Quinoa Vegetable Pulao Recipe - Easy Indian Recipes with Quinoa (Step by Step)

Quinoa is a gluten-free super grain that has been gaining a lot of popularity over the last few years. While it looks very similar to the pearl millet easily available in India, I don't believe there's an Indian name for quinoa or that it's locally produced. You can definitely buy quinoa online in India though. Since it's very easily available in Sydney (even more so than Singapore), I've been trying to cook up Indian quinoa recipes that suit our palates. Quinoa pulao also makes a great lunchbox recipe since it doesn't dry out as much as rice pulao tends to.

Quinoa pulao with vegetables is one of my success stories! Quinoa has a nutty flavour and lacks the sweetness and stickiness of rice so I'd definitely say it's an acquired taste. In fact, it's a seed and not a grain so it cooks up easier than rice but does have a strong flavour, especially when you prepare vegetable pulao with quinoa.

I used my standard vegetable pulao recipe and adapted it with the addition of quinoa instead of rice. You can cook it directly on the stovetop (no soaking or pressure cooker needed) and so it totally fits my cooking style (read - get the job done as quick as possible and get out of the kitchen).

If you're trying to incorporate quinoa into your (largely Indian) diet, here are a couple of tips:
- Taste it first if possible and see if you like it. Quinoa tends to be expensive and it'll be a pity to buy a bagful only to find that you can't how it tastes
- Try pearl millet in recipes that use quinoa. It's produced in India, is much cheaper, and has health benefits that match that of quinoa. They even look very similar, if that's important to you. Taste-wise, I'm not sure how they compare so let me know if you try pearl millet in this pulao recipe

Rather stick with rice? Sure, why not. Try this easy green chana pulao recipe, vegetable pulao in pressure cooker, or one of my favourite coriander rice recipe.

QUINOA VEGETABLE PULAO RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of quinoa (any kind - my 1 cup = 200 ml)
1/2 cup of onions, chopped fine
2 tbsp of ghee or oil
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds (jeera)
4 cloves
1 small piece of cinnamon
1 bay leaf
3-4 green cardamom pods, crushed
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 cup mixed vegetables (I used frozen carrot, peas, corn)
A few mint leaves or coriander leaves (optional)
Salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat the 2 tablespoon oil in a pan, preferably non-stick. Add the cumin seeds and when they sizzle, add the whole spices - cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay leaf. Fry for 10 seconds and then add the chopped onions. Fry until just soft (about 3 mins) and then add the ginger and garlic. Saut� until fragrant - about 2 mins.

2. Add the vegetables now, along with finely chopped coriander or mint leaves (if using). Saut� for 4-5 mins until the vegetables are almost cooked.

3. Add the 1 cup quinoa to this.

4. Check your quinoa package to see recommended amount water needed to cook it. There are different varieties and I am assuming they have differing lengths of cooking time. I have only cooked with white quinoa and the method I follow is to add double the water. So 1 cup quinoa gets cooked in 2 cups water and that's how much I added.

5. Add salt and bring this to boil. Then lower heat to simmer and cook covered for about 5 mins.

Check in between to make sure there's still water in the pan and the quinoa or vegetables is not burning. Ensure heat is at a minimum and you should be fine.

The quinoa will fluff up quite a bit on cooking and in about 5-6 mins, you should have very soft and fluffy quinoa. The rest of the vegetables should be done now too. Add more coriander leaves if desired and serve hot.

I serve quinoa vegetable pulao with the usual side dishes you'd serve rice pulao with. aloo gobi would go really with this as would a some delicious methi matar malai.

How to Make Mango Milkshake with Ice Cream - Mango Shake Recipe

Recipe for mango milkshake with homemade mango ice cream, chilled milk, and some vanilla to enhance the flavour. A perfect and easy summer drink for your family and guests.

I started this blog what seems like a lifetime ago and over the years, it's been with me through so many events - being single, being engaged then married, celebrating 5 years of marriage and now 6, two international relocations and a potential third coming up soon, and so much more. During this time, I have felt an intense desire to stop blogging many times, due to many reasons. I've continued mainly because of the notes I get from many of you because they are always so nice and seem like I made a real difference to your lives in the kitchen. It touches me to think that a small corner of the Internet, this space right here, one among many (many MANY) food blogs out there has touched your lives. And so I pick myself up, go back to my stash of food pictures, dust out a set, edit them, and continue on.

