Kerala Thoran with Green beans & Chioggia Beetroots. {Indian sattvik vegetable Stir fry for every day meals.}

I cook green beans stir fry at least three four times a week, mostly  Kerala style stir fry known as Thoran. I always add few other veggies  with beans. I got Chioggia beets from  Whole foods Market, they are not sold in other grocery stores here. This is my first time to cook with Chioggia beets. These beets have originated in Chioggia, an Italian coastal town near Venice, Italy.  They have beautiful  unique contrasting rings of dark pink, light pink and white color. They are also know as Bull's eye Beet / Candy stripe Beet.  Good  feature of these beets is, they don't bleed like regular beets but their beautiful bold  pink color fades away after cooking. They are very sweet and mild in flavor. When I make green beans and betroot thoran I  pre-boil beets, drain stock then combine  it with cooked  green beans  to avoid green beans from getting all  dark red. For Chioggia beetroots I can skip pre-boiling step. This stir fry was cooked for Sunday lunch, I prepared quick Kadhi to go with rice and stir fry. Scroll down to check recipe for preparing quick Kadhi. 

Simple Sunday Lunch -  Rice-Kadhi-Sabzi.

Ingredients :
Serves 3 people

• Green beans -   sliced into 1 cm pieces, yield 2.5 cups
• 1 medium size Chioggia Beet - peel skin, cut into 1 cm dices, yield around 1 Cup. (you can use regular beetroot.)
• 7-8 - curry leaves
• 1/2 Cup - fresh grated coconut
• 1/4 Cup - finely chopped cilantro

Tempering Ingredients

• 1/2  T.spoon - Mustard seeds
• 1 Tb.spoon - skinless urad daal (splitted or whole gota type.)
• 1/2 T.spoon - Turmeric
• 2 pinches - Hing / Asafoetida
• 7-8 curry leaves 
• 1 Green chili - finely chopped
• 1 Tb.spoon oil - preferably use coconut oil.

How to cook Kerala Thoran with Green beans and Chioggia beets :

1. Snap both the ends of green beans, thoroughly wash under running water. Hold 10-15 green beans together in left hand over cutting board  and slice into 1 cm size pieces.
2. Chop out both the ends of Chioggia beats, peel the skin, rinse under water. Make 1 cm thick slices. Stack 2-3 slices together and cut into 1 cm size cubes.
3. Heat a medium size skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp oil, when hot first add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, wait until seeds start to crack, quickly cover with lid, wait for 15-20 seconds or until frequency of cracking slows down, then add curry leaves, chopped green chilies. saute for 15 seconds. Next add half tsp turmeric powder, 2 pinches Hing and 1 tbsp Urad  dal, stir continuously for 10-15 seconds or  until urad dal slightly changes its  shade, Don't wait too long, once dal turns light  brown, quickly add  chopped green beans, stir well with Tadka.
4. Over medium heat saute green beans for 3-4 minutes. Now add diced  Chioggia Beets, continue to saute over medium heat for 6-7 minutes, stirring often.
5. Reduce heat to medium low, add 1/4 cup water, sprinkle salt, continue cooking until all water evaporates. Now add remaining 7-8 curry leaves, stir and cook some more time until beans and beets get tender, this step will take about 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle half the quantity of fresh grated coconut and chopped cilantro, mix well. shut off the heat
6. Before serving garnish with remaining fresh coconut and cilantro. Serve with  warm rice, Roti or enjoy bowl full of Thoran just like salad.

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How to make Kadhi ?

Kadhi is  curry  made by tempering  yogurt with  various seeds, spices and herbs, little besan flour is used to get thick, creamy texture and enhanced flavor.

Ingredients :
Serves 2 people

• 1 Cup Yogurt mixed with 1/4 cup water.
• 2 Tb.spoon - besan flour
• 8-10 - curry leaves
• 1 Green chili - finely chopped
• Ginger - 1 inch piece, minced finely.
• 2-3 Garlic cloves - sliced lengthwise
• 1/2 T.spoon - Cumin seeds
• 1/4 T.spoon - methi seeds (fenugreek seeds)
• 1/4 T.spoon -Turmeric powder
• 2 pinches - asafoetida (Hing)
• 1/2 T.spoon - sugar 

