Archives

Once in a week my school & college days’ lunchbox menu will definitely have Lemon Rice/Tomato Rice with a piece of Lemon Pickle as sidedish. Such a humble yet comforting meal. Even after eating it all these years am never bored or tired of SouthIndian variety rice ☺️ Maybe because of the gene I suppose. This tomato rice recipe is my own & have been following it for years. It is slightly different from my mom’s. Her recipe doesn’t include garlic & garam masala powder for flavor. The best side dish for this rice is obviously Potato fry but for…

This is my go-to recipe when I want to make a simple side dish for Rice/Roti/Poori. I usually mix these veggies together (Onion,Carrot,French Beans,Potato,Tomato,Capsicum,Cauliflower/Broccoli).They all make a fantastic combo. You can even add Cabbage,Spinach or any other greens too to make it even more healthier. Such a simple recipe but tastes absolutely delicious. Since I love crunch in the curry, I don’t add too much of water while cooking the vegetables. Since they will soften the texture. Just sprinkle few drops of water while cooking the veggies. The following measurement serves two. Adjust quantity accordingly
.

Have never cooked Courgettes until I was in Chennai. If you give me any new vegetable all I can think of is how to cook a SouthIndian recipe using it. Courgette/Zucchini is a summer squash vegetable popular in UK.Its texture slightly similar to Cucumber & I have made Courgette Kuruma (thick stew using coconut paste), Koottu (lentil based gravy) before. Last weekend I thought of preparing Pakoda from it. Initially I wasn’t too sure how it will work so thought of adding some carrots along with courgette. Turned out so delicious and this is my own recipe. Instead of the usual Onion Pakoda/Pakora try this and am sure you will like it too. I bought this handy cheap spiralizer during a sale. I use it for salads mainly. Instead of grating Courgette & Carrot i used this spiralizer. In case if you don’t have it , use your knife & make thin strips. 

This is such a versatile healthy side dish that can be served with Rice ,Roti or even with Dosai too ☺️ The basic ‘koottu’ (கூட்டு) recipe contains 3 important components 1. Veggies – Pumpkin, Carrot,Eggplant,Drumstick, Snakegourd,Spinach,Chow Chow,Cabbage are the most commonly used vegetables. 2. Daal (lentils) – A cup of pressure cooked daal. It could be either a mix of moongdal and channa dal or just moongdal or toordal 3. Coconut Paste – This paste is essential. All you need is fresh coconut, green chilli & jeera. However if you want you can add peppercorns, ginger & garlic too Once…

‘Poriyal’ (பொரியல்) is dry stir fry of veggies that is served as a sidedish with Rice,Sambar or any southindian lunch. Its very very easy to make and the below recipe can be used with various vegetables like Beetroot, Cabbage, Spinach, Snakegourd, White Pumpkin, Any squash varieties, Raw banana,Eggplant etc. 1. Instead of boiling the veggies separately you can directly saute them in frying pan. However sprinkle water and keep an eye on the veggies. They might get charred if it lacks moisture 2. You can add sauteed onions,tomatoes too if you want along with beans & carrot I used dried…

Sambar is an integral part of Tamil cuisine. Be it breakfast or be it lunch, Sambar has to be there. Whenever I prepare tiffen items like Idli,Dosai or pongal, I usually go for this one pot sambar. Its done in pressure cooker and all you need is just 20 minutes. Tamarind is not used in this recipe and hence to give that tangyness to Sambar, I have added more tomatoes Tastes so good with even Sevai (Rice Vermicelli), Appam, Idiyappam too. Also even if you have unexpected guests, you can prepare this quickly without any hassle. The below recipe can…

When you order mini meals in any restaurants like Saravana Bhavan , A2B the Sambar Rice will be of smooth, melt in mouth texture. Unfortunately the quantity they provide is very less and most of it is occupied by Shallots & Drumstick 😉 Thats a different story altogether We can achieve the same taste when we prepare at home as well. This is different from Karnataka’s BisiBele Bath. Sambar Sadham recipe is inspired from my mother-in-law. Our extended family is a big one and everytime during a family function or gettogether we have atleast 20-25 members gathering at her…

Paniyaram (பணியாரம்) is a Chettinad Speciality dish (karaikudi region in TamilNadu) and it can be prepared in two ways either sweet or savory. The traditional savory paniyaram is served with Kara Chutney (spicy chutney prepared from onions,tomatoes). You can prepare a batter exclusively for paniyaram or if you are running out of time you can always use regular fermented dosa batter. In this recipe i have used leftover dosai batter and to add flavour i have added veggies & spices. This masala paniyaram is a perfect,guilt free evening snack and you can improvise it in million ways. You can try…

My mom makes this spicy,tangy ‘Milagu kuzhambu’ whenever we come back home from a trip or vacation. The reason behind this is that we used to be tired from travel & from all those restaurant foods, this ‘kuzhambu’ is considered as a cleansing food. There are no vegetables involved, no onion/garlic , no extra spices. A very simple south indian style ‘pachadi’ (similar to yogurt based Raita with a Tadka) & a pappad (preferrably sutta appalam) are served as side dishes. This kuzhambu is a very common recipe in Tamil Brahmin community. Especially for nursing mothers we serve this kuzhambu…

This is an instant biryani version. With less spices & ingredients the biryani can be prepared within 25 minutes. Mushrooms need very less time to get cooked and hence this recipe comes handy on busy weekdays. I used button mushrooms. Also I added only onion,tomato along with mushrooms. Didn’t want to add too much of veggies. I truely wanted mushroom to be the hero of this dish. You can serve this biryani with raita or any other gravy of your choice. I prepared strawberry raita. It tasted delicious. The tangy,sour raita with spicy biryani made an awesome combo. Do try…