Roasted Amaranth & Banana Pancakes - Oil Free recipe

I've been on a gluten-free binge for a while now, avoiding wheat and gluten as much as I can. There are hundreds of replacements available in local grocery stores here in Bombay. You can use Jowar (Sorghum), Bajra (Pearl Millet), Ragi (Finger Millet), Foxtail Millet, Thinai (Italian Millet), Varagu, Singada (Waterchestnut flour), Arrowroot Starch, Rajgira (Amaranth Flour) and so many more that I don't even know of. Amongst all of them my most favourite flour to use is Amaranth also known as Rajgira here in India.

Samskara was kind enough to send me SOS Organic's Roasted Himalayan Amaranth Flour. I don't think the ones available in the market are roasted because the nutty flavour of this particular flour was stronger than usual. I loved the smell of it as soon as I opened the packet. The flour is slighlty more coarse since it is stone-ground. I store Amaranth flour in particular int he fridge because I noticed that this flour usually reacts to the weather. The easiest thing to do is make pancakes with gluten-free flours and that is exactly how I went about using some of this flour.

You need:
1 cup SOS Organic's Roasted Amaranth Flour
1/4 cup Arrowroot Flour
1 tsp Orgran Egg Replacer (Or any egg substitute for 1 egg)
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg Powder
A handful of Pecans, chopped (Or walnuts)
2 ripe bananas
1 tsp Jaggery Powder (optional)
A pinch of Salt
Water

To serve:
Jaggery Syrup or Agave Nectar or Maple Syrup or Any Jam

Mix the amaranth flour, arrowroot flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, chopped nuts, salt.

In another bowl, mix the orgran egg replacer with 2 tsp of water and whisk with a fork till it is fluffy. Add the bananas to it and mash it well. Add salt and jaggery powder if you are using it. I like the pancakes to be less sweet so I can serve it with something sweet.

Mix wet with the dry ingredients and add as much water as you like till you get a thick consistency batter. It should be easily spreadable on your pan or griddle.

I use an iron pan or tawa to make the pancakes.

Serve it hot with anything you like.

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Tandoori Baby Bellas (Oil Free Recipe)

I'm always so excited when I find new ingredients to experiment with. And I'm so thankful there are people close to Bombay growing all these lovely vegetables that would only otherwise remain fond memories of holidays I have taken in the past.

Since my last post on the  amazing "foreign" produce I found in Mumbai, I have come across so many new vegetables and leafy greens that are coming in now. One among the new finds is Baby Bellas, also known as "crimini mushroom, baby portobello, baby bella, mini bella, portabellini, Roman mushroom, Italian mushroom, or brown mushroom" says Wikipedia

I love mushrooms and I was super kicked when we started getting Oyster Mushrooms in Bombay. Now of course there are gourmet food stores selling dried and tinned varieties of many kinds. To find fresh, locally grown stuff is rare and I almost pounced on the packet of Baby Bellas when I saw them.

Portobellos have a fond food-memory corner in my brain. I ate a lot of them when I was travelling through the US. The yummiest of which was a grilled Portobello Burger I had a B.A.D. Burger in Brooklyn. I wish I had the sense to click a picture of it. After walking past the Brooklyn Bridge and walking around Brooklyn for almost two hours I was starving and I all I could think of was to eat that burger.

The first time I bought the Baby Bellas, I don't quite remember what I used them for. It was a while before I found them at my usual vegetable vendor again. This time I decided I would make something more worthwhile and document the process.

Tandoori food is something us vegans cannot enjoy at a restaurant. Everything is marinated in spicy yogurt and then grilled over a coal barbecue. I love the smell of the spices used in a Tandoori and may be one day I will gather my lazy bones to make the tandoori spice mix. This time I used a ready mix that I use every so often when I make my version of Tandoori vegetables.

It has no Chicken!

This recipe can be used on almost any vegetable like Potatoes, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Zucchini, Carrots even Tofu. I usually steam the vegetables that take longer to cook for 10 minutes or so before I marinate them. Since Mushrooms cook quickly, there is no need to steam them. This recipe is also oil free because for one, the cashews have enough (good) fat in them to see the mushrooms through to the end and secondly who needs oil in their diet?


