Cherupayar Thoran (Whole Moong / Green Gram Coconut Stir-fry)

One of my favorite thorans ever! Green gram thoran is usually served as a side dish with rice or kanji (plain rice porridge). This highly nutritious dish can be served alone as a snack too.
 Recipe Courtesy: Sarah's Vazhayila

Carrot Potato Stir-fry with Sesame

This is a simple carrot-potato stir-fry along with crunchy sesame seeds. It could be served with both rice and roti.
Recipe Courtesy: Priti's Indian Khana

Pavakka Kichadi / Pachadi (Bitter Gourd in Coconut n Yogurt Gravy)

This is a traditional kichadi/pachadi from Kerala with regional variations in recipe. Here fried bitter gourd is cooked in a coconut and yogurt gravy along with other spices. Frying of bitter gourd and the addtion of yogurt help to reduce the bitterness of the gourd to some extent. I am a die-hard fan of pavakka and this is one of my favorite dishes.
Recipe Courtesy: Live.to.eat

Beetroot Coconut Stir-fry (Thoran)

This is a simple beetroot stir-fry. I didn't want to bite into big pieces of beetroot in my thoran. My food processor came to the rescue, to grate the beet and then to coarsely grind coconut and other spices. Loved it with rice.
Recipe Courtesy: Malabar Spices

Kadai Paneer (Paneer n Bell Pepper in Tomato Gravy)

This is a famous Punjabi dish popular in North India. Paneer and capsicum are cooked in a tomato based gravy along with other spices. Traditionally the dish is prepared in a kadai (a deep cooking pot similar to wok) and hence the name. To make the dish restaurant-style, add cream (or whole mik) and kasuri methi towards the end.
Recipe Courtesy: Sushma's Savi-Ruchi

Bengali Fish Fry - Anglo-Bangla Style

This is not the traditional bengali fish fry (mach bhaja), but the anglicised version of it. Here mildly marinated fish is coated with all pupose flour, then with egg and finally with bread crumbs and then fried in oil. This mouthwatering crunchy fry can be served as an appetizer or as a side dish.
Recipe Courtesy: Bong Mom's CookBook

Sweet Potato Paratha / Flat-bread

Unlike the traditional parathas, this paratha is not made by stuffing sweet potato. Instead, steam-cooked sweet potato is mashed and blended well with the flour while kneading the dough. The orange-fleshed sweet potato gets blended well with the flour since it becomes soft and mushy when cooked. Enjoy the paratha with pickle n yogurt or spicy chutney or sauce or any other side dish of your choice.
Recipe Courtesy: Padma's Recipes

Yard Long Beans Sabzi

A variation from the usual thoran and stir-fry that I make with yardlong beans. The sabzi is made by cooking the beans with onion, ginger and other spices.
Recipe Courtesy: Shreya's Mom's Cooking

Bottle Gourd Ambat (Bottle Gourd n Toor Dal in Coconut Gravy)

I'm not a big fan of bottle gourd (dudhi, lauki or churakka in malayalam) and here I'm making an effort to like the vegetable. Ambat is a konkani dish with coconut based gravy and tamarind or kokum or bilimbi (irumban puli) is added for sourness. Addtion of cooked toor dal and coconut gravy made bottle gourd more appealing to the palate. It tasted like a distant cousin of sambar because of the addition of toor dal and tamarind pulp. Loved it with both rice and chapathi.
Recipe Courtesy: The Indian Food Court

Beet Greens in Yogurt Gravy (Mor Kootu)

Mor kootu is a side dish popular in Tamil Nadu where vegetables are cooked in a coconut yogurt gravy. It tastes very similar to kichadi / pachadi of Kerala cuisine. Here beet greens are used for the curry. If you use just beet leaves and not the stem, the dish will look more to the greener side. The more the stem you add, the more the pink the dish will be.
Recipe Courtesy: Madhuram's Eggless Cooking

Aloo Methi (Potato Fenugreek Leaves Stir-fry)