1. Mix 1 Cup Yogurt with 2 tbsp besan flour, little salt and 1/4 cup water. Thoroughly whisk to get  lump free smooth  yogurt consistency.  You may add little more water to have desired consistency. Keep it aside.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a small size pot, don't heat  too much. I have tempered with cumin seeds so average hot temperature is fine, they should sizzle as soon as you drop in but should not get dark instantly. If you are using mustard seeds then oil needs to be heated  more. First drop  1/2 tsp cumin seeds and 1/4 tsp methi seeds,  allow to sizzle for 15-20 seconds.
3. Next add minced ginger, sliced garlic, chopped chillies, and curry leaves. Stir all well and saute for one minute over medium high heat.  Lastly  add 2 pinches of hing and  1/4 tsp turmeric powder, stir for 15-20 seconds.
4. Now add yogurt Besan mixture, stir well. Cook over medium heat until yogurt softly starts to boil. Taste and adjust salt, add  1/2  tsp sugar. Reduce heat to low, allow to simmer for 5-6 minutes. Serve warm over rice or eat with roti or enjoy as soup in a bowl.

Check three top garnished semi-circle slices of Chioggia Beetroot

 for its original color, after cooking bright red, pink color fades to white, orange and light yellow.

Sprouting Moong Beans inside warm oven. {Black and White Wednesday #91}

This week for Black and White Wednesday event I am submitting image of  sprouted Moong Beans. Few days back  for the first time I sprouted moong beans inside the oven by maintaining warm temperatures, it worked very well. I was to keep  dosa batter in the oven  for fermentation, also kept soaked moong dal alongside batter without knowing if it would bring any better results. I soaked Moong beans in water on Sunday morning and  by Monday noon fully sprouted moong beans were ready to cook, that is around 30 hours of total time to sprout moong beans. I  had covered soaked moong  beans inside wet thick paper towel and placed  it inside vented plastic basket.  I will be doing similar experiments with other beans and lentils.

This week Susan from The Well Seasoned cook  is hosting Black and White Wednesday Event #91, who is also a founder of this event. Now Cinzia of  Cindystarblog is a new admin for Susan's Black and White Wednesday Event. For all guidelines  and an index of  all future event hosting blogs please check Cinzia's  post here. Participants can join Flickr group created for B&W event. Next event (BWW #92, 17th July-2013) will be hosted by Simona of  briciole. 

Black and White Wednesday
 Event #91, 10th July-2013

Basil & Broccoli Paratha {Indian Roti / unleavened flat bread enriched with Broccoli and Thai Basil.}

I had fresh Broccoli and a big bunch of  fresh Thai Basil from local farms. I made parathas using these two good ingredients to pack in the lunch box. I have added some organic sprouted wheat flour with regular Indian chapati aata to boost nutrition. Crushed Onion, Garlic, Cumin  is added  to enhance flavor and taste.

Ingredients :
(Makes 6 Parathas/ Unleavened Flat breads.)

• 1 + 3/4 Cup -Wheat flour ( I took 1 cup Indian atta and 3/4 cup sprouted whole wheat organic flour)
• 5-6 small Broccoli florets along with tender stems - yield 1 Cup roughly chopped broccoli.
• 3-4 Tb.spoon whey or 1/4 cup yogurt
• 25-30 Thai Basil leaves along with tender stems
• 1/2 medium size onion - chopped - yield 1/2 cup
• 2 Green chilies - chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic - slice each into 2-3 pieces
• 1 T.spoon - roasted Jeera / cumin powder ( whole cumin or raw jeera powder can be used.)
• 1/2 T.spoon - Turmeric powder
• 1/2 T.spoon - Salt
• 1 Tb.spoon oil  +  more oil to drizzle over paratha.

Preparing paratha dough.

Yogurt / Dahi

How to make Broccoli & Basil Paratha.

1. Chop roughly 5-6 small size broccoli florets and stems, to  get one cup yield. Cut onion into small pieces to get 1/2 cup yield. Chop green chilies and slice garlic cloves into 2-3 pieces. Combine all ingredients with 6-7 basil leaves  in a small blender, crush to coarse texture without adding water. (In absence of blender use grater or microplane.)
2. Roughly chop 20  basil leaves, finely chop tender stem portion. Keep it aside.
3. In a medium size bowl add 3/4 cup organic sprouted wheat flour and 1 cup regular Indian chapati aata, roasted cumin powder, turmeric, chopped basil leaves and grated mixture of broccoli-onion, 1/2 tsp salt. (You may use plain organic flour instead of sprouted wheat flour or adding multigrain flour will also work.) Mix all together to make moist dough. Juices from herbs and broccoli won't be enough to bind the dough so add 3-4 tbsp yogurt whey or mix of whey and  yogurt to make dough. Once the dough is bound together, smear with 1 tbsp oil and knead  few more minutes to make  a soft dough.
4. Divide dough evenly into 6 balls, lightly dust with flour. Apply few drops of oil over palm, then  rotate  each ball  between palms to make smooth dough ball. Roll each ball into 5 inch wide circle.
5. Heat the griddle over medium heat. Place rolled paratha, after 30-40 seconds spray little oil over the edges of paratha, spray few drops in the center. Slow roast over medium heat, flip few times and fry until light brown spots appear over both the sides of paratha. Give 2-3 minutes fry time for each paratha.
6. Serve with thick creamy yogurt or sour cream or cream cheese. 