You need:

250gms of Baby Bellas (Or whatever vegetable you are using)
1/2 cup of raw, unsalted cashews powdered
3 tsp of Tandoori Chicken Masala (I like it spicy but you can start with 2tsp and add more if you like)
2 cloves of Garlic
1 inch piece of Ginger
1/2 tsp Rock Salt
1/4 tsp of Black Salt
Juice of 1 Lime
Water

Wash and cut off a small portion of the stems of the mushrooms. Halve or quarter the mushrooms.

In a small bowl, mix the cashew powder, tandoori masala, garlic, ginger, salt and lime juice. Add water and make a thick paste. It should be a thick mayonnaise-like consistency. Add this to the mushrooms, mix well and cover the bowl with cling wrap. Let it rest in the fridge overnight or for 6 to 8 hours. I kept mine for almost a whole day.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 25 to 35 mins covered with aluminium foil.

My herb mill being put to good use

Serve hot with some mint chutney

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Vitamin C Chutney

If you ask any Indian what to eat to ensure Vitamin C in the diet, Aamla is surely going to figure in the list. This Indian Gooseberry  holds a very important place in the Indian heart (and hair). When it is in season, everyone laps it up making  pickles, chutneys or sun dries it to ensure a year long supply of Vitamin C. As kids, we used to buy small tiny sachets of dried and salted aamlas as an after school snack.

But I need to tell you my find of the day before that: Vegan Food Rocks. That cream of Broccoli soup looks so easy and awesome!

Now, if you have never tried an aamla, I'd like you to imagine biting into the sourest Sour Candy available and put aside the the sweetness of the sugar in the candy. It is sour and astringent but also has sweet and bitter undertones. My salivary glands are kicking it in as I type this. Apart from being an elixir, natural medicine-for-everything kind of fruit, it is also applied to hair to ensure good hair growth and I read somewhere that apparently Indians have the best hair on the planet. Well, all Indians except me at least.

This chutney is raw, vegan and oil free. It goes well with rotis and I'm sure some bread or dosa will be nice with it too.

You need:

4 aamlas or Indian Gooseberries
2 mild Green chillies
Salt

The Aamlas have tough flesh with a pit inside. Remove the pits and blend it with the green chillies and salt.

Enjoy your dose of sour, concentrated vitamin C!

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Pumpkin Chutney Part Deux

How do you know if you are cooking healthy?

From the amount of waste in your kitchen garbage bin.

If what you throw is more than what you eat, you are probably not doing something right. So how do you decide what to throw and what to eat? Ask a monkey! The lesser tools you use in your kitchen to "prep" your food, the lesser waste you generate. Stop peeling and start eating.

Before we go further, today's find is: Muffin Topped. Emily is making some delicious looking vegan Waffles all this month for Vegan MoFo. Makes me want to get a waffle maker!

On that quick note, here is a chutney I made with all the left over seeds, skin and fiber from yesterday's Pumpkin Chutney. You could follow the recipe exactly like that one and substitute the pumpkin chunks with the skin and seeds (hereafter known as 'skeed') or you could turn it up a notch. This chutney is slightly bitter from the sesame. But I love the bitterness of sesame and I will forgive it because it gives me so much calcium! This recipe is oil free too.

Pumpkin Skeed Sesame Chutney

You need:

1 cup of Pumpkin seeds, skin and fibre
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 dried red chilli
1/2 tsp salt
Juice of 1  lime or lemon
water

Cook the pumpkin seeds, skin and fiber in 2 tsp of water in a covered pan for 6 to 8 minutes. Put it in a blender jar with the rest of the ingredients. Blend it till everything is incorporated well. This is not going to be a smooth chutney. It has small chunks of sesame and the pumpkin seed and I love that it adds a nice texture.

Alternatively you can powder everything else first and then add the cooked skeeds. Store it in the refrigerator.

Antique enamel in pastel blue goes so well with the Chutney, don't you think?

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Apple Thokku aka Cooked Apple Chutney

It's day three of vegan Mofo and I am keeping the chutney theme alive! Check out the amazing vegans from the US and all over the world who are taking part this year.

