VIRUNDHOMBAL

Brinjal is the most common vegetables used in our everyday cooking. The unique feature of the brinjal is its smooth texture that adds an additional flavour to any of the dishes made with the  brinjals. Besides kuzhambu and poriyal there are some chutneys prepared with brinjals which looks like the sandwich spread. We prepare Brinjal Chutney with both red chillies and green chillies. Today we are going to see Brinjal Chutney with red chillies. These chutneys are very tasty with idly and dosa. You can use any type of brinjals for this chutney but I always prefer to use fresh brinjals. The other ingredients for this chutney are tomatoes, red chillies, coconut, mustard and urid dal. We have to saute all the ingredients and then we have to grind it coarsely. One of the most important step in this chutney preparation is that the chopped brinjals must be cooked well in the oil so that your chutney will be more tasty. Another important tip for any chutney prepared with red chillies, do

This Carrot puttu/stir fry is a quick side dish to pair it with any kuzhambu or rice varieties for your lunch. Whenever I prepare this carrot puttu, I mix it up with lots of chopped onions and fresh grated coconuts. This carrot puttu is both healthy and easy  to make. These carrot puttu is a kind of side dish that you can simply eat it like a salad or you can stuff it for a sandwich and also for a carrot othapam. Always use fresh carrots and fresh coconuts when preparing this dish. Never add any water to cook the carrots as they are very thin and any water during cooking will lose the beautiful orange colour and texture. I prefer small onions for this dish, you can use whatever you want. Finally garnish with a good amount of fresh coconuts. Simple Vegetable Side Dishes       Beetroot Puttu                                      Vazhaikkai (Plantain) Puttu Potato Puttu Ladies finger Poriyal Snake gourd Poriyal   Sweet potato Poriyal    Carrot recipes Carrot Rice Car

Plantain (Vazhaikai) bajji with a cup of hot masala tea is an all time favourite evening snack for many of us. Among the evening snacks like vada, pakoda, bajjis are an easy snack which is much easier to master. Before you begin, let's see some tips and tricks to make a perfect bajji. Mixing the batter Preparing batter for bajji is actually a simple process, but we must focus carefully when adding water. Before you proceed to mix the batter, it is a good practice to sieve the besan flour. For 1 cup of besan flour 1/2 cup of water is perfect for dipping the plantains. The batter should have an idli batter like consistency. In order to puff a pinch of sodium bicarbonate is added to the batter. After combining the batter to the right consistency leave it undisturbed for 10 minutes. If you are using readymade bajji mix measure the flour using the measuring cup and then add the water. Flavours for baji For a flavourful bajji we add a good amount of garlic and as

Moong dal flour ladoo is made with just four ingredients. In Tirunelveli, we call this ladoo as Nei Urundai or Nei Vilanga. This ladoo is super easy to make and it is very good. To make this ladoo within 15 minutes I suggest to grind the flour when you have free time in your kitchen. This method can save your time and you can easily prepare this ladoo in minutes. You have to melt the ghee right after you mix the moong dal flour and the powdered sugar. Keep everything ready for making ladoos, before melting the ghee. I prefer homemade ghee for this ladoo because I find it was flavorful and tasty. If you are using store bought ghee simmer the ghee for a few minutes and then reheat the ghee for preparing the ladoos. I use split moong dal for this ladoo, you can also use whole green moong dal. If you are using whole green moong dal, grind the flour in your nearest flour mills because in home mixer grinders it won't get powdered finely for ladoos. Checkout my other ladoo recipes her

This Cabbage poriyal is a simple and healthy side dish for your lunch. This poriyal is an easy way to use cabbage. It's best to use fresh cabbage for this poriyal because the chopped leaves were slightly tender with medium crunch. Do not over cook the cabbage,  as it produces an unpleasant smell to the whole dish. If you do not have time to grind the coconut paste, just garnish with fresh coconuts. After cooking the cabbage the final process is very simple. As we have already cooked the cabbages do not keep it in the flame for a long time. You can also add a pinch of turmeric powder while stir frying. Now let's see how to prepare this Cabbage poriyal with step by step photos. Similar Poriyal recipes Carrot poriyal Beetroot poriyal Snake gourd poriyal Beans Carrot poriyal Cabbage Carrot and beans poriyal

