Chickpea Vada

Chickpea Vada is known as kadalai vadai in Tamil. You can also make pakodas with the same batter.

In all these instant mixes what you need to add is only water, that is, after the mix is ready.

All the mixes mentioned on this site can be stored in the fridge for months.

How to Make Chickpea Vada

Ingredients

- 2 cups – Chana Dal – Chickpea
- 2 cups – Tuar Dal – lentil split
- red chilly – one or two
- green chilly – one or two
- salt to taste
- asafoetida – a pinch
- copra powder – 5 tbs
- coriander leaves

Grind both the dals coarsely,\.

Add dry red chilly, green chilly, salt, asafoetida, copra powder and
coriander leaves. Run through the mixer grinder once to mix everything well.

Store in the refrigerator.

Crispy Vadas

If it is made in the round shape it is vada and to make pakodas, we can take a huge ball of the paste in our hands and drop small pieces of the mix in oil.

Chickpea Pakoda

Instant Chickpea Vada

Vada

Making of the vada is a long process unless the Vada Mix is available.

How To Make Vada Mix

Ingredients For Black Gram Vada

- 2 cups urad dal – black gram – coarse powder
- red chilly – to taste
- green chilly – to taste
- ginger grated – 1 tea spoon
- hing – asafoetida
- coriander leaves

We can add one or two pieces of red and green chilly depending on how much spice we prefer.

Make a coarse powder of black gram.

Grind red chillly, green chilly, asafoetida without water.

Add coriander leaves, black gram coarsely ground powder and grind again once to mix everything well.

How To Make Vada

Take the required amount of powder in a bowl, add a little water to make a thick paste. Take oil in a pan and drop the vada mix in the pan using your fingers or a table spoon.

Deep fry till the vadas turn brown.

Dahi Vada & Dal Vada

Vada can be put in seasoned dahi to make dahi vada. The more they soak in the dahi they become soft.

In the same way medu vada can be put in dal to make dal vada.

Instant Vada Mix

Vada Paste: Vada Mix With Water

Deep Fry Vada In Oil

Fry Vada Till It Turns Brown

Eat Vada Or Add To Curds To Get Dahi Vada

Upma is supposed to be an easy affair compared to idli or dosa. The process is not long drawn and you can cook up a simple Upma in 10 minutes.

But a nutritionally enriched Upma with good garnishing takes a lot of time.

My mother has created a Upma Mix for me which helps me make a nutritionally enriched Upma in a three minutes.

How To Make Upma With Instant Upma Mix

Ingredients

1 kilo suji – Semolina
1/4 kilo peanuts
1/4 kilo cashewnuts
Green chillies
Red chillies
Coriander and curry leaves
1/4 kg freshly grated coconut – roasted
Or copra powder – dry coconut grated

Seasoning

Tālitthal’, Tadka or seasoning means to add flavor to the dish with mustard seeds fried in oil. For this two spoonfulls of oil is taken in a pan and heated. After it is heated about 10 gm of mustard seeds are dropped in the oil. Learn more from common seasoning for all rice recipes.

Procedure

- Roast Semolina and set aside
- Deep fry peanuts and cashew nuts and add to Semolina
- Prepare seasoning – Take a little oil in a pan, add 50 gms mustard
seeds, 10 red chillies, 10 green chillies, 50 gms chick pea, curry
leaves
- Add roasted Semolina and roasted nuts to this seasoning
- Add salt and mix well
- Add grated dried coconut

Mix everything well and store in the fridge. When you want to make Upma, take the required amount, add it to heated water and mix well.

You can also add cooked vegetables to this Upma to make Vegetable Upma. Here I have taken out some frozen peas from the freezer. I am boiling them in water. I will add the Upma Mix to this water and my Upma will be ready in three minutes.

Frozen peas boiled in water to be added to upma

Upma Ready To Eat In Three Minutes

If you want to learn the long process of making vegetable Upma read this post.

Making the idli batter is a long process and if I need to prepare idlis the next day I will have to make the preparations today and get the batter ready. I have no time or patience for this long drawn process. So my mother has created the idli mix for me.

I store the mix in powder form in the fridge and whenever I want to make idli I just take the required amount of the powder, mix it with water and steam cook. My idli is ready in minutes.

