Side Dish

A recipe with Lotus stem and  sambal. The lotus stem is toased, then gets into the sambal making a palatable dish.   Prep Time : 10mins Cook Time : 25mins Serves :  3People Ingredients   200 gms Lotus Stem 200 gms Finley sliced onions 100 gms tomatoes 1 tbsp ginger …

Do you discard the Cauliflower stalks while cutting florets for cooking? Then you should have missed a yummilicious taste. Time to give your taste buds a change from the taste of normal veggies. I never knew that the stalks, dhandal known in Hindi are edible and used in Cooking, until …

MurungaiKeerai – Moranga/Drumstick leaves, which has countless health benefits, It is a good source of protein and generously packed with amino acids and minerals. Drumstick is one of backyard trees grown in most of the homes, so the leaves and vegetable are inevitable in Tamilnadu cooking and the leaves find …

Teasel Gourd has the looks of a baby jack fruit, which distanced me from this vegetable. I have seen Teasel gourd in the Indian supermarket, but was obscure about its taste and the method of cooking. Until one day, a friend of mine from Madurai introduced this vegetable to me. …

“The Brussel Sprouts”, A vegetable not much into the South Indian cooking, especially not in Pondicherry local kitchen. A poriyal version done in my style 🙂 I have seen this vegetable in the supermarket, seldom used in my cooking as my husband is a picky eater, so experimenting gets restricted …

An offbeat from the regular Paruppu Usili recipes. Usili is roughly translated to steamed lentils. Usually lentils are soaked, crushed, steamed, fried and mixed with the vegetables and of course Oil takes a major role. I learnt the authentic type of preparing usili, the procedure as as said above. Usually …

Vendaikai/Okra Aviyal A Curry done in aviyal syle without adding yoghurt, still has the taste and flavor of the authentically made Aviyal. Okra cooked in a spicy mixture along with coconut creating a smooth creamy gravy making a perfect pair for Rice and chapatti. Usually okra isn’t everyone’s favourite because …

A relishing accompaniment to a simple main course dish, Be it a Rasam – mulligatawny soup, yogurt rice or lemon rice. This thogaiyal has tamarind, chilies to tinkle the taste buds and ginger to take care of the digestion part and. I have added Curry leaves to whole up for …

Usually salads have cucumber as one of the ingredients, but in this recipe cucumber is the base of this dish. Again from my friend’s kitchen. I haven’t done this type of raitha. I add yogurt for the raithas, where onion, cucumber and capsicum make a combination to the variety rice. …