Tasty & crunchy vegetable recipes

Who says vegetables are boring?  In my opinion, there is no vegetable that tastes bad!  There are so many vegetables coming from different parts of the world & across different cultures so there is definitely different ways of cooking them.  I will focus on the most hated vegetables & how to make them yumm in my coming blogs.  Do you hate any particular vegetable? Let me know.... I will find you a tasty recipe! For now I have for you some ways of cooking veggies that are not just tasty but even healthy.

Grilled baby eggplants/aubergines/brinjals

Ingredients

3-4 baby eggplants/aubergines/brinjals with stalks 
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 large tomato finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic minced
salt & pepper to taste

To garnish
feta or mozzarella cheese & finely chopped basil (or coriander)

Method

Wash the eggplants & retain the stalk.  Slit each into two & make criss cross marks on the flesh side of the eggplant with a knife. Dunk each half, flesh side down into olive oil, season with garlic, salt & pepper and line them on a baking tray. Grill in an oven on high heat for about 10-15mins until they are slightly charred.  

Add a teaspoon of olive oil to the finely chopped tomato & basil and place a spoon of it on each grilled aubergine.  Crumble some cheese over them & serve immediately.  

To know another yummy salad recipe with eggplant click here

Crunchy cauliflower masala

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower, cut into florets & washed
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon coriander seeds (dhaniya)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon curry powder or 5 spices powder or garam masala
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Method

Preheat oven at 250C.  Into a large bowl, add olive oil, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, curry powder, turmeric & ginger. Mix well.  Toss the cauliflower florets into the bowl until it is evenly coated.  

Line them onto a baking tray & bake for about 20mins until the florets turn brown & crisp.  Add some lemon zest give it a final mix garnish with coriander leaves and serve immediately.  

Grilled veggies platter

Ingredients

2 carrots

2 potatoes

5-6 baby corns

2 tomatoes

1/2 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon chilli flakes

mixed dried herbs

Dressing

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Method

Preheat oven at 200C.  Ensure you wash all veggies well as they dont have to be peeled.  Cut carrots into 2 inch blocks.  Cut potatoes length-wise in quarters (wedges). Cut bottom & top of the tomatoes & slice them breath-wise in two  so that they sit comfortably.  Place the veggies in a baking tray & drizzle olive oil.  Toss them until they are evenly coated.  Sprinkle chilli flakes & dried herbs & toss again.  

They need about 40mins of baking but since each vegetable cooks at a different time, you need to check on them often.  At the end of 20mins bring them out, change their positions & check seasoning.  At the 25th minute get the baby corn out.  Cover aluminium foil over the remaining veggies & continue baking until they are just about cooked.  

Place all the veggies in a serving tray.  To the juices remaining in the baking tray, add balsamic vinegar & lemon zest.  Drizzle these juices over the veggies, garnish with coriander leaves & serve. 

Chocolate mousse & all its avatars!

6 eggs + 200gms of chocolate + pinch of salt = chocolate mousse.

Chocolate mousse is as simple as this equation.  This is what gives rise to the basic mousse.  Apart from some rigorous whisking & waiting for the mousse to set there really is nothing so complicated about it.  The eggs have to be fresh & the chocolate of really high quality.  I prefer Nestle & Lindt cooking chocolate that come with 90% cocoa.  Remember the quality of chocolate plays a massive role in getting the supreme chocolaty taste to your mousse.  

Here we go again with the ingredients :

• 6 eggs
• 200gms of chocolate (90% cocoa)
• pinch of salt
• 50 gms of castor sugar
• vanilla essence or pod to perfume

Method

Separate the eggs - yolks in a small bowl & egg whites in a larger bowl.  Add sugar to the yolks & beat it well.    


In a large salad bowl, melt the chocolate following the instructions given here. Gently add the egg yolks, vanilla & mix well.  

Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites & beat it thoroughly until you have soft white peaks as shown below.  Now, if you don't get your snow peaks as shown below, be assured, you will not have the right texture for your mousse. When you lift the beater, the egg whites must stick to the beater & not fall off.  That is the firm texture we are looking at.  Fold in the snow peaks into the melted chocolate1/3rd at a time.  Mix gently by moving from the bottom upwards so that they mix well.  Be gentle as too much movement might break the snow peaks.   

Pour the mix into ramekins, margerita glasses, shot glasses or whatever dish you fancy & refridgerate for atleast 4hrs.  

SERVING IDEAS

Now that you know how to make the mousse you can experiment with a zillion things.  Mousse is a gourmet dessert today thanks to endless possibilities of layering it.  

Make batches of mousse using 3 different kinds of chocolate & layer them as shown in the pic below

You can even more experimental & scoop the mousse into a cone & twirl it out on a biscuit or tart base like this one that I ate at a fancy restaurant