How to Make the Idli Mix

Instant Idli

3 cups Rice – idli thari – par boiled rice
2 cups – urad powder – black gram

Mix both, add salt, roasted kaju (broken), and perungayam (asafoetida) powder

This mix can be stored for months in the fridge.

We can use the idli plates or just any deep plate to make idlis. They need to be steam cooked in the pressure cooker, without the weight on.

They can also be cooked in the microwave oven.

The accompaniment to the idli is the chutney, which again is a long drawn process including grating the coconut.

My mother to the rescue. She has created an instant chutney mix. I just take out the powder out of the fridge, mix a little water and my chutney is ready in seconds.

How to Make Instant Chutney Mix

- 1/4 kilo Chana dal roasted – Chick Pea

- 6 red chillies

- 100 gram kaju roasted – cashew nut

- 50 gram imli – tamarind

- 1 coconut grated and roasted

Dry grind everything and store the powder.

I love salads for lunch or dinner almost any day of the week, but especially in the summer when it’s just too hot to cook. Salads are very versatile and healthy. You can easily customize them to adjust to your family’s taste and of course they are quick and easy to throw together. Here’s how you turn this side dish into a filling meal…

· Caesar Salad – Chop romaine lettuce; top it with croutons, parmesan cheese, Caesar dressing and any of the following: grilled chicken, steak, shrimp, smoked or cooked salmon or any other cooked fish you have handy.

Read more about Quick Meal Ideas Salads…

I don’t know about you, but I have a lot more time to cook some nights than others. When I do have extra time, I try to cook an extra batch of food, stick it in the freezer and then just grab a meal that’s ready to be heated and served out of the freezer on the days when we’re really busy. Here’s a list of things I tend to either cook in batches, or cook while I’m working on that day’s regular dinner and then freeze for later.

- Lasagna – anything from regular meat versions to vegetarian ones. Just assemble and freeze, then bake as usual straight from the freezer.

- Soups or Stews – Almost any type of soup or stew freezes well. I always cook these in double batches and freeze one. The only exception I’m aware of is chicken and dumplings. The dumplings just don’t turn out well when they are frozen. Some soups with chunks of potatoes can also get mushy, so test a small batch first.

Read more about Quick Meal Ideas Freezer Cooking…

Cook Once Eat Twice

I hope you liked Day One Quick Meal Ideas Free eCourse about making soup for dinner. Today I’d like to share another favorite of mine. The basic idea is to cook something once and then make at least two meals out of it. The trick is to turn what you cook on day one into a different meal on day two so you’re not eating the same thing two days in a row.

Here are some of my favorite meal ideas for this. (let me be honest with you – these are recipes from Menu Planning.)

Chicken Breast

Day One: Place chicken breasts in a baking dish and pour some Italian dressing over them and bake until done. Take out a few of the chicken breasts for tomorrow, then serve the rest with rice and veggies for dinner.

Day Two: The next day, grab the leftover baked chicken breast from the fridge and turn it into a chicken Caesar salad, or make chicken salad sandwiches.

Continue reading… Quick Meal Idea Day Two Cook Once Eat Twice

I want to share with you a ‘Quick Meal Idea’ eCourse. The course is in six-parts. Over the next 6 days, I’ll share some of my favorite ideas with you to get dinner on the table in a hurry. These ideas are perfect for those days when you are coming home late from work, or have been busy driving the kids all around town all day.

Well they are perfect for people like me who doesn’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen

Let’s get started right away with the first idea – Make a pot of soup for dinner. It’s one of my favorite go-to dinners because it is so versatile. Plus, if you are using leftovers or canned items, soup can be ready to be poured in 15 to 20 minutes. Simply add a sandwich or make a batch of biscuits and you have a filling meal.

Here are some quick soup ideas to get you started….

Quick Meal Idea 1: Soups

Beef and Vegetable Soup

Brown some hamburger meat and onion in a little butter or olive oil. Once the meat is completely cooked add any canned vegetables you like. I usually add chopped canned tomatoes, green beans, white beans and stewed canned tomatoes chopped into bite size pieces. The quantity of each ingredient isn’t important. Just throw the meal together and add a bit of salt and you’ll have a hearty soup.

Continue Reading at Indian Food – Healthy Quick Meal Ideas

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I was checking on what are the most searched recipes on Google and found the following:

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