Aloo methi is a popular side dish in North India. Fenugreek leaves has a strong flavor which makes aloo methi a very flavorful, delicious and healthy dish. It could be served with both rice and roti.
Recipe Courtesy: ShowMeTheCurry.com

Kerala Egg Roast / Nadan Mutta Roast

This Kerala style egg roast is one of my favorites where hard boiled eggs is served along with a roasted onion-spices gravy. It could be served as a side dish with appam, roti or any other kind of Indian bread.
Recipe Courtesy: Sangeetha's Kothiyavunu

Kadala Curry (Chickpea in Coconut Milk Gravy)

Chickpea curry can be made in different ways. In this version cooked chickpea is simmered in a coconut milk gravy. A very delicious dish that goes with puttu, appam, idli, dosa or any kind of bread you can think of.
Recipe Courtesy: Sarah's Vazhayila

Wheat Dosa / Crepe (Gothambu Dosa)

This is the tastiest wheat dosa I ever had. I usually make wheat dosa without tempering the batter. Tempering the batter with oil, mustard, chopped onions, ginger, green chilli, curry leaves etc makes a big difference in taste. I added some grated coconut also to the batter like my mom does. Enjoy it with coconut chutney and/or red chilli chutney.
Recipe Courtesy: Bharathy's Spicy Chilly

Brined Olive Curry (Salt Cured / Pickled Olives in Coconut Gravy)

Dishes made from brined mango (uppumanga) is one of my favorites. A colleague of mine shared some salt cured olives at work. It's taste remined me of uppumanga and couldn't help wondering how it would taste like if I replace them for salted mangoes in uppumanga curry. The curry came out good, but what was missing in the curry was mango's inherent sourness.
Recipe Courtesy: Yummy O Yummy

Steamed Sweet Potato with Bird's Eye Chili (Kanthari) Coconut Chutney

There are different varieties of sweet potatoes which vary in the color of skin and flesh. The one that I used here has a dark orange flesh which gets soft and mushy when cooked. This variety is incorrectly called as yam in some parts of North America. Back in India, we used to have white (pale yellow?) fleshed sweet potato with coconut chilli chutney. With that variety of sweet potato, flesh gets firm and flaky when cooked. Sweetness of sweet potato can be balanced by the fiery kanthari mulaku or bird's eye chili (thai pepper, piri piri or African bird's eye) chutney.
Recipe Courtesy: The Footloose Chef

Gujarati Kadhi (Yogurt Chickpea Flour Gravy)

Kadhi is a North Indian delicacy and there are regional variations in recipe. I loved this side dish from Gujarat. It is made by simmering yogurt and chickpea flour (besan or gram flour) along with other spices and jaggery. I reduced the amount of jaggery not wanting to make it too sweet. Traditionally, this kadhi is served with khichdi but it could also be served with plain rice or pulav.
Recipe Courtesy: Parita's World

Vanpayar Mezhukkupuratti (Red Chori / Azuki Beans Stir-fry)

This stir-fry is one of my favorite side dish with rice and kanji (rice porridge). In Kerala vanpayar or brown chori is used for the dish. The beans is cooked first and stir-fried with spices to make this healthy side dish.
Recipe courtesy: Yummy O Yummy

Cabbage Carrot Stir-fry (Thoran)

Yet another thoran recipe from Kerala! Carrot can be combined with any other vegetable to give a sweet twist to the plain thoran.
Recipe courtesy: Salt and Pepper

Spinach Lasagna (Florentine Lasagna)

Spinach lasagna is one of my favorite lasagna. Instead of frozen spinach, I used freshly cooked spinach with some spices and it turned out super delicious.

Recipe Courtesy: Kathy Maister's StartCooking.com

Macaroni and Cheese with Tomato Sauce

In this healthier version of macaroni and cheese part of cheddar cheese is replaced with tomato sauce. My son loves this version better because he loves to have tomato sauce in his pasta.
Recipe Courtesy: CountryLady at Food.com