Basil For The Soul

A few months ago, I visited a dear friend of mine, Tanvi, in New Delhi. It was a short visit, just a long weekend but a heavenly three days for my taste buds! We are both foodies, so it was only natural that every meal she planned for me was one to remember. From her home-cooked rajma and laccha parathas to dining on fine Italian, each dish was perfect and one that I simply must share with you all! Quinoa burger : Quinoa. My lesson started from the right pronounciation, it's "keen-wah", folks! Tanvi brought out this very interesting point that non-vegetarian burgers have such protein-packed patties with all their meats. But for us vegetarians, the default option is to go for potatoes, which ends up as carbs on more carbs. And the quinoa burger addresses just that. Her Patty was a mix of quinoa with finely chopped onions and tomatoes, some fresh green peas, mixed herbs and just a tiny bit of grated cheese (cz we just love cheese!). Set between two soft buns, her quinoa ...

Don't have spare time to cook an elaborate meal? Or got hungry before you could decide what to order? Here's a quick and healthy oats dosai recipe I came across when I couldn't bother waiting for food delivery. A quick scan through the fridge told me I had no veggies and no curd. Just some almost wilted coriander looking to be salvaged. So I'll share here first the no-curd recipe I found at that point at antoskitchen.com : For 4 servings: 1 cup oats 1/2 cup wheat flour 1/2 cup rice flour Salt to taste Soak the oats for five minutes. Blend in a mixer. Add the other ingredients to the puree, add water and your batter is ready! Yup, as simple as that! Now come the fun additions. Here's what I did. I had some leftover 'poduthool/podithooval' powder from the previous day. Translated to common speak, that's a  dry roasted and powdered mix of rice, urad dal, peppercorns and Curry leaves. And it just made so much sense to add this to th...