Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen

Banana Sourcream Cake (Low fat)

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:06:00 +0000

At any time, I prefer baking cakes with oil rather than butter. You need to be prepared ahead of time if you want to use butter. It has to be at room temperature, you need an electric mixer /beater to cream butter and sugar. With the oil based cakes, all you need is a whisk and the job gets done. Another reason for me to prefer oil based cakes is due to the reason that they stay moist longer compared to the cakes with butter. I had to make something to give as a 'thank you' gesture to one of my...

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Want to take hands on baking lessons?

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:42:00 +0000

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Quote from here. Blogging, bloggers' groups is a different terminology altogether. We don't really know one another. We might have communicated, might have seen the pictures of one another, but that's all. But yet, there is a bond among these bloggers. Such a nice group of food bloggers are trying to do something very nice for the welfare of orphan girls in...

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Sweet Potato Chili

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:54:00 +0000

Did you know sweet potato is much better for health than regular potatoes? I was surprised when I learned it too. Try telling that to my in-laws who wouldn't eat anything that I cooked with this veggie. They would say it is bad for diabetic people even when I explained that it has low glycemic value than potatoes, which happens to be one of their favorite vegetable. I usually make couple of Indian dishes with Sweet potato. Wanted to try something different and I happen to read a eating well...

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Maple Sesame dressing

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:56:00 +0000

Couple of people at my work keep salad dressings in the office refrigerator. I am always curious about the ingredients on any processed, packaged foods since it is good to know what is alright to buy when pressed for time. This time, the bottle of salad dressing I picked to check the ingredients was a fat free raspberry dressing. It had so much sugar and ingredients that I could hardly pronounce, I was wondering what is the use of eating something like that and calling it healthy. Plus I don't...

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No Knead Chocolate Creamcheese brioche

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:48:00 +0000

Is writer's block a real thing? I don't know since I am no writer. Do artists have their blocks too? Could be. I have not been able to bring myself to blog for the past few days. Did I stop cooking/Baking? Definitely not. I just didn't feel like taking pictures and writing about the awesome food I made. Don't know why. Here is a brioche recipe that involves no kneading. Inspired from 'Artisan Bread in Five minutes' book. There is quite a bit of change in this recipe since I used cream cheese...

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Kale and Pineapple Rice

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:38:00 +0000

When we went to Indian grocery store, we met my husband's ex-colleague. He is not Indian, but eats a lot of Indian food. He is Vegan by choice and has to follow gluten-free diet. When we were talking, he said he loves to eat different kinds of rice dishes but does not know how to make different kinds at home. Here is one dish that he could or anyone could make since it doesn't use too many spices or prepared spice powders. This is actually a good dish for a weekend brunch. Quick, easy and...

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Hakka Noodles

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:52:00 +0000

I loved indo-chinese dishes when I was in India. But, I am too scared to eat at any Chinese or Thai places because of some of the sauces or ingredients they use which, they call 'vegetarian'. Come to think of it green curry paste or red curry paste is not vegetarian, and neither is oyster sauce that is used in many sauces that they serve. Lot of sauce recipes call for stirring some shrimp paste into it which is scary for a vegetarian. So, those restaurants are out of my 'to go' list of...

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White beans and Fenugreek Curry / Beans and methi subzi

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:05:00 +0000

There was a guy who worked with me few years back. I don't know what he ate for breakfast or dinner every day. But lunch used to be the same thing. Peanut butter sandwich made with whole wheat bread and a granny smith apple. He never even changed the kind of apple except when brown pears were in season. Then, we would see him bring that instead. I always wondered how one could eat the same thing over and over all the time. Since beans/lentils are an important part of our vegetarian diet, I...

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Akki Kadalebele Payasa / Rice and lentil dessert pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Indians are notorious for using lentils or dal in every kind of dish. It could be fritters or it could be a main dish or dessert. South Indians, in particular are famous for making many dessert puddings using lentils. This one is such a preparation. It is in fact one of the easiest and simplest desserts you can make and is not all that bad for you if you over look the sugar part. This one doesn't have too much butter/ghee which can be quite taxing on the body. Coconut gives a very nice taste,...