The truth is, I don't remember not being a food blogger. I don't remember how it feels to not have a cupboard full of single pieces of cutlery, or looking at every beaten down wood piece along the streets longingly, or buying ingredients with the hope of making 'something' soon, or looking at a viral recipe idea and wishing I'd come up with it first, or getting really annoyed and angry at all the 'inspired' versions of my creativity and writing all over, or not checking Facebook and G+ for your messages and comments - the list goes on. Being a food blogger is as much as a part of me as being a Googler, or being a Reddiar, a wife, an Indian. I don't know how not to be one anymore.

I started blogging for myself, as an outlet for whatever dregs of creativity I have in me, and now it continues to exist for each and every one of you who read me, follow me, and send me those notes and pictures of food you've cooked from Edible Garden (very sentimental, I know).

I'll sincerely try to continue to write as long as someone out there continues to read. Ok? Ok :)

Mango milkshake has nothing to do with my outpouring above, I just chose this day and this post randomly to say what's been on my mind for a long time.

I used my eggless mango ice cream (uses only 3 ingredients) to make this milkshake but you can very easily replace with vanilla ice cream and canned mango pulp / fresh mango pieces or store-bought mango ice cream to prepare this shake. A hint of vanilla is my mom's touch to homemade milkshakes and so I add the same too.

All mango drinks are fabulous but I especially love mango banana milkshake, mango milkshake with avocado and this mango lassi we had copious amounts of last spring.

MANGO MILKSHAKE WITH ICE CREAM

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Makes 2 tall glasses

INGREDIENTS:
2-3 large scoops of mango ice cream
1 cup of chilled milk
2 drops of vanilla essence
2 tbsp of powdered sugar (if needed)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Blend all ingredients until smooth. If you want a thicker shake, add more ice cream and add milk if you want to make it thinner.

Instead of adding sugar, I sometimes add a spoon or two of condensed milk to sweeten the milkshake.

If you want to use vanilla ice cream, then add 1/3 cup of mango puree (fresh or canned) to flavour it. The colour of your milkshake will depend on the mangoes you use. My mango ice cream was very faintly yellow due to the variety of mangoes I used.

Enjoy chilled immediately!

How to Make Mushroom Fried Rice - Easy Step by Step Recipe

Learn how to make Mushroom Fried Rice - an easy Indian Chinese recipe with fresh mushrooms.

Mushrooms are a favourite at home, that shouldn't be a secret to you guys if you've been reading me long enough. I prepare fried rice quite regularly too but this is the first time I'd combined mushrooms and fried rice to make this delicious dish. I paired it with chilli paneer with gravy and it was a fabulous meal.

As with most of my cooking, you don't need a lot of ingredients to make fried rice, but the ones that I use are mostly mandatory for you to get the right flavour. One of them is celery and I recommend not making fried rice unless you have some in hand to throw in. I also find that using basmati rice gives mushroom fried rice a more Indian flavour - which we enjoy.

It's winter in Sydney and I find myself adding a touch more heat to my dishes, chilli flakes in the case of this fried rice. I'm also spending less time chopping and preparing vegetables - it's just too cold to be handling chilled vegetables from the refrigerator and washing them, preparing them, etc. Mushrooms are the easiest to chop up and this fried rice needs very little else. You can, of course, thrown in some chopped vegetables like carrots and beans but I preferred to keep it clean and mushroom-heavy this time around.

If you love fried rice, check out my egg fried rice recipe, veg fried rice, and the popular chicken fried rice recipe. Fried rice goes great with most Indian-Chinese side dishes. You may also wish to try this mushroom biryani recipe.

MUSHROOM FRIED RICE RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups of cooked (or leftover) basmati rice
1 cup of finely chopped mushrooms (I used white button mushrooms + some shiitake mushrooms)
1/2 cup of chopped onions
1 tsp of minced garlic
1/2 tsp of grated ginger
1/2 tsp of red chilli flakes (optional)
2 tbsp of chopped celery
1 tsp black or white pepper powder
2 stalks of spring onions, chopped
1.5 tsp soya sauce
2 tbsp oil
Salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Cook until they turn translucent. Then add the ginger and garlic and saute for a minute until fragrant.

