Vegetable rich tahiri

I am an avid follower of Sangeeta Khanna on facebook. She posts her recipes & useful tips & tidbits on facebook under the caption Healthy Living with Sangeeta Khanna. Her tips, recipes & information have opened the world of food to so many like never before.....

I read about Tahiri pulao on Sangeeta Khanna's  blog. Tahiri is a mixed vegetable pulao from Uttar Pradesh. And I have been wanting to try it. She has a variety of Tahiri recipes on her banaras ka khana blog. And some days back , she had shared a mixed vegetable tahiri recipe .This is on her other food & recipe blog called healthfood desivideshi.  I tried it with some variations .Needless to add, I loved it !

Ingredients :3/4 cup rice (  used basmati tukda ) , 5-6 Cauliflower florets,1/4 cup  cauliflower stems cubed or cut into medium slices, 1/4 cup broccoli stems cut into medium slices, 1 tbsp peas,1/4 cup potato peeled & cubed ( optional ), 1/4 cup carrots cubed, 1/4 cup beans roughly chopped ( into half an inch a piece ) , 1 tbsp ghee, 1 tsp jeera,8 peppercorns , 2 cloves , 2-3 green chillies finely chopped, 1 inch ginger cleaned & grated, 1 tsp haldi, salt to taste.

Method : Heat ghee  a pressure pan on low flame..Add jeera.As soon as jeera turns aromatic, add the crushed pepper corns & cloves ( I crushed them in my small grinder jatr ...it can be done with pestle as well ).They will soon get fragnant. Add green chillies & ginger. Fry all nicely for aminute. Add all the vegetables except the cauliflower florets.Mix all nicely so that all spices & veggies get together. Add haldi .Mix all ingredients in pressure pan again.Add salt.Give the ingredients a stir so that salt gets mixed with all veggies.Add rice.Mix all the ingredients in pressure pan .Fry all for 2-3 minutes. Add cauliflower florets.Give the ingredients a  stir. Add water ( Added 1.5 cups water as rice was 3/4 cup ) .Stir everything for the final time. Close the pressure pan with lid.Cook for 2-3 whistles. Put off gas. After it cools. remove the whistle.After 10-15 minutes, open the lid & look at the Tahiri pulao ! It looks delicious. Serve with dahi , raita, papad, or vegetable salad or eat it just like that !

This rice was not at all spicy.So if you like it more pungent & spicy,please feel free to add more of spices ( cloves, peppercorns ) or green chillies & ginger or a combination of all as per your taste. Sangeeta Khanna has added quite a bit of spices, if you read her recipe.I use very little spices as I am used to  less spicy food.

Tomato Gojju

One of the food blogs that I  follow is Saffron Trail by Nandita Iyer.She is  a doctor by profession. The other day, she had posted tomato gojju recipe.I was tempted top make it as shes stated that this recipe is from Karnataka.I did make the recipe after asking my mom for the recipe.

The recipe became possible as there were quite a few small ( lemon sized ) tomatoes in the refrigerator.

Ingredients : 5/6 tomatoes  chopped  roughly, 1 tbsp chickpea flour or besan 1 tbsp oil, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds,1/ 4 tsp fenugreek or methi seeds,   1/2 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp hing, 1/4 tsp turmeric, 1-2 byadgi mirchi broken into 2-3 pieces each, 1-2  green chillies chopped,  a few curry leaves, 1 tsp jaggery, optional : 1 tsp or less of sambar or rasam powder or any everyday curry powder ( being used for making daily vegetable ) , salt to taste.

Method : Heat oil in a kdahai.Add mustard seeds.After they splutter add methi seeds.After they pop up , add jeera.Next add curry leaves & byadgi mirchi followed by turmeric & hing.Add tomatoes & mix all ingredients in kadhai.Keep cooking on slow gas flame. After 10-15 minutes, tomatoes will become mushy.Take care that the tomatoes do not stick to kadhai bottom.Add salt  to taste.This will make tomatoes all the more mushy. Add jaggery. Mix nicely.After five minutes, add the curry powder or sambar or rasam powder or combination of all three powders . Mix. Take 1tbsp besan & mix it with little water & make apste with no lumps in it.Add it to tomato spice mix in the kadhai constantly mixing with the spoon as it is being added to the kadhai. Keep stirring the spoon in the kadhai till the besan paste has become one with the tomato spice mix.Add more water if consistency is too thick. Bring the mix to a boil Put off gas. Serve with rotis and or rice.


This is  very tangy dish.And very easy & quick dish to make.Besan is added to make it thick.In other versions, soaked chana dal- tur dal mix is ground with coconut to make the gojju thick in place of besan.

I added more curry leaves as I had many of them in stock. One can add more chillies and even more curry powder as per  taste.Or it can be without curry powder .Or it can be with curry powder & no green chillies. Instead red chilli powder can be used.

Carrot salad

My mom is very partial to this salad or gajri ( Kannada for carrot ) kosambri ( salad ).Only a seasoning has to be added to grated carrots along with salt & it is ready ! Amma makes this as an accompaniment to methi theplas.

Ingredients : 3 medium sized carrots...peeled & grated,1 tbsp oil,1/4 tsp cumin,1/4 tsp mustard,1/8 tsp haldi,1/4 tsp hing,1 byadgi red chilli broken into 2-3 pieces,1 green chilli finely chopped, a few curry leaves,salt to taste.

For garnish : 2  tbsp cleaned,washed & chopped coriander leaves,2 tbsp fresh grated coconut( optional ).

Method : Take a kadhai & heat oil.Add mustard seeds.After mustard seeds pop up ,add cumin followed by urad dal.As urda dla turns golden brown in colour,add curry leaves & green chilli pieces.Put off gas.Add byadgi mirchi.Add hing & haldi.Mix all this with a spoon.Add this to grated carrots in a bowl.Mix nicely Add salt.Mix nicely so that salt gets evenly distributed.

Garnish with chopped dhania & fresh coconut.Serve with methi theplas and or any pulao,biryani, et al  !