Senaikizhangu poriyal is a simple and tasty side dish for any rice or kuzhambu dishes. These fries are crispy with garlic and cumin flavours. I like this senaikizhangu poriyal very much, but it takes some time to clean and cut them. So you can do this for your weekend lunch. The ingredients are very simple that are easily available in your kitchen. I absolutely enjoy this senaikizhangu poriyal with Puli Illa Kuzhambu  and I suggest that anyone who has not tasted this combination should definitely try this. For any potato based poriyal dishes, I prefer to add a good amount of garlics and cumins. The ground garlic, onion and cumin paste must be mixed well with the cooked yams and roasted well until they are evenly browned. The ground paste brings you the amazing flavours in your poriyal. It is essential to add the ground garlic onion and cumin paste for potato and plantain based dishes to relieve you from gas troubles and it promotes easy digestion. So keep this in mind and don'

Beetroot biryani another colourful dish with beetroot. Today we are going to see how to prepare biryani using beetroot with simple cooking methods. Simple and healthy biryani for your kids lunch box within 30 minutes. Usually I prepare beetroot stir fry, beetroot poori and beetroot jam for my son. Oneday he told me to prepare biryani with beetroots. Almost everybody in our family like beetroots. So definitely this rice will be  your family favourite. Every biryani starts with the classic spices, ginger garlic paste, onions, tomatoes, mint leaves, coriander leaves and ends with the rice. For cooking the rice you can either add water or coconut milk. In addition to these basic ingredients you can include any of your favourite common vegetables like carrot, green peas, cauliflower, beetroot or mushrooms or soya chunks. In this biryani, I have added beetroots and green peas. Suppose if you want to make this biryani more colourful you can grate the beetroots finely and then saute them

Paruppu is a delicious pairing with rasam and pulikuzhambu. In Tirunelveli, paruppu with a tsp of ghee is served first and then we serve the kuzhambu.  You can use toor dal or moong dal for this dish as both of these dals are equally good in protein. Try to include this paruppu weekly, twice or thrice for your kids because they need more protein-rich food. Always soak the dals for 10 to 20 minutes and pressure cook them. Soaking makes the dal soft and easy to cook. For paruppu also we add our classic coconut, jeera paste and tempered with mustard urid dal. If you do not like to add the coconut paste, omit it and just add asafoetida powder and temper the dal with mustard and urid dal. As you see in my vegetable poriyal or keerai poriyal recipes I have mentioned to add a tbsp of toor dal along with the coconut paste. We add this cooked dal to the vegetable or keerai poriyal dishes. During our childhood days we had this paruppu frequently for our lunch along with rasam and puliku

Aval payasam is a healthy and easy dessert prepared with aval, jaggery, coconut milk and cashew nuts. For this I have used samba red aval, but you can use any type you have in your kitchen. The total cook time is not more than 20 minutes. There is no pressure cooking or any other major preparation work for this payasam. Jaggery based payasams are basically prepared with coconut milk or ground coconut paste. It makes the payasam amazing. We use coconut in the kitchen all the time. Avals(Rice flakes) are suitable for both sugar based and jaggery based desserts. Now let's see some important tips for preparing this payasam. Use a fresh aval(rice flakes) and pagu jaggery for best results. If possible, try to use freshly extracted coconut milk. If you are using canned coconut milk mix half cup coconut milk with 1/2 cup of water and then add it the cooked aval. Roasting the aval(rice flakes) is the most important step in this dish. The taste of this payasam comes from roasting the

Idly, Dosa and Pongal are our common breakfast items. If  a  breakfast eaten with a healthy sambar that will keep you satisfied until lunch. For this reason most of us prefer sambar for idly and dosa. It's high in fibre and include healthy ingredients like dal, onion, drumstick, carrot, potato and tomato. You can replace any vegetables and dals of your choice. Now let's see some important tips for perfect tiffin sambar. Tiffin Sambar tastes equally good with toor dal or moong dal or masoor dal and I prefer moong dal as they can be cooked easily and it gives you a perfect consistency also. Moong dal is hence very well suited for idly sambar. You can also add both toor dal and moong dal. Moong dals are very tiny, so you can cook in an open vessel also. If you are in a hurry, pressure cook the dal, just for 2 whistles. Drumstick, carrot, potato and small onion are natural companions to this tiffin sambar. So try to include any of these two vegetables. The above are