Thokku (toh-kuh) is the south Indian way of describing a type of chutney. A thokku is usually made by grating and cooking a vegetable to remove the water out of it and then adding the flavouring after it is cooked. South Indian chutneys are usually coconut heavy. A thokku will not involve coconut unlike a thogayal (tho-hail) which is another type of chutney made with mostly raw vegetables. The spiciness usually comes from red chilli powder as opposed to dried red chillies in a thogayal. And that is your Tamil lesson for the day!

Apple thokku is something my grandma makes pretty often. You have to be really lucky to be able to witness the greatness of your grandmothers in the kitchen. I still remember helping my great grandmother in the kitchen. She is too old to cook now, but the memories of her wrinkly hands making perfectly symmetrical murukkus is something I won't forget.

India is lucky to have apples growing in the north of the country. When those apples are not in season, we get the Washington, Granny Smith and Fuji apples too. Unfortunately the vendors are spraying or coating the apples with wax and sometimes thin aluminium foil to make them look shiny and "appealing". I hate peeling my fruits and vegetables, but I certainly don't want to eat wax. To check if your apple has been "waxed" take the non-sharp end of a knife and scrape your apple. If you find a creamy off-white substance coming off the skin it has something on it. Try it and tell me what you find. I also am not an raw apple person. I know I'm killing most of the nutrition from it when I cook an apple, but I'd eat an apple pie any day over a slice of apple.

This thokku is very simple to make and takes about 15 minutes from start to finish. I have made this recipe oil-free so it will not stay as long as it normally would otherwise. The sweetness of the cooked apple and the hot hit from the chilli powder is a very interesting flavour. I initially didn't like the idea of mixing fruit with something spicy, but as you grow older you tend to be a little more adventurous.

You need:

2 Apples, peeled and cored

1 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/8th tsp asafoetida

1/2 tsp jaggery

Juice of 1/2 a lime

Grate the apples with a medium holed grater. Heat a small pan and add the mustard seeds. When they begin to splutter, add the asafoetida. Add the apples and let it cook for about 6-8 minutes. Stir it around occasionally. Once the apples are soft and the water has drained off, add the salt, chilli powder and jaggery. Keep it for a minute more and then take it off the flame. Add the lime juice and store in a jar in the refrigerator.

This apple thokku could be a replacement for a pickle. It can be used as an accompaniment with some roti or a rice dish or even on top of a slice of bread or with dosa.

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Coriander Mint Chutney aka Basic Green Chutney

I'm beginning the awesome Month of Vegan food with the simplest, most versatile green chutney. This chutney can be found in most homes and even on the streets of Bombay. It is used as a side with rotis, it can be added to a vegetable while cooking it, even to a pulav/pilaf, it is used as a sandwich spread in the famous Chutney Sandwich and is used in my favourite street food in Bombay- Paani Puri.

It is a dark green, chlorophyll laden, lump of goodness. It is usually the spicy chutney and served with a sweet chutney which I will put up soon. To this basic recipe, you can add fresh grated coconut or raw peanuts to give the chutney a thicker body and tone down the spice. Us Indians love our chutneys hot, so this one might be way too spicy if you are not used to the Indian level of spiciness. I have used the dark green chillies which are the spiciest. If you find a milder green chilli, you can use it. They are usually lighter in colour. You can also add raw onions and raw garlic to the mix to give it a nice depth of flavour. But I'm not a big fan of raw onions or garlic. There are quite a few people who don't like coriander but they usually don't mind it in this chutney form.

So here is the recipe for the most versatile chutney ever with a few ideas for its use listed below.

You need:

A Big bunch of the freshest coriander/ cilantro - washed and de-stemmed (about three cups)*
Half the amount of fresh mint leaves - washed and de-stemmed (about two cups)*
4 dark green chillies
1 inch piece of ginger
Juice of 1 lime
1tsp Salt or more
a pinch of black salt if you have some
Water

Optional ingredients:
1/2 medium sized red onion
2 cloves of garlic

OR
4 tbsp fresh, shredded coconut

OR
a handful of raw peanuts


*The reason the stems are removed is so that the chutney stays thick because the stems have quite a bit of water in them. Mint takes a bit of time to clean and remove each leaf from the stem, but thin coriander stems are okay to add. Just make sure you don't add any roots.

Add into a blender and blend away. (This has to be the shortest description ever!)

