Virundhombal

Ribbon pakoda can be prepared in many different methods with few easily available ingredients in your kitchen. The ingredients primarily, used in this dish are gram flour, rice flour and chilly powder. You can also prepare ribbon pakodas with strong flavours like garlic paste and asafoetida powder. Make sure to grind the garlic cloves, smooth and strain it before adding to the dough. Apart from water, you can also add the garlic cloves water to knead the dough to bring more flavour to the pakodas.


Ribbon pakoda dough requires some careful handlings. If you have added more butter to the dough, it has a chance to break down into smaller pieces or it will absorb more oil. If the garlic cloves water is not perfectly strained, you can't able to squeeze  the pakodas smoothly as it will get stuck in the small holes. The dough should be kneaded carefully with the correct measurement of water to bring the proper texture. If you add more water, it will get very sticky and difficult to work…

Vegetable aval upma is a quick and simple evening tiffin for your kids. Of course, it's packed with nutrients too. Preparing the upma with soaked aval, cooked vegetables and few basic tempering ingredients make a healthy and delicious tiffin that taste like vegetable rice.  The onions, green chillies and peanuts are sauted well in oil to bring the flavour for the upma and then the soaked aval and cooked vegetables are added to it. Once added, all the ingredients are mixed well to prepare a beautiful upma. The best part in this upma is all the ingredients give a unique taste. If you miss any one of the ingredients, the taste may differ a lot. If you use the thin aval, no need to soak them in the water. Since I like a chunky upma, I always go with thick aval for this upma.


Similar Upma recipes
Rava UpmaRava Upma with vegetablesArisi UpmaCoconut milk tomato Aval UpmaRagi flour Upma Semiya Upma

Sundals are the perfect dish for an evening snack or a midday snack. They will come together quickly and easily, and perfect for all ages. When it comes to making snacks, many of us feel tired to spend more time in the kitchen. This happens to me everytime so a lot of times I make sundals for a quick evening snack.


Raw peanuts are one of those nuts that are so easy to cook. When compared to other sundal dishes, this raw peanut sundal is an addictive snack for me because of its little crunch. Many of us enjoy the hot salted peanuts cooked along with the shell. For this sundal if you are using fresh peanuts,it would be ready within 20 minutes. If you are using older peanuts, might require few hours of soaking. I have not included any other masalas for this sundal, just a handful of fresh grated coconuts. You may adjust the seasonings to your preference.

Bitter Gourd Pitlai - an easy South Indian kuzhambu made with bitter gourds, toor dal flavoured with a good amount of red chillies, coriander seeds, chana dal, coconut and other spices. I guarantee this kuzhambu will surely impress your family. We always prefer kuzhambu with a good aroma and perfect balance of heat with a hint of tanginess.

My Grandma suggests me to add all the spices and other ingredients in a good amount for this pavakkai pitlai. Like what she always says, the best way to prepare any kuzhambu with a good flavour lies in roasting the spices until you can smell a nice aroma from all the ingredients. This kuzhambu is similar to our Idi Sambar but there are no onions, tomatoes and garlics. For this recipe, I have used the small variety bitter gourd which we call it as mithi pavakka in Tamil which have less bitterness than the regular bitter gourds. If you can’t find the small bitter gourds, you can substitute with the regular bitter gourds. For this kuzhambu …

Tomato Kurma - easy and flavourful kurma with onions, tomatoes and coconut paste. One of the best thing about this tomato kurma is that you can use as a base gravy for many dishes. After preparing this kurma, you can add your favourite ingredients like boiled soya chunks, cooked mushrooms, cooked green peas or whatever is left in your refrigerator. But don't forget to precook them. I like this tomato kurma with plain dosa, chapati or poori. Believe me, this kurma is one of the best option when you want to prepare a gravy within 10 minutes. I like the flavour of fennel and curry leaves in my coconut based kurmas. Not only it gives flavour to the gravy and it also helps in digestion. This kurma recipe isn’t a dish with specific instructions, it’s a simple process of three basic cooking methods and will always taste good with whatever tiffin you like. Now we will see the Tomato Kurma recipe with step by step instructions.


Similar recipes
Paneer KurmaHotel Vegetable KurmaCauliflower K…

Masala Vadai - delicious evening snack prepared with chana dal or yellow split peas as the main ingredient. This masala vadai is not only an evening snack, but it is also a favourite side dish for our lunch too. Really, I enjoy this masala vadai with lemon rice and curd rice. Most of our traditional snacks are easily  prepared with healthy ingredients using simple methods. Masala vadai requires simple preparation works like soaking and grinding the dals. These two methods require some attention so be careful while preparing the dough.


The most important thing in this masala vadai is we have to soak the dal for 3 to 4 hours. Soaking the dal for 4 hours, helps to grind the dal without any water. After 4 hours, drain the water completely using a strainer and then grind it. If the soaking time is less, you will not get a crispy vadai. For this masala vadai, we have to add both red chillies and green chillies, ginger, garlic, fennel, cinnamon and asafoetdia are added for flavours. The ot…

Nellikai Sadham - a healthy rice for your lunch box with simple cooking methods. Once again thanks to my Karthi Uncle who taught me the Aloo Gobi recipe prepared this healthy rice. The way we prepare for lemon rice and mango rice applies to this Amla(Nellikai) rice also. In addition, we want to grind the amlas in a mixer jar without any water and then we have to saute it with our classic tempering ingredients. Ponni raw rice is much preferred when preparing these type of rice varieties, but if you are looking for a healthier choice you may replace it with cooked millets.


Now a days we can see there is an increase in consumption of amlas in our regular diet because of its medicinal values. We can include it in a variety of ways in our diet as juice, powder and pickles. We  steam  the amlas in an Idli pot and add it to any kuzhambu or simply as a side dish for curd rice.
This 20 minute easy rice dish can be prepared in advance and you can enjoy it warm or  at room temperature. Green ch…