2. Turn heat to high and add the soya sauce.

3. Cook for 10 seconds and then add the mushrooms and celery. Continue to stir-fry on high heat until the mushrooms shrivel and turn softer.

4. Now add the chilli flakes and salt. Mix well.

5. Add cooked rice to this along with the chopped spring onions and pepper powder. Mix well and do a taste test to see if the pepper flavour is coming through. If not, add more.

All done!

Notes:

1. Make sure to cook rice just enough so that the grains remain separate. I've shared how I do it in my how to prepare rice for fried rice post
2. Add any other vegetable you'd like. Some green peas wouldn't be a bad idea

For mushroom fried rice recipe in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, Marathi, Telugu, etc, please use the Google Translate button in the sidebar.

How to Make Chilli Paneer Gravy - Easy Step by Step Recipe

Learn how to make chilli paneer gravy, one of the vegetarian highlights of Indo-Chinese cooking. The dry chilli paneer recipe is often served as as a starter while the gravy version makes a great side dish for fried rice or vegetable noodles.

For all paneer lovers out there, this one's for you, especially if you also love Indo-Chinese food. I am yet to meet an Indian that says no to this cuisine but over the years, I have come to realise how much hidden calories these dishes contain. Of course, when eating out once in a while calories are not in my list of things to think about (my mind is busy enough, thank you very much) but when cooking at home, I try to tone down the oil and deep frying a bit if I can. Please note this doesn't apply to pooris and such.

{Check out how to make paneer at home}

Coming back to chilli paneer, I love both the dry and gravy versions and recently I made this chilli paneer gravy to pair with mushroom fried rice (recipe coming soon). I must confess that cooking Indo-Chinese food consistently well is hard for me and I do have my misses here and there. While I have more or less mastered gobi manchurian by now, I have inconsistent results with other recipes which explains why they haven't shown up here yet. This chilli paneer gravy though, it's a winner!

Read on for the recipe of chilli paneer with gravy and check out all Indo-Chinese recipes if you love them like us.

CHILLI PANEER WITH GRAVY

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 2-4

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 cups of paneer, cut into small cubes
2 tbsp of cornflour
1 tbsp of plain flour or maida
1 tsp of minced garlic
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
A fat pinch of salt
2-3 tbsp water
Oil as required
For the sauce:
3 stalks of spring onions
1 tsp of minced ginger
1.5 tsp of minced garlic
1 tsp soya sauce
3-4 slit green chillies (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup cubed green capsicum (bell pepper)
1 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
Salt if required

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place the cornflour, plan flour, salt, minced garlic, pepper powder, and water in a bowl. Mix without lumps to form a light batter.

2. Add the paneer cubes to this and mix well to coat. If using frozen paneer, defrost until just cold and follow this step. If using freshly made paneer, refrigerate until a bit firm and then use, otherwise the paneer may crumble.

2. Heat 2 tbsp oil (or as required) in a pan and shallow fry the paneer pieces until light golden brown. Drain into paper towels and set aside until needed.

3. In the same pan, (add more oil if required), add the sliced spring onions, ginger and garlic. Saute until the ginger and garlic turn fragrant.

4. Now turn the flame to high and add the soya sauce. Let it cook on high heat for 5-6 seconds and lower heat back.

5. Add the chillies and capsicum and cook for 3-4 mins until the capsicum turns a bit soft. It should still remain crunchy mostly.

6. Add 1.5 cups water to this and bring to boil. Meanwhile, mix the 1 tsp cornflour in 1 tbsp water to form a thick mixture.

7. Gently pour this into the boiling water and lower flame completely.

8. Add the paneer pieces and turn off the flame. The gravy will thicken considerably on cooling so don't cook it further than this. Add salt only if required since you have salted the paneer pieces and the soya sauce will be highly salted too.

Enjoy chilli paneer gravy with some egg fried rice or noodles with vegetables for a delicious meal.

Mushroom Tikka Recipe - Grilled Mushroom Tikka, an Easy Appetizer

Learn how to make mushroom tikka, an easy starter or appetizer recipe with mushrooms that you can make in less than thirty minutes. Mushroom tikka shouldn't be confused with the delicious mushroom tikkis though, something I tend to make quite often for its ease of making and serving.