Basil, Broccoli ke Parathe.

Spinach Pinto beans Stir fry with Ginger, Garlic & cumin Tempering and an additional enrichement with Extra Virgin Olive Oil. {Cooking with Greens & Beans}

Greens and Beans is a good combination to cook for every day meals. During Memorial Day weekend I had brought  huge baby spinach bag from Indian store. I used it for making spinach parathas, spinach stir fry with moong beans and this stir fry by adding Pinto beans. This is regular stir fry  with some difference, at end I did tempering with ginger, garlic, cumin, hing (asafoetida) turmeric, added extra tsp of cold extra virgin oil olive. This added additional layer of taste, texture and enrichment. I had no plan to blog this recipe but tempering made good difference, so I  decided to take an  image, it was 8 past and light was very low. In just 5 minutes managed to get 6-7  images placing dish on the patio, got 3 clear enough images to share. Any  type of greens and beans combination can be used to cook this stir fry.

Ingredients :

• 10-12 - generous handful fresh spinach leaves. (I used baby spinach) or 1lbs frozen chopped spinach.
• 1 Medium size onion - chopped finely
• 2-3 small Green chilies - finely chopped
• 1 Pinto beans Can - 15 oz size, drained and rinsed.
• 1 Tb.spoon oil + 1 T.spoon oil for tempering + 1 T.spoon - extra virgin olive oil
• 6-7 large size Garlic cloves - sliced lengthwise
• 1.5 inch cube of ginger - cut extremely fine into slices.
• 1 T.spoon - Cumin / Jeera
• 4 pinches - Hing
• 1 T.spoon Turmeric

How to make Spinach and Pinto beans stir fry :

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a big size open saute pan, add chopped onions, saute for 7-8 minutes over medium heat, stirring often. Add chopped green chilies, saute for 30 seconds then start adding  chopped spinach in batches, 2-3 handful at a time, stir and turn  few times until spinach slightly wilts. Repeat same process for next batches. Allow to  Cook over high heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring often.
2. Next by using immersion blender roughly blend spinach and onion saute, Do not make fine puree. Add rinsed and drained Pinto beans, salt. cook for 5-6 minutes over medium heat.
3. Lower heat to lowest setting  while you prepare Tadka.
4. Heat  1 tsp oil in a very small pan or Tadka Pan over medium heat. First add julienned ginger - saute for one minute, then add sliced garlic - saute for one minute. Next add 1 tsp cumin, 4 pinches of hing, 1 tsp turmeric. saute for one minute, stirring continuously.Shut off the heat, add 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil. Transfer Tadka over spinach and pinto bean saute. Mix well. shut off the heat, let  it stand some time before serving with  roti or rice. You can use this saute as wrap and sandwich filling.

Palak and Pinto beans sabji.

cooked on 27th May, published on 19th June2013.

Herb flavored Green beans and Beetroot Stir Fry. {Black and White Wednesday # 88 }

This week for Black and White Wednesday event I am submitting image of Green beans and Beetroot stir fry. This  Kerala style Thoran  gets refreshing  twist from use of  fresh sage and Greek Oregano herb. Generally fresh grated coconut it used but I additionally garnished  this stir fry  with  generous quantity of fresh coconut shavings.

Sreevalli from Ammaji Recipes is hosting Black and White Wednesday Event #88. Susan, author of TheWell Seasoned Cook is a founder of this event. Now Cinzia of  Cindystarblog is a new admin for Susan's Black and White Wednesday Event. For all guidelines  and an index of  all future event hosting blogs please check Cinzia's  post here. Participants can join Flickr group created for B&W event. Next event (BWW #89, 26th June-2013) will be hosted by Lynne  of  CafeLynnylu. 

Herb flavored Green beans and Beetroot Thoran.

Black and White Wednesday
 Event #88, 19th June-2013