Vegetable Pasta

Step by step procedure to prepare Vegetable Pasta. No Onion No Garlic Pasta recipe. Basically pasta is a very popular and staple food from Italian Cuisine. Here we are going to prepare Italian pasta with our Indian spices and with a bowl of mixed vegetables of our choice. Pasta is now becoming a favourite and popular food among kids, so we can make this up healthy by adding veggies to it. Vegetable Pasta would be the best choice for evening snacks and also for a nice and simple dinner. The procedure is very simple - cook the pasta, cook the vegetable with spices and toss the pasta in the vegetable mixture. Now we will see how to prepare Vegetable Pasta in detail.

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Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 20 min
Serves: 1
Category: Pasta
Recipe by Vidhya

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Ingredients

Pasta - 100 grams, any pasta of your choice. I used penne Durum wheat pasta.

Carrot - 1 Medium sized finely chopped or grated

Beans - 8-10 nos finely chopped

Cabbage - a small peace finely chopped

Capsicum - 1/2 portion finely chopped

Broccoli - 4-5 floret
Butter/Oil - 1 table spoon

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Garam masala powder - 1/2 spoon

Black Pepper crushed- 1 to 1 1/2 spoon

Coriander Powder - 1/2 spoon

Chat masala - a pinch

Salt - As per your taste

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Method

• Cook pasta as per the procedure given in the pack and set it aside.
• Thoroughly clean the vegetables and chop them.
  
• Take a kadai, add a table spoon of butter/oil. I used butter. When it is hot add the vegetables and stir it. 
  
• Add a pinch of turmeric powder and cook the vegetables for atleast 15-17 min. Sprinkle little water in between to avoid the burn.
  
• When the vegetables are almost cooked, add 1/2 spoon garam masala powder, black pepper, 1/2 spoon coriander powder, a pinch of chat masala and salt.
  
• Give a stir and cook for a minute. Now add the cooked pasta, stir and cook for another 3-4 min.
  
• Vegetable Pasta is ready to serve. Have it plain or with tomato sauce.
  

Note:

• You can use any vegetable of your choice. You can also include peas/corn for additional taste.
• While cooking pasta add a drop of oil in the water, so that the pasta will not stick to each otther.
• Run the pasta in cold water immediately after cooking, otherwise the pasta will badly stick to each other.
• You can use butter or olive oil for cooking. I used butter.

Broccoli curry

When I moved to a different country I was not getting many vegetables that were available in India. So I tried broccoli which is considered to be a nutritious vegetable. Broccoli curry is one of the dishes I tried and the outcome was really tasty. The procedure is very simple, toss the broccoli in onion and tomato mixture with regular spices. This curry serves best as sides for poori/roti/chapathi.

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Preparation time: 15 min
Cooking time: 30 min
Serves: 2
Category: side dish
Cuisine: Indian
Recipe by Vidhya

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Ingredients

Broccoli - 250 grams

Tomato - 1 Medium sized, finely chopped

Onion - 1 Medium sized, finely chopped
Garlic - 2 pods finely chopped

Kadugu or Mustard seeds - 1 spoon

Turmeric powder - 1/4 spoon

Chilli Powder - 1/2 spoon or as per your taste

Garam masala powder - 1/2 spoon

Salt - as per your taste
oil - 1 spoon

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Method

• Remove the florets, wash and keep it aside.
  
• Chop onion, garlic and tomato.
  
•  In a kadai, add a table spoon of oil, when it is hot add mustard seeds.
  
• Once the mustard seeds splutters, add onion and garlic and fry till onion turns transparent/golden brown.
  
• Now add chopped tomatoes add a pinch of turmeric powder. Mix it well and cook until tomatoes become mushy.
  
• Add chilli powder, garam masala powder and salt.
  
• Give a stir and add broccoli. Mix it well with cooked curry.
  
• Close it with lid and cook for 15 - 20 min in medium heat. Stir occasionally. Sprinkle little water in between/when curry looks dry.
  
• When it is all blended Broccoli curry is ready to serve.
  

Chilli Idli/Fried idli

Chilli idli is a spicy and delicious dish. During childhood days it is one my favourite restaurant items. I always wanted to try chilli idli at home and tried preparing without deep frying the idlis. But it turns out to - deep frying makes the best Chilli Idli. I have not used any sauces like tomato sauce or soy sauce and prepared with just the basic ingredients available at home. So once in a while, when you have left over idlis you can definitely try this and it would be a real treat for your taste buds.

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Preparation time: 20 min
Cooking time: 45 min
Serves: 2
Category: Dinner
Cuisine: South Indian
Author: Vidhya

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Ingredients

Idli - 6 nos
Maidha or all purpose flour - 2 1/2 table spoon
Rice flour - 1/2 table spoon
Onion - 1 Medium sized chopped lengthwise
Tomato - 1 finely chopped
Capsicum or Bell pepper - 1/2 chopped lengthwise
(I used 2 different colors each 1/4 portion)
Garlic - 3 finely chopped
Spring onion - 2 springs
Green chilli - 1
Chilli powder - 1 table spoon
Garam masala - 1/2 table spoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4 table spoon
Salt - as per your taste

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Method

• First of all we need idlis, which may be freshly cooked or left over idlis. If you are using left over idlis prepared in the morning, refrigerate it for 15 min before cutting them into pieces. If you are using freshly prepared idlis then refrigerate it for at at least 1 hour.
• Cut the idlis into cubes.
• In a bowl add maidha, rice flour, salt, a little amount of water and preapre coating dough. Careful not to add too much water as it might not coat the idlis properly.
  
• Now add cubed idlis to the blowl and coat them nicely in the prepared dough. Leave it for 10 min.
  
• Chop all the vegetables and keep them ready.
  
• Deep fry the coated idlis until it is golden brown. Fry them in batches.
  
• Take a kadai, pour a table spoon of oil, when it is hot add onion, white part of spring onion, chilli and finely chopped garlic.
  
• Fry until onions become transparent/golden brown.
• Add finely chopped tomatoes. Stir it until tomatoes become soft.
  
• Add chilli powder, garam masala powder, turmeric powder and salt. Give a stir.
  
• Add capsicum and green part of spring onion. Stir occasionally and cook it for 15 - 20 min in medium hot. If the content looks dry sprinkle water in between and stir again.
  
• When it looks all blended, add fried idlis. Mix it well and allow it to cook for 5 - 7.
  
  
  
  
• Serve hot chilli idli with tomato sauce or onion raitha.