Vermicelli (Semiya) Upma

A South Indian breakfast which is very easy to prepare.Vermicelli is roasted and then cooked with fried onion, ginger, green chilli and vegetables. Adjust vermicelli : water ratio to 1:1.5-2 to avoid sogging of vermicelli. A dash of lemon juice will help to improve the texture of the upma. Topping with butter will give a nice flavor to the upma and will also keep the vermicelli from sticking together.
Recipe Courtesy: Kamala's Cook @ Ease

White Radish (Daikon) Stir-fry

This stir-fry is made from the white Asian radish or mooli (Daikon), although it no longer looks white. I used two 'large' radishes and I never knew that so much water could be retained in radish that it left my stir-fry not that crispy as it was intended to be! Onion, garlic, chilli-cumin-coriander-garam masala powders and a squeeze of lemon juice offset the sharpness of the radish in this somewhat crunchy stir-fry.
Recipe Courtesy: Nags' Edible Garden

Vegetable Fried Rice (Indo-Chinese Style)

I enjoy Chinese food as much as I do Indian food. Indian Chinese cuisine is a popular candidate in Indian restaurants all over the world. This simple vegetable fried rice is very easy to prepare and it left a nice aroma in my kitchen that my son asked if I had brought food from restaurant.
Recipe Courtesy: Shoba's Anubhavati

Cabbage Mor Kootu (Cabbage in Yogurt Gravy)

Mor kootu is a Tamil Nadu style preparation where vegetables are cooked in a coconut-yogurt gravy. Sounds very similar to Kerala's kichadi aka pachadi, huh? I never made kichadi with cabbage though. I gave it a try and loved this crunchy cabbage side dish with rice.
Recipe Courtesy: Suganya's Tasty Palettes

Celery Dal (Pappu)

Yet another side dish with celery. This time I made this delicious dal flavored with celery to go with either rice or roti. You can adjust the amount of celery in the dal depending on how much of the celery flavor you want in your dal. As you all know, a cup chopped celery can go a long way.
Recipe Courtesy: Uma's Trendy Relish

Tindora (Ivy Gourd) Potato Stir-fry

I have been combining potato with different vegetable for making stir-fry. This time it is potato with ivy gourd. Both of them complemented each other and the stir-fry turned out great. This could be served with both rice and roti.
Recipe Courtesy: Divya's Recipes

Whole Moong Curry (Green Gram Curry)

This simple whole moong curry comes to your rescue when you are in a hurry and don't have any vegetables left in the refrigerator, which was my case. Here cooked mung beans is prepared in a gravy form along with onion, ginger, green chilli and other spices. It could be served with both rice and roti.
Recipe Courtesy: Nandita's Saffron Trail

Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

This was our Valentine's day dinner with creamy strawberry crepe as dessert. The pasta turned out great. To melted butter, garlic, all purpose flour, milk, mushrooms, tomatoes, fried chicken pieces, provolone, parmesan and cooked pasta are added. It is then baked for 25 minutes at 400F. I got the sun-dried tomatoes from a colleague. It was very finely chopped and disappeared into pasta giving it a brown color.
Recipe Courtesy: MarthaStewart.com

Creamy Strawberry Crepes

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day. These creamy strawberry crepes could be an easy to prepare Valentine's day breakfast or dessert. Crepes, which are of French origin, could be made with either sweet fillings or savory fillings. Crepes are made from wheat flour or all purpose flour and it resembles Indian dosa. The filling that I used here consists of strawberry slices, cream cheese, heavy cream, confectioners sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla extract.
Recipe Courtesy: AllRecipes.com

Rava Idli (Semolina Idli)

Rava Idli, originated in the MTR restaurants in Bangalore during WWII, is a popular breakfast item in South India. It could be made either plain or with nuts and vegetables. I used grated carrot here and hence the color. It is very easy to make compared to idli since overnight fermenting is not required. Roast rava in oil along with mustards seeds, chana dal, urad dal, ginger, green chilli etc. Then add yogurt, vegetables, nuts, grated coconut, baking soda etc.  Add water for the required consistency and let the batter sit for a while before making this delicious idlis. Serve hot with coconut chutney. Some recipes call for adding eno fruit salt for getting softer idlis. I used baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) + yogurt instead, since eno was not available.
Recipe Courtesy: Sailu's Kitchen

Green Beans Carrot Stir-fry (Thoran)

In Kerala we make a thoran out of any vegetable by adding grated coconut to it. Thorans are very easy to make and are served as a side dish with rice . Thoran could be made with green beans alone, carrot alone or a mixture of both. The spices added to thoran vary in different households.
Recipe courtesy: Marias Menu

Cabbage Vepudu (Stir-fry)

A simple Andhra style cabbage stir-fry where cabbage and onion are stir fried with garlic, red chilli, coriander and cumin powders.
Recipe Courtesy: Sailu's Kitchen

Celery Moong Stir-fry (Celery Cherupayar Thoran)

Celery and mung bean made a great combination for this stir fry. Whole moong is cooked first and then stir fried with onion, celery and other spices.
Recipe Courtesy: Liz David at Pachakam.com

Cauliflower Korma (Gobi Kurma)

A snow storm is no longer a big event here as it is happening more often these days. Meteorologists seem to be the only people excited about it as this winter is very close to getting into record books. I tried to keep myself  happy in this chilly wintry weather by making this cauliflower korma. This delicious korma is prepared by cooking cauliflower in a coconut-cashew gravy along with other spices. This goes well with both rice and roti.
Recipe Courtesy: Seena's Simple and Delicious

Vazhakka Vanpayar Curry (Raw Banana Red Chori Curry)

This Kerala style curry is made with raw banana and red chori (azuki beans) in a ground coconut-spices gravy. It is usually served as a side dish with rice.
Recipe courtesy: Kaipunyam

Celery Carrot Stir-fry (Thoran)

Celery and carrot complemented each other in this delicious stir-fry. Celery gave a nice flavor to the thoran eventhough its strong flavor was toned down by carrot.
Recipe Courtesy: Pazham Pappadam Payasam