You might have to stop a few times to push the ingredients down towards the blades. Add a little water if required. Squeeze the lime at the end and mix well.

Store in the refrigerator for up to ten days or freeze it for a hundred years. :)

A few ideas to use this chutney:
Sandwiches are great ways to use this chutney. A popular chutney sandwich is made with two slices of bread with chutney and ketchup smothered on them. It goes well on bagels too.

On the streets of bombay, a toasted chutney sandwich is made using this chutney spread on bread with raw tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, boiled potatoes and beetroot. It is served with ketchup and a generous sprinkle of sev. Other street foods like Bhel puri, sev puri and paani puri use this chutney extensively.

This chutney can be served with dosas and samosas.

You could add this chutney to onions while cooking them to add more flavour to your vegetable, bean and grain dishes.

I've even used this chutney with some vegan mayo as a dip for chips and vegetable sticks.

It can be added to a salad of raw vegetables or even to a salad with root vegetables.

Sandwich one morning: Whole wheat rosemary and garlic bread with chutney and cucumbers.

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Bhurji Pav

Yes it's monsoon. It's that time of the year when we crave fried, fatty food as if we need to store up for the winter. The ants bury their food in their ant hills. We bury ourselves into our food and then wait for the year to end to make resolutions that never happen. I'm no Buddha. I give in sometimes too. I'll eat that extra cupcake or cookie even though I'm not supposed to. But being vegan has it's perks. If I was giving into a cake full of eggs, butter, milk and not to forget the sugar, I would've been a few kilos heavier. Of course I eat fried food, I can't resist a samosa or two but I don't eat it everyday. And when I do eat something fried or oily, my body (and head) send me to the corner. I feel sleepy, lethargic and heavy. I now know the difference between eating food cooked with oil and without.

Bhurji Pav (scrambled eggs with buns) is a breakfast/ snack food here. You can go to the Irani cafes and eat it or you will find it off food carts that make it until 2 in the morning. There is nothing I can eat in that egg or paneer bhurji or the butter smeared pav, but that doesn't stop me from making it at home, vegan style.

This recipe is oil-free because that's how I roll. I'd made some oil free whole wheat buns to go with this, but you can eat it with regular pav, buns, bread, rotis or even as it is.

For the bhurji:

Firm Tofu 200gm block
1 Tomato
1 small Onion
1 Green Pepper/ Capsicum
2 Green Chillies chopped
2 teaspoons Nutritional Yeast (Optional)
1/4 tsp Turmeric
1/2 tsp Mustard Powder
Black Salt (adds great flavour)
Pepper

Crumble the tofu and set it aside.

In a hot wide pan, cook the onions with water and salt. Add one teaspoon water at a time till the onions are cooked. Add in the tomatoes and capsicum. Cook for about 3-4 minutes. Add the Turmeric, Mustard Powder, Nutritional Yeast if using. Add in the crumbled tofu and stir it around till the tofu is uniformly yellow. Crack some pepper on top.

Serve hot with Pav Buns or Bread.

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Oil-Free Lime Vermicelli (Sevai)

Sevai is the quintessential Tamil breakfast. I don't know where it originated from but its probably made at least once a week in Tamil homes. It's a light noodle snack that is usually served with coconut chutney and even Sambar (a spicy squash, vegetable and lentil soup).

What's so special about the one I made? Well, it's completely devoid of refined oil. Why? For one, the word 'refined' should be a clue. Apart from the fact that it is a processed food, it is completely unnecessary in our diet. We all need essential fatty acids since our bodies don't synthesize them but we are wrong to think that we need it or get it from refined oils. We can get the same from whole nuts, seeds and leafy vegetables. Think of it this way: One teaspoon of peanut oil comes from two cups of peanuts. I'm sure I won't be able to eat two cups of peanuts, but one teaspoon of oil (and more) will easily go into any food I cook. When we refine foods, specially oils, it involves removing fiber, other essential vitamins and also heating them. Once heated, oils should ideally not be heated again because they become carcinogenic. The best oils to use are cold pressed oils but again they are devoid of much of the nutrition they are supposed to have. Also many people have successfully reversed Diabetes and Heart Disease by eliminating all animal foods and refined foods like maida, oils, fried stuff, sugar from their diet. You won't know unless you try it.