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Quick and easy Salsa

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:51:00 +0000

Almost every person I have met in my life likes Salsa. It could be mild version or a fiery hot version, but they do like it. What's not to like in it anyway? Being used to moderately spicy food all my life, that is something I can enjoy when I am dining out. When I saw the title of Restaurant Style Salsa, it caught my attention. You might wonder why I haven't used the same title for this post. Because, I felt this salsa was way better than the restaurant one. It could be the addition of...

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Carrot Kurma

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:17:00 +0000

After a month long baking, here I am with a totally Indian, non-baking dish. In my opinion, carrots are underrated in Indian cooking. Carrots are used of course, but not as a star ingredient. When I was flipping through the folder that is full of photocopies of recipes (I do not know the source of this book), this carrot kurma recipe caught my attention. It was perfect since I wanted to use up quite a few carrots without making halwa or salad out of it. It is largely adapted and not the same...

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Bake-A-Thon 2011 - Final Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:47:00 +0000

Happy New year everyone. May the year 2012 be filled with health, happiness and prosperity. For some reason, everyone looks back into the entire year during this time. I think it is a great practice, to learn from our own mistakes, make resolutions to do better and correct the mistakes in future. If you have New Year resolutions for this year, I wish you all the best with that/them. If there are people who are glad that 2011 is over, I am one of them. Year 2010 was bad enough in my personal...

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Crust less Coconut Custard Pie

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:22:00 +0000

Anything that has coconut in it, I jump into trying it. I saw this recipe on Susan's blog for the first time and since then, I wanted to make it. I just halved the recipe and baked in two individual ramekins. One year back - Eggless Yogurt/Sourcream Cake Two years back - Carrot Coconut Cake Adapted from - Kraft I am posting this as the post for bake-a-thon's day 30. My fellow bloggers doing it with me are - Preethi, Veena, Priya. Enjoy.

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Savory Onion, Apple Galette with yeast dough

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:49:00 +0000

Galette is nothing but a free form tart or single crusted pie. It is usually made with tart dough or sometimes pie dough, but there are recipes which use yeasted dough for galette. I wanted to use the dough that does not call for too much fat and here is what I have. You can vary the filling as per your taste. One year back - Cake Decorating Basics - Part 10 Two years back - Rave Unde (Rava Laddoo) Ingredients: For the yeast dough: All purpose flour - 1 cup + 1 TBSP (plus more for...

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Vegan Banana Chocolate Cake (Low fat)

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:07:00 +0000

I like weight watcher's recipes. For one, they are low fat and low sugar. Secondly, they either use egg whites or no eggs at all. I had seen a chocolate cake recipe in one of the weight watcher's magazine. It had more sugar than what I used here in this recipe, but no bananas. I used bananas and since they add to the sweetness, reduced the sugar. Recipe has melted butter, but I prefer to use oil when I can instead of butter and here comes a modified recipe. This is not a high rising cake -...

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No Knead Bread Sticks

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:08:00 +0000

When I announced the Bake-A-Thon, I did not know that I would get sick with horrible cold and cough. Little did I know that I would need couple of visits to the dentist. So, I could not post for couple of days and catching up is not as easy as I thought. Here is the bread sticks that my kids love and good thing about this recipe is, it doesn't need any kneading. One year back - Cake Decorating Basics - Part 9 Two years back - Rava Laddoo Adapted from - King Arthur Flour...

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Tutti Fruity Muffins

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:56:00 +0000

When I posted the Basic Muffin recipe which makes the mix and can be varied as per the taste, I got some positive feedback from readers who tried it. But, I had not posted the picture of the muffin baked using the same recipe. Here it is. I have used 1 cup of tutti fruity to make these muffins. One year back - Cake decorating Basics - Part 9 Two years back - Cake decorating Basics - Part 3 Ingredients to be mixed in the jar: All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cups Sugar - 1/4 cup Baking Powder...

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Coconut bars

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:29:00 +0000

Show me a single South Indian who does not like Coconut Burfi or coconut fudge. I bet there they are rare. The moment I saw these bars on the KAF web site, I knew I would love them. You could use cardamom in place of vanilla to get the same flavor as the traditional coconut burfi. One year back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 9 Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics Part - 3 Adapted from - King Arthur Flour Ingredients: All purpose flour - 1 1/4 cups Sugar - 3/4 cup (See Notes) Light...

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Chickpea crackers

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 19:26:00 +0000

Here comes a savory cracker recipe which is very easy to put together. You can flavor them the way you want and one good thing about these are they are not too rich. One year back - Eggless peanutbutter swirled chocolate cake Two years back - Cake decorating basics part - 3 Adapted from - King Arthur Flour Ingredients: All purpose flour - 3/4 cup Chickpea flour / Besan - 1/4 cup Sugar - 1 tsp Salt - 1/4 tsp (See Notes) Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or to taste Garlic powder - 1/4 tsp -...

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Savory Tomato Muffin

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 18:21:00 +0000

Are you tired of eating cookies, cakes, sweet pastries this holiday season? Then, you might want to read this. It is quick, it is not overly fattening and you can have it for a snack or breakfast or as a side for the main meal. It reminds of the pizza taste without the cheese. You could fold in cheese to get it more like a pizza muffin if you want. This can be very easily veganized by using ener-G replacer. I didn't have any on hand. One year back - Eggless Peanut butter swirled chocolate...

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Banana Cranberry Quick Bread

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:05:00 +0000

I realized it is not easy to do this every day blogging. Little late for that don't you think? I have so many ideas of making different things but not enough time with all the things going on. Here is a quick bread that I baked as part of the goodies to my kid's school. It is simple, tasty and quick to make. Adapted from my Pumpkin Cranberry Bread recipe. One year back - Eggless Peanut butter swirled chocolate cake Two years back - Cake Decorating Basics - Part 3 Ingredients: All purpose...

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Macadamia and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 21:01:00 +0000

How are you all doing this holiday season? Good? I am glad. Done with shopping for all the gifts? I am happy for you. But, if you are tired, I am with you. I know how you feel. I am tired too. I have been baking for 4 hours for the past two days. No, it is not for this Bake-A-Thon. It is for gift giving. If you see my kitchen right now, I don't even know what you will have to say. Part of the gifts to teachers, school, mail man and others have been Pumpkin Cranberry Bread, couple of types...

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Quick Palmiers

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:17:00 +0000

"Palmiers (palm trees) are clever French pastries made by cutting slices from a doubly scrolled sheet of dough." - Quoted in Good Housekeeping Baking book. Palmiers are usually made with puff pastry sheets and the recipe given uses the method of making the flaky dough to replace the puff pastry sheet. It is almost like a pie crust recipe, but has sour cream in it. The shape I could get is not all that great and with this crazy baking schedule I had today, I had no patience to wait for the...

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Caramel Corn

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:40:00 +0000

It has been almost a decade since I tasted caramel corn for the first time. I thought I was in heaven. I fell in love with it. Little did I know they are loaded with calories and they are so easy to make. This batch makes it enough to give as a gift for about 5 - 6 people and will cost you less than 2 dollars plus some time. One year back - Gingerbread Biscotti Two years back - Chocolate Chip Cookies, Coconut Macaroons, Ginger Spice Cookies Ingredients: Popping corn kernels - 1/2 cup (See...

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Mid way recap of Bake-A-Thon 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Champa) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:43:00 +0000

As you all know, I have been baking every day this month and posting the recipes. Today, I am taking a break not because I cannot bake, but because I want all the cookies that are on my kitchen counter to vanish before I bake anything else. We had a few visitors yesterday and one of them is a baker. She brought a box of homemade cookies for the kids and another person bought cookies from the store and brought it. Together, there are about 7 varieties of cookies on my kitchen now along with the...

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