in the rough which u have to lay your hands on and then you'd be hooked to it forever.