So in my daily cooking I avoid heating oils. I temper the spices on a dry pan and I cook onions and tomatoes in water. If I made it for you, you wouldn't be able to tell there wasn't any oil in it. But if you made it for yourself, you might feel that there is something lacking. It's all in the head!

This breakfast recipe is pretty much the same as any South Indian would make it, just that it is completely devoid of refined oil. I used store bought rice vermicelli but you can use brown rice or even ragi vermicelli to make it healthier.



Serves 3-4
Recipe:

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)
1/2 teaspoon urad dal
1 teaspoon roasted chana dal
2 green chillis chopped
1/2 inch piece of ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida (hing)
1 small pack of rice vermicelli (about 180gms), cooked as per instructions
Salt
2 tablespoons roasted peanuts
Juice of 1 big lime
Salt
Water
Chopped Coriander to garnish


In a hot wok, add in the mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal and stir it around till the mustard seeds splutter and the urad and chana dals being to brown. Add in the chillis and ginger and a teaspoon or two of water to prevent them from burning. Add the turmeric and asafoetida and stir. If you require more water add a teaspoon at a time. Once the turmeric is incorporated, add the cooked vermicelli and mix it well till it is an even yellow. If it dries out, add a little water. Add the salt and peanuts. Take it off the stove and then add the lemon juice and mix it well.  Garnish with coriander and serve hot.

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Book Review - 'Southern Flavours'

My Review of Southern Flavours by Chandra Padmanabhan for BlogAdda.

No matter what they say, I always judge a book by it's cover. The first impression of any book is very important to me specially if it is a cookbook. On first glance Southern Flavours has a warm homely feel to it. It has a classy hard bound cover photograph that combines two aspects of South India - Food and Temple Jewellery. The author of the book, Chandra Padmanabhan, is a renowned author in her own right. She has a three best selling cookbooks to her credit. This is they first of hers that I have read and may be the first South Indian cookbook I have ever gone through so thoroughly. Being a Tamillian myself, I never thought of picking up a South Indian cookbook simply because I come from a family of extraordinary cooks (which South Indian doesn't?!). So the most I would do is pick up the phone and call my mother or my grandmothers or my mother-in-law and ask for help.

So even before I read this one, I passed it off to my mom-in-law so she could do the first round of scrutiny for me. I wanted see this book through two different perspectives - from someone who has cooked lovely South Indian food all her life and from another South Indian who pretends to be one.

Let me start with what the seasoned cook thought about it. From the easy-to-handle, hard bound design to the way the recipes are explained so well, my mom-in-law was impressed. She thought the book is a perfect gift for someone who wants to learn a few South Indian recipes. She also remarked that the book not only covers recipes from Tamil Nadu and Kerala but also from Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. She was impressed with the varieties of dosa recipes, the ingredient index and the menu options at the back. She also thought that it was important that the recipe names were given in original languages as they would be called from where they originated. She did mention that she missed a few more pictures, recipes of Neer Dosa, Avial and a few Kerala specialties but said that would be nitpicking.

I couldn't agree more. On first glance the book is a great resource for me since it has important recipes from all four states from what is considered to be the South of India. The book has basic recipes, sambhar and kuzahmbhus, rasams, poriyals, rice recipes, snacks, sweets, accompaniments and buffet spreads. The suggested Menus at the back are great for people planning to make an entire South Indian spread for a meal.

So on a sunday afternoon, I decided to try out two recipes from the book. I made Kothamalli-Pudina Sadam (Pg.93) and Alu Gadde Mosaru Kuzhambu (pg.38). Kothamalli-Pudina Sadam, or Coriander Mint Rice originates from Tamil Nadu according to the book. It involves cooking the rice separately and adding a cooked paste of coriander, mint, onions and green chillies along with vegetables and spices. I used some fragrant Ambhe Mohar rice and made the recipe completely oil free and vegan (it involved some ghee to fry cashew nuts). It had the right amount of spice and the fragrance of coriander and mint coming from warm rice on a cold afternoon was perfect.

Coriander-Mint Rice

The Alu Gadde Mosaru Kuzhambu or Curd Curry with Potatoes is from the Hebbar Iyengar Community of Karnataka. Luckily for me I had a batch of peanut curd at home which I used to substitute the dairy curd. The recipe is simple and is also oil free. It turned out really good and tasted pretty similar to what we Tamillians call Moru Kozhambu.