I love having people over for a meal and spend an inordinate amount of time planning the menu, adjusting the ingredients and dishes so there's something for everyone, and everything goes well together. Mushrooms are not a usual addition to my menu because I find that not many people love its texture and meatiness like TH and I do. If cooked right, mushrooms play really well with Indian spices and this mushroom tikka is a great example of that.

Mushroom tikka is very easy to put together and unlike paneer tikka, it doesn't need a lot of marinating time. I used super fresh shiitake mushrooms we got from the Orange Grove markets, one of my favourite farmers markets in Sydney. You can also use fresh button mushrooms to make this, make sure to pick small sized ones so they cook evenly.

MUSHROOM TIKKA RECIPE

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves 2

INGREDIENTS:
15 small fresh mushrooms
2 tbsp plain curd
1/2 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
1/4 tsp roasted jeera powder
1/2 tsp garam masala or chaat masala
1-2 tbsp besan (gram flour)
1/2 tsp garlic paste
1/4 tsp ginger paste (optional)
4 tbsp oil
Salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In Sydney, when you buy mushrooms, they give them in paper bags that have instructions on how to clean them. Apparently washing mushrooms makes them mushy when cooked so the best way to clean them is by brushing lightly to remove the dirt and dust. This is the method I use now to clean mushrooms. Do the same with whichever mushrooms you are using. Choose small, whole ones.

2. Add the remaining ingredients (except oil) to the above mushrooms and mix gently by hand.

3. Set aside for a few minutes. I have even cooked them immediately with good results but for best results, leave this aside for about 30 mins to an hour.

4. Heat the oil in a large pan (preferably cast iron) and either string the mushrooms on kebab sticks and roast grill them until browned or add as individual pieces until nicely grilled.

5. Stick toothpicks through the mushrooms and serve with green chutney, raw onions, and lemon pieces.

Aloo Gobi Recipe - Dry Aloo Gobi Sabzi Recipe - Potato Cauliflower Dry Curry

Learn how to make Punjabi-style aloo gobi recipe, a classic dry vegetable dish with aloo (potatoes) and gobi (cauliflower). This simple dry sabzi goes wonderfully with roti if you have some dal tadka on the side is one of our favourite go-to comfort dishes. I even serve it with rice and moong dal tadka or vegetable sambar for a simple meal.

Over many years of making aloo gobi at home, I have refined the method to something that suits me really well. I don't add a drop of water while cooking this and I don't fry the spices in oil first as we do with pretty much all sabzi preparations in India, but I add them towards the end when the vegetables are cooked. Unconventional, agreed, but the resulting aloo gobi is roasted and perfect, even if I say so myself.

Gobi lovers like us? Check out my gobi biryani recipe, this lovely gobi manchurian recipe, and one of my favourites - gobi paratha using a fail-proof technique for rolling them out.

DRY ALOO GOBI RECIPE

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS:
1 medium-sized potato, peeled and cut into wedges
2 cups cauliflower florets
1 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp minced ginger
1/2 tsp crushed garlic
1/4 turmeric powder
3/4 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
1/2 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
A pinch of garam masala
1 tsp canned tomato paste (see notes)
A fistful of chopped coriander leaves
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions. When the onions turn soft, add the ginger and garlic and saute until fragrant (about 2 mins).

2. Add the potatoes and cauliflower to this and cook on lowest heat, covered, mixing now and then so the vegetable pieces don't burn.

3. When the vegetables are half cooked, add the tomato paste and mix again. Cook again for 3-4 mins or until the vegetables are soft (not mushy).

4. Add the spice powders - coriander powder, turmeric powder, jeera powder, and chilli powder. Mix again until well combined. Cook until the spice powders don't smell raw anymore - another 2 mins or so. The potatoes and cauliflower should be roasted and dry by now. Add salt.

5. Finish off with a generous amount of chopped coriander leaves and mix again.

Gobi Masala all done!

Gobi Masala is a great combination with chapatis or rotis and a simple dal recipe. You can also serve with rice, jeera pulao, or any other pulao for a bit of an added spice kick.

Notes:
- Adjust spice levels to your liking.
- You can add pureed tomato or chopped tomato instead of canned paste. Since I like to add as little water as possible, I add the paste which is thick and quite intense. If you are adding pureed tomato, make sure to add it after the onions are cooked and let it thicken a bit before following the rest of the steps.

For Gobi Masala recipe in Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, etc, please use the Google Translate button in the sidebar.