Thandai

 Thandai is a popular drink  made in North India during holi.   As  I am South Indian, we don't have a custom of celebrating holi. But I adore this festival as Holi is festival of colours.  So my husband  and me  are planning  to celebrate this festival in pune next year. This year I made thandai and we  tasted it for a very first time

    Coming to thandai... It is  chilled milk with almonds and  some spices.  I love to have flavourful chilled milk. Spices used in thandai made me eager to taste and   i can't control myself  during chilling time.  I enjoyed every sip of thandai. It is so delicious. 

Rasam with freshly grounded spices

 This is  a South indian recipe.  Generally we prepare rasam in our everyday  lunch menu. We always  prepare rasam powder in large quantity  and store it in  a airtight container in advance . So it will be handy for us while preparing rasam during lunch. But here I am sharing rasam with freshly grounded spices. It can be prepared within minutes . All you need is some spices and few minutes to spare in kitchen. If you run out of Rasam powder. Dont worry .  Follow this simple recipe. It can be made in a  jiffy.  Enjoy  piping hot rasam with rice.

Ridge gourd Chutney

 My mom usally makes gravy with  Ridge gourd  as a side dish  for idly/ dosa. But this Ridge gourd chutney is new to me.  I am bored of usal chutneys and wanted to try a new one.  So searched the net and find this.   My husband who don't like Ridge gourd ate this  chutney without knowing it has ridge gourd in it and said " it is super" and asked the name of the chutney .  (Any guess ? what I have said to him )  So why  are u waiting? put your Aprons and make this chutney and please your family.

South Indian Lunch Menu 1

 Here, in this section I  will give some South Indian Lunch combos for  serve your family or guests during weekdays or weekends. This is very simple but healthy menu.  I usually include dal and one or two veggies in our day to day Lunch .  So in this menu  as  there is no Sambar or kootu   I combined moongdal and Snakegourd and made Stirfry. As this side dish is not so spicy, I made Rasam  to go well with Rice.I also made thogayal to go well with curd rice.

Curry Leaves Thogayal / Karuvepillai Thuvaiyal

 Curry leaves thogayal/ Karuvepillai  thogayal ( in Tamil language)  is Simple to prepare. Curryleaves are added to our day to day recipes such as gravies and curries  during tempering. Normally Many of us , without consuming it, will pick it up and keep aside while eating curries or gravies. But   I wanted to  Consume Curry leaves  as it is rich in Iron and Vitamin  A, B, C, E  which can help our heart to function better also  enliven  our hair. Coming to the recipe, It  goes well with  Rasam and curd rice. Or even you can simply mix this thogayal with rice and have a hearty meal.

Vegetable paratha

 Vegetable paratha  is made with Wheat flour and veggies like Carrot  and onion.  This receipe requires no stuffing and very simple to prepare. I learnt this dish from my mom. In  busy mornings,  when I have no time to prepare side dish for chapathi, my  choice will be this. Just with pickle and curd you can have  a healthy breakfast . Or you can have this for a dinner too.

Broccoli stir fry / Broccoli poriyal

 Brocolli is the vegetable which is rich in vitamin c and dietary  fiber also the source of folate . (Source - Wikipedia). Because of its health benefits  I try to include this veggie in our menu. I usually make this stir fry as a  sidedish along with sambar or kootu. My husband  doesn 't like broccoli and takes less amount of this poriyal during lunch.  But  I force him to take this goodness in more amount as  staying healthy is very important. Now coming to the recipe, its very easy to prepare. Prepare this and make your family nutritious.