Vegan Peanut Curd (set using the tops of chillies)

Curd Curry with Potatoes 

I am forced to review this book in seven days (blogadda rules) and I surely won't be doing justice to such a great book. A review of a cookbook is an ongoing process and can take months till I try out every recipe. I will keep posting recipes that I try from the book, veganising them along the way.

A big Thank you to Blogadda!

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Eat and Meditate - Chole/Chana Masala

I was saving this post for tomorrow, but since the Vegan Mofo Iron Chef Challenge #1's secret ingredient is Chickpea and since the challenge ends soon, I can't stop myself.

Have you ever tried making Chana Masala or Rajma without Onions and Garlic? I just did and it's quite awesome! Why would I do something like that? Sometimes it's nice not to end up with skin smelling of onion/garlic for the next three days. It does happen if you eat more garlic than anything else and most often when you eat out. I don't know why but restaurants really love their garlic and may be they think that without the addition of the same, food won't taste good. Even Italian food in India ends up tasting only of garlic. I just can't stand it anymore.

Being a South Indian, our daily cooking is all vegetarian and also doesn't involve onion and garlic. Of course now with the bastardization of traditional cooking with the invention of the microwave, non-stick and what not, even the ingredients added to traditional foods are changing. Of course some call it invention, but excuse me for not liking onion in my sambar unless it is an Onion Sambar.

My great-grandmother to this day won't touch food with onion and garlic. I did ask my grandmother why it wasn't added in food then and why to this day she also is just like her mother (except on Sundays..haha). She said in those days, left over water from fish farming was added to grow Onions and Garlic. But I think somewhere the roots of these decisions lie in Ayurvedic cooking where onion and garlic were considered Rajasic and Tamasic (the energies in these foods don't allow you to meditate). Even if you do certain meditation courses, they will tell you not to eat onion and garlic. Apart from the South Indians, Jains also follow these guidelines and also omit all root vegetables for many more reasons.

So this recipe is something that my great-grandmother, grandmothers and mother would enjoy. If you wouldn't tell anyone that it didn't have any onion and garlic they wouldn't believe it.

Oh and it also has no oil and is gluten free of course!

Serves 2 to 4

You need:

1 cup Chickpeas/ Garbanzo beans (If using dried, soak for 8 hours,drain and cook in fresh water)

6 ripe tomatoes

1 inch piece of ginger (omit this for the jains)

2 green chilies (optional)

3 pieces of Tamarind soaked in just enough warm water for ten minutes

1 tsp Cumin Seeds / Jeera

1 tsp Coriander Powder

2 tsp + 1/2 tsp store bought or home made chole/ rajma masala (I used Everest Masala for this)

1/2 tsp asafoetida / hing

A small piece of Jaggery

Rock Salt

Salt

Puree the tomatoes with the ginger and green chilies if you're using them.

Heat up a wok / kadhai and add the Cumin. Toss it around a bit and it should start emitting a beautiful aroma. Quickly add the coriander powder, rock salt and chole masala. Stir is around a bit and make sure it doesn't burn.

Add the tomato puree carefully. You have to let this cook really well. This step is the key. Stir is once in a while to make sure it's not burning at the bottom, if it is, add very little water and turn the heat down. It comes to an almost ketchup stage after about 12-15 minutes. It should be much more darker in colour and should be spluttering small bubbles all over.

Looks like a million-eyed monster face!

In the mean time, squeeze 'the life' out of the tamarind and use only the pulp. Add this to the tomato gravy once you are satisfied with the thickness of the gravy. Add the cooked chickpeas and the jaggery with about half cup water.

Let it cook away till the gravy reaches the desired thickness. Add salt and 1.2 tsp more of the chole masala.

Take it off the heat, squeeze half a lime and garnish it with some fresh coriander.

Serve hot with brown rice or rotis.

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Buckwheat & Banana Flour Pancakes with Video!

It's VeganMoFo Sunday and it's time for some gluten free, oil free pancakes!

Off late for no rhyme or reason I have been trying a gluten free diet. It basically means I avoid anything with wheat and it's relatives. Here, even though wheat is such a major part of the diet, it's not that difficult to avoid. I have no signs or symptoms of any intolerance or allergy, but every once in a while I like to give myself some challenges.

It's very easy when you're cooking for yourself and also becomes easier if you are chosen for a trial for a new vegan lunch service for one whole week and their lunches are wheat free! What fun. I enjoyed the dabbawala delivered lunches for a week, but sadly that was only lunch.

Living in a Gujrati dominated suburb of Bombay has it's advantages. During the months when people are fasting most of the days, all these incredible non wheat flours suddenly come into the grocery stores. I always tend to bend towards the unknown and so I pick stuff that I wouldn't normally use. On one such pit stop I found Banana Flour. Banana Flour is common in the south of India. It is made out of dried raw bananas and thus is very starchy. It is made into a porridge and fed to babies who are just beginning to eat. I just bought it not knowing what to do with it.

I have been wanting to make wheat free pancakes for the longest time. I had a whole pack of lovely Organic Buckwheat Flour (another 'fasting' flour, also called kuttu, kutti) which is so commonly used in gluten free baking. I mixed in some Banana Flour and made lovely sugar-free, oil-free pancakes with them. These pancakes are super healthy, super fluffy and super tasty.

This post if specially for Harini, who is such an inspiration with her lovely personality, amazing food and tasty photos! She is specially trying to cook up gluten free stuff for her daughter and this would be a perfect Sunday morning breakfast for her!

I made a short time lapse video of how I made the pancakes which you will find at the end of this post!

You need:

1 cup Buckwheat Flour

1/2 cup Banana Flour

A pinch of baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tablespoon Date Syrup or any sweetener of your choice.

1 tsp vinegar

1 tablespoon Flax meal

1 tsp Vanilla Essence or One Vanilla Bean scraped

Water

(These pancakes are not sweet at all. If you like your pancakes sweet, add more date syrup and reduce the water added to the batter)

Mix the flaxmeal with 2 tbsp water and set aside for 10 minutes. In a big bowl mix the Buckwheat Flour, Banana Flour, Baking soda and salt.

After ten minutes, the flax meal-water mixture would've become a stiff, thick, gooey mix. Make a well in the center of the flours and add this flax mixture, vinegar and vanilla. Add water and start stirring it till you get a nice thick meal. When you pull up the mixture with your spoon and drop it in, it should be stringy like in the picture below.

On a hot iron tawa/pan (I don't use non-stick stuff) put about 1/2 a teaspoon of oil and spread it around. Put a small spoonful of this pancake mixture in it and let it cook on one side. This is the way we usually start making doasas at home. We put a small amount of the dough/batter on a hot pan and let it cook on both sides before we start making the actual dosa/uttappam/ pancake. I guess it makes sure the tawa is evenly heated and if done properly, you don't need any oil for the rest of the dosas/ pancakes, etc. Of course this also depends on your batter, but this worked very well for these pancakes.

So just dab a nice big spoonful of the batter, spread it around quickly and carefully to about 1/2 inch thick and let the heat do the magic. Turn it over after about 20 seconds and let the other side cook. Drizzle with date syrup, add a few bananas or whatever fruits you fancy and enjoy them hot.

Don't forget to watch the video!

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Gajar Ka Halwa (Carrot Halwa)

I love carrot halwa and I've never been able to eat it outside since I changed my diet. So I came across this recipe in Dr Vijaya Venkat's recipe book (try getting your hands on it somehow!) and I modified it my way.

For the Halwa you need:

4 Long carrots (Usually availabe in winter. I'd suggest you use it only when it is available seasonally)

1/4 cup melted jaggery syrup (more or less depending on your sweet tooth)

A handful of cashews powdered in a grinder

2 cloves of Cardamom

4-5 Almonds roasted

Steam the carrots as they are. Don't peel them, you could cut them in half if they don't fit in your steaming apparatus. Let them steam for 20 minutes. Don't let it become too soft.

Once they are done steaming let it cool for another 15 minutes or so and then using a grater, grate the carrots. Mix in the jaggery, cashew powder and cardomom. Top with some slivers of roasted Almonds.

It's so much more easier than cooking the carrots in cow's milk for hours and adding bottles of